Connecting the Dots: Trump’s Tightening Grip on Press Freedom

Streaming Media

Abstract

A free press is a pillar of democracy, just as state-controlled media is a hallmark of autocracy. That is why monitoring actions that stifle the freedom of the press is a time-tested means of tracking the health of a democratic system. As journalists themselves scramble to keep up with the firehose of executive orders that President Donald Trump has issued since returning to power on Jan. 20, infringements on press freedom in the United States are reported piecemeal, making it hard to grasp the full extent of the threat now in play.

What follows is a compilation of actions that, taken individually and against the backdrop of a deluge of crises competing for airtime, may fall below the threshold of major alarm. These actions are diverse in source and scope, ranging from editorial decisions that in a different political moment might be of limited import, through to billion-dollar lawsuits and major regulatory actions targeting news media. Taken together though, these signs should be appreciated for what they are: a concerted push to align the U.S. information ecosystem with Trump’s entrenched view that the independent media is “truly the enemy of the people,” and that it must be replaced with information sources aligned with his personal views and under the control of himself and his allies. Going forward, it will be vital to start cataloguing these individual developments in relation to how they fit into, solidify or — one might hope eventually undermine, this bigger picture.

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JUST SECURITY

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