What stupid times we live in. President-elect Donald Trump has ordered Republicans to kill a widely-supported bipartisan journalism shield law that would protect press freedom and whistleblowers. Many people voted for Donald Trump on the false belief that he would “protect free speech.” But in reality, nearly every instinct he has is to stifle free speech. And now he’s going even further by throwing a temper tantrum and demanding Republicans kill the PRESS Act, a bipartisan bill that would enshrine protections for journalists and their sources under the First Amendment.
We’ve been talking about journalism shield laws for over a decade on Techdirt. The basic idea is that it would make it clear that a journalist cannot be punished for refusing to give up a source. This kind of protection is vital to good reporting, because getting info from sources is a key part of good reporting, and many sources are already taking a risk in giving information to journalists. Without guarantees of confidentiality, sources with knowledge of corruption, abuse, or other wrongdoing will be afraid to come forward.
Generally, good journalists will promise to protect their sources, but without a shield law, it’s much more difficult to guarantee that they can keep those promises, especially if they face legal pressure or threats. The result is that fewer sources are willing to talk, which means less transparency and accountability. Fewer whistleblowers are able to call out wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.
There have been some reasonable concerns with shield law proposals in the past that try to define who is, and who is not, a journalist. Those laws would likely be unconstitutional in trying to designate who gets more protections, as it would essentially allow the government to decide who counts as a “real” journalist deserving of First Amendment rights. To me, the easiest solution was just to focus on the acts, not the job. Was the source used for “an act of journalism?” If so, then you should not be forced to give up their info.
In every session of Congress lately, someone proposes such a law, and this time around we have the PRESS Act. While not my ideal version of the law, it would definitely serve to protect journalists and sources more than they are currently protected.
In the House, it was introduced by a Republican, Rep. Kevin Kiley. And it was approved unanimously there. The Senate version is bipartisan, coming from Senators Ron Wyden, Mike Lee, and Lindsey Graham. But it has languished in the Senate as Senate Judiciary Chair Senator Dick Durbin has refused to move the bill, even as many press and free speech organizations have urged him to do so.
With that backdrop, the Committee to Protect Journalists (which does amazing work) has been urging Congress to get on with it and pass the law. Following the election, CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsburg went on PBS to talk up the importance of the PRESS Act, specifically in how a Trump administration could attack, spy on, and intimidate the press and whistleblowers without it.
Apparently, someone sent that video to Trump as he then posted about it on Truth Social, demanding that Republicans in Congress “must kill” the bill:
Again, the bill has had widespread bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats, and some of its many co-sponsors have been leading Republicans who have supported Trump.
Trump’s tantrum here is tantamount to an admission that, of course, he intends to intimidate and threaten journalists and try to force them to cough up info on whistleblowers. It should be extremely alarming for the next president to brazenly announce his intent to undermine core First Amendment principles. He’s flat out admitting that he’s planning to do all sorts of bad shit to journalists and he wants to keep the law from getting in the way.
I get that many people who support Trump want him to suppress and punish journalists. But for people who understand what free speech and freedom of the press actually means, this should be raising all sorts of concerns.
Part of the reason it hasn’t moved forward in the Senate, according to Shawn Musgrave at the Intercept, is that Senators Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, and John Kennedy were against it. Cotton has long been against press freedom. Two years ago he blocked a similar bill by whining about the Pentagon Papers, which are generally considered a noble moment in journalism that revealed how much the government was lying about the Vietnam War.
Musgrave also notes that, now that Trump has flipped out about this, even Kiley (who introduced the bill in the House where, I remind you, it was unanimously approved) is falling into line behind Trump:
“Based on the feedback we’ve received from senators and President Trump, it’s clear we have work to do to achieve consensus on this issue,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., the bill’s Republican sponsor in the House.
Profiles in courage over here, as a bunch of anti-free speech cowards are bending a knee to a tantrum from the incoming President who is loudly telling everyone he intends to abuse and intimidate journalists.
