Over 100 Newspapers Collude To Decry Trump

Yesterday, we noted The Boston Globe's 'call to action' for the nation's newspapers to collude to fight back against what they called Trump's "dirty war against the free press."

"We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date," The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers.

Today we see the results.

As of today, CNN reports that Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, says "we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days."

The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word.

"The response has been overwhelming," Pritchard said. "We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism."

Instead of printing the exact same message, each publication will write its own editorial, Pritchard said. That was a key part of her pitch:

"The impact of Trump's assault on journalism looks different in Boise than it does in Boston," she wrote. "Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming."

Pritchard said she expects differing views from the editorials, "but the same sentiment: The importance of a free and independent press."

CNN proudly crows that the coordinated editorials may be another example of unity across the news business, or, as we noted previously, another example of supreme hypocrisy - as a 'free and independent' press being coerced to collude on the same story against their President.

Finally, the 'media' should be a little careful what they wish for, as Axios show below, the Trump news cycle is paying their bills handsomely.

The first half of 2018 has been extremely busy, as seen in Google News Lab's data on the googling trends of the public. It shows when and how much people searched about 30 of the biggest news events.