US President Donald Trump has lashed out at the press as newspapers across the nation launched a co-ordinated rebuttal to his attacks against what he calls "fake news."
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Trump tweeted: "There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!"
Trump has also criticised The Boston Globe, which spearheaded the newspaper editorial campaign. He tweeted that the Globe "is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!"
Earlier, newsrooms across the US are hit back against Trump with a co-ordinated series of editorials condemning his attacks on "fake news" and suggesting that journalists are the enemy.
The Boston Globe invited newspapers across America to stand up for the press with editorials on Thursday, and several began appearing online a day earlier.
Citing an Ipsos poll, the Globe pointed out that nearly half - 48 per cent - of supporters for Trump's Republican Party endorse the sentiment, "The news media is the enemy of the American people."
In St Louis, the Post-Dispatch called journalists "the truest of patriots", while the Chicago Sun-Times said it believes most Americans know Trump is talking nonsense.
The Fayetteville Observer said it hopes the president will stop making such accusations, "but we're not holding our breath".
Some newspapers used history lessons to state their case. The Elizabethtown Advocate in Pennsylvania compared free press in the United States to such rights promised but not delivered in the former Soviet Union.
Opinion writers at McClatchy put out an editorial for the 30 daily newspapers it runs, including the Miami Herald, saying they hardly ever spoke with one voice but were doing so now. It said "enemies of the people" was "what Nazis called Jews. It's how Joseph Stalin's critics were marked for execution".
The New York Times added a pitch.
"If you haven't already, please subscribe to your local papers," said the Times, whose opinion section also summarised other editorials across the country.
"Praise them when you think they've done a good job and criticise them when you think they could do better. We're all in this together."
That last sentiment made some journalists skittish.
The Wall Street Journal, which said it was not participating, noted in a column by James Freeman that the Globe's effort ran counter to the independence that editorial boards claim to seek.
Australian Associated Press
