Reading through a list of headlines on CNN, I came across one that infuriates me. I cannot say I’m not surprised, no matter how much I wish I actually was. The press is under attack. Someone doesn’t like it when the news isn’t about this person. And this person likes it even less when the press reports things that have gone wrong. Does this sound like authoritarian government to you? Because it’s coming closer all the time.
So much of what the public knows about President Trump’s chaotic governance stems from robust reporting, including leaks from anonymous sources in the government. But Trump and his aides are now actively trying to impede this reporting and intimidate news outlets, creating a bleak backdrop to the UN’s recognition of Saturday as World Press Freedom Day.
The chilling effects, while hard to measure, are evident after Trump’s first 100 days in office, according to press freedom groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. If Trump’s first term was marked by hostile rhetoric towards the media, his second term has transformed that rhetoric into an unprecedented campaign of attacks, some straight out of authoritarian countries.
See what I mean? And this is only the beginning of it. We’re at, I think, 104 days. We still have to get through to the end of the next 4 years. I’m fairly sure he won’t manage a third term, especially since his dementia shows more and more every day. And that’s another concern. Will he even be mentally able to run for a third term? I’m not even sure he’ll make it to the end of this one!
This year, the Trump administration has opened investigations into several broadcast networks, challenged the federal funding of NPR and PBS, blocked the Associated Press from news conferences, and seized control of the White House press pool. All of this has happened while Trump is personally suing news outlets and threatening to sue more. “These attacks on the media are not random actions. In fact, they are part of the autocratic playbook,” said Joel Simon, head of the Journalism Protection Initiative.
In an especially worrisome development this week, the Justice Department reinstated a rule that allows federal investigators to secretly go after journalists’ records in leak investigations. The department cited “growing concerns about federal government employees intentionally disseminating confidential, privileged, or otherwise protected information to the media.”
Really? Come on, now. Isn’t that overkill? That could be blocked by journalists who write stories simply by not including any names, right? I know that’s a bit simplistic. But it’s just another way of clamping down on the free press. Still, it seems we are in the middle of a creation of Big Brother from George Orwell’s book 1984, only in a much more modern way. A lot of things have changed for us since our 1984 passed by.
Groups like CPJ have historically focused on the dangerous climate for journalists in dictatorships and repressive regimes abroad. But Trump’s political rise has imported those same threats to the US. Broadly speaking, journalists in the US enjoy expansive rights and freedoms. But a sense of fear is palpable. In a new report about Trump’s first 100 days, CPJ said it has noticed “a significant increase in the number of newsrooms seeking safety advice, concerned that the changing national political environment could threaten their ability to report without fear of retribution from authorities.”For journalists who try to cover every administration impartially, pushing back just means reporting the news without fear or favor, hoping the people who own their media companies continue to support their work. As veteran editor Tina Brown wrote last month: “Journalists can only be as brave as their bosses.”
Will they be able to stand up and fight back? Dare we dream? Right now, I’m actually glad we’re small. But …. who knows. We can hope, right? We can hope. Thanks for sticking with me!
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When people think of Al Capone they tend to think of him at the height of his power. A stone cold criminal and killer. He was also a womanizer and not as it turned out careful about who he screwed around with. He lapsed into dementia after doing his time at Alcatraz and his Syphilis ridden brain just rotted. The time came when he’s sit outside at the fancy swimming pool at his fancy estate, FISHING in the pool! Drooling and mumbling complaints about the fish not biting!
Trump’s dementia could get to such a point with him sitting with a fishing pole at the pool at Mar A Lago, drooling and mumbling and there are STILL Republicans and I’m not just talking rank and file MAGA goobers that would vote for him again. Even if their Jeebus had his “Second Coming’ and was the Democratic candidate!
Ouch! to you too! I did not know that about Capone. You are correct – I was thinking of Capone at the height of his power, not after that. My gods, vote for Agent Orange at that point, yes! Frightening!
🤔 Well, Susan, maybe you and I will be on the same flight to El Salvador! (see my reason below) CECOT, where Trump sends men, doesn’t accept women but President Bukele saved the worst of the worst places to imprison women. We “homegrowns” could be sent to La Esperanza or Izalco penitentiaries for women. Be warned. Not an easy read about conditions.
https://worldcrunch.com/women-worldwide/world-news-el-salvador-prison-women/
Here’s why I’ll be on that flight with you:
🥺 It is really hard to be lighthearted with people these days. I don’t live in El Paso anymore. I live in the designated military zone patrolled by soldiers from Ft. Bliss. Trump “declared” (without actual legal authority) this week that military troops will be in charge of detaining migrants at the border. That is itself a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which does not allow the military to act as law enforcement on US soil. So, Trump turned El Paso into a military base with no defined boundary! The heavily-armed troops roam the border in intimidating Stryker vehicles. I live a quarter-mile from what used to be the border (looking at it from my balcony right now!) which means I am now trespassing on Ft. Bliss!! These troops have the added authority over “crowd control.” So, if I protest this incursion of troops with my next door neighbors, on our balconies, I’ll soon be on my way out of the country as a “homegrown” national security threat! This is not hyperbole! I live in a “police state” and so do you!! 🤬
That was *definitely* a hard read, but well worth knowing! I had *no* idea about women’s prisons. None. It’s hard to imagine just from the descriptions that untold numbers of women are in the same conditions as at CECOT. Why did I hope they were treated better, because they obviously aren’t. It’s disturbing!!!
You may want to review the scene in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, where the owner of the local paper, Mr. Peabody, almost gets beat to death by Liberty, (Lee Marvin), for printing a true story. John Wayne saves Jimmy Stewart, who gets John’s girl, and an election to the Senate, getting credit for what John had done. John gets a broken heart. Let no good deed go unpunished. Anyway, the point is truth and freedom come with risk, and often sacrifice.
Ouch. I don’t think I want to see that movie. Appreciate the information. Sacrifice? Sure, I will, even though the thought of being in jail terrifies me. But what I say for myself is bigger than that.
📽🎬 I’m with Scott on this one! “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” is a great film…what a cast! And, trying to have a free press always brings out the sickness of the powerful. “You have no right to question me!!” 😱🤬 “Ha! Wanna bet?!” 😁