TGIF! Here's the latest on Dick Stevenson, Jason Kelce, Rachel Maddow, Pam Bondi, Marty Baron, Jessica Lessin, "Wicked" and much more... |
An anxious press prepares |
The startling revelation this week of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's journey to Mar-a-Lago prompted a question that many members of the media are quietly asking: Just how worried should we be?
And speaking more practically, what preparations and precautions should news outlets take ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's return to power?
I'm a little bit wary of writing about this because I don't want to contribute to paranoia or fear-mongering. There's too much of that in the air already. But some preparations are underway. Newsroom leaders, lawyers and other key players are thinking through the possibilities. They're talking about what Trump's promised "retribution" could look like and how they'd respond. It's important to be open-minded but clear-eyed about what actions he might take.
This was a theme of the cocktail party and dinner table conversations at last night's Committee to Protect Journalists gala in NYC. CPJ knows the authoritarian playbook for silencing the press all too well, board chair Jacob Weisberg said in his remarks, and "if and when we see parallel moves to curtail the press here, we will call them out and challenge them forcefully."
There are a very wide range of views across the news industry. It's as if some media leaders are expecting it to rain while others are bracing for a major hurricane. Ask one person what they're worried about, and they might bring up the sludge of anti-media hate on social media. Ask another, and they might confess fears about newsrooms being raided and media owners being prosecuted. See what I mean about the range of views?
Certainly, many of the concerns may turn out to be totally overblown. But the current chatter reflects the unknowns and the uncertainty of the moment...
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Some of the specific concerns |
I've been compiling this list based on conversations with anchors, editors, press freedom advocates, and other figures.
>> In the second Trump term, legal threats and frivolous lawsuits could pile up, costing newsrooms money and time.
>> The Trump administration could reinstate the Justice Department's past practice of pursuing reporters' records in leak investigations.
>> Online and real-world harassment could increase if political extremists feel emboldened to target journalists.
>> Media companies and individual journalists could face politically-motivated IRS audits.
>> Government agencies like the FCC could use existing laws, like those governing TV station licenses, to pressure newsrooms.
>> The administration could "slow or even kill future transactions" by media companies deemed opponents, as CNN's Matt Egan recently wrote.
>> Nonprofit news outlets could face newfound scrutiny. (Some are concerned about this House bill.)
>> Already-slow responses to public record requests may get slower. NiemanLab says "experts expect a surge in requests, longer delays, and more court dates."
>> Government agencies may become (even) less cooperative with news outlets.
>> These types of pressure could "make other journalists less likely to push hard on vigilant coverage," Poynter senior VP Kelly McBride said on this new episode of "The Poynter Report."
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Chilling and reinvigorating |
"Journalists need protecting," The Information's founder and CEO Jessica Lessin, who chaired last night's gala, said on stage. Lessin referenced some of the nuts-and-bolts challenges for newsrooms: "Journalists are being forced to hire their own security, for themselves and their families. And publications are setting aside massive legal budgets for the challenges we know are to come. It's chilling."
But it's also reinvigorating – a point that I have heard many news executives make in recent days. "As scary as it seems right now, remember this: This time in world history is a call to action for all of us in this profession," Lessin said. "It is a call to fight those who attempt to discredit us; it is a call to fight for the public's trust; and it is a call to defend our work at all costs. History may depend on it."
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Liam Reilly writes: "I do think that the current environment is going to be much more difficult than it was even in the first term for Donald Trump," former Washington Post exec editor Marty Baron said Thursday on a Zoom call organized by Larry Tye.
Trump "clearly has decided to target any independent arbiter of fact, basically all of the institutions of government, ones that we've come to rely upon... In particular, he will endeavor to prosecute journalists, which is not something that has been done in the past, and not just prosecute leakers, not just investigate who the leakers were, but go after the journalists, and maybe even go after their institutions and really test the law in that respect."
"You can just tell by the nominees for cabinet positions and agency heads that this will be an administration of retribution," Baron added.
>> Baron referenced other challenges for news outlets too, like declines in traffic from social media sites "because Facebook isn't including news in their news feed, because
Mark Zuckerberg has run scared." You can hear more from Baron and New Yorker editor David Remnick in this new episode of NPR's "Fresh Air.."
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Post-election transitions |
It's that time of year. First, a big change at The New York Times:
Elisabeth Bumiller, who has served as DC bureau chief since 2015, will step down from the role and return to reporting, the paper announced yesterday. In her place, the Times named Dick Stevenson its next DC chief just a few minutes ago.
Meanwhile, at The Washington Post, there is some concern over the removal of senior politics editor Dan Eggen from his post. He said "I will leave it to others to explain why." And at the Wall Street Journal, a "handful" of DC bureau staffers were laid off yesterday as the publication continues to reshape itself...
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Trump taps another Fox friend |
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP/File |
Matt Gaetz is out – in part due to revelatory news coverage – and Pam Bondi is in. And the made-for-TV cabinet trend continues. Bondi was never officially a paid Fox News commentator, but she has been a favorite guest for years. Matt Gertz (not to be confused with Matt Gaetz!) says "Bondi made 60 Fox weekday appearances in the two years before Trump named her to his first impeachment trial team." And she has been a Fox regular ever since. She also brings eight years of past experience as Florida's attorney general.
>> Critics keep saying that some Trump picks are "unqualified," but "he's looking for spokespeople," Joanna Coles posited on MSNBC's "The 11th Hour" last night...
>> The Atlantic's newest hire, Jonathan Chait, read all three of Pete Hegseth's recent books, and he concluded that Hegseth is "Trump's most dangerous cabinet pick."
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Does this describe you, too? Mississippi writer Margaret McMullan says "every single person I know has scaled way back on social media and news" in the wake of the election. Alan Huffman, who spoke with her for The Mississippi Independent, asked, "in tuning out the news, aren't we just limiting our ability to respond to a new kind of chaos? Or is this a temporary reaction?" McMullan said "yes, my news blackout is temporary. We don’t want to be willfully ignorant." Historically TV news ratings do dip after elections and start to rebuild weeks and months later...
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DirecTV abandons deal to acquire Dish |
DirecTV and Dish's on-again-off-again talks are back off: "DirecTV has terminated its agreement to acquire Echostar's satellite television business, Reuters reports. The deal fell apart "after creditors balked at a proposal to cut into their holdings," the WSJ explains...
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>> MSNBC's biggest star, Rachel Maddow, has signed a new five-year deal worth roughly $25 million a year, Lachlan Cartwright reports. (The Ankler)
>> George Stephanopoulos is close to renewing his contract at ABC, Oliver Darcy scoops... ( |
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