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Media Memo

Trump and Russia Seem to Find Common Foe: The American Press

CNN’s New York headquarters. President Trump criticized the network’s international arm over the weekend.Credit...Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

President Trump attacks CNN on a regular basis. But he usually focuses on the domestic side of the network — his least favorite cable news station — making his post on Twitter this weekend about CNN’s international arm something of a rarity.

“@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly,” Mr. Trump wrote on Saturday. “The outside world does not see the truth from them!”

Also notable: Mr. Trump’s comments came hours after President Vladimir V. Putin signed a law that requires certain American media outlets working in Russia to register with the government as foreign agents, essentially identifying them as hostile entities. Mr. Putin’s allies had previously signaled that CNN International could be affected.

For now, CNN appears untouched by the new regulations in Russia. But with an ongoing investigation into possible ties between allies of Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, the timing and content of Mr. Trump’s tweet were quickly dissected for potential hints at a connection. Was this a sign that the two had united against a common foe?

The White House did not respond to an inquiry on Monday, and CNN said that it had not been contacted by Russian authorities about the matter. So far, the regulations appear to predominantly affect branches of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which are both overseen by the American government.

Complicating matters was the origin of Russia’s crackdown on American news outlets, which had been prompted by events recently put into motion by the Justice Department.

Russian officials have made clear that the regulations were tit-for-tat retaliation for a move by United States officials to register RT, the state-run Russian news group formerly known as Russia Today, as a foreign agent. American intelligence sources have accused RT of serving as a propaganda outlet during last year’s presidential race, a charge that RT executives have vehemently denied.

In the United States, the foreign agent label is usually assigned by the government to identify foreign lobbying groups. In Russia, the term can have darker implications, evoking Soviet counterintelligence efforts, and journalists at organizations covered by the new law are unsure how their work could be affected.

For now, press advocates and news organizations said they were waiting to see how Russian authorities put the regulations into effect. “Our journalists on assignment are harassed by Russian authorities and face extensive restrictions on their work,” John F. Lansing, chief executive of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, wrote in a statement.

Mr. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign with Russian officials, and he has denied that his White House gives preferential treatment to Mr. Putin.

His tweet about CNN International, however, was roundly condemned by journalists and political figures from both parties.

“Trump’s eagerness to win the favor of autocrats remains one of the most concerning aspects of his presidency,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and communications director for Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential bid. “If the leader of the free world does not champion the free press, then who will?”

For months, press freedom groups have warned that Mr. Trump’s escalating attacks on the news media could inspire foreign governments to follow his lead, particularly in countries that lack the robust speech protections of the United States. In many other countries, journalists can face prosecution, jail time, and violence for reporting critically on the government.

On Sunday, a day after Mr. Trump’s tweet, the spokesman for Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs used Twitter to denounce CNN as “deplorable” for its coverage of a terrorist attack in Sinai.

Ben Rhodes, a foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama, suggested there had been a connection between the two tweets. “Most predictable thing in the world that authoritarian governments will increasingly echo Trump’s media criticism,” Mr. Rhodes wrote on Twitter.

Christiane Amanpour, the veteran correspondent who hosts a show on CNN International, said in an interview on Monday that she had been stunned by Mr. Trump’s remarks.

“Really? The president of the United States on Thanksgiving weekend would say something like that?” she said she thought upon reading the president’s tweet.

Ms. Amanpour said that Mr. Trump’s anti-press rhetoric gives “an automatic green light” to foreign authoritarians that want to crack down on journalists in their countries.

“We’re used to danger,” Ms. Amanpour said by telephone from London. “But we don’t need to be stabbed in the back by our free and democratic leadership.”

If the denunciations of his attacks ruffled Mr. Trump, the president seemed to take pains on Monday to show his opinion had not changed.

Again on Twitter, he proposed “a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me).”

“They are all bad,” Mr. Trump added. “Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”

Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting from Moscow.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: For Trump and Russia, a Common Foe: U.S. News Media. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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