WASHINGTON — The head of a leading group that protects journalists around the world described Donald Trump's decision to define his first day by an attack on reporters as a disturbing precedent.

"To single out an individual reporter in that context is deeply chilling," said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, adding that he'd expected the campaign tactic of attacks on the press to die down in the White House.

"Now he’s got the power to turn this obsession into policy, so now that’s the other shoe to drop," Simon said.

Trump used an appearance at the CIA to charge that members of the media are among the most "dishonest people in the world" to cheers in front of those assembled at Langley. He lambasted Time magazine's Zeke Miller for reporting, incorrectly, that the new administration had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. Miller quickly corrected himself publicly and apologized for his mistake.

"So Zeke, Zeke from Time magazine, writes the story about I took down — I would never do that, because I have great respect for Dr. Martin Luther King," Trump said. "But this is how dishonest the media is. Now, big story. The retraction was, like, where? Was it in a line? Or do they even bother putting it in?"

Miller, who declined a request for comment to BuzzFeed News, did not write a story about the missing MLK Jr. bust but included it in a press pool report sent to reporters around the country. He pointed BuzzFeed News to his tweets, where he repeatedly apologized for his error and his colleagues in the press who relied on his report.