This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, March 29th, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Free Speech is under assault around the world and in the United States,

but how should free speech be defended, especially when

the rallying cry of fake news is seemingly everywhere, including the White House?

Fleming Rose, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, offers his thoughts.

How do you react when you see the now president of the United States openly sort of denigrating media outlets and

discussing his personal treatment by members of the media.

Yeah, I think in, President Trump expresses an intolerance towards, not only the media, but towards people and ideas that he don't like and people that in

any way challenges him and I think that is that is that is an example of

intolerance that that does disservice to the office of the President of the United States.

That's a general observation that I don't think is a very tolerant person.

It's difficult for him to handle criticism.

When it comes specifically to the media,

I think he, you know, by by calling the media the opposition party and dishonest people and disgusting people, he is contributing to the undermining of a very important institution in a democracy,

like the courts, like Congress, like the presidency

those institutions they are based on trust

and they they cannot work if there is no trust in them.

Having said that, Trump of course is not the only and first driver of this undermining of trust in the media.

The media has contributed to this process itself.

And I think even though we have got rid of gatekeepers and that's a good thing. At the same time, new media today

publishers things that wouldn't have been published in earlier times,

...