The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case not changing its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order. “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The Trump regime's absurd renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and barring of AP from its White House propaganda events, has led predictably to this lawsuit. First Amendment experts are saying it's as open-and-shut as a case like this can be, but they aren't reckoning with his growing control over the judiciary.
If AP prevails, that will be helpful. But even if it does, this case demonstrates our news media's prevailing culture these days – weakness in the face of existential attacks on freedom of the press.
The regime's loathing of traditional media organizations is profound, and growing more vicious every day. The media have responded with semi-strong words, for the most part, not with anything resembling serious action.
Even media people I respect and who say they are totally appalled by the situation – Margaret Sullivan, Jim Friedlich, and Brian Stelter in particular – have offered almost no real suggestions about what to do beyond, well, stronger words and (proposed by Friedlich) a "NATO for news" that sound great but don't come with serious particulars.
OK, you can reasonably ask, what's my suggestion? Well, for starters, I'll point to a blog post from seven years ago, when the first Trump administration was getting its vile anti-press act together and journalists were (nothing changes) offering stern words of protest. That piece, which I posted at Medium, advised our news media to do what is still all too rare in American journalism at the top levels: Get their act together, key word "together" via organization and collaboration. The post began:
When the most powerful person in the world declares war on journalism, you can respond in one of two ways. The first adds up to surrender. I’m sorry to say that some of you appear to have done so, by normalizing what is grossly abnormal and letting your enemies take advantage of the craft of journalism’s inherent weaknesses.
The other is to find allies, inside and outside the business, and go on the offensive — together.
How? I asked journalists:
to declare a sweeping mission. You need to fight, not against Trump,but for a free press and freedom of expression, in every possible way. Most of all, you have to do more journalism, with renewed passion, skill, relentlessness, and — this is essential — collective action.
That means breaking with customs, and some traditions — changing the journalism, and some of the ways you practice it, to cope with the onslaught of willful misinformation aimed at undermining public belief in basic reality. You can start by looking at the public’s information needs from the public’s point of view, not just your own.
The collaboration needs to be broad, and deep, across organizations and platforms.It can be immediate — such as an agreement among White House reporters to resist the marginalizing, or banning outright, of journalists who displease the president. If a legitimate reporter is banned from an event, or verbally dismissed in a briefing or press conference, other journalists should either boycott the event or, at the very least, ask and re-ask his or her question until it’s answered.In the briefing room, show some spine, and do it together.
Much more important — and something that should become a standard practice — is to collaborate on the fundamental journalism itself.
I had a number of specific suggestions on how Big Journalism might approach this. But I don't have to tell you that my pleas got no traction.
There are, by contrast a number of valuable collaborations going on in local and regional coverage. When it comes to facing up to the hardening fascism at the federal level, however our top news organizations, almost without exception, not only refuse to do the right thing themselves but demonstrate every day that they're not interested – beyond mere words – in even attempting to link arms and face reality together.
I will use every tool at my disposal to protect this country from Trump. I will litigate to defend voting rights until there are no cases left to bring. I will speak out against authoritarianism until my last breath. I will not back down. I will not bow or scrape. I will never obey.
The author of this open letter has been working feverishly to protect our elections from Trump, his apparatchiks, his cult, and his wholly owned Republican Party. That has put him in the firing line. His letter isn't just a reply to an evil billionaire who uses the platform he owns to attack – and by extension, encourage attacks on – brave challengers of America's emerging fascism. It is a call to all of us to "not back down" and "never obey" the fascists.
I'm a subscriber to Democracy Docket, and I hope you will join me. Contribute if you can. Elias and his colleagues are doing vital work.
There are no greater cowards than the Republican members of Congressional House of Representatives and the US Senate. Collectively they have betrayed the American people and forsaken all of the real heroes who gave their lives to protect our freedom. Knowingly, they relinquished their constitutionally mandated responsibilities and placed fealty to an individual above any sense of loyalty to their oath of office or personal integrity.
I don't entirely agree with this ferocious tirade, but I point to it because its central point is manifestly true. The Republican Party's federal elected officials have betrayed the nation. Whether they are mere cowards, or something much worse, will be for history to decide (if historians can learn what happened).
I disagree with the author above in one key respect. He seems to imply that we owe unquestioning support to the military. We don't; the Pentagon has been one of our most out-of-control governmental operations for decades, with staggering financial and human costs. Democrats and Republicans alike have gladly made this worse worse with every budget and countless policies.
But the Republicans' Trump-ordered contempt for some things they once pretended to stand for – such as the NATO-led common defense that helped create the European Union and keep that once blood-drenched continent free of war for decades, and the current betrayal of Ukraine's brave people – is vile. Their abject cowardice will make us all, in America and around the world, much less safe going forward.
How I put this together
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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DAVID BAUDER
Marc Elias
