It’s no secret that the current US administration does not have a good opinion of journalists. President Donald Trump recently called a reporter who asked him about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal a “pig.”
Media “Hall of Shame”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said recently that much of her job involves dealing with what she called inaccurate characterizations published by White House correspondents. “The fake news that we see coming out of this building every day … it’s really overwhelming to watch,” he said.
In response, the White House created the new “Media Offenders” website, which includes “Offender of the Week” sections. A “Hall of Shame,” already four pages long (at the time of publication), includes notes from various publications that the White House has classified into various categories: “bias,” “lie,” “false claim,” “misconduct,” “omission of context,” “mischaracterization,” “circular reporting,” “lack of information,” and “left-wing lunacy.”
Risk for journalists
“If the language used on the website … looks and smells like a smear campaign, it probably is,” Katherine Jacobsen, program coordinator for the US, Canada and the Caribbean at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told DW. “And I can’t emphasize enough how concerning this is.” A website like this, created by the US government, “creates a tolerant structure not only for possible verbal attacks against the press, but also for physical attacks,” he adds.
In addition to the media outlets criticized, the website lists the names of journalists who wrote or produced the allegedly offensive report. “These journalists are trying to reveal truthful information and create a more transparent environment,” says Jacobsen. “We know that this type of rhetoric pollutes the atmosphere, which in turn makes the work of journalists less safe.”
This “can have a chilling effect on free expression and independent media,” agrees Jonathan Katz, a governance studies researcher at the Brookings Institution think tank. “We are closely monitoring how this affects press freedom in the United States,” he told DW.
Freedom of the press, the foundation of democracy in the USA
Anything less than a completely free press contradicts the American fabric. The First Amendment states, among other things: “Congress shall make no law (…) abridging the freedom of speech or of the press (…).”
In 1776, legislators in colonial Virginia passed a bill emphasizing the importance of a free press: “Freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can only be restrained by despotic governments.”
“No journalist will ever say that relations with the government are good,” the late Ben Bradlee, editor-in-chief of VOA, told VOA. Washington Post between 1968 and 1991. “If he did, he would probably lie and the government would treat him too well. They don’t have to treat us so well. They just have to stay out of it.”
“Trump was the most hostile president toward the press”
“Every president has had problems with the media and media coverage at some point. But we’ve never seen a president attack the media like Trump did,” Tom Jones, senior editor at the Poynter Institute, which offers training in journalistic ethics, told DW. “Donald Trump was by far the most hostile president toward the press.”
And the Media Offenders website, as well as the Pentagon’s reporting restrictions and Trump’s lawsuits against several media outlets that published negative stories about him, are a sign of how unprecedented the current US administration’s hostility to the press is.
Americans were divided over their criticism of the press
White House press secretary Leavitt says the problem is the journalists, not the president. In her opinion, “the standard of journalism in this country has fallen to an all-time low.”
Before the November 5, 2024 election, 60 percent of Republican-leaning voters said the media was reporting poorly on the election campaign, according to a Pew Research Center survey. However, among Democratic-leaning voters, 77 percent said the media did good coverage of the election.
Jones, of the Poynter Institute, says political journalists in the U.S. do the crucial work of keeping the American public informed, even when some of the public and the government don’t like what they produce: “And while it’s not always perfect, their reporting is based on comprehensive information and facts.”
Earlier this year, Katz co-published the book “Democracy Playbook 2025,” which describes seven pillars that underpin American democracy: “One of those pillars that is absolutely essential to democracy and its protection is a free and independent media,” he says. “They are necessary for transparency and accountability. And right now that pillar is being undermined.”
(rml/ms)
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