Comment: White House press secretary Sanders fails to condemn Trump’s ‘enemy of the people’ claim

After the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, failed to move away from Trump’s ongoing claim that the media is the ‘enemy of the people’, concerns still remain over the relationship between the media and Trump’s administration.

David Kaye and Edison Lanza, from Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, have in a joint statement condemned Trump’s ‘strategic’ attacks, arguing they are ‘designed to undermine confidence in reporting and raise doubts about verifiable facts’.

Mr Kaye and Mr Lanza also commented that Trump’s attacks ‘increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence’.

Jim Acosta, CNN presenter who called for Mrs Sanders to say the press is not the enemy, posted a video on Twitter of Trump supporters hurling offensive remarks at journalists at a Trump rally in Florida on Tuesday.

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

According to a recent CBS News poll, 91% of strong Trump supporters trust the president to provide them with accurate information, 63% trust their own friends and family, but only 11% trust the mainstream media.

Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump has been one of the few people to distance herself from her father’s claim the media is the ‘enemy of the people’.

At an event hosted by Axios she said: “I’ve certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate.

“So … I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they sort of feel targeted. But no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people.”

Trump took to twitter to comment:

They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018

Trump’s anti-PC rhetoric greatly helped him gain supporters for his presidential election. His followers hail him as a defender of free speech, saying things regardless of whether or not they offend people.

However, with the president using terms such as ‘fake news’ as a way of protecting himself from the being offended by the media’s coverage of him, is he not guilty of bigotry, creating a new type of PC that protects his marginalised views?