Just another day
In normal pre-Trump times, a president going after the press like this would be extraordinary. Lawsuits and banning news organizations from covering events and constant insults are not supposed to be the norm.
But what do we call these things in Trump’s world? Uh, Wednesday.
It has been this way every day since Trump took office.
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ Katherine Jacobsen has a new report out called, “Alarm bells: Trump’s first 100 days ramp up fear for the press, democracy.”
Jacobsen writes, “This report provides a snapshot of the Trump administration’s policies that directly affect press freedom. The fate of American democracy and journalists’ ability to work without fear are intertwined. The blitz of policy changes from the White House and its appointees set a concerning tone for local governments domestically, and authoritarian-minded rulers globally, and has deepend a climate of hostility toward journalists. CPJ is calling on the public, the media, civil society, and all branches, levels, and institutions of government – from municipalities to the U.S. Supreme Court – to safeguard press freedom to help secure the future of American democracy.”
The project is lengthy because of everything Trump has done.
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement, “This is a definitive moment for U.S. media and the public’s right to be informed. CPJ is providing journalists with resources at record rates so they can report safely and without fear or favor, but we need everyone to understand that protecting the First Amendment is not a choice, it’s a necessity. All our freedoms depend on it.”
Speaking his mind
It has been quite a few months for political journalist Ryan Lizza. He recently left Politico as chief Washington correspondent to start his own thing on Substack.
Before that, and this goes back a few years, he had planned to co-write a book with Olivia Nuzzi, a rising star journalist at New York magazine. Lizza and Nuzzi then got engaged, but things turned upside down last year. Nuzzi left New York magazine after it was learned she had an inappropriate online relationship with someone she had profiled — none other than then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Lizza and Nuzzi split, and Nuzzi requested (although later withdrew) a protective order against Lizza, alleging he had orchestrated a harassment and blackmail campaign against her — allegations that Lizza denied.
Lizza eventually stepped away from Politico, and now he has started his own Substack, writing in his initial post, “The main reason? Their style of political coverage is not meeting the unprecedented moment of democratic peril we are facing. I know that sounds dramatic, but the gap between what is actually happening in Washington and how it was being framed and reported became much too wide.”
In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review and reporter Arthur MacMillan, Lizza talks about his move from Politico and plenty more, including what he thinks about press coverage these days.
But, seeing as how this is a media newsletter, one quote from Lizza really jumped out. He was talking about when he took a leave from Politico.
“Just to clarify,” Lizza said, “going on leave was a mutual decision between me and Politico, and it was the right thing to do, given the circumstances. I learned a lot, including about the press. For example, I dealt pretty extensively with every media reporter in our business, and I learned one thing that might be useful to your readers: never trust (Puck’s) Dylan Byers. He was by far the dumbest reporter that I ever dealt with. As for the rest of that bizarre episode, I’m afraid that’s a story for another day. Suffice it to say that it is the craziest experience I have ever been through in my life, and the full story is a hundred times crazier than what people know.”
For the record, CJR reached out to Byers, but Byers declined to comment.
Much of this probably goes back to a week ago when Byers wrote about Lizza leaving Politico. Among what Byers wrote was, “Ryan’s feeble attempt to launch an independent journalism career with a Bari Weiss–style protest resignation was very du jour. He is not the first suddenly self-employed journalist to try to rustle up some subscription revenue by torching his or her former employer, or the mainstream media writ large. But it is most certainly not the main reason he left.”
Byers then goes into his version of what went down, including that Lizza moved over to Politico Magazine, where he could work for three months while looking for a new job. Byers wrote, “In the ideal scenario, Ryan would find a new job and leave with some dignity intact, while in the meantime producing a little more journalism that would be commensurate with his salary and allow him to move past the cloud of the Olivia drama. Alas, Ryan didn’t write anything for the magazine, and he didn’t find another job — or, at least, not one that he wanted. Instead, he decided to bite the hand that had fed him in the name of fearless journalism.”
So, yeah, some spicy stuff there.
Just a quick thought: I personally don’t know either Lizza or Byers, but I follow and respect both of them. I read Byers more regularly because he writes about the media. And, I have to say, I find Byers to be fearless and confident in his reporting, writing and analysis, and overall, pretty interesting. Certainly, Lizza wouldn’t agree with that assessment.
Meanwhile, Lizza also talks extensively — and in not great terms — about Politico, so be sure to check that.
He was asked about the best journalism he had seen over Trump’s first 100 days back in office. Lizza said, “The New York Times’ daily—hourly!—reporting about this White House. The Times is so much better than any other competitor right now that it’s a little scary. Ideally, you’d like to have multiple big outlets that are that robust. Other publications (and commentators) that have been essential are Wired, Lawfare, Techdirt, Status, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, The xxxxxx, Matt Labash’s Slack Tide, Executive Functions, Wake Up to Politics, Sam Harris, and Andrew Sullivan.”
Anyway, the whole CJR piece from MacMillan is worth your time.
Stranger things
