Independent Journalism is Calling Trump's Bluff

Before diving in, I highly recommend subscribing to the following independent journalists, who have brought integrity back to the fourth branch of government (that’s you, too): Aaron Parnas, Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project, and Meidas Touch.

Thanks, you da best!

Since his 2015 Presidential campaign Donald Trump has made no secret about how he feels about mainstream media, otherwise known as "legacy media," outlets like CNN, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, et al. He taught us the phrase "fake news" and often refers to the "lamestream media" and the "failing New York Times." As our country rose up post-George Floyd he sic'd the police on Black Lives Matter protestors and blamed the media for false coverage, leading to threats against journalists and news agencies.

Omar Jimenez, a CNN correspondent, and his crew were arrested while giving a live television report Friday morning in Minneapolis as they were covering protests over the death of George Floyd. - Reuters

“Sir, I am a journalist covering this,” Ms. Davidson turned to walk away, and the officer shoved her in the back, causing her to trip and hit her head against a fire hydrant, she said. She was not hurt, she added, because she was wearing a helmet she had bought while getting skateboarding equipment for a nephew.- The New York Times

The photographer Barbara Davidson, on Saturday, while covering the protests.

In 2022 filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, along with journalist and producer Ronan Farrow, released "Endangered," a documentary that focused on the threats of violence against journalists in the U.S. and abroad. These were the same journalists that Trump was calling the "enemy of the people" shortly after entering office in 2017.

These weren't hollow threats, and they never have been. In 2002 Daniel Pearl, an American journalist who worked for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped by jihadist militants while he was on his way to what he had expected would be an interview with Pakistani religious cleric Mubarak Ali Gilani in the city of Karachi. He was beheaded.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during an interview on January 23rd, 2016 - Getty Images

Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and dissident who worked for the Washington Post, was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Donald Trump recently secured a "historic" $600 billion investment commitment in Saudi Arabia. Bin Salman was never charged.

It isn't uncommon for journalists to be threatened, for their families to be threatened, but being threatened by a Presidential administration is something new. But despite everything, we stood by our news media, who seemed to present a stalwart take on current events.

Fast-forward to 2025.

People rally to call on Congress to protect funding for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio outside the NPR headquarters in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2025 - Getty Images

We live in a time unrecognizable by our 1990s and early 2000s ancestors, when true an unbiased news media like PBS and NPR are the "enemy," when major journalists are losing their jobs for speaking the truth, when academic institutions like Harvard and Columbia Universities are forced to teach "only just so," and to "only just you, but certainly not you." News media like the Associated Press are banned from White House press briefings, a public platform meant to be available to the American public in an informative and unbiased setting, for taking a stance on calling the Gulf of Mexico...the "Gulf of Mexico."

Major news outlets like the Washington Post, owned by billionaire Trump supporter Jeff Bezos, are pulling their presidential endorsements (they've endorsed Democrats only since 1976) and declaring that the Opinion section will now cover only "personal liberties and free markets," leaving viewpoints that oppose these pillars to be "published by other authors." This is a clear stance that aligns with the new administration.

Getty Images

"I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. And a big part of America's success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else." - Jeff Bezos

Both the Washington Post Opinions Editor, David Shipley, and Associate Editor, David Maraniss resigned immediately. Maraniss had worked at the Post for more than four decades.

But unfortunately for the American people, money speaks louder than truth, and we're starting to see a shift in news media that we relied on and trusted. It's not the "fake news." It's not the "lamestream media" or "MSDNC" that Trump touts. And despite what he claims, the New York Times has more subscribers than ever. But in order to stay in that briefing room, in order to please an administration that threatens to pull funds and dismantle journalistic infrastructure left and right, corporate newsrooms are ceding to authority, if only to survive.

We saw this with Jake Tapper's new book Original Sin, a Tonya-Harding-like kneecap to an administration that let us rest and gave us our jobs and livelihoods back post-COVID. And for what? We just spent four years complaining that the Right wouldn't let the 2020 election and claims of "stop the steal" go. And now here we are, Jake.

We're seeing major journalists of color let go from legacy news media, people like Joy-Ann Reid and Katie Phang at MSNBC, in greater numbers than their white counterparts, as corporations dismantle their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) departments to bootlick Washington.

Joy-Ann Reid’s last show at MSNBC - February 23rd, 2025

Which brings me to the point of this essay, and why we're all here in the first place. In the wave of threats, and ass-kissing, and money, and CEOs guiding the headlines that land on our proverbial breakfast tables on Sunday morning, we've all become the journalists we want to see in the world.

Pardon the cliché: we became the change.

Now it's all of us, including the major anchors and journalists banished by legacy media--Katie Phang, Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project, Aaron Parnas, Joy-Ann Reid, the Meiselas brothers at Meidas Touch--along with authors, media personalities, comedians, politicians, and voices big and small, who are telling the stories. And we're not just telling them, we're actually a part of them, on the ground, talking to people, hitting record, and showing news as it happens.

Donald Trump told us to be suspicious of the news media--ironic considering it's something he spends most of his time pouring over--but all of a sudden we're calling his bluff. Fine. We'll be suspect. But not because they weren't telling the truth. Not because what we saw on TV and in the newspaper didn't align with the biggest heads in Washington. But because Trump and his cabinet got to all of them, with threats of dismantling the fourth branch of government, the free press, what makes America really great, meant to inform the public and hold those in power accountable.

And that's just what we're doing.

Ellie is an author, editor, and small-business owner, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.