By Brigitte L. Nacos
Donald Trump, as candidate and far more as the 45th US President, has relentlessly attacked news media and individuals therein for reporting critically on his and his administration’s politics and policies.
Reporting that the president does not like becomes “fake” news in White House jargon.
Trump has threatened to change the libel laws, presumably having the Supreme Court overturn the New York Times vs. Sullivan ruling that makes it next to impossible for public figures to prevail in libel actions against news organizations.
Trump should read a history book to get some sense of previous presidents’ experiences with the press. He would first of all learn that some earlier presidents had a much harder time with the press than he ever could imagine.
A good time to look at would be the 1790s and the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams, both Federalists who were vilified constantly by the Republican presses of their times.
The most influential Republican (Anti-Federalist) paper was the Aurora in Philadelphia published and edited by Benjamin Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin, who hired writers like William Duane and James Callender.
Bache and his newspaper, more than any other Republican newsman and press, were constant thorns in both presidents’ hide.
Bache described President George Washington’s “comportment as ‘that of a monarch,’ his governance as the ‘apish mimickry of kingship,’ his ‘pompous carriages, splendid feasts, and tawdry gowns’ and his encouragement of the public celebration of his birthday.”
Since Bache’s Aurora was very influential in that it informed the content of many other Republican newspapers around the country, Washington war quite upset—but instead of publicly venting his feeling, he did so in conversations with and letters to friends.
In one letter, Washington wrote, “If you read the Aurora of this city…you cannot but have perceived with what malignant industry, and persevering falsehoods I am assailed, in order to weaken, if not destroy, the confidence of the Public.”
After George Washington died, the Aurora commented,
“If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington.
If ever a nation has suffered from the improper influence of a man, the American nation has suffered from the influence of Washington.
If ever a nation has been deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington.”
When John Adams ran for the presidency, Bache wrote that this candidate was “one who has no face, no confidence in representative or elective government…” and that he was “the advocate of a kingly government and of a titled mobility…”
These sorts of attacks continued once Adams became president.
Collader described Adams as "poltroons" and "venal" a "libeller" and a "hoary headed incendiary" and as a liar whose office was a "scene of profligacy and usury.”
Like Washington, Adams kept his angry reactions to such coverage out of the public arena.
After Bache died during a yellow fever epidemic, Adams wrote in a letter,
“Benjamin [Bach] in his Aurora became of course one of the most malicious libellers of me. But the Yellow Fever arrested him in his detestable career and sent him to his grandfather from whom he inherited a dirty, envious, jealous, and revengeful spite against me….”
Interestingly, First Lady Abigail Adams commented regularly on the Republican presses and most of all Benjamin Bache--in her letters. She was a strong advocate for the silencing of hostile publishers, editors, and writers.
As Republican newspapermen were arrested under the Sedition Act of 1798, Abigail wrote to her sister, “Let the vipers cease to hiss. They will be destroyed by their own poison. Bache is in duress.”
While Adams and the Federalists punished Republican publishers and editors in the wake of the adoption of the Sedition Act of 1798, they lost the presidential election of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson defeated the sitting president and upon taking office pardoned those convicted under the Sedition Act which expired at the time.
That outcome of the president-press battle more than 200 years ago should give President Trump pause as he huffs and puffs day-in and day-out in his tweets against the “fake” media and, lately, against Bob Woodward’s “lies.”
The two first US presidents were well advised in not reacting to what they perceived as bad press leaving it to Federalist newspapers to battle publicly with Republican counterparts—just as FOX News does today with the mainstream media in service of Donald Trump.
Advice, though, I know, is not sought by the man in the Oval Office.
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