With President Trump’s condemnation of journalists as the “enemy of the people,” we all know that journalism is under siege like never before. But frighteningly, it will likely get worse in 2020, as Democrats jump on a condemn-the-press bandwagon of their own.
For all Republicans’ “fake news” rants, Democrats are increasingly excoriating reporters for being insufficiently tough on Republicans — or for being too tough on Democrats. Most recently, coverage of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg prompted a Twitter backlash among some Democrats, who argued reporters were being too hard on the candidate by pointing out he was less than forthcoming about his work at McKinsey. You can get a taste of the outrage from the left day after day, on social media, when dissatisfied New York Times readers sling the hashtag #CancelNYT — along with their critiques of stories or headlines that reflect their expectation that the Times should better align with their own perspectives.
Already, we’ve seen a willingness among Democratic candidates to attack the press more harshly than in the past. Senator Bernie Sanders, for one, sounded much like he was mimicking Trump when he suggested The Washington Post was hard on him because he is no friend of Amazon and its owner (and the Post’s owner) Jeff Bezos.
The expectation that the press should take sides may well grow as we enter a super-charged presidential election year. And journalists are likely to continue to come under fire.
Rick Berke is co-founder and executive editor of STAT.
With President Trump’s condemnation of journalists as the “enemy of the people,” we all know that journalism is under siege like never before. But frighteningly, it will likely get worse in 2020, as Democrats jump on a condemn-the-press bandwagon of their own.
For all Republicans’ “fake news” rants, Democrats are increasingly excoriating reporters for being insufficiently tough on Republicans — or for being too tough on Democrats. Most recently, coverage of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg prompted a Twitter backlash among some Democrats, who argued reporters were being too hard on the candidate by pointing out he was less than forthcoming about his work at McKinsey. You can get a taste of the outrage from the left day after day, on social media, when dissatisfied New York Times readers sling the hashtag #CancelNYT — along with their critiques of stories or headlines that reflect their expectation that the Times should better align with their own perspectives.
Already, we’ve seen a willingness among Democratic candidates to attack the press more harshly than in the past. Senator Bernie Sanders, for one, sounded much like he was mimicking Trump when he suggested The Washington Post was hard on him because he is no friend of Amazon and its owner (and the Post’s owner) Jeff Bezos.
The expectation that the press should take sides may well grow as we enter a super-charged presidential election year. And journalists are likely to continue to come under fire.
Rick Berke is co-founder and executive editor of STAT.
John Keefe Journalism gets hacked
Logan Jaffe You don’t need fancy tools to listen
Rick Berke Incoming fire from both left and right
Meg Marco Everything happens somewhere
Raney Aronson-Rath News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions
Sarah Marshall The year to learn about news moments
Joshua P. Darr All that campaign cash will make the media’s problems worse
Jim Brady We’ll complain about other people living in bubbles while ignoring our own
Sarah Alvarez I’m ready for post-news
Richard Tofel A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges
Don Day Respect the non-paying audience
Rachel Davis Mersey The business of local TV news will enter its downward slide
Errin Haines Race and gender aren’t a 2020 story — they’re the story
John Garrett It’s the best time in a century to start a local news organization
Nico Gendron Make better products if you want to reach Gen Z
Imaeyen Ibanga Let’s take it slow
Talia Stroud The work of reconnecting starts November 4
Colleen Shalby Journalists become media literacy teachers
M. Scott Havens First-party data becomes media’s most important currency
Jake Shapiro Podcasting gets listener relationship management
Josh Schwartz Publishers move beyond the metered paywall
S. Mitra Kalita The race to 2021
Nathalie Malinarich Betting on loyalty
Felix Salmon Spotify launches a news channel
Greg Emerson News apps fall further behind
Christa Scharfenberg It’s time to make journalism a field that supports and respects women
Nicholas Jackson What’s left of local gets comfortable with reader support
Dan Shanoff Sports media enters the Bronny era
Cristina Kim Public media stops trying to serve “everybody”
Ståle Grut OSINT journalism goes mainstream
Matt DeRienzo Local broadcasters begin to fill the gaps left by newspapers
Sarah Schmalbach Journalist, quantify thyself
Sue Robinson Campaign coverage as test bed for engagement experiments
Rachel Schallom The value of push alerts goes beyond open rates
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The business we want, not the business we had
Brenda P. Salinas Treating MP3 files like text
Gordon Crovitz Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms
Alexandra Borchardt Get out of the office and talk to people
Alice Antheaume Trade “politics” for “power”
Jennifer Brandel A love letter from the year 2073
Peter Bale Lies get further normalized
AX Mina The Forum we wanted, the forum we got
Matthew Pressman News consumers divide into haves and have-nots
Kristen Muller The year we operationalize community engagement
Beena Raghavendran The year of the local engagement reporter
Bill Adair A Nobel Prize, a Brad Pitt film, and a Taylor Swift song
Irving Washington Leadership isn’t something you learn on the job
Catalina Albeanu Rebuilding journalism, together
Kevin D. Grant The free press stands against authoritarians’ attacks on truth
Tom Glaisyer Journalism can emerge newly vibrant and powerful
Sonali Prasad Climate change storytelling gets multidimensional
Monique Judge The year to organize, unionize, and fight
Kourtney Bitterly Transparency isn’t just a desire, it’s an expectation
Brian Moritz The end of “stick to sports”
Pablo Boczkowski The day after November 4
Sarah Stonbely More people start caring about news inequality
Jakob Moll A slow-moving tech backlash among young people
J. Siguru Wahutu Western journalists, learn from your African peers
Jasmine McNealy A call for context
Logan Molyneux and Shannon McGregor Think twice before turning to Twitter
Eric Nuzum Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show
Margarita Noriega The platforms try to figure out what to do with single-subject newsrooms
Barbara Gray Join local libraries on the frontlines of civic engagement
Joe Amditis Collaborative journalism takes its rightful place at the table
Juleyka Lantigua A changing industry amps up podcasters’ ambitions
Mario García Think small (screen)
Lucas Graves A smarter conversation about how (and why) fact-checking matters
Knight Foundation Five generations of journalists, learning from each other
Annie Rudd The expanded ambiguity of the news photograph
Linda Solomon Wood Everyone in your organization, moving toward a common goal
Geneva Overholser Death to bothsidesism
Jonas Kaiser Russian bots are just today’s slacktivists
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, collaboration in a time of state attacks
Alana Levinson Brand-backed media gets another look
Anthony Nadler Clash of Clans: Election Edition
Jeremy Gilbert and Jarrod Dicker A call for collaboration between storytelling and tech
Lauren Duca The rise of the journalistic influencer
A.J. Bauer A fork in the road for conservative media
Carl Bialik Journalists will try running the whole shop
Mike Caulfield Native verification tools for the blue checkmark crowd
Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz News coverage gets geo-fragmented
Tanya Cordrey Saying no to more good ideas
Steve Henn The dawning audio web
Monica Drake A renewed focus on misinformation
Jeff Kofman Speed through technology
Carrie Brown-Smith Engaged journalism: It’s finally happening
Stefanie Murray Charitable giving goes collaborative
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists get left behind in the industry’s decline
Julia B. Chan We 👏 take 👏 breaks 👏
Francesco Zaffarano TikTok without generational prejudice
Kerri Hoffman Opening closed systems
Mira Lowe The year of student-powered journalism
Cindy Royal Prepare media students for skills, not job titles
Joni Deutsch Podcasting unsilences the silent
Zizi Papacharissi A president leads, the press follows, reality fades
Seth C. Lewis 20 questions for 2020
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Power to the people (on your audience team)
Tamar Charney From broadcast to bespoke
Craig Newmark Formalizing newsrooms’ battle against disinformation
Ben Werdmuller Use the tools of journalism to save it
Tonya Mosley The neutrality vs. objectivity game ends
Masuma Ahuja Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful
Hossein Derakhshan AI can’t conjure up an Errol Morris
Elizabeth Hansen and Jesse Holcomb Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Meredith Artley Stronger solidarity among news organizations
Sara K. Baranowski A big year for little newspapers
Cory Haik We’re already consuming the future of news — now we have to produce it
Joanne McNeil A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
Michael W. Wagner Increasingly fractured, but little bit deliberative
Simon Galperin Journalism becomes more democratic
Elizabeth Dunbar Frank talk, and then action
Bill Grueskin Our ethics codes get an overhaul
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young The promise of nonprofit journalism
Heidi Tworek The year of positive pushback
Dannagal G. Young Let’s disrupt the logic that’s driving Americans apart
Victor Pickard We reclaim a public good
Laura E. Davis Know the context your journalism is operating within
Doris Truong The year of radical salary transparency
Kathleen Searles Pay more attention to attention
Helen Havlak Platforms shine a light on original reporting
Jeremy Olshan All journalism should be service journalism
Heather Bryant Some kinds of journalism aren’t worth saving
Nushin Rashidian Are platforms a bridge or a lifeline?
Candis Callison Taking a cue from Indigenous journalists on climate change
Ernie Smith The death of the industry fad
Fiona Spruill The climate crisis gets the coverage it deserves
Mariana Moura Santos The future of journalism is collaborative