Donald Trump is escalating his long-running vendetta against the media. “It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press,” he declared recently.
The media must fight back, but not in a partisan or political way. News outlets should not be taking sides with the Democrats or joining “the Resistance” against the Trump administration.
Journalists should, however, have two missions as Trump returns to the White House: Take sides in favor of the Constitution to defend the principles of press freedom that have been central to our democracy for more than two centuries. And use that freedom to hold Trump accountable, to insist on truth in the midst of tumult, to stand for real facts, not the “alternative facts” favored by Trump’s fantasies.
“On the campaign trail and during his previous administration, President-elect Donald Trump has frequently deployed violent language and threats against the media,” states the advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders. “His election to a second term in office marks a dangerous moment for American journalism and global press freedom.”
Trump’s strategy has never been secret, and he once explained his incessant attacks against so-called “fake news” to Lesley Stahl of CBS. “He said, ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you,'” Stahl reported.
But as Trump takes control of the federal government, his potential power goes far beyond mere commentary. He and his allies will control critical agencies, with the ability to pursue and persecute journalists; his nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has threatened to do just that. “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” he said on Steve Bannon’s radio show.
Marty Baron, former editor of The Washington Post, told NPR he expects the incoming administration “to go after the press in every conceivable way … (using) every tool in the toolbox — and there are a lot of tools.”
One of Trump’s favorite tools to harass his enemies is through lawsuits. He already has litigation pending against CBS and other media outlets, and he scored a big victory when ABC decided to settle a libel case he had brought against the network and its anchor George Stephanopoulos. (Disclaimer: I am a political analyst for ABC Radio.)
Many media lawyers and analysts worry that ABC’s capitulation will embolden Trump to bring more suits against the press, and they share the fears expressed by NBC’s Chuck Todd in The Washington Post: “This was stunning to me and absolutely a gut punch to anybody that works for a major media company, because I think it sets a precedent that is going to be very difficult to get out from under potentially.”
Trump doesn’t have to win those cases in order to accomplish his goal, writes Hadas Gold on CNN: “Even if a lawsuit is tossed by a judge or a media outlet ultimately prevails, the punishment is in the process. Lawsuits can drag on for months or years and can cost companies millions in legal fees.”
Another powerful weapon Trump will command is regulatory authority, and he’s vowed to bring independent agencies like the Federal Communications Commission under his control. Those agencies have many options — threatening to cancel broadcast licenses, for example, or blocking mergers — bringing potentially devastating battles for media companies that are already under great financial pressure.
Companies might eventually win those fights, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a communications lawyer, said to Axios. But what Trump can do “is make their lives miserable by hassling them.”
He can add to their misery by harassing investigative journalists with threats of retaliation if they don’t reveal their confidential sources. “Media lawyers now fear that Trump will ramp up the deployment of subpoenas, specious lawsuits, court orders, and search warrants to seize reporters’ notes, devices, and source materials,” writes David Remnick in The New Yorker. “They are gravely concerned that reporters and media institutions will be punished for leaking government secrets.”
This all adds up to a deliberate and destructive campaign of intimidation. “Trump’s most dangerous weapon against the media is his words,” writes Sarah Fischer in Axios, “which press freedom advocates have warned do have a significant chilling effect both at home and abroad.”
The media cannot be chilled by Trump’s threats and thrusts. Rather, they must warm to the coming struggle. A healthy democracy depends on their resolve.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.
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