Ex-House speaker says at dinner ‘facts are challenged, truth is distorted and press is treated as enemy’ by those in power
The Democratic former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said on Wednesday that press freedom is “under siege” in the United States after the Trump administration arrested a prominent journalist and searched the home of another.
The warning from Pelosi comes on the same day that the Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire who has recently sought to curry favor with Donald Trump, conducted mass layoffs of its reporters and editors worldwide.
“Let’s make no mistake: we are living in a time when the first amendment is under siege here at home,” she said at an annual dinner for reporters covering Congress convened by the Washington Press Club.
“Facts are challenged, truth is distorted, and the press is treated by those in power as an enemy, fake news, rather than vital partner.”
