I Do Believe – And I May Still Be In A Minority On This – That Trump And The Rise Of An Authoritarian

I do believe – and I may still be in a minority on this – that Trump and the rise of an authoritarian government has changed the rules of engagement, and that journalists are going to need to figure out a more aggressive, albeit creative, response. I’m eager to work on new ways to fight back. But journalists aren’t going to save ourselves from the Trump onslaught. In launching this war, Trump and his right-wing allies know that the media can look embarrassingly defensive when we’re under attack. Indeed, they’re hoping to goad the media into the kind of responses they believe will whip up even more anger among their core supporters. If the 1st Amendment survives this threat, it will only be with support from everyday people. Journalists just aren’t going to march for our rights that way that women, immigrants, and even scientists have done or will do under Trump, but regular citizens can pick up the slack to remind the government – and their neighbors – that a free press is a fundamental American right and that regular people even support the 1st Amendment as enthusiastically as Elk County hunters back the 2nd. The president’s remarkable words of the last few days are essentially asking you, the American people, to choose a side. That doesn’t mean loving everything the media does; God knows I’ve used Attytood as a platform to criticize the New York Times, CNN and others – but only because I want a tough and fair-minded press to do better. That 1st Amendment ideal is tonight facing its gravest threat yet. The months ahead will determine whether an independent media will be the ones working, imperfectly, toward finding and sharing a real and objective truth, or whether the terms and conditions of reality will be set by an all-powerful Trump government.

Journalists can’t save a free press in Trump’s America. Only you can

(via  dendroica)

This is not hyperbole. Never in history has it been more clearer a time for collaboration and agreement on what kind of future we must commit to fight for.

(via sagansense)