Many journalists agree with New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger‘s assessment in his meeting with President Donald Trump that the president’s rhetoric about journalists is harmful and dangerous, and a panel on CNN’s New Day helped to explain why.

“Nobody quite knows when the rhetoric becomes an excuse for somebody,” Washington Post Congressional Reporter Karoun Demirjian said, mentioning the massacre of journalists in Annapolis. “It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that people take physical action to harm and kill members of the press.”

“I guess I would add to your publisher with one other beat. I’m not just concerned that the president described the media as the enemy of the people, I’m really concerned that there’s such a reservoir of support for that sentiment in the country,” CNN Political Analyst David Gregory, filling in for John Berman, noted.

“There are people out there who are receptive,” New York Times White House Correspondent Michael Shear agreed. “We’ve all been at the Trump rallies… The problem is that when the president talks this way about a group of people, in this case, the media, there is a receptive audience of people who really get angry, who really express that anger in really distasteful ways.”

“99 percent of those people aren’t going to be moved to violence, but I think there is a danger out there that if you just keep pushing that rhetoric that there are going to be people who go beyond just the yelling and the hand gestures and the screaming,” he added.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2LOq7K4