Amanpour on Trump: Media Faces an ‘Existential Crisis’ — Hints of Journalists in Cages

Tuesday, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour delivered a speech at a Committee to Protect Journalists event.

In her speech, Amanpour discussed the state of the media with President-Elect Donald Trump set to take over the White House in 2017.

The CNN International host likened Trump to authoritarians around the world for demonizing the media.

“I was chilled when the first tweet after the election was about ‘professional protesters incited by the media.’” Amanpour stated. “Now, he walked back the bit about the protesters, but not the bit about the media.

“That is how it goes with authoritarians around the world like Sisi, like Erdoğan, like Putin, like the Ayatollahs, like Duterte in the Philipines and all of those people,” she added.

Later, Amanpour said the media faces an “existential crisis” and could “end up in handcuffs, in cages, in kangaroo courts [and] prisons.”

“First the media is accused of inciting, then sympathizing, then associating – and then suddenly they find themselves accused of being full-fledged terrorists and subversives. Then they end up in handcuffs, in cages, in kangaroo courts, in prisons – and then who knows what? We have stand up together because divided we will fall,” Amanpour said.

“I feel that right now we face an existential crisis, a real threat to the very relevance and usefulness of our profession,” she continued. “Now, more than ever, I genuinely believe that we need to recommit to real reporting across a real nation, a real world in which journalism and democracy are in mortal peril, including by foreign powers like Russia who pay to churn out and to place these false news articles, these lies in many of our press; they hack into democratic systems, not just here as they’re accused of, but also now allegedly in crucial democratic experiences that are going on in Germany and France and elsewhere in Europe.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent