Trump’s escalating war on speech raises a chilling question: Where does it end?
Depending on the topic of the day, I usually get anywhere from a handful of emails to dozens in response to The Poynter Report newsletter
Last week, the number of responses were among the most I’ve ever received in a week. Pretty much every one was about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being pulled off the air by ABC. And most — not all, but most — of those emails were a mixture of anger, frustration and, in some cases, hopelessness.
CNN’s Brian Stelter summed it up really well in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter by writing, “Imagine we’re all stuck in an elevator together. The elevator is only moving in one direction — downward. Every time the doors open, we’re at some new, lower level. No one knows how to reverse course. No one knows what awaits us at the very bottom.”
I’ll add this: No one knows where the very bottom is.
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
Democracy and politics | Signalgate | The CBS submission | Voiceless America
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.