IT’S news that’s making the news on both sides of the Atlantic: Trump’s contratemps with the media is gathering pace.

He has now appropriated the term ‘Fake News’ i.e. ‘the deliberate fabrication of lies designed to sway public opinion’ and is applying it to media outlets that dare to criticise or question his position. For those who aren’t sure, apparently an example of ‘fake news’ is the inconvenient detail that the person Trump appointed as security adviser broke the law by negotiating with the Russians, undermined the sitting president and then lied about it.

Apparently the real story we should be worried about is that there was a leak that brought this misdemeanour to light.

So to counter this obvious problem Trump is now planning legislation that will compel news companies to reveal their sources.

Trump now gives press briefings to only a select group of journalsists from publications of which he approves. Publications like the Washington Post, the New York Times, the BBC (and since you are reading this, possibly now the Salisbury Journal too) are excluded.

Totalitarian leaders seek early control of news media to ensure that their version of events is the one that prevails; astute politicians have come to realise that social media is rapidly becoming the dominant source of news.

Over half US adults get news from sites such as Facebook and in the UK social media has now overaken TV as the main source of news for 18 to 24 year olds.

Trump’s persistent use of Twitter to release information (rather than press briefings) means that he talks directly to his audience without the inconvenience of his claims coming under scrutiny.

Does any of this matter?

Do we need to worry about what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic?

As storm Doris so forcibly reminded us, the prevailing winds in this country blow from the west – social as well as meteorological.

What happens over there arrives here sooner rather than later, which is why the Journal, BBC Radio Wiltshire, and Spire FM are all vital to our democracy.

They are the local expression of a democratic safeguard that means that we have access, at a local level, to a plethora of views and opinions.

You may not like them, but they are there for the taking and you have every opportunity to write in and express a counter opinion.

Evelyn Hall’s famous phrase, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” is in stark contrast to the transatlantic zietgeist.

The ‘free press’ that we have inherited may have its limitations and its critics, but it is a bulwark of democracy. And as Mr Trump is discovering, its existence means that he cannot have it all his own way…