Fighting for Freedom of the Press through Reliance on Investigative Journalism

In his January 11, 2017, press conference, the president-elect, Donald Trump, would not answer a question from a CNN reporter because he does not like the coverage he gets from that news organization. This is a violation of the First Amendment, and yet journalistic colleagues did not unite against this violation of the rights of Americans to hear answers to questions that represent diverse interests. The president-elect and his staff have previously denied press credentials to entire news outlets even before they could ask the tough questions that Trump assumed he might get. It’s not just Trump’s insistence on not being shown in a bad light that motivates his refusal to respect these journalists. Trump's primary desire is to punish those he sees as opponents. He's quite above board about his determination to "get even." This will continue to result in Trump’s pre-emptive strikes against the First Amendment unless we find a way to stop them… or to work around them. In reality, we must do both. If President of the United States Trump is allowed to violate our right to a free press, we must fight that all the way to the Supreme Court.

Investigative journalism is so fundamental to dealing with this next administration, and yet it is under fire, in part, because news consumers are not willing to put their money behind their claims to want such responsible journalism and more factual information. With an administration that refuses to answer questions or even to listen to those questions, journalists now have a much more challenging job: finding and nurturing confidential sources and getting access to reliable documents and other forms of information they then need to verify.

I've come to believe that we exacerbate the problem of a healthy free press by referencing sensationalized and unverified information on social media. We're stealing eyeballs away from reading responsible, factual journalism-- even our own eyes. Reuters, Associated Press, verbatim transcripts, and verbatim documents: We need facts on the “front page” and opinions based on facts in the editorials and opinion columns.

Journalists need to step up, as do we. It's not just supporting the ACLU’s prosecution of First Amendment violations or paying for a newspaper subscription so that journalists have the resources to nurture those confidential sources. It's what we choose to share on social media. The supply of responsible reporting will increase if the demand does.