Angeles times, the New York Times and the miami harold. Allow me to start our discussion tonight with a simple proposition that in a democracy such as ours if freedom of the press is jeopardized then democracy itself is jeopardized since one is intimately linked to the other. During the president ial campaign of 2016 donald trump routinely criticized the press humiliating a number of reporters, bullying others, challenging the very concept of freedom of the press as written into the First Amendment of the u. S. Constitution. If he won it would inevitably change. That is the way it has always been. He won and it has not changed. It has gotten much worse even on occasion frightening. I use that word deliberately. The word of a president is much more consequential than the word of a candidate. I know other president s have had their quarrels with the media but donald trump crossed a bright line when he accused reporters of being the enemies of the American People forgetting it was a favor