The publisher of The New York Times says he "implored" US President Donald Trump at a private White House meeting this month to reconsider his broad attacks on journalists, calling the president's anti-press rhetoric "not just divisive but increasingly dangerous".
In a statement, AG Sulzberger said he decided to comment publicly after Trump revealed their off-the-record meeting to his more than 53 million Twitter followers on Sunday. Trump's aides had requested that the July 20 meeting not be made public, Sulzberger said.
"Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, "Enemy of the People." Sad!" Trump wrote.
Hours after that exchange, Trump resumed his broadside against the media in a series of tweets that included a pledge not to let the country "be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the ... dying newspaper industry."
Sulzberger said his main purpose for accepting the meeting was to "raise concerns about the president's deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric."
"I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous," he said.
Sulzberger said he told Trump that while the phrase "fake news" is untrue and harmful, "I am far more concerned about his labelling journalists 'the enemy of the people.' I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence."
Sulzberger said he stressed that leaders outside the US are already using Trump's rhetoric to justify cracking down on journalists.
"I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our country's greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press," the publisher said.
Sulzberger said he was not asking Trump to soften his attacks against the Times if he thinks the newspaper's coverage is unfair.
"Instead, I implored him to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country," he said.
Trump reads the Times and gives interviews to its reporters. But he also regularly derides it as the "failing New York Times", despite its parent company in May reporting a 3.8 per cent increase in first-quarter revenue compared to the same period in 2017.
