U.S. man charged in 'enemy of the people'
threats to Boston Globe
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[August 31, 2018]
By Scott Malone
BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal authorities have
charged a California man with threatening to kill Boston Globe employees
for the newspaper's role leading this month's defense of press freedoms
by hundreds of U.S. news organizations against attacks by President
Donald Trump.
Prosecutors said Robert Chain, 68, called journalists "the enemy of the
people" in threatening phone calls that echoed the phrase Trump has used
to criticize unflattering news coverage through his campaign and years
in office.
"In a time of increasing political polarization, and amid the increasing
incidence of mass shootings, members of the public must police their own
political rhetoric. Or we will," Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for
Massachusetts and a Trump appointee, said in a statement on the arrest.
Prosecutors said Chain, who lives in Encino, California, was arrested on
Thursday charged with one count of making threatening communications to
interstate commerce. If convicted, he could face up to five years in
prison.
Prosecutors said Chain made 14 threatening calls to the Globe from Aug.
10 through Aug. 22, including on Aug. 16 - the day the press freedom
editorials ran - when he threatened to shoot employees in the head at 4
p.m. That prompted authorities to station police outside the paper's
Boston building.
"While it was unsettling for many of our staffers to be threatened in
such a way, nobody – really, nobody – let it get in the way of the
important work of this institution," Jane Bowman, a Globe spokeswoman,
said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether Chain had hired an attorney.
The Globe on Aug. 10 announced its plan for coordinated editorials
defending press freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution. Newspapers and other media outlets across the United
States joined in on Aug. 16.
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A customer walks past the front page of the Boston Globe newspaper
referencing their editorial defense of press freedom and a rebuke of
President Donald Trump for denouncing some media organizations as
enemies of the American people, part of a nationwide editorial
effort coordinated by the Boston Globe, at a newsstand in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, U.S., August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File
Photo
The editorials led Trump to lash out on Twitter, saying, "THE FAKE
NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great
Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!" He did not provide specifics.
Trump continued bashing news media organizations on Wednesday and
Thursday, lashing out at NBC and CNN, and again using the phrase
"enemy of the people."
In June, five people were shot dead at a newspaper in Annapolis,
Maryland, allegedly by a man by a longstanding grudge against the
paper, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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