George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center and former assistant general counsel of The New York Times, was the main guest speaker at the event. Freeman said Trump’s relationship with the media is unprecedentedly bad compared to prior presidents.
“I think it’s worse than ever,” Freeman said. “I don’t think the press has ever been subject to a day-by-day attack — every single day — by the president himself. Many presidents fight with the press, but they understand its importance in our society.”
Freeman talked about the possibility of Trump trying to expand libel laws to favor plaintiffs over the media, but he suggested there is a bigger issue at hand.
“In the end, the battle is not going to be fought on the grounds of legalities, but of public opinion. To mount an attack on the media, that’s a public opinion attack, not a legal attack. He’s trying to minimize the importance of the media, he’s trying to totally downplay the credibility of the media, he does this every day,” Freeman said.
“I saw a poll the other day that said 40 percent of people believe that the media is the enemy of the American people. That’s shocking and scary and that’s much more important than the legal issues.”
Jerry Markatos, a former photographer at the Wilmington Star News, said he attended the event because he felt it’s important for journalists to come together to tackle these issues.
“There’s an effort to close our eyes and cover our ears and the media are our eyes and ears,” Markatos said. “And to have a national leader so openly despise the nation’s media — but it’s not so much despising as it is to manipulate people’s sense of reality — it’s troubling.”
Junior broadcast journalism major Allie Yates was required to attend the event for her media law class, but said she was glad she had to go.
