In the latest round of intra-party sparring over the media’s agenda, the top Democratic senators joined the GOP senators on Tuesday to call for a new media strategy that includes a push for independent news organizations.
The effort comes as the media grapples with the effects of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and a growing backlash against news outlets and websites critical of the president.
The new push is the latest sign of the Democrats’ growing frustration with what they see as the GOP’s heavy-handed tactics.
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Chris MurphyChristopher (Chris) Scott MurphySenate Democrats seek to block Trump-era EPA rules from going into effect MORE (D-Conn.), who is also chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on Democrats to support the new “open-source” media strategy, which is to create new platforms that promote new ideas and are not controlled by the media.
“It’s about the right to free speech,” Murphy said.
“I’ve been very vocal on that.”
He also criticized the GOP for the new strategy.
“I think it is a step in the right direction to put a little more focus on the role of the press in our democracy,” Murphy told CNN.
He said the GOP is focusing on the negative in a way that is counterproductive.
“The idea that the only thing we should be interested in is how much money the press has,” he said.
The push comes amid a backlash from the Trump White House and Republicans over the weekend after CNN published an article detailing the “worst day” of the Obama administration’s term.
The article cited White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus’s comments that the Obama Justice Department would not have allowed the FBI to investigate Trump’s associates if it were not for the FBI’s extensive investigation into the Russian election meddling.
Trump said he was looking forward to the next four years.
“We’ll see what happens,” he told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”
“We’ll just see what’s going to happen.
But I’m looking forward.”
