The executive editor of The Washington Post used his award acceptance speech at the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award Dinner to go after President Donald Trump.
The Post’s Marty Baron was awarded the highest honor of the evening along with Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times.
“History tells is we can’t always rely on our leaders to safeguard free expression in the cause of truth,” Baron said during his acceptance speech. “Today, we face another threat arguably more pernicious. This one is against the very concept of truth itself.”
Baron went on to claim that President Trump has been waging “an assault on journalism.” He said that the attack “has gone on for years, beginning during the campaign to marginalize us, then to delegitimize us, then to demonize us, then to dehumanize us and then came the enemies of the people.”
The Washington Post editor made it clear that words don’t really matter to him — despite his profession — as President Trump has repeatedly made clear that it is “fake news” that is the “enemy of the people,” not journalism in general.
“The goal Is evident and cynical — to obliterate the idea of objective truth,” Baron said. “If we come to believe truth is unknowable — or held by a head of state —then mission accomplished. People just believe what they like to believe.”
The dinner also honored Jamal Khashoggi, Washington Post contributor with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. He was posthumously given the John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award.
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