Donald Trump once again lobbed accusations of bias against The New York Times today after a front-page story portrayed a Trump campaign struggling to right itself amid a wave of gaffes.
In a series of tweets that referenced The New York Times and the media in general, Trump railed against “dishonest” coverage and called the Times “a newspaper of fiction.”
The failing @nytimes has become a newspaper of fiction. Their stories about me always quote non-existent unnamed sources. Very dishonest!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2016
The failing @nytimes talks about anonymous sources and meetings that never happened. Their reporting is fiction. The media protects Hillary!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
It is not "freedom of the press" when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
A spokesperson for The New York Times said the newspaper had no comment.
The story, “Inside the Failing Mission to Tame Donald Trump’s Tongue,” by reporters Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman, cited “more than 20 Republicans,” many anonymously, who described the candidate as “exhausted, frustrated and still bewildered by fine points of the political process.”
Sunday’s tweetstorm was the latest outburst for a Trump campaign that has cultivated an adversarial relationship toward the press. In addition to hurling insults at individual reporters, Trump’s campaign has revoked the press credentials of many news organizations, including The Washington Post, BuzzFeed and Politico.
Trump’s camp has also launched a “media bias offender” campaign, sending a slew of emails to supporters highlighting coverage deemed hostile to their candidate. Among them: The New York Times, The Washington Post and Politico.
In a segment on “Reliable Sources” Sunday, Trump spokesperson Jason Miller said the campaign was considering revoking The New York Times’ press credentials:
We talked about the First Amendment on @ReliableSources. I asked about Trump possibly taking away NYT's credentials https://t.co/X38cwN5mRu
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 14, 2016
The New York Times has not received a correction request for the story, according to a spokesperson for the newspaper.
