By now, with all his lying, you must be immune to Trump’s shrieks about fake news and know that publications like the New York Times and Washington Post, among others, are holding the country from slipping into the cesspool of Trump lies and misrepresentations.
Then there is Canada, friendly Canada. Somehow Trump found a way to have a tiff with its prime minister, Justin Trudeau. So how to do something mean-spirited and get back at your perceived enemies at the same time? One word: tariffs.
The paper you’re reading right now, and all others, are printed on newsprint. And newsprint used in the U.S. mainly comes from Canada. So Trump most likely smiles while unleashing tariffs on newsprint.
It is a step that doesn’t do anything to help anyone in the U.S., but it hurts Canada, along with this and every newspaper in the nation. Our printing costs for this newspaper will rise somewhere between 20 and 30 percent this month.
I thought Trump stated that he wanted to bring jobs to this country. There are only five plants in the U.S. that make this form of paper, and they cannot print enough for all newspapers. Rather than create jobs, this tariff will take away jobs. There are many newspapers in this nation that are already on a financial thin line, cannot absorb that additional cost and will go under. What about those jobs, Mr. President? And let’s not forget that stamping out the media is censorship.
If you want to stand up for journalism, you can write to the International Trade Commission and tell them no to censorship: www.usitc.gov.
Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. You can follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MarkSegalPGN or Twitter at https://twitter.com/PhilaGayNews.