US press freedom hits all-time low following | Political News
A new media report has warned that press freedom is at an all-time low and deteriorating at an “alarming” charge in the United States under the Trump administration.
The U.S. rating has dropped two notches to 57th out of 180 in this yr’s annual press freedom index carried out by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), making the U.S. equally as dangerous for journalists as nations including Brazil, Chile, the Congo, Hungary and elsewhere. Within the previous two years, the U.S. has fallen 13 locations behind, downgrading from “satisfactory” to “problematic.”
The report warns that the United States is going through an “authoritarian shift” given Trump’s “daily attacks” on the media as he fights to defund shops and dismiss them from White House press briefings for being crucial of the administration.
The White House has ramped up its assaults on main media organizations in current months, submitting a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS for alleged defamation and unsuccessfully trying to shut down state-backed broadcasters including Radio Free Europe and Voice of America.
Yesterday, President Trump signed an govt order calling for the defunding of public broadcasters such as NPR and PBS, accusing them of “receiving millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
Meanwhile, the merging of media brands under corporate conglomerates has forced local and independent outlets across the country to shutter, creating “information deserts” in underserved communities.
According to the RSF report, “Local journalism is bearing the brunt of the economic downturn: over 60 per cent of journalists and media experts surveyed by RSF in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania agree that it is ‘difficult to earn a living wage as a journalist,’ and 75 per cent believe that ‘the average media outlet struggles for economic viability.'”
Tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have played a major role in the death of independent and local media and the spread of disinformation. According to RSF, those tech giants have raked over $247.3 billion in ad-revenue that previously helped fund local journalism.
The issue became more globalized after the Trump administration slashed the USAID budget, leaving over 400 million people without access to reliable information, particularly in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
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The White House has also faced criticism for welcoming new media to press briefings, which has included hosting “influencer” briefings branded as “propaganda.”
The report also pointed to media consolidation, which has forced local and independent newspapers across the country to shutter and has negatively impacted the integrity of reporting.
Notably, The Washington Post received widespread backlash to its decision not endorse a candidate during the consquential 2024 presidential election.
Reports found that its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos of Amazon pulled the plug last-minute on the editorial board’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, resulting in over 150,000 readers canceling their subscriptions to the legacy outlet. Later, the paper announced that it would be cutting down its opinion section to only focus on “personal liberties and free markets,” sparking similar uproar.
“Press freedom is no longer a given in the United States,” the Committee to Protect Journalists mentioned in a separate report about Trump’s first 100 days, which warned of a related “rising tide of threats” against journalists.
The RSF displays a international rise of declining press freedoms that is congruent with a number of finacial instability within 160 out of 180 nations.
Many conflict-ridden nations had the least access to press freedoms, including Gaza, Haiti, China, Uganda and Ethiopia.
Palestine ranked 183rd as over 200 journalists have been killed and a number of newsrooms destroyed in Gaza by the Israeli military.
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