Over the weekend, President Trump made a series of comments about journalists and the state of journalism in our country. Specifically, Trump argued that journalists are enemies of the state and capable of causing a war. Meanwhile, it appears that a war may be brewing against journalists. Over the weekend, CNN’s Brian Selter aired a clip of audio received by C-SPAN. In the clip, an unnamed caller threatened to shoot both Selter and Lemon if he sees them.
While on-air, Selter said, “I’m not asking for sympathy, I don’t think I’m in extreme danger, I know some of my colleagues get much worse threats than I do.” Selter also added, “CNN has a great security team and we know how to handle this stuff.” The clip aired just hours after Trump’s comments and spark a great discussion about the dangers that many journalists face during Trump administration’s “fake news” era.
Selter dug even further into the issue of journalist’s safety when he aired a clip of MSNBC’s Katy Tur discussing threats made towards her recently. Tur said she has received emails from people hoping that she would be murdered or raped. Tur also added, “And in case you want to argue that this has nothing to do with the president, the most recent note I got ended with MAGA.”
It’s truly a scary time for journalists under the Trump administration.
