Key facts
- New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger stated Donald Trump is the most hostile modern president to the press.
- Trump has referred to the press as "the enemy of the people."
- The White House claims Trump provides more time and candid dialogue to reporters than other presidents.
- Sulzberger also identified artificial intelligence as a threat to the news ecosystem.
- Microsoft engineers expressed concern about OpenAI's use of stolen news articles, according to court filings.
New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger asserted that no president in modern history has demonstrated more hostility toward the press than Donald Trump, who has famously labeled news organizations "the enemy of the people."
Sulzberger's remarks contrasted with a statement from White House spokesperson Allison Schuster, who said that Trump is more transparent and offers more of his time to the press than any other president. Schuster added that Trump's "candid, open dialogue" benefits reporters and the American people.
Sulzberger also highlighted the growing threat posed by artificial intelligence to the news industry, which he described as already fragile due to the collapse of its advertising-based economic model. He noted that journalism produced at great cost is being "stolen and repurposed at unprecedented scale by the tech giants behind artificial intelligence."
These concerns were amplified by materials made public as part of a lawsuit filed by the Times against OpenAI. The documents revealed that engineers at Microsoft had openly expressed worries that the company was stealing news articles from various publications. Sulzberger concluded that these developments have left the future of the free press "uncertain."