Journalism

America’s founders believed that a free press was essential to democracy because it is the foundation of an informed, engaged citizenry. That conviction, enshrined in the First Amendment, has been embraced by nearly every American president. All these presidents had complaints about their coverage and at times took advantage of the freedom every American has to criticize journalists.

The family of the Covington Catholic High School teen from Kentucky who was involved in an encounter with a Native American advocate at the Lincoln Memorial in Jan filed a defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post on Feb 19, seeking $250 million in damages for its coverage of the incident.

President Donald Trump sought to discredit a news report that says he asked his then-acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker whether he could put a Trump ally in charge of an investigation into hush money paid to women during the 2016 campaign. “The New York Times reporting is false,” President Trump said in a tweet. “They are a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” President Trump was asked on Feb 19, after the Times story published online, about his reported inquiry to Whitaker. “No, I don’t know who gave you that, that’s more fake news,” President Trump told reporters.

A supporter of President Donald Trump attacked a BBC camera operator during a presidential rally in El Paso (TX), the broadcaster said. The president was talking about a decline in attacks on African, Hispanic, and Asian-Americans when the cameraman was pushed. A 36-second clip from Skeans’s camera before, during and after the shove was widely circulated on social media.

This report puts forward solutions for the sharp decline in trust in democratic institutions, including the media. The recommendations apply broadly to journalism, technology, and citizenship, and provide a compass for rebuilding trust in the 21^st century. Among the key recommendations:

At the midpoint of his term, there remains little question that President Donald Trump exerts an influence on American politics that is straining our core values and testing the stability of our constitutional system. No president in living memory has shown less respect for its tenets, norms, and principles. President Trump has assailed essential institutions and traditions including the separation of powers, a free press, an independent judiciary, the impartial delivery of justice, safeguards against corruption, and most disturbingly, the legitimacy of elections.

The digital publishing industry took a big hit in recent days, when more than 1,000 employees were laid off at BuzzFeed, AOL, Yahoo and HuffPost. The cuts at BuzzFeed were the most alarming. Wasn’t this the company that was supposed to have it all figured out?  But look past the gloom, and a complicated narrative emerges that does not lend itself to a one-size-fits-all interpretation of What Went Wrong or a handy forecast of journalism’s future.

President Donald Trump takes credit for popularizing the term “fake news.” But the consequences? Not his concern. In lengthy and at times contradictory remarks about the news media — which he deemed “important” and “beautiful,” but also “so bad” and “unfair” — President Trump called himself “a victim” of unfair coverage and declined to accept responsibility for a rise in threats against journalists since he took office. “I do notice that people are declaring more and more fake news, where they go, ‘Fake news!’” the President said. “I even see it in other countries.

House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) opened the State of the Net program with strong words about Google's perceived anti-competitive behavior, both as a gatekeeper and for its buying splurge in which it has gobbled up smaller firms. This "concentration of power" creates "pernicious impacts on a free and diverse press," Chairman Cicilline said, especially "in the absence of a competitive marketplace." He cited reports on Google's ability to manipulate traffic on its ad networks as well as with its readers and users.