Enemy of the People: Trump's War on the Press, the New McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy

Shortly after assuming office in January 2017, President Donald Trump accused the press of being an "enemy of the American people." Attacks on the media had been a hallmark of Trumps presidential campaign, but this charge marked a dramatic turning point: language like this ventured into dangerous territory. Twentieth-century dictators--notably, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao--had all denounced their critics, especially the press, as "enemies of the people." Their goal was to delegitimize the work of the press as "fake news" and create confusion in the public mind about whats real and what isnt; what can be trusted and what cant be.

That, it seems, is also Trumps goal. In Enemy of the People, Marvin Kalb, an award-winning American journalist with more than six decades of experience both as a journalist and media observer, writes with passion about why we should fear for the future of American democracy because of the unrelenting attacks by the Trump administration on the press.

As his new book shows, the press has been a bulwark in the defense of democracy. Kalb writes about Edward R. Murrows courageous reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthys "red scare" theatrics in the early 1950s, which led to McCarthys demise. He reminds us of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernsteins reporting in the early 1970s that led to President Richard Nixons resignation.

Today, because of revolutionary changes in journalism, no Murrow is ready at the battlements. Journalism has been severely weakened. Yet, without a virile, strong press, democracy is in peril.

Kalbs book is a frightening indictment of President Trumps efforts to delegitimize the American press--and put the future of our democracy in question.