Put on your body armor

You might be thinking, ‘Yeah, but this is happening on the national level. That doesn’t affect my small-town publication.’ Then, you’re deluding yourself. The national attacks embolden the same actions at the state, regional and community level.”

Robin Blinder, editor-in-chief, Editor & Publisher

If you’re tired of reading about press freedom and the attacks on our democracy, you’re not alone. I’m tired of reading about it, writing about it and — most of all — watching it happen in real life.

Since the reality of the second Trump administration hit us full in the face, we have seen attacks on ABC News, The Associated Press, Voice of America (VOA), NPR, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I don’t expect it to stop there.

We were fortunate to have Diane Sylvester represent E&P at the Media Impact Funders conference in June. At this conference, she heard Maria Ressa, founder and CEO of Rappler and Nobel Peace Prize-winner, speak about the value of a free press, losing a free press and the importance of protecting that free press. Her comments feature prominently in our cover story, “The fight for free press in the U.S. gains urgency.”

“You must take action to uphold a free press,” Maria Ressa said at the MIF conference. “Otherwise, the slide to authoritarian control will come faster than anyone thinks.” We are currently in media capture, which is the first stage of democratic erosion, according to Ressa, “Media capture is number one — attacks from the bottom through disinformation, and from the top with legal and regulatory pressure.”

If you don’t see the signs of that disinformation and legal and regulatory pressure, you have put your blinders on. Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press, hit the nail on the head when she said, “In 2017, Trump referred to the media as the enemy of the people. How quaint that era feels now.”

As Benavidez said in our cover story, defunding public media is another part of this authoritarian strategy. “Public media is one of the last free and essential ways people can access information. Defunding them is a fundamental attack on the public’s ability to access free and accurate information.”

You might be thinking, “Yeah, but this is happening on the national level. That doesn’t affect my small-town publication.” Then, you’re deluding yourself. The national attacks embolden the same actions at the state, regional and community level. It’s now that we must take a stand, talk about what a free press (or lack of) means for our democracy and not back down from our call to action.

If not now, when? When tanks roll down the streets of our capital? When ICE agents arrest your city officials? When our president attacks another sovereign nation without provocation? Oh, wait. That’s already happening.

So, I go back to my original question — if not now, when? I welcome productive and meaningful conversation on this and any of our articles. It’s you, our readers, who are on the front lines of this attack. Stay safe and aware. The slide to authoritarian control has begun.

Robin Blinder is E&P's editor-in-chief. She has been with E&P for over five years. She can be reached at robin@editorandpublisher.com.