US President Donald Trump has launched another attack on the news media, calling journalists and reporters “fiction writers.”
In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump upped the ante on his attacks against what he calls “fake news” media and censured reporters from NBC News, CBS News, ABC and CNN.
“So much Fake News being put in dying magazines and newspapers. Only place worse may be @NBCNews, @CBSNews, @ABC and @CNN. Fiction writers!” the US president wrote.
It is not clear what specific report, if any, Trump was responding to.
Last week, the US president rapped NBC News for reporting that Trump had called for a rise in the US nuclear arsenal, a report he and Defense Secretary James Mattis strongly dismissed.
"It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write," Trump said. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!"
Trump’s willingness to potentially challenge the broadcast licenses of a media he disapproves, marks an escalation in his anti-media rhetoric.
Since the 2016 campaign, Trump has repeatedly used the term "fake news" largely for any coverage criticizing him or his allies.