Week of Nov. 7, 2024

From the editor’s desk

“Every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family, and your future,” Donald Trump said within the first two minutes of his victory speech yesterday. 

The promise doesn’t ring true for the groups whose rights he has promised to unravel, and it doesn’t ring true for journalists. We’ve long been the objects of Trump’s ridicule, insults and threats, and I am deeply concerned about what actions he may take against the press once his term starts in January. 

Here are some of the discussions that have come to the forefront this week on press freedom.

From a Nov. 6 post from Reporters Without Borders:

“On the campaign trail and during his previous administration, President-elect Donald Trump has frequently deployed violent language and threats against the media. His election to a second term in office marks a dangerous moment for American journalism and global press freedom.” 

From a Nov. 6 post on the Columbia Journalism Review: 

Next year, Trump’s assault on the press will become a fusillade of discrete attempts to quash whatever reporting he views as antagonistic.

From today’s post on CNN, headlined “Trump has long threatened the media. Press freedom groups fear he might make good on it”: 

In the hours after Donald Trump’s decisive victory, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom of the Press Foundation and American Sunlight Project called on the president-elect to end his attacks on the news media or altogether curb Trump’s power to prevent a destabilizing onslaught against the press.

The groups’ fears are not without grounds. In the run-up to Election Day, Trump repeatedly threatened the Fourth Estate, often employing extreme and authoritarian rhetoric. Earlier this week, Trump told a crowd in Pennsylvania that he wouldn’t mind if journalists got shot. He also filed a lawsuit against CBS over its “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and repeatedly threatened to strip broadcasters of their licenses, saying on at least 15 occasions that television networks should have their licenses revoked over news coverage he disapproved of.

In nations without a free press, propaganda far outweighs facts, which makes democracy impossible. 

Much as the nation is polarized over just about everything at the moment, I can’t think of a single instance in my life when I’ve heard an American say they’d prefer not to live in a democracy. We need to do everything we can to protect and strengthen the press.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor