Today's the day when The Boston Globe's 'call to action' for the nation's newspapers to collude to fight back against what they called Trump's "dirty war against the free press" went into action with over 400 newspapers publishing anti-Trump editorials.

President Trump is apparently unhappy at the 'collusion'...

He began the day with a direct shot..."THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!"

THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018

Then shifted to a more direct shot at The Boston Globe..."Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press."

The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018

And attempted to end on a positive note... "Honesty wins..."

There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018

Given the extensive use of FULL CAPS, we suspect President Trump is not happy at the op-eds, but will it make any difference?

As we noted last night ahead of today's blitz, Al Tompkins at The Poynter Institute - a five decade award-winning journalist and producer - acknowledges the reality that:

We will protest again that we are really good for democracy, that we are vital to the nation... and the people who agree with the president won't give a damn what 200-plus newspaper editorials or a thousand editorials have to say.

Tompkins brings a common-sense perspective, likely echoing what most average Americans might be thinking right now, ultimately concluding of the breathless headlines now promising 350 "pro-journalism editorials" that it'll be little more than the usual self-congratulatory and meaningless noise that many Americans have come to expect from the mainstream press.

He rains on their parade and predicts:

So the editorials Thursday will create a lot of chatter. Trump backers will call journalists whiners and journalists will counter-attack. Twitter and cable news will have a ball with it all. And Friday morning we will be right where we were this morning.

And crucially Tompkins, himself a prominent longtime educator of journalists across the nation, says that journalists as a collective profession have gotten so much disastrously wrong yet remain intransigent, and the American people understand this well.

He says:

Lots of journalists were surprised after the 2016 election. We vowed to listen to the public more, to find out why we were so surprised to hear that the public didn't love journalists and a growing number didn't believe us.

If that point didn't win the relatively establishment commentator Tompkins any more friends among the liberal outrage-fueled mainstream, the following is the money shot:

Before you publish your editorials extolling the virtues of journalism, ask yourself: How are you doing with that listening tour? How have you changed because of what you learned? How willing are you to be changed by discourse? Whatever you write in your editorials, are you willing to listen, too?

Shockingly common-sense and truthful words coming from the heart of establishment journalism... We find ourselves surprised to say on these points, we couldn't agree more.