WASHINGTON — President Trump has put the Minneapolis Star Tribune on his media enemies list. The newspaper, he said, is too cozy with Governor Tim Walz. In a news release, Trump accused the newspaper of “fake news.” He did not cite any inaccuracies. Through overuse, Trump’s signature term “fake news” has become meaningless and hollow rhetoric except as a label for news reporting that displeases him. It has nothing to do with accuracy. An example, as close as he came in lambasting the Star Tribune was to say the paper takes cues
“from serial illegal immigrant defender Tim Walz and the state’s other ‘pro-sanctuary politicians,’ who would rather see killers, rapists, and gangbangers left on the streets than sent back where they belong.”
The Star Tribune was brief in responding: “We stand by our reporting and don’t have any additional comment.”
Widened media phobia
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat and leading Trump critic, has irked Trump for years, but the President’s attack on the Star Tribune enters a new dimension. Trump’s persecution complex, that he’s maltreated in the news, has been aimed at national organizations like the New York Times and CNN. The Star Tribune is only the second regional newspaper to draw his ire. The Des Moines Register was first. Trump sued the Register in December for libel because he didn’t like a report in a public opinion poll in the November presidential election. The suit has floundered in the courts.
Minnesota Star Tribune: 77,000 circulation daily, 351,000 Sundays.
Des Moines Register: 27,000 daily, 39,000 Sundays.