The Washington Post appears to have taken a stand against Donald Trump by unveiling a new slogan on its homepage, ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’.
Last week Trump sent out a tweet calling news media ‘the enemy of the American people’ in his strongest attack towards news media to date.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Trump believes news media has hindered his agenda and cast a negative light on him, and he’s made no secret these beliefs by referring to news media as ‘fake news’.
Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media.The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2017
And now, in what timing suggests is a stand against Trump’s accusations towards news media, The Washington Post has unveiled its new slogan, ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’, on its social media and digital products.
During the election and Trump’s presidency to date, the publication has been one of the more vigorous watchdogs, most recently breaking down the president’s first month in office by hours. The analysis shows he’s spent 13 hours tweeting, 25 hours playing golf, six hours in intelligence briefings and 21 hours working on foreign relations.
However, The Washington Post communication director Shani George told The Huffington Post the new slogan was in no way related to Trump: “This is something we’ve said internally for a long time in speaking about our mission. We thought it would be a good, concise value statement that conveys who we are to the many millions of readers who have come to us for the first time over the last year.”
No matter what its intentions are, people have been quick to take to Twitter and mock it.
15 metal albums whose titles are less dark than the Washington Post’s new motto: https://t.co/byRqw8Jt6o pic.twitter.com/qwq8KDF434
— Slate (@Slate) February 23, 2017
wow, the washington post’s new slogan is pretty dark pic.twitter.com/6yxzZ2EC5G
— Tom Phillips (@flashboy) February 22, 2017
there’s emo, emocore, and then there’s the new Washington Post banner pic.twitter.com/fEKgcf1K57
— Esther Webber (@estwebber) February 22, 2017
But it’s not just The Washington Post that’s marked its support for news following Trump’s attacks towards news media.
At the upcoming Academy Awards, The New York Times will air a TVC from its campaign that confirms the publication’s search for the truth and understanding of its importance.