During a wide-ranging conversation with News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey on Wednesday, Sept. 30, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) praised news organizations for defending press freedom collectively, pledged to prioritize federal protections for journalists’ confidential sources should he become chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and called for greater oversight of artificial intelligence (AI). The discussion was part of the Journalism Summit concluding the News/Media Alliance’s annual Fly-In and America’s Newspapers’ Senior Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.
The day before, news executives traveled to Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers, to lobby for the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act (H.R. 9915). It exemplified the power of unity, which didn’t escape Raskin’s notice.
“I’m delighted to be with you, Danielle, and with all these distinguished media and newspaper people from all over the country,” Congressman Raskin said. “Yeah, this last week, I think, offers a number of instructive lessons. One is that the press is clearly under attack, and it also shows us the right way to respond, which is with solidarity and unity across lines of different kinds of media and different politics. … That’s a recipe for victory. Unlike what happened with the law firms, you’ll recall, when President Trump issued an executive order revoking security access for all these law firms, banning them from federal contracts, banning them from federal employment, banning them even from entering federal buildings, which makes it pretty tough to practice law if you can’t go to federal courthouses. But a number of the big law firms caved immediately, like Paul, Weiss, and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars of their associates’ time in pro bono work for whatever the president appointed. And a number of other law firms went in that direction. Others hung tough, and the ones who stood up ended up winning in court,” he said.
If Democrats regain control of the House in November, Raskin could become chair of the Judiciary Committee. Should that happen, he pondered, one of his priorities will be to reignite bipartisan support for the PRESS Act, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed twice, in 2022 and again in 2024. But the legislation hit a wall in the U.S. Senate.
Coffey pointed to the complicated and precarious relationship between news media publishers and AI developers. While AI promises greater newsroom productivity, it also raises copyright, business and regulatory concerns.
“[AI] is a national security problem, it’s a human-species security problem, it’s an environmental problem, it’s a labor problem, it’s an intellectual property problem, a copyright issue, and we need to get on top of it,” Raskin said.
News media publishers have adopted three different strategies. Some have filed lawsuits against the big AI companies. Others have signed licensing agreements them, while keeping the terms of those deals under wraps. Many have taken a wait-and-see stance, anxious to see how those strategies play out.
In principle, Raskin backs AI regulation.
“I thought it was like watching Saturday Night Live to see the president surrounded by all of the AI executives saying, ‘Don’t worry your pretty little heads about this, because we’re going to self-regulate. We’ll take of it.’ I mean, come on. This is a democracy. All of those are corporations, like I assume there are corporations here,” said Raskin, addressing the crowd. “Corporations get a charter from their states, from the government, and they are regulated in interstate commerce in terms of what they do. When your local pizza shop wants to get a beer-and-wine license, there’s a regulatory process. It can’t be possible that there’s no regulation for this technology that is completely revolutionizing and transforming everything.”
The 2026 midterm elections promise to be profoundly consequential — as well as a contest of two visions for federal governance.
“We have two contrasting public philosophies presented to the public,” Raskin explained. “One says, as difficult as it is, the government has got to be an instrument for the common good of everybody. It’s got to serve everybody, and the other says, no, the government is an instrument for private self-enrichment of the guy who gets in, and his family and he allied businesses. Those are two radically opposed conceptions of what government should be doing.”
Raskin went on to outline several allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest involving the Trump administration, arguing they warranted congressional scrutiny and the press’ attention. There was the no-bid $14.7 million contract and botched job at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which led to peeling paint and greater algae accumulation than before. Raskin referred to it as “the Strait of Warm Ooze.”
He cited the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who reportedly raked in $2.5 billion from Middle East nations while moonlighting as a “roving peace ambassador.”
“Donald Trump Jr. set up his own private investment firm, which posted more than 100% return for his top investors in the first year in office, and he was investing exclusively or overwhelmingly in government contractors. And he seems to have a clairvoyant talent of knowing exactly who’s going to be getting a government contract and what kind of favorable regulatory treatment the government’s going to get,” he said.
“But, of course, it all goes back to Trump himself, who reported posting more than $2.1 billion in outside income in his first year in office. This is outside private income,” including from foreign governments — a clearcut violation of the Emoluments Clause, Raskin said.
“We have to restore some basic principles of integrity in government operations,” he added.
“There’s been massive corruption — and also massive attacks on First Amendment values, as I don’t need to tell the people in this room. But it’s not just the press — it’s free speech, as well. It’s Alex Pretti and Renée Good, shot down in broad daylight at point-blank range just for protesting,” he said.
Raskin referred to himself as “a Constitution guy,” who views the document as a guidepost transcending politics — worthy of vehement defense.
“The press is not the enemy of the people, as we keep hearing,” Raskin said. “The press is the people’s best friend, and that’s why it’s in the First Amendment, along with the right of assembly, the right of speech, free exercise of religion, no establishment of religion, the right to petition for redress of grievances. It’s right there.”
Gretchen A. Peck is E&P's editor-in-chief. She welcomes emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.
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