On Veterans Day, conservatives resurfaced an August 2018 CNN opinion essay in which contributor Joseph Holt likened journalists’ service to that of soldiers.
THE QUOTE
“We thank soldiers for their service because they devote themselves to protecting our freedoms, and we should,” wrote Holt, an ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame. “But we should also thank the media for the same reason – especially when the stakes have never been higher.”
Holt was responding to then-President Donald Trump calling the press an “enemy of the people” and then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying Trump’s rhetoric was “completely understandable” given the media’s bias.
- “That language is dangerous, and calling the press an ‘enemy of the people’ is bizarre. A real enemy of the American people seeking to undermine our democracy would love nothing more than to shut down the press,” he wrote, characterizing Trump’s words as “disturbing.”
Donald Trump Jr. and other Twitter users on the right highlighted Holt’s essay Thursday as an example of self-importance of the liberal elite.
