How will the media cover autocracy if Trump wins in 2024?

This summer, USA Today published an article titled "Is America on the brink of tyranny?" that said Donald Trump's plans, if elected in 2024, "should scare us all." Among other things, Trump proposes ending the Constitution, sending the military to implement his agenda, imposing the death penalty on drug sellers and shooting shoplifters. He even suggested executing former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley. Not only does Trump consider journalists the enemy of the people, but he also wants to restrict and punish them and "make them pay" for critical coverage.

On January 5, 2021, 24 hours before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, I warned Poynter's audience of a "coup without''consequences' if journalists don't hold accountable those who seek to overturn the results of presidential elections. On January 4, 2023, I wrote about "how the media should remember January 6," referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941, in which he reminded Congress to protect democracy from the growing threat of fascism. The Republic was under attack by divisive and poisonous propaganda, Roosevelt said. "We must be especially wary of a small group of egoists who would like to clip the wings of the American eagle in order to get rich themselves." Two days later, President Joe Biden referred to the same speech. "Eighty-two years ago, on this very day in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt gave his famous '\''Four' speech'freedoms'\' by defining America's place in the world." Biden noted that "our democracy is not guaranteed anything. And we are not guaranteed that the Fourth Estate will respond to the threat. We review it here with recommendations from news outlets, journalists and judges.

The principles of impartiality and balance do not apply when reporting on autocracy. Journalists cannot hold a tyrant accountable if they present his point of view as one side of a partisan story. The January-February issue of The Atlantic censured the media's coverage of Trump. News organizations relied 'on his disgusting words and scandalous actions for their financial well-being, extracting news drips from his every tweet, even if the public had nothing to learn.' Bottom line''we have set the stage for autocracy itself. I wrote about this for Poynter earlier this year, noting that "Trump's power and media flexibility have shaped new genres of news journalism, tilting the news in his favor and forcing journalists to turn away." Despite 91 indictments in state and federal courts, the former twice-impeached president leads by a huge margin over his opponents within the Republican Party and is in first place or a comfortable lead should he face Biden again in 2024. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (Republican from Wyoming) warns that America is "sleepwalking into a dictatorship" if Trump wins in 2024. A sleepy media could slip into a coma, embellishing it with rants wo''time for court hearings and trials.

Columbia Journalism Review was one of the first to raise the issue in a 2018 article titled "It's time to rethink the approach to covering Trump." The Fourth Estate demands a "new, results-oriented urgency" to explain the consequences of Trump's actions, rather than publishing "a cycle of familiar topos and outrages." As Margaret Sullivan observed in The Washington Post, "the instincts and rules of traditional journalism" may not apply in covering autocracy. She offers "careful judgment and context" in explaining investigative reporting to the public. The Los Angeles Times laments that "the press is no longer the gatekeeper of what people know; it is more often a commentator on what they have already heard elsewhere." Politicians are better''understand the dynamics of interviews than the journalists who cover them. There is no agreed protocol for covering an autocrat. The nonpartisan "Authoritarian Playbook" from Protect Democracy can be a good source. Among other things, it presents case studies from Argentina, Russia, Hungary, the Philippines, India, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, recommending tactics that cause government restrictions.

The dilemma lies in a political sectarian society that hates the other party more than it loves its own, regards opponents as "the other," and justifies actions against them as morally justified. Even if journalists answer these questions, who can believe them? Gayne Policinski, a senior fellow for First Amendment freedom at Freedom Forum, said that "the autocratic test will be multifaceted - in the courts, state houses, Congress and the global public." Dedication to these areas requires more thorough coverage. "Online Messaging. 'will have to abandon clickbait and get back to actual reporting,' Policinski said." First Amendment advocates should be vigilant in reminding the public what's at stake when politicians "undermine labor-intensive victories of press freedom and legislation." The good news is that past Freedom Forum surveys show that about 90 percent of the public supports a free press. But the 2023 Where America Is poll found that 60% of respondents want the media to fulfill its traditional role as a watchdog over government, while just 36% said today's press protects our freedom. "In my opinion, this is a far greater immediate threat to a free press than any government can imagine," the'journalism and conscientious officials should help re-educate citizens "on why legitimate, fact-based, truth-seeking journalism matters. "

Investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Miles Moffate notes that some news outlets are ready for such coverage. "Reveal, ProPublica and other nonprofit news organizations have created special columns on democracy and civil rights to cover the autocratic fallout from Trump's rise to power." Moffate believes the U.S. Constitution will trump any damage Trump has done. "The question is whether there will come a point at which journalists' organizations can prevent serious harm to society," he said.

Rosemary''autocratic half-decade.

But can they live up to their commitments? Tom Hodson, the emeritus director of media and journalism at Ohio State University and a former judicial scholar on the U.S. Supreme Court, says he usually hopes the courts survive an autocrat. But we don't live in normal times. Hodson believes most federal and state judges will follow legal precedents even with Trump's used Justice Department. However, he fears that "Trump will use the military to enforce his will and punish those who promote First Amendment free speech or express opposing views." Far-right lawyers can come up with violations of the law punishing''president of the United States, called for taking responsibility in his second inaugural address. Here is an excerpt: "I take this oath now and in your presence, that if it shall be discovered during my administration of the Government that I have willfully or knowingly violated the edicts, I may (in addition to the imposition of constitutional punishment) be subject to the reproach of all who are present solemnizing the ceremony." America and the news media need civic education lessons about sedition and autocracy. Provide it or history will repeat itself.