Enemy of the People

Trump's War on the Press, the new McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy

Marvin Kalb

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780815735311
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Process
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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. Murrow's courageous reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthy's "red scare" theatrics in the early 1950s, which led to McCarthy's demise. He reminds us of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's reporting in the early 1970s that led to President Richard Nixon's 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.

Kalb's book is a frightening indictment of President Trump's efforts to delegitimize the American press—and put the future of our democracy in question.

Index

Aaron, Johnny, 106

ABC, on 2016 presidential race, 17

Academia, communist influence in, 56, 67

Access Hollywood tape, Trump on, 18

Acheson, Dean, 56, 62–63

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), 111, 113

Adams, John, 3

Affordable Care Act (2010), 34, 50–51

Africa, Trump on, 46

Agnew, Spiro, 10

Albright, Madeleine, Fascism: A Warning, 152

Allen, Mike, 130, 132

Alsop, Joseph, 117

Alsop, Stewart, 117

Alternative facts, 39, 58, 83

Aluminum tariffs, 35

American Business Consultants, Inc., Red Channels, 101

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 111, 113

American Legion, 111

Anderson, Scott, 135

Anti-Semitism, 24, 95–97

The Apprentice (TV show), 5

Army-McCarthy hearings, 81, 82–83, 86, 104–05, 118–20

Army Signal Corps, 118

Associated Press: on McCarthy’s list of communists, 64; on Trump acting alone, 40

The Atlantic, “The New McCarthyism of Donald Trump,” 47

Atlantic Alliance, 151

Authoritarianism: beginnings of, 148–53; democracy and, 59, 124; free press and, 13–14; prevention of, 153; Trump and, 7, 47, 59

Autocracies, 8, 12–13, 30

Axios: on average day of reporters covering Trump, 132–33; on fake news, 129–30; on Trump acting alone, 40; on Trump’s media relations, 130

Bannon, Stephen, 11–12, 14–16, 19, 21, 35

Baron, Martin, 20

Baruch, Bernard, 73

Beinart, Peter, 47

Benton, William, 105–06

Bernstein, Carl, 52, 140–42

Black, Hugo, 156–57

Bohlen, Charles, 27

Breitbart: “The Audacity of Corruption” (Caddell), 12; Bannon and, 14; Caddell and, 10–12; racism and white supremacy of, 14; support for Trump, 40

Brownell, Herbert, 111

Bureau of International Organization Affairs, 21

Burke, Edmund, 126–27

Bush, George W., 35

BuzzFeed, Trump on, 2

Caddell, Pat, 9–14, 128; “The Audacity of Corruption,” 12

Carlyle, Thomas, 126–27

Carroll Arms Hotel, Washington, D.C., 70

Carter, Jimmy, 10

Catholic Church, 68–69

CBS: on 2016 presidential ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• One. Crossing a Flashing Red Line
• Two. From Nero to Trump
• Three. “The Appalling Becomes Excusable”
• Four. The Comparison Is Unmistakable
• Five. “He Had a Certain Raw Wit and Charm”
• Six. Ike vs. McCarthy
• Seven. Senator, Meet Edward R. Murrow
• Eight. From the War in Europe to the War in America
• Nine. “Otherwise, It Is Not America”
• Ten. A Free Press, Now More Than Ever
• Notes
• Index