Fox host says Trump engaged in 'sustained assault on the freedom of the press'

At Newseum event, Chris Wallace says president's 'constant bashing' should not be excuse to 'push back'

Fox host Chris Wallace says Donald Trump "has done everything he can to undercut the media to try and delegitimise us" in an attempt to "raise doubts" about critical reporting on the president and his administration.

In his address to the Newseum in Washington DC on Wednesday during its program celebrating the First Amendment, the longtime reporter warned that Mr Trump is "engaged in the most direct, sustained assault on the freedom of the press" in US history.

Referencing the president's 2017 Twitter post in which he called the "fake news media" the "enemy of the American people", Mr Wallace echoed concerns shared by retired US Navy admiral Bill McRaven that the president's message "undermines the Constitution" and "is a tremendous threat to our democracy".

His remarks followed a rebuke of the current conditions of journalism and news media, which he says has been lured into the president's "constant bashing" as a "rationale" to "push back" themselves.

"To be clear, the president has given us plenty to work with," Mr Wallace said. "But when we respond with bias, we're playing his game, not ours. We are not participants in what we cover. We are umpires, observers trying to objective witnesses to what is going on."

He added that it's a journalist's job to report untrue and questionable behaviour, but added that the press "shouldn't be drawn into the fight".

Mr Wallace said: "We shouldn't be drawn into taking sides, as tempting as that is. We're not as good as it as they are, and we're abandoning the special role the founders gave us in this democracy."

He shared results from a Freedom Forum Institute poll, associated with the Newseum, that found that 29 per cent of Americans believe the First Amendment "goes too far" while more than three-quarters of American believe "fake news is a serious threat" to democracy.

Mr Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday and a former ABC News reporter and White House correspondent with NBC, is a rare dissenting voice on a network whose loudest voices largely reflect a vociferously pro-Trump message.

Steve Bannon, the president's former chief strategist and a former chair of right-wing media organisation Breitbart, said Mr Trump's most influential national security adviser is Fox host Tucker Carlson.

According to The Daily Beast, Mr Bannon told a group of wealthy New Yorkers in Manhattan on Wednesday that, "if you don't think Tucker Carlson has more influence on national security policy than many of the guys on the National Security Council, you're wrong."

At the museum's event, among its last as it prepares to close its doors after more than a decade at its current location, Mr Wallace closed his remarks saying: "We have seen presidents come and go. We will endure. So will freedom of the press."