Media and news coverage seem to have changed in the United States in recent years. Different news sources have become increasingly politically polarized, and the change is inflicted both from top-down as well as bottom-up, as people can more easily critique different news sources via social media. Through the rise of Alt-Right media and other not-so-reputable news sources it can be hard to discern the tradition an objective and free press that has heretofore prevailed in the United States.
But the tradition is there, and its roots can be traced to the founding of the United States. The freedom of the press is embedded in the Constitution’s First Amendment, making it the only institution having freedom of speech. The idea was that media would serve as a watchdog for the people towards the government, and as a marketplace of ideas, where there would be an abundance of news sources, giving people a fair, unbiased spectrum of news and help them to formulate their own opinion. The Watergate scandal leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon during the early 1970s is perhaps the most known example of watchdog media, and the tradition continues to this day, as President Trump’s speeches are feverishly fact-checked.[1]
In the recently published 2018 World Press Freedom Index,Unites States ranks as the 45th out of 180 countries, its position once again falling from the previous year. For a country that highlights freedom of the press in its constitution the position seems quite peculiar, if one is not aware of the contemporary political context. President Trump’s blatant dismissal of large media platforms as well as declaring them as “the enemy of the American people” creates a hostile environment for freedom of speech.[2] The clear attempts to sway the public to focus on news from a certain more favorable angle for the president undermines the notion of a marketplace of ideas. As well as the hostile environment created for journalists and others working in the field of media, the United States’ stance is hurt by the absence of a shield law for the journalists. Even though many of the 50 states have imposed shield laws to protect journalists and their right not to disclose their sources of information, there is no shield law at the federal level in the U.S.[3]This has led, both during the Obama administration and the current one, to increasing prosecution of whistleblowers.
To conclude, the media environment in the United States has become increasingly tense in the past couple of years, and the situation is amplified as the current president continues to undermine various media platforms and news sources. But the press is not willing to give up their long standing tradition in the American society. Reporters and news outlets refuse to be silenced even though they are continuously being pushed down and shut out by the current president,[4]and they have the undeniable backing of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
References and external links:
Reporters Without Borders, World Press Freedom Index, 2018. https://rsf.org/en/united-states. Link accessed 25.4.2018.
American Civil Liberties Union, Free Speech. https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech. Link accessed 25.4.2018.
[1]See for instance: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/us/trump-cpac-speech-factcheck.htmlLink accessed 25.4.2018
[2]See for instance: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/832708293516632065Link accessed 25.4.2018
[3]To read more on the protection journalists do and do not enjoy: https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/journalists_privilege_shield_law_primer.php. Link accessed 26.4.2018
[4]See for instance: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/24/media-blocked-white-house-briefing-sean-spicerand http://variety.com/2018/politics/news/trump-press-bullies-journalists-1202783394/. Links accessed 26.4.2018