According to a POLITICO report, mainstream media reporters are looking for protection at Trump rallies by hiring security. It may be the first time in history that reporters have asked for such assistance at a presidential event.
Apparently, Trump’s oft-repeated comments about the collusion of the mainstream media in providing negative coverage of the president as well as his warnings about “fake news” have set the alarm bells off at the offices of NBC and other big media outlets.
NBC’s White House correspondent Geoff Bennett sent out a cry for help last weekend on his Instagram account that depicted the reporter with the network’s security detail, along with Bennett’s comment: “We need security guards when covering rallies hosted by the President of the United States. Let that sink in.” At least one other reporter joined the chorus, with ABC News’ Tar Palmeri tweeting about her presence at a Trump rally in Ohio, “for the first time with a bodyguard.”
None of the reporters have suggested they have been physically assaulted at any Trump rally.
Some media outlets reportedly used security guards during the 2016 presidential campaign, but it has only become a trend since Trump recently tweeted that some reporters are the “enemy of the people.”
According to one unnamed reporter who talked to POLITICO, the safety of journalists is now a paramount issue among reporters covering the president.
“Everybody is talking about it again,” the source told POLITICO. “People have been talking about it in the last month. It’s because of the combination of the mass killing in Annapolis and Trump’s stepped-up rhetoric.”
MSNBC’s Katy Tur claims few people know just how dangerous it is to attend a Trump rally as a journalist.
“What you do not see are the nasty letters or packages or emails. The threats of physical violence,” she told Politico.