Reuters orders reporters to cover Trump like an authoritarian regime: Expect 'physical threats'
Source: RawStory
DAVID EDWARDS
01 FEB 2017 AT 10:10 ET
The Reuters news agency this week recognized the challenges of covering Donald Trumps presidency by comparing it to authoritarian regimes like Egypt, Yemen and China.
Its not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists among the most dishonest human beings on earth or that his chief strategist dubs the media the opposition party, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote in a message to staff on Tuesday. Its hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration.
He cited the organizations work in Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia as an example of how to report on the Trump administration.
Adler said that reporters could use experience learned in nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/reuters-orders-reporters-to-cover-trump-like-an-authoritarian-regime-expect-physical-threats/
radhika
(1,008 posts)The US is in the sordid position of being rolled over by a totalitarian putsch. I hope more nations respond with boycotts and travel bands as well.
I totally expect things to get much worse, and do not assume we have the support of the military or enforcement services.
shrike
(3,817 posts)Hekate
(90,793 posts)DesertRat
(27,995 posts)Thanks!
greatauntoftriplets
(175,749 posts)And it'll royally piss off Herr Drumpf.
woodsprite
(11,924 posts)ck4829
(35,091 posts)No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)around today.
You always get a good story from them, and their reporters, when appearing on TV, give fair appraisals of what's going oon in the world.
GusBob
(7,286 posts)He slammed CNN and seemed to imply to the press pool you'd better watch out
janx
(24,128 posts)Check out the original source.
While I appreciate the challenge journalists are up against, especially Reuters, the memo did not attribute possible physical threats to this Trump administration (at least not yet).
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)pressbox69
(2,252 posts)bdamomma
(63,922 posts)a hostile nation to add to those 8 around the world.
they have to get this man out. he is a truly a threat.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,198 posts)...into Skyped questions from the likes of right wing talk show host Lars Larson and some guy named Jeff Jobe, who publishes local community weekly newspapers in Kentucky.
Both offered sycophantic praise to Trump in the guise of a question.
uppityperson
(115,679 posts)elmac
(4,642 posts)TomCADem
(17,390 posts)Corey_Baker08
(2,157 posts)brooklynite
(94,727 posts)The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, thats all its been!) have been memorable for all and especially challenging for us in the news business. Its not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists among the most dishonest human beings on earth or that his chief strategist dubs the media the opposition party. Its hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration.
So what is the Reuters answer? To oppose the administration? To appease it? To boycott its briefings? To use our platform to rally support for the media? All these ideas are out there, and they may be right for some news operations, but they dont make sense for Reuters. We already know what to do because we do it every day, and we do it all over the world.
To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists. We respond to all of these by doing our best to protect our journalists, by recommitting ourselves to reporting fairly and honestly, by doggedly gathering hard-to-get information and by remaining impartial. We write very rarely about ourselves and our troubles and very often about the issues that will make a difference in the businesses and lives of our readers and viewers.
We dont know yet how sharp the Trump administrations attacks will be over time or to what extent those attacks will be accompanied by legal restrictions on our news-gathering. But we do know that we must follow the same rules that govern our work anywhere, namely:
Dos:
--Cover what matters in peoples lives and provide them the facts they need to make better decisions.
--Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one.
--Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources.
--Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us.
--Keep the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles close at hand, remembering that the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved.
Donts:
--Never be intimidated, but:
--Dont pick unnecessary fights or make the story about us. We may care about the inside baseball but the public generally doesnt and might not be on our side even if it did.
--Dont vent publicly about what might be understandable day-to-day frustration. In countless other countries, we keep our own counsel so we can do our reporting without being suspected of personal animus. We need to do that in the U.S., too.
--Dont take too dark a view of the reporting environment: Its an opportunity for us to practice the skills weve learned in much tougher places around the world and to lead by example and therefore to provide the freshest, most useful, and most illuminating information and insight of any news organization anywhere.
This is our mission, in the U.S. and everywhere. We make a difference in the world because we practice professional journalism that is both intrepid and unbiased. When we make mistakes, which we do, we correct them quickly and fully. When we dont know something, we say so. When we hear rumors, we track them down and report them only when we are confident that they are factual. We value speed but not haste: When something needs more checking, we take the time to check it. We try to avoid permanent exclusives first but wrong. We operate with calm integrity not just because its in our rulebook but because over 165 years it has enabled us to do the best work and the most good.
MadDAsHell
(2,067 posts)Nowhere in his statement does Mr. Adler say "expect threats," nor does he ever say "treat this like an authoritarian regime." He simply says "Let's continue to do our job like we would anywhere."
There's enough bad shit out there to get Trump on, I'm not sure why multiple DUers are resorting to posting RawStory's purposefully misleading headline re: what Mr. Adler said.