On January 20, 2025, one of the supremely dangerous people in American history will re-occupy the White House, reclaiming all of the awesome powers of the presidency. Donald Trump and his extreme right-wing apparatchiks will issue a blizzard of executive orders, all designed to reverse decades of social, economic, environmental, and political progress – and to punish Americans who've had the temerity to challenge him and his cult.
That will be Day One of a saga all too likely to see the end of the brave, vital American experiment in government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The Trump/Vance regime will be backed by a rubber-stamping right-wing Senate (maybe also the House) and Supreme Court; corporate oligarchs including fossil fuel barons and tech monopolists; right-wing media operations that use lies and propaganda to keep the cult angry and compliant; generals and police chiefs eager to round up immigrants and dissidents, and to bust heads of anyone who objects; and cadres of armed-to-the-teeth civilian brownshirts just waiting for the boss to cut the leash.
By the time they're finished, democracy may exist in name only. We could soon be ruled by autocrats whose fascist beliefs become the ugliest realities.
I hope I am wrong about this. I would be ecstatic to be wrong. But if I'm right, or even close, we are veering into catastrophic times – into a violent, corrupt, extremist era that renders our nation unrecognizable, all too quickly, and throws the entire world into destructive chaos.
If we are facing such a nightmare, journalists will have a simple, if agonizing, choice: Acquiesce to the regime. Or join the resistance.
It makes me deeply sad to believe that most journalists will stick with what they have done for years now: business as usual. Or, I should say, malpractice as usual. The consistent failure of our top political journalists and their organizations has been deliberate failure. They have relentlessly normalized extremism, and in this election they outright refused to seriously confront the implications of vicious right-wing rule in America, much less lift a finger to prevent it.
The majority of journalists, I believe, will maintain the "neutrality" that has been so destructive to democracy. So as they sit in their above-it-all perches and watch the catastrophic whirlwind, they'll amplify the lies and hate from Trump and his allies, downplay the havoc that results from the regime's hard-line policies, and pretend that they are just doing their jobs as observers, assuming they're not the ones in the firing line. That choice – and pretense – will be understandable. It will be profoundly wrong, not least because democracy and the rule of law are preconditions for freedom of the press. It will also be profoundly dishonorable.
Don't expect any of our major media organizations to resist. There will be some brave individuals who try to keep a sense of honor even if their bosses won't. But let's be practical. The billionaire owners of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times bowed ahead of time to the extremists, figuring (accurately as it turned out) that the risk of Trump's wrath was bad for their main (i.e. not news) businesses.
We can't talk about major media organizations without special attention to the New York Times. It is America's most influential journalism company, and it has been the singular example of how a place teeming with talented journalists can make itself a weak-kneed supplicant to the wealth and power of the new order. No major journalism organization has shown more sympathy to extremism than the Times. No top news operation has done more to treat the most consequential election in our lifetimes as just another horse race featuring "both sides" coverage that mocks the vital role of honest journalism.
It's telling that the Times' editor and publisher, in recent interviews, have stressed how the Times has deployed a team to study how 21st Century autocrats in fallen democracies had brought the press to heel. Was the Times engaged in this learning process to figure out how to stop if from happening? There's not a shred of evidence for that. Rather, as will undoubtedly become clear, the so-called "Paper of Record" was figuring out how to get cozy enough with a new Trump regime to survive and (financially) thrive.
Oh, sure, the Times editorial page will still dislike Trump (though I expect shifts in tone to appease him). Meanwhile, the rancidly terrible Times political "news" operation will continue to ever-so-politely chronicle his regime as if it was simply chronicling the winning party's actions after a disagreement among fair, well-minded people. Worse, much of the "mainstream media" follows the lead of the Times. Unfortunately, the Times will be an adept – and historically ignominious – leader of Vichy journalism.
Some journalists, meanwhile, will choose honor. They will embrace the difficult and risky job of resisting.
They will need help. Lots of it.
They will need financial support, because corporate America will be even less interested in paying for journalism with integrity.
They will need legal support, because Trump and the new oligarchs are already adopting tactics from the playbook of dictators like Hungary's Victor Orban – abusing the legal system, capturing the courts, and so much more that has turned a once free press there into a collection of vassals.
They will need technical support, because Trump will use the power of the state – and he will count on the willing compliance of the tech industry – to spy on, harass, and prosecute journalists and their sources. Whistleblowers will need more protection than ever, and unless journalists have the means to help provide it, daring to reveal wrongdoing from the inside will go from risky to downright dangerous.
It seems improbable, at best, that traditional media organizations will suddenly decide to find the spines they've put in deep storage. I'll gratefully support the ones that do.
More likely, we're going to need to build journalism – real journalism – up again. We can start by supporting the many smaller organizations (and individuals) that have been working tirelessly to defend democracy, human rights, the environment, and so much more. They will be under relentless pressure to shut up. Help them speak.
We will also need to build media back from the grassroots. The demise of local newspapers has given oxygen to the right-wing propagandists. We have to rebuild, one community at a time.
I'll be doing what I can to help.
Note to readers: Given what has happened, I'm rethinking what this newsletter should be. For the immediate future, I'll return to the regular look and feel, though I'm not certain what to highlight. After that? I'm not sure. I'll need your help as I think about how to move forward in the best possible way. Stay tuned...and stay strong.
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