A very sad and dangerous situation exists, where journalism at all levels has been compromised in the time of the Trump Presidency.
We have seen courageous, challenging journalists such as Terry Moran of ABC News and Jim Acosta of CNN forced out of their positions for the “nerve” to challenge Donald Trump and his supporters on their policies and actions.
We have seen ABC News and CBS News making financial settlements after lawsuits by Donald Trump over their coverage of news and interviews that Trump decided to sue, and the settlements leading to contributions to a future Donald Trump Presidential Library in South Florida.
We have seen major newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, making changes designed to avoid alienating Trump.
We have seen late night comedians, such as Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, along with “The View” and “Saturday Night Live” coming under attack, as well as the leadership and tone of “Sixty Minutes” being changed dramatically.
The new ownership of CBS by the billionaire Larry Ellison family is in process of destroying the long held, high level, reputation of that news network, that had such courageous journalists in the past as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Dan Rather.
The coverage of White House press conferences and other activities, including the Pentagon, has been compromised by Trump, his Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, censoring who can be present, who can ask questions, and denying freedom of speech and press at every turn.
This is all very alarming, as without a free, uncontrolled media environment, and without the ability to have comedy shows that can make fun of government leaders and policies, we are on the road to a total Fascist authoritarian government, which, once accomplished, will be hard to prevent long term damage.