Day 50: Trump Admin Continues Assault on Public’s Access to Information

Secretary of State’s Asia trip clouded in secrecy as press banned

The Donald Trump administration has had an strategy of shutting up and undermining the press since Inauguration Day. Whether he has blasted CNN for alleged fake news, decried the “failing New York Times,” or uninvited certain reporters from off the record briefings, the relationship has been frosty.

Now, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — among other things, the president’s principal adviser on U.S. foreign policy; the individual who conducts negotiations regarding foreign affairs; the individual who personally participates in or directs representatives at international conferences, organizations, and agencies; the individual who is responsible for negotiating, interpreting, and terminating treaties and agreements — is making his major trip in the role.

The press has been uninvited.

This is yet another act of Trump & Co. telling the country that their story is the real story. That has never been acceptable in the 226 years since the First Amendment was ratified in 1791.

Jake Tapper is correct: if you’re okay with the press being told to stay home (for the record, many will make their own accommodations and report on the trip as much as possible), how is that any different from being okay solely a state-run media?

When liberals are in power, they should want a broad range of sources reporting on the government’s activities. Same goes for conservatives. A free press goes beyond party lines.

A wide range of sources, including from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, NPR, wire services, have rebuked the decision, writing to the Secretary of State, in part:

Bureau chiefs from a wide range of major news organizations — including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNN, the BBC — sent a letter to the State Department complaining about Tillerson’s decision to ditch reporters on the Asia trip, stating, in part:

“Not only does this situation leave the public narrative of the meetings up to the Chinese foreign ministry as well as Korea’s and Japan’s, but it gives the American people no window whatsoever into the views and actions of the nation’s leaders.”

Access to information from non-partisan sources is critical to any democracy. The people are paying for Secretary of State’s salary, benefits and travel expenses. The issues being discussed and decisions being made on these trips potentially affect millions of Americans.

This jaunt potentially involves large-scale economic and trade discussions as well strategizing about an increasingly armed North Korea.

Americans have the right to know what’s being done on these types of trips from people who don’t have a vested interest in spinning it in the most positive, self-serving way possible.

50 days in, 1412 to go

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