Opinion: Trump reassures the media (for now)

View in [Browser] | Add [nytdirect@nytimes.com] to your address book. Wednesday, November 23, 2016 [The New York Times] [NYTimes.com/Opinion »] [Opinion] Wednesday, November 23, 2016 “I think you’ll be happy, I think you’ll be happy.” That was President-elect Donald Trump, talking to [a group of Times journalists] yesterday about his views on the First Amendment. The real issue, of course, is not whether journalists are happy. (We’re [not exactly] a popular bunch with most Americans.) The issue is whether the next president and his administration plan to remain faithful to the Constitution. And there are reasons to worry. During the campaign, Trump referred to the reporters covering him as “scum” and [said that] he wanted to “open up” libel laws to make it easier to sue media companies for unfavorable coverage. He is also part of a small group of wealthy Americans who have tried to intimidate journalists with lawsuits, as my colleague Emily Bazelon [writes for The Times Magazine]. “Once installed in the White House, Trump will have a wider array of tools at his disposal,” Bazelon writes, “and his record suggests that, more than his predecessors, he will try to use the press — and also control and subdue it.” All of this is alarming. No matter how good or bad any individual piece of journalism or publication is, a free press is crucial to a functioning democracy. “Our liberty,” [as Thomas Jefferson said], “cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.” As it happens, Jefferson isn’t the only famous populist from an agrarian state who has eloquently made the case for a free press. There is another — named Mike Pence. In a bit of history that’s been partly forgotten, Pence — now the vice president-elect, then a member of Congress — [co-sponsored a bill] about a decade ago to create a so-called shield law. Had it passed, the bill would have protected journalists from being dragged into court to reveal anonymous sources. Pence decided to push the bill after reading a Times editorial criticizing the jailing of Judith Miller, a former Times reporter, [according to the Columbia Journalism Review]. Pence was quite clear that he often didn’t like what he read in the media, too. He bemoaned “bad news bias.” But he also understood that there were more important principles. “Our founders did not put the freedom of the press in the First Amendment because they got good press — quite the opposite was true,” he said. Like them, though, he believed in “the public good that a free and independent press represents” because it allowed citizens to “make informed decisions,” he said. It’s [not clear] how much of a free-press defender Pence remains. Either way, vice presidents generally yield to presidents. But he does seem to have instincts that his boss would benefit from hearing. I thought of his shield-law history last weekend, after the much-hyped incident when Pence was booed by the crowd at “Hamilton.” Trump took to Twitter to demand an apology from the cast. Pence, in the moment, had a different reaction: He turned to his daughter inside the theater [and said], “That’s what freedom sounds like.” The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including [Frank Bruni], [Ross Douthat], [Tom Friedman] and the Times [editorial board] on yesterday's session with Trump. Today's Op-Ed page also includes a piece from M. Gregg Bloche urging C.I.A. doctors to refuse to participate in [any future torture of prisoners]. David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist  ADVERTISEMENT  Editorial [Donald Trump leaving the New York Times after a meeting there on Tuesday.] [Questioning Donald Trump] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD It was alarming to confront how thinly thought through many of Mr. Trump’s stances actually are.  From The Columnists Op-Ed Columnist [Donald Trump reacting to a crowd in the lobby of the New York Times building on Tuesday.] [Donald Trump’s Demand for Love] By FRANK BRUNI His meeting with The Times was a marvel of boasting and bending. Op-Ed Columnist [Items for sale at the Trump Store in Trump Tower, in New York City.] [The Trump Revelations] By ROSS DOUTHAT Our next president, conciliatory on policy and stubborn on potential corruption.  [Donald Trump during his meeting at the New York Times on Tuesday.] Donald Trump during his meeting at the New York Times on Tuesday. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times [Op-Ed Columnist] [At Lunch, Donald Trump Gives Critics Hope] By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN The campaign is over, but the struggle for Trump’s soul has just begun.  Editorial [America Has Room for the Dreamers] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD In a saner time, in a country whose politics were less poisoned, there would be no talk of punishing young immigrants.  Clockwise from top left: Luis Roberto Ursua Briceno; Gloria S. Rinconi; Anayancy Ramos; Nayelli Valdemar [Share Your Story] [American Dreamers] Here are the stories of several young people who were spared deportation and permitted to work during the Obama administration.  Editorial [Police used tear gas on demonstrators opposed to the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota, on Sunday.] [Power Imbalance at the Pipeline Protest] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Obama could step in to protect everyone’s safety and pressure the sheriff’s officers to stand down in North Dakota. Contributing Op-Ed Writer [Nigel Farage, center, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, at Trump Tower in New York on Nov. 12.] [Brexit Triple-Plus, Britain Nonplused] By MATTHEW D’ANCONA Donald Trump’s shock election victory in the United States fills Theresa May’s ministers with trepidation. Disability [My Life With Tourette’s Syndrome] By SHANE FISTELL I made the choice to sacrifice social acceptability for the freedom to be myself. Room for Debate [Is Criticism of Identity Politics Racist or Long Overdue?] Some complain of being unfairly accused of bigotry. Others say discrimination needs to be directly addressed.  Shannon Freshwater [Op-Ed Contributor] [When Doctors First Do Harm] By M. GREGG BLOCHE Doctors not only monitored torture by C.I.A. operatives, they helped design it. They should not lose their ethical moorings again.  ADVERTISEMENT  Letters to the Editor Letters [People participating in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park after it was defaced with swastikas and the message “Go Trump.”] [When Racism Comes Out in the Open] Readers discuss an alt-right gathering in Washington, which one reader called “a sad and stark reminder that racism is alive and well in America.”  From The Blogs Dot Earth [Communities are facing starkly different conditions in the Anthropocene, as in Singapore’s domed Gardens by the Bay attraction and Nairobi’s Mathare slum (enlarge).] [Rx for the Anthropocene? A Dose of ‘Anthropophilia’] By ANDREW C. REVKIN The first step toward a successful human journey is a little positive self regard.  A NEW ELECTION PODCAST Listen to Opinion columnists and contributors on The Run-Up, a new podcast from The New York Times covering the final three months of the election. 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