I don't think this is what he intended
Tonight as I go to sleep, it is with a deep feeling of gratitude and wonder that I was fortunate enough to be in the occupation of journalism, even if it was not for as long as I had expected.
I have never felt so honored to have been a member of the press as I am tonight - despite the horrible beating the field has endured over the last two decades. I truly believed it was dead. Tonight I know it's not.
When President Donald Trump attempted to invalidate and discredit the mainstream media a few days ago by calling it "The enemy of the American people," a miracle occurred in the Twitterverse.
Meet them. They're #NotTheEnemy
Almost immediately, the hashtag #NotTheEnemy appeared. And then people began Tweeting the President - from all over the world - with photographs and bios of journalists who had served, and often died, for their country while reporting.
* There is Anna Politkoskya, who was murdered in Chechnya after publically criticizing Vladimir Putin, whom our President respects so highly.
* There are Alison Parker and Adam Ward of CBS News, who were murdered mid-broadcast in Roanoke, VA.
* There is David Pearl of the Wall Street Journal, who was abducted and beheaded on camera in Pakistan.
*There is Marie Colvin, who died covering the Seige of Horns in Syria.
At the top right is a tweet to the President from a Sulome Anderson, who wrote, "This is my dad, Terry Anderson. He was kidnapped in Lebanon and held for six and one-half years. He is #NotTheEnemy."
More than I ever imagined
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of bios have been sent, including those of reporters like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke Watergate, and Nellie Bly, who feigned madness and spent 10 days in a lunatic asylum in 1887. Her expose of the shocking brutality there resulted in massive reforms in treatment for the mentally ill.
I don't know whether the President will have the time to glance at any of these tweets.
I do know that the journalists who died on the battleground saw more action than he did.
Luckily, Mr. Trump got five determents from Vietnam - four for college, and one for bone spurs on his ankle.
That diagnosis must have been devastating for him, given that until then, he had been a skilled first baseman for the New York Miltary Acadamy baseball team and also competed in basketball, football, soccer, bowling and wrestling.
Heroes don't get caught
Of course, because he is smart, the President was familiar enough with life on the battlefield that he declared of Sen. and former Vietnam POW John McCain:
“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
He repeated his views this week. However, today, Sen. McCain had his own views to share today, in a "Meet The Press" interview to be aired tomorrow (Sunday):
“We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital…
"If you want to preserve - I’m very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free, and many times adversarial, press. (Without it) we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time.
“That’s how dictators get started. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press."
The Senator clarified that he was not accusing President Trump of trying to be a dictator: “I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.”
But we all know Sen. McCain is a Lefty Looney Liberal anyhow. And I'm sure all the media outlets made it up. So do take it with a grain of salt.
Thanks, journalism. I'm feeling proud tonight.
~Teresa Bryan Peneguy
#NotTheEnemy