Dear John,
A free press is the lifeblood of democracy. That’s why tyrants seek to destroy it.
Having vilified the press for years as “the enemy of the people,” Trump has now escalated his war against it by barring the Associated Press from the White House press pool. The reason is as absurd as the ban itself: It’s because the AP refused to go along with his bizarre decision to unilaterally rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The AP is not just another news outlet. It’s a not-for-profit cooperative of over 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters that share resources and reporting nationwide. For over 175 years, it has set journalistic standards, winning 59 Pulitzer Prizes. Like banning books or erasing history, barring the AP from the White House is an attempt to control what the public is allowed to know.
The free press exists to challenge power, question leaders, and ensure that truth prevails over propaganda. If journalists can be silenced for refusing to parrot the president’s words, who will hold him accountable? Who will expose corruption, fact-check his claims, or report the consequences of reckless policies?
If the press is gagged, so is the public’s right to knowledge – and with it, our ability to make informed decisions about our government. This is exactly why a totalitarian government seeks to limit or destroy it.
Send a direct message to President Trump: Reinstate the Associated Press now. Stop silencing journalists. Stop silencing democracy.
It is a fundamental principle of democracy that the president does not have the right to determine what journalists can and cannot say. To do so is to transform the press from an independent watchdog into a state-controlled propaganda machine.
Make no mistake: this is how authoritarianism takes root. Tyrants do not tolerate scrutiny, because scrutiny is the enemy of unchecked power. This is why the framers of the Constitution enshrined press freedom in the First Amendment, as the ultimate safeguard against despotism.
The press does not exist to serve those in power; it exists to challenge them. Yet Trump has spent years eroding trust in factual reporting, and suing vulnerable regional papers with limited resources for publishing the results of polls he did not like.
This is the playbook of every authoritarian regime. It must not become the norm in the United States. A democracy without a free press is no democracy at all.
Tell Trump to reinstate the AP now. Demand that journalists be allowed to do their jobs without fear of retaliation.
Thank you for defending the First Amendment – before it’s too late.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
