The U.S. loses 2.5 newspapers every week, and that attrition is actually accelerating, even in an industry that has already lost two-thirds of its journalism jobs since 2005.
But as the free fall enters its third decade, the devastating economic decline — triggered by cratering ad revenue — is not the only problem that imperils the news business.
In two weeks, the nation will inaugurate Donald Trump, who calls journalists the “enemy of the people,” tells his rallygoers that he wouldn’t mind if someone shot at reporters, pledges to jail reporters who don’t reveal sources on certain stories – even joking about how prison rape would give reporters more reason to cooperate – and fantasizes about “opening up” libel laws so that he could sue his press critics.
Trump’s candidate for FBI Director, Kash Patel, has threatened to “come after people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” and that he’ll figure out “whether it’s criminally or civilly.”
Some of the mightiest legacy outlets have already surrendered, with the Washington Post and L.A. Times flushing their pre-election endorsements of Kamala Harris, and ABC News paying $15 million to settle a defamation suit filed by Trump for saying that he was found civilly liable for “raping” E. Jean Carroll — a case legal experts believed that parent company Disney could have effectively defended.
And now media independence is facing perhaps its greatest threat: a right-wing effort to torpedo press protections and libel laws, which would effectively slap a chokehold on every journalist in the country and have shattering effects on democracy itself.
The ability to control what is published about public figures would give those officials unprecedented power over democracy, because a free press is vital to keep citizens informed about what those officials are doing. If that is lost, those in power will govern without accountability.
Since 1964, the press has been protected by the landmark ruling New York Times v. Sullivan. The beauty of that decision is that it protects journalists who make innocent mistakes. To sue successfully, a politician must show that a journalist was not just wrong but acted with “actual malice” or “reckless disregard” for the truth. The decision from the Warren Court was unanimous.
Imagine if that protection were stripped away. Media outlets, particularly those teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, would have to pull punches to be safe. For corrupt politicians, it would be a field day.
Times v. Sullivan has been a pillar of our democracy for 60 years. And that frustrates Donald Trump, the victim king of politics, who has called the libel laws that protect the media “a sham and a disgrace.”
So he and Patel have signaled their desire to have a more compliant news media and are prepared to litigate it until the last ding-dong of his presidency. They have judicial encouragement: As early as 2019, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that Times v. Sullivan was a “policy-driven decision masquerading as constitutional law.” Justice Neil Gorsuch also has urged the court to reconsider it.
Clearly, these justices don’t care about the potential consequences, or they envision a different role for the press than the rest of us. They cannot see the stabilizing impact Times v. Sullivan has had on American democracy, and why it is valued by everyone who believes in the media’s role in monitoring the conduct of public officials and holding them accountable.
As Micah Rasmussen of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics put it, “In 2025, Trenton and Washington will both be under the full control of one party. A single party will control every institution of our federal government, while the other single party controls every institution of our state government. Never is it more important that the elected officials of those parties know someone is looking over their shoulders.”
Yet at a time when so many newspapers are vanishing – as will the Star-Ledger, four weeks hence – neutering the watchdog of democracy would be celebrated only by the countless grifters, charlatans, cranks, and apparatchiks who have journeyed from Trump’s orbit to a jail cell or disbarment during his historically swampy first term. They may be joined by the shadier Democrats in Trenton.
But the country should be alert to the president-elect’s plans to go full Gestapo. He is even suing the Des Moines Register pollster (on grounds of “consumer fraud” for her inaccuracy), and there will be many more frivolous and expensive lawsuits to come.
And if some institutions lack the financial resources to defend themselves and roll over to his legal and political pressures, Trump will declare victory, as it affirms his autocratic belief that government has a right to silence media criticism. Anyone who values the First Amendment should recognize this as a break-glass moment.
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