Latest / FROM THE INSIDE OUT by BETH ARNOLD / # 42 SPEND MONEY, SPEAK OUT, STAND UP: A Crisis in Journalism

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# 42 SPEND MONEY, SPEAK OUT, STAND UP: A Crisis in Journalism · FROM THE INSIDE OUT by BETH ARNOLD

• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pull up a chair.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Beth Arnold, and this is From the Inside Out, where American life, politics, and memory meet as we tiny specks in the cosmos try to make sense of it all.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's April 30th, and I'm reading Spend Money, Speak Out, Stand Up.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: A Crisis in Journalism.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: A third attempt on Trump's life.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or was it?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: These events always seem to happen when this president wants to distract we the American political hostages' attention from his dire straits.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not to take this lightly, but take your pick of why this might be.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: An actual strait, the Strait of Hormuz, with the rising cost of gas and everything else here and around the world, the Epstein Files, always the Epstein Files, his cratering ratings, his increasingly hollow bosa being a tough guy, yawn.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: We see you, General Bone Spurs.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: These events always seem to happen when he especially wants to rev up his people for something.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, is it that tacky ballroom?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even with the arrest of Cole Thomas Allen for allegedly planning to assassinate the president at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, the timing seems, as usual, to benefit Trump.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Killing people, definitely bad, but he didn't succeed.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Activist and author Rebecca Solnett commented on Facebook above a copy of Cole's manifesto.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: They, on the other hand, Alex Predy, Renee Good, people dying in ice gulags, all those Fisher people in the Caribbean, I think it's like 180 plus now, 160 plus schoolgirls in Iran, assassinations, about 40 dead in the incursion into Venezuela, hundreds of thousands of people starved or dying of lack of access to medicine, thanks to destruction of U.S.AID, eventually to become more than 10 million, etc.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't give this failed attempt to stop violence with violence too much of your attention, said Miss Solnet.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: A copy of the manifesto is a click on the written piece.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can see that for yourself.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ironically, the White House Correspondence Dinner, an annual gala, hosted by the White House Correspondence Association to celebrate the First Amendment, honor journalism with awards, and raise money for student scholarships, became the backdrop for this breaking news.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: The dinner traditionally gathers journalists, celebrities, and politicians to foster dialogue and provide comedic entertainment, often featuring self-deprecating humor from the U.S.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: President.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Even more ironically, this president just happened to decide to attend this year, even though he had avoided the event all through his first term and the first year of his second term.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: He just happened to decide to attend, even though he has no sense of humor and absolutely hates being laughed at.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: There is something off about this picture.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the press refused to attend the dinner.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Award-winning journalist James Fallows said, and to spell this out, no one with self-respect as a journalist should be attending this Trump slash Heg Seth spectacle tomorrow night.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I agreed with Fallows, but those who were there have given us an interesting look inside that bizarre and chaotic scene.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: After all, it was a ballroom filled with many, many fact-based professional journalists, not counting Fox and other such absence of facts, not news organizations, of course, the pseudo-news gatherers who have distorted the very definition of the word fact.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the significance of that, and look what it's done layer upon layer to our consciousness and our society.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Definition of fact.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Noun, a thing that is known or proved to be true.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: He ignores some historical and economic facts, a body of fact.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Facts, information used as evidence or as part of a report or news article.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even the most inventive journalism peters out without facts, and in this case there were no facts.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Mainly law, the truth about events as opposed to interpretation.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was a question of fact as to whether they had received the letter.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Executive editor of the Daily Beast, Hugh Doherty, was at the dinner and immediately began recording.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: In his video, you can hear him saying, This is a stunt, this is a stunt.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: In a weird turn of events, he says that Cole Thomas Allen stayed in the hotel room beside his.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Doherty also says Vance was removed before Trump.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But in the end, this is what Doherty believes.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: No stunt would be so sloppy, amateurish, and chaotic.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: No stunt would leave Trump and those around him looking weak, old, and some of them terrified.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: No stunt orchestrated by Trump insiders would end in backbatting and recrimination inside his inner circle.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: In my estimation, Doherty is giving Trump and his clown car of a cabinet way too much credit.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're absolutely incompetent in everything they do.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sloppy, amateurish, and chaotic is their signature move.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Trump made sure to fire the experts in order to hire incompetents who are loyal to him.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Most recently, the Trump administration has fired members of an independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: We know what he thinks of science.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: In another moment of well-timed synchronicity with the above event, this week the Associated Press is hosting Press Freedom Week.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Candid conversations about the future of press freedom, the responsibility that comes with reporting freely, and the daily work required to keep a free press strong.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is particularly important since what's happening in this country under Trump as president is an attack on our democracy.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And real journalism, the journalism of facts and truth, is number one on his hit list.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: The first web event in the series had a terrific panel and didn't disappoint.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Worth watching.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Moderated by Mike Balsamo and joined by Julie Pace, Executive Editor of the Associated Press, Terry Tang, Executive Editor of the LA Times, and Jody Ginsburg, CEO of Committee to Protect Journalists.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: By nearly any measure, press freedom around the world has been rapidly deteriorating in recent years.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: 2025 was the deadliest year on record for journalists and media workers, and at least 320 journalists are imprisoned worldwide, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom of the press is crucial to democracy, and the state of press freedom is under threat all around the world.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: The panel agreed that this is the very worst time ever to be a journalist.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Journalists are harassed online, they're threatened by powerful people and jailed.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Terry Tang said her journalists are bullied and intimidated on a regular basis, and even after they show their press credentials, they're still assaulted.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: The point of this week of webinars is for people to understand why independent journalism is necessary to serve the public and what's at stake when this fundamental freedom is challenged.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: As, for example, when Pete Heggseth essentially forced the traditional press corps out of the Pentagon by implementing a restrictive new access policy that nearly all major news organizations refused to sign.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: No respectable journalists would have agreed to this lack of transparency or accountability.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: They did the right thing, and we need to support them.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: If we were to completely lose our free press, it would be the death of answerability and the rise of state media, propaganda, not to mention a major erosion of our civil rights.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Losing a free press means no less than losing the power of truth.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Without it, consent of the governed is impossible because the governed no longer have the facts required to give that consent.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Reporting the facts makes authoritarians nervous, and Trump and his pals do everything possible to sabotage the truth by shouting fake news whenever they're confronted with an uncomfortable fact.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: In Neiman Reports, starting with the nation's early years, presidents have frequently attacked, restricted, manipulated, and demonized the press in order to strengthen their own power.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Adams administration used the Sedition Act to jail editors.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Lincoln allowed newspapers to be shut down, and Wilson and George W.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Bush used misleading propaganda to promote going to war.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Wilson and Obama White Houses sought to intimidate the press through the Espionage Act.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Nixon sent Agnew to give speeches describing the press as a treacherous enemy.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Trump amplified this dangerous hostility by his glorification of violence against journalists and his characterization of the press as un-American.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: When the shots rang out at the press dinner, most people were hitting the floor.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: But Jody Ginsburg reported that the CNBC camera guy behind her was still standing, still filming, so people could understand what was happening.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way of good reporters.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is how we can see for ourselves.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: But now journalists are targeted for being journalists.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even their families are threatened.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Journalists today need training on how to keep safe, how to prepare for violent rallies and protests.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: For the first time ever, journalists are being trained how to deal with going through U.S.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: customs and surviving in this country.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a dystopian film.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is the United States of America today.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening in the U.S.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: is exactly what we've seen in other deteriorating democracies worldwide, Ginsberg said.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: The difference is that it's happening here at warp speed.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: In the years since Trump took office the second time, our democracy has been taken apart incredibly fast, usually ignoring the rule of law.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lawyers and judges have had to try to reckon with the aftermath of Doge and the Trump administration's actions to roll over us.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And journalists have had to try to cover it all in real time, which is to say at warp speed.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine the resources needed.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Since Trump uses the courts for revenge and the DOJ as his personal spite squad, journalists need protection, as do the news organizations they serve, many of which are being sued.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine the resources they need to defend themselves.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is a huge financial challenge.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We can't afford to lose the information that independent journalism provides.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Back in 2017, when Trump accused the media of being, quote, the enemy of the American people, unquote, the Republicans still had John McCain, who embodied the integrity and honor of his office.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: McCain defended the media.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: He warned that suppressing the free press was how dictators get started.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't live to see how close Trump has come to suppressing the free press, or how his own Republican Party has failed both him and us.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: In 1983, roughly 50 companies controlled 90% of the U.S.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: media market.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Today, through decades of deregulation and mergers, that same 90% share is dominated by just five or six massive conglomerates.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who does this benefit?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Most recently, it's benefiting Larry and David Ellison, who are building a media empire to promote Trump's agenda, including with and for Israel.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: As in the case of Fox, propaganda is being delivered as factual journalism.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: When Press Freedom Week panelists were asked what feels very different now, they said the public has so many alternatives for information, but so much of it is wrong.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And algorithms push the same POV to people so it's reinforced again and again.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ginsberg brought up the fact that the Gaza war is the deadliest ever for journalists, with 260 journalists and media workers having been killed.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Israel has targeted and killed journalists with impunity and hasn't been held accountable.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: This country of ours takes no responsibility, and people who should speak up have been silent.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I blame Joe Biden for part of this.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Gaza was one of his biggest mistakes, but Trump even more.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Frankly, though, it's on each of us.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Ginsberg added that once people see they can kill journalists without consequences, they kill more and more.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: We must explain the value of journalism and we must stand up for our colleagues vocally and loudly.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: We must support journalists who are doing their work for all of us.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is yet another situation that we can't let become normalized.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping journalists safe is a serious proposition in the crack in the universe that we're currently stuck in.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have nothing but the utmost respect for news organizations like the AP, Reuters, and others.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: But like a lot of people, I've thought that much of the mainstream media has not met the moment of dealing with Trump.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's attacked them and used them, and in the case of CBS and ABC, they've succumbed to his threats.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Back to James Fallows, who writes about the press in his substack called Breaking the News.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: On Monday, he wrote, We've grown numb to what both sides means.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a reminder and a plan.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: He included a link to this piece in the New Republic.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read part of it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Of all the media exchanges that unfolded in the wake of a deranged gunman's attack on the White House Correspondence Center, the most telling by far was the one between CNN's Dana Bash and Representative Jamie Raskin on Sunday.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Bash suggested Democrats bore some blame for the shooting, asking Raskin if it should prompt Democrats to think twice about their heated rhetoric.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Raskin pushed back, insisting his criticisms are focused on Trump's policies.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: He also pointed out that Trump, unlike Democrats, describes working media professionals like Bash as the enemy of the people, which Bash agreed was out of bounds.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: The discussion moved on with Trump partisans and critics claiming the exchange as a win for their side, as always happens with these many dust-ups.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: But lurking underneath this little exchange is a more subtle set of revelations about the media's tolerance for Trump's incivility alert, fascism, and about the options that Democrats could exercise for shaming the press over that failing, ones that typically fail to utilize.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Raskin was, I think, trying to communicate indirectly to Bash herself that at the core of Trump's fascist project is in an effort to badly damage, if not wholly destroy, the institutional role that freedom of the press plays in our constitutional system.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Raskin was really saying, in effect, that Trump is committed to wrecking the project and values to which people like Bash have devoted their professional lives.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: The viability of a vigorous, independent press as a check on power within a liberal democratic order.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Raskin was suggesting that Democrats are its allies in this, and that Trump and his movement are its enemies, and that journalists should keep this in mind when assessing claims about each party's quote rhetoric, unquote.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the AP meeting, the panelists made clear what we all must do to support fact-based journalism.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, spend money to support journalists and organizations.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, speak out about how important a free press is.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, stand up.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Stand up.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: The time is now.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for pulling up a chair and listening.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: If this piece stayed with you, I hope you'll share it.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if these essays have been meaningful to you, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: From the inside out is an entirely reader supported publication, and your subscription helps sustain this work week after week.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, from one tiny speck in the cosmos to another.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Bye, guys.