A History of Crackdowns: How U.S. Presidents Have Attacked Journalists

Even as the fake news skewers Trump unlike any president before him, Trump has shown remarkable restraint in stopping short of using federal power against them.

On a recent appearance on NewsNation, industry legend Bill O’Reilly became unglued toward the dishonest news media for their coverage of President Trump.

O’Reilly took umbrage with 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley for biased reporting as Pelley gave a microphone to notoriously disreputable Clinton attorney Mark Elias and dishonestly framed Elias’ absurd partisan diatribe about election fraud as legitimate news to his audience.

"This is the premiere news program in the country...practicing deceit. That makes me angry. I've been in this business 50 years, this is wrong!" O’Reilly exclaimed.

Even as the fake news skewers Trump unlike any president before him, Trump has shown remarkable restraint in stopping short of using federal power against them. His predecessors – particularly FDR, JFK and RFK, and Barack H. Obama – created a precedent spanning many decades for federal power to be used in the stifling of journalism.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT

During FDR’s time in office, he deployed the IRS against individuals and organizations who were seen as threats to his New Deal policies. Roosevelt also used the IRS to attack the free press. He reportedly directed the IRS to audit the tax returns of newspaper publishers who voiced criticism of his socialist expansion of government. This tactic was not only a means of retribution but also created a chilling effect against potential opposition.

FDR used his immense clout to attack controversial radio pundit, Father Charles Coughlin. Coughlin has since been cast through the lens of history as a bigot and a demagogue, but in his day, Coughlin was one of the leading voices against U.S. involvement overseas. He had been meeting with populist renegade Huey Long and was levying attacks against FDR to a large audience. FDR even had his postmaster general spy on Coughlin’s mail to track his finances, demonstrating a disdain for this man of the cloth’s 1st and 4th Amendment rights.

JOHN AND ROBERT KENNEDY

The JFK regime has been viewed through rose-tinted glasses due to his assassination, and his brother has been similarly deified following his murder, but both men were Democrats not above abusing their own authority to punish critics. During the JFK administration, the FBI committed some of its most infamous surveillance abuses, as J. Edgar Hoover authorized extensive surveillance of civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., often with the tacit approval of the DOJ.

JFK and his brother were also relentless, never afraid of bending or breaking the rules, in targeting labor leader Jimmy Hoffa. The personal vendetta began when JFK served on the Senate Rackets Committee where RFK was the Chief Counsel. Once they entered the White House, the brothers created a "Get Hoffa" brigade in the DOJ assigning over 20 prosecutors to the squad who regularly misused IRS records and planted informants in Hoffa's inner circle, setting the stage for federal abuses that continue to this day.

It should also come as no coincidence that after Nixon lost the presidency in 1960, he was subject to IRS audits in 1961, 1962 and 1963 until Kennedy felt the cold touch of the magic bullet in Dallas.

BARACK OBAMA

Barack Hussein Obama had decades of abuse to build upon for his transformational presidency. Obama infamously went after tea party and conservative groups, putting them under extra scrutiny and denying them tax-exempt status that would have easily been afforded to a liberal advocacy group. As a result, the federal government was forced to pay up a $3.5 million settlement to tea party groups in Ohio who challenged the unfair rules in court.

Obama also took a page from FDR’s book in going after opposition journalists in order to stifle leaks. After sweeping into office as a proponent for open government, Obama did an about face like he did on most of his campaign promises. Obama secretly subpoenaed the phone logs and emails of reporters, threatening jail time to journalists if they did not give up their confidential sources. He revived the Espionage Act of 1917 to prevent government employees from talking to the press, prosecuting at least six government employees and two contractors to prevent transparency.

OTHER EXAMPLES

President Lyndon B. Johnson famously abused federal power in an attempt to suppress the anti-war movement and extend the war in Vietnam. Bill Clinton eschewed civil liberties in the homeland as he dramatically escalated the federal war against domestic patriots, leading to the disastrous Waco and Ruby Ridge affairs. George W. Bush fabricated evidence and cynically cast any opponent of his constitutional violations and an unlawful expansion of the U.S. empire as a supporter of foreign terrorism.

Donald J. Trump once again deserves an incredible amount of kudos for not using these sorts of powers against his political opponents. He is certainly the consummate statesman, but there comes a time when emergency powers must be used. Trump has less than four years to turn the country around and undo generations of damage.