From triage to strategy: A new era for press freedom

There's opportunity in collapse. Let's seize it together.

Programming note: On Wednesday, May 7, at 7 pm EST, I’ll be going live with Voice of America correspondent

Steve Herman

to discuss the impacts of the Trump administration dismantling U.S. broadcasters. To ask questions and share reflections live, download the app.

Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash

The National Press Club is hallowed ground for American journalism — a beachhead for the First Amendment in the heart of the nation’s capital. For more than a century, it’s been a safe harbor for reporters, a stage for presidents and world leaders, and a living symbol of democracy’s promise: that a free press is essential to a free society.

That’s why it was so chilling to be there last week — not to defend press freedom abroad, but to confront how rapidly it is unraveling here at home.

I was on a panel titled “Press Freedom at Home: Confronting U.S. Challenges.” The name wasn’t rhetorical. It was a reckoning.

Reporters are being harassed in the streets and online. NPR and PBS face politically motivated defu…