Dear John,
America used to be a safe haven for journalists, and we used to value free expression over nearly all else. In 2013, we were ranked #30 on the World Press Freedom Index. Today, we’ve fallen to #55 on the index. It’s shameful to see, to say the least.
In the first four weeks of the Trump administration, they’ve gone after nearly every aspect of our free press. In case you haven’t kept up with all their assaults, let me tell you about a few.
- Trump banned the Associated Press from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One because they refused to change their style guide from “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America”.
- Trump’s new FCC chief is opening an investigation into NPR and PBS.
- Bezos is now restricting what topics the Washington Post correspondents can write about in the opinion section of the paper, and was clear that dissenting opinions would not be allowed.
- Reshuffled Pentagon press outlets, replacing bipartisan news outlets with majority conservative news outlets.
- Ended federal news subscriptions for all employees.
- Trump’s new FCC chair is also investigating Comcast and NBC over their DEI practices.
- Trump and Musk continue attacking journalists on their personal social media accounts.
- Trump signed an executive order that gives him more power over regulatory agencies like the FCC.
The free press is one of the cornerstone ideas that our democracy was founded on. I know we need to fight like hell to preserve these institutions and let the MAGA Republicans know that we won’t back down without a fight. Can you rush a donation so our organization can keep fighting Trump’s extremist policies?
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