Public, performative media vilification aims to destroy press legitimacy, unlike private griping.

Evidence

We quote Trump’s words at length in order to emphasize that the charge of fake news diverges from the way in which politicians regularly vilify the media. Think of Richard Nixon: “The press is the enemy,” he said, “because they’re trying to stick the knife right in our groin.” Nixon was speaking privately to his closest advisers; Trump is pugnaciously vilifying the press as a public enemy in public. His aim is to destroy the legitimacy of the press as an independent source of knowledge by representing it as an organized conspiracy. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 260

Categorization

• XREF: The Nixon contrast usefully situates Trump’s break with prior presidential practice; connects to broader questions about how institutional reputational damage works. — connects to: Fake news functions as a rallying cry delegitimizing the press, not as a theory. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 259; The term mainstream has been weaponized as an insult denoting disreputable journalism. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 256
• SEED: Angle: ‘from private knife-talk to public enemy-talk’ — what changes when delegitimation moves from back room to stadium and how that shifts political accountability.

Broader Connections

• Fake news functions as a rallying cry delegitimizing the press, not as a theory. #corroborates (0.90) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 259