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Letter: Pyle’s column about the press proves Trump’s point about it

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) An editorial titled "A Free Press Needs You" is published in The New York Times, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018, in New York. Newspapers from Maine to Hawaii pushed back against President Donald Trump's attacks on "fake news" Thursday with a coordinated series of editorials speaking up for a free and vigorous press. The Boston Globe, which set the campaign in motion by urging the unified voice, had estimated that some 350 newspapers would participate.

In George Pyle’s Aug. 19 column, “How we joined the parade in defense of free press,” he wrote that newspapers are “chasing the big story in a pack.” He criticizes The Toledo Blade for arguing the “press is guilty, too, because it is biased against” the president and “should change its ways.”

The pack is overwhelmingly liberal and continually tries to shape stories rather than report the news. Many stories omit information or go unreported.

The media isn’t above reproach. Yet Mr. Pyle calls Trump supporters who criticize the press “deplorables.” President Trump’s criticism of them doesn’t affect their free speech.

Many news articles read like opinion pieces. Stories are retweeted or reported without verification and later found to be false. The majority of the public believe “major news sources” knowingly report “fake, false or purposely misleading” news “a lot” or “sometimes.”

Journalists need to do a better job.

Sheila Thompson, Salt Lake City

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