Will The Press Survive? -- Digby

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/22/will-the-press-survive/

The Washington Post sounds an alarm about the erosion of press freedom. They outline all the cases that are pending and the collapse of the ABC case, all of which sounds pretty bad when you see it all together. They seem to be serious.

It is hardly unusual for a president to clash with the press. Richard M. Nixon kept journalists on his enemies list, while his vice president, Spiro Agnew, dubbed them “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Bill Clinton griped about coverage of his White House sex scandal, and Barack Obama’s administration brought a record number of prosecutions against journalists’ sources for leaking government information.

But legal experts say Trump has taken attacks on the press to an entirely new level, softening the ground for an erosion of robust press freedom.

“The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social in September in an attack on NBC News.

Experts in polarization said that Trump’s posture toward the press has eroded trust in the Fourth Estate. From the Oval Office, he can do even more.

“My concern is what he does when he has the power of the U.S. government in his hands,” said Liliana Hall Mason, a political science professor at the University of Maryland. “It looks to me like all the guardrails have been removed, and we are in for a presidency unlike any we’ve experienced before.””

...

Too bad the WaPo didn't do its job vis-a-vis its readers. Did a fine job for the plutocrats, etc., however.

[newdeal2]

1. Bozo doesn't care about his employees

Whether that's Amazon or the Washington Post.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. The cave by ABC did a lot of damage to the press by encouraging the use of SLAPP suits to silence critics. n/t

[displacedvermoter]

3. What the hell is an "Expert in polarization"?

Do you think that is a job description or something you put on a CV?

[erronis]

4. Maybe it's a specialty in J-school. Like a Specialist in Both-Siderism.

[displacedvermoter]

7. Yes, it could well be

[Ocelot II]

5. WaPo is a fine one to complain - Bezos folded like a cheap lawn chair

when the editorial board was about to endorse Harris.

[erronis]

6. I have to believe that bezoslebub was already on-board the trump train long before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub