The Trump administration has stepped up prosecutions of news sources, interfered in the business of media owners, harassed journalists crossing U.S. borders, and empowered foreign leaders to restrict their own media. But Trump’s most effective ploy has been to destroy the credibility of the press, dangerously undermining truth and consensus even as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to kill tens of thousands of Americans. A special report of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
This report was authored by Leonard Downie Jr., the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Downie is the former executive editor of The Washington Post and the author of seven books, including a forthcoming memoir, “All About the Story.” He wrote the 2013 CPJ special report, “The Obama Administration and the Press.”
Stephanie Sugars, a reporter for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, researched this report. She is a graduate of NYU’s Global and Joint Program Studies program in journalism and international relations, and has previously worked at the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Post-Conflict Research Center. Her freelance reporting has been published by Al-Jazeera, Open Democracy, Muftah, Civic Ideas, and Balkan Diskurs.