The White House will not order flags to half the staff to honor the editorial staff of Annapolis: NPR

A Fortune Memorial is seen on the premises outside the building housing The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., On Sunday.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

hiding the legend

rocking legend

Jose Luis Magana / AP

A makeshift memorial is seen on the scene in front of the office building housing The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., Sunday.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

After recent massive shootings in high schools in Texas and Florida, President Trump ordered that US flags across the country be halved to pay tribute to the victims. He did the same after killing men in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas

However, the city of Annapolis confirmed to NPR that the president had denied a request for respect for four journalists and one newspaper seller. killed by an armed man last week at The Capital

"Obviously, I'm disappointed, you know? … Is there a threshold for tragedy?" Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley, asked aloud after stating that the White House had rejected the request of the murdered editorial staff to be so honored

"C & Was an attack on freedom of the press.According to the Baltimore Sun.

Republican Governor Maryland, Larry Hogan, ordered that the state flag be deployed to half the staff, Friday at dusk, Monday.

But Buckley, a Democrat, He told the Sun that the scale of the tragedy in the city's newspaper deserved more than that.

"This is not as visible when a state flag is shot down but you still have your main flags in action. "Buckley said that he had thought of ordering American flags in Annapolis, but that his wife had him dissuaded from "polarizing people," he said.

The White House could not be immediately

The President said Thursday's assassinations in the newspaper "shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with sorrow". Americans should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.

However, long before taking office, Trump was openly hostile to the press, calling it "the enemy of the American people" and frequently accusing mainstream media of engaging in "fake news."

While some have accused Trump of fostering a climate of disrespect and even of Fourth Estate violence, others note that it is a dilemma facing all presidents.

. In a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, 26 people were killed.In Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 17 died and in a lyc e and s & # 39; high school in Santa Fe, Texas, 10 were killed. By comparison, the Annapolis newspaper shootings killed 5.

USA Today writes, "Like its predecessors, Trump also faces a bleak calculation: what differentiates a devastating crime from A truly national tragedy? Or do some attacks carry a symbolic meaning that transcends the police report? "

Nevertheless, Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor at the University of Houston who studies presidential proclamations , said USA Today that Maryland's shooting transcends the killed number because "the crucial role of the free press in America puts their status on a par with any other official. "

" This is a missed opportunity to make a truce with the press, "Rottinghaus said." Do not lower the flag says much about the president's view of the media. "[19659008] Some also pointed out that the President Obama was also criticized in 2015 for failing to proclaim the flag quickly. Half-staffed for five US service members who were killed by an armed man at a naval reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee finally made such an order five days after the killings.