The "fake news media" is the opposition party, President Trump declared today, but across the United States some 350 newspapers from the New York Times to the Kentucky Times Tribune have launched an unprecedented joint campaign to counter the President's attacks on the media.

He explained there is nothing more he wants than true freedom of the press, and pointed out the media is free to write and say whatever it wants.

He assured the public he supported freedom of the press but criticized them for pushing "fake news".

In a campaign launched by The Boston Globe, more than 200 USA papers printed editorials defending the free press Thursday, rebuking the president for repeatedly labelling them "the enemy of the people".

Despite the criticism, Marjorie Pritchard, the Boston Globe's mananging editor of the editorial page and leader of Thursday's effort said on Twitter that she was "pround to stand with all these dedicated journalists from around the country". "Correcting them is core to our job", the Times said.

The Boston Globe and New York Times (NYT) have joined over 200 of their USA stablemates in a coordinated defence of free speech in the face of growing disdain from the American government.

At the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five staff members were killed by a gunman in June, editors said Thursday they were not participating in the effort because they care more about what the community thinks than the president.

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The coordinated effort comes amid Trump's ongoing claims of "fake news" from media outlets that publish unfavorable articles and calling mainstream media outlets the "enemy".

The Senate resolution "affirms that the press is not the enemy of the people". In the piece, the editorial board wrote that the liberty of the press has been a foundational American principle for more than two centuries.

Leading the charge was The Boston Globe, which had called for the drive highlighting the importance of a free press, accompanied by the hashtag #EnemyOfNone.

Others, including Politico's media critic, Jack Shafer, criticised the coordinated effort by the United States newspapers, saying the editorials are playing "right into Trump's hand". Presidents from John Adams to Richard Nixon to Barack Obama often scuffled with the press corps. "Mr. Trump enjoys free speech just as his media adversaries do", the column said.

Sandra Shea, who wrote the editorial for the Philadelphia Inquirer, said that there was never a thought that it would "change the mind of Donald Trump, or change the mind of his supporters".

"The messages in today's newspapers are best read not as a drift toward war footing, but rather as a reminder that journalism is important work", wrote Pete Vernon in the Columbia Journalism Review.