Dear Friend of Press Freedom:
The fight for the free press is being waged on multiple fronts. This week: media mergers meant to please Trump, search warrants targeting journalists, government gag orders, and Catherine Herridge’s battle to protect confidential sources. Read on for more.
Journalists stand up for their independence
This week Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) led an open letter from current and former journalists and journalism professors sounding the alarm on the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Paramount CEO David Ellison has shown that he’s eager to throw the press under the bus to curry favor with the Trump administration.
We also held a press conference during which journalists and documentarians Kara Swisher, Jim Acosta, Katie Phang, Laura Poitras — who is also an FPF board member — and Geeta Gandbhir spoke out against the threat of corporate collusion with the government to censor the news. They don’t want a CBS repeat if Ellison takes over Warner holdings like CNN and HBO.
Neither does Sharyn Alfonsi, one of five journalists fired from “60 Minutes” yesterday, and one of nearly 250 signatories of our letter.
Failed Don Lemon and Georgia Fort warrants expose attack on press
A federal judge twice rejected search warrant applications for the YouTube accounts of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, according to court records unsealed this week. Federal prosecutors sought the warrants in connection with the spurious criminal cases they’re pursuing against Lemon and Fort for covering a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
FPF Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus — who also wrote about the warrants in The Guardian — said in a statement: “These failed search warrants are what happens when incompetent prosecutors pursue political vendettas instead of justice.”
Trump wants to silence whistleblowers with NDAs
The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is planning a broad, government-wide nondisclosure agreement to combat leaks to the press.
FPF Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper said in a statement that the proposal “would kneecap whistleblower protections, undermine the First Amendment, and wrongly inhibit the public’s right to know.” She added, “It comes at a time when agency watchdogs are sidelined, FOIA officials are being fired, and leaks to the press … are being demonized and prosecuted.”
New ruling highlights need for federal shield law
The latest decision in journalist Catherine Herridge’s legal fight over confidential sources highlights how fragile the reporter-source privilege remains in the absence of a federal shield law.
On May 22, a federal appeals court refused to reconsider its previous order forcing Herridge to identify her confidential sources, and it asked the public to accept its decision without immediate access to the court records we need to fully understand it.
The best solution to this mess is for Congress to provide clear, strong protection against compelled disclosure of journalists’ sources by passing a shield law like the PRESS Act.
How a $16 million Paramount bribe previewed a $1.8 billion slush fund
President Donald Trump has once again hijacked the court system to further his corruption. He purportedly “settled” litigation with his own Department of Justice in exchange for a $1.8 billion slush fund to compensate political allies.
But before the DOJ facilitated Trump laundering his self-dealing through the courts, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr helped Trump shake down Paramount to settle a frivolous lawsuit to clear the regulatory path for its merger with Skydance.
As FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern explained, the Washington, D.C. Bar could have put a stop to it then by disciplining Carr pursuant to FPF’s complaint, but they chickened out. Now we see the consequences.
Press freedom threats at the World Cup
Arrests of noncitizen journalists during Trump 2.0 are fueling concerns that the United States may not be a safe place to report for the thousands of foreign reporters expected to travel here to cover the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup starting in June.
Our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s West Coast reporter, Briana Erickson, analyzed Tracker data and spoke to journalists about the attacks on the press that are fueling those concerns.
What we're reading
‘Kick him off the bench.’ A judge in Trump’s Pulitzer case gets a prize
Stern discussed FPF’s recent attorney disciplinary complaint against Florida Judge Jeffrey Kuntz for failing to recuse himself from Trump’s frivolous case against the Pulitzer Prize Board while seeking a judicial nomination from his administration.
The World Cup is coming. What do journalists need to know?
For more on the World Cup and the threats facing journalists, check out FPF Chief of Editorial Kirstin McCudden’s interview with Erickson.
Solidarity over surveillance
The ever-growing surveillance state is insatiable and poses unique challenges for reporters and their sources. Read about the new coalition, of which FPF is a member, and explore ways to fight back.
Investigations Newsletter: L.A. TACO reporter detained while reporting (again)
The detention of yet another journalist for covering a protest is more evidence that the Los Angeles Police Department won’t learn to respect the First Amendment and journalists’ rights until courts make them.
Florida can secretly designate terrorists
Thank goodness the First Amendment Foundation plans to take this new law aimed at stifling dissent in Florida to court.
Restraint and fecklessness
White House access now mostly means front row seats to lies and insults. Journalists should skip the photo ops and dig into the administration’s misconduct, with or without access.
AG Sulzberger: ‘We will not compromise’ on independent reporting
Good to see a news executive realize that fighting back against the Trump administration’s attacks on the free press isn’t optional. “Rights are just ink on paper unless they’re exercised.”
