Journalism is the only profession legally protected by the United States Constitution. The founding fathers believed the press to be so intrinsically important to our democracy that it is mentioned by name in the First Amendment.

The current government, however, doesn’t seem to agree with these sentiments from 1787. 

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, The Washington Post’s opinion editor resigned due to Jeff Bezos’ conservative overhaul of the section, and the White House announced that — for the first time ever — it would hand-select the President’s pool of reporters. Moreover, the Federal Communications Commission — headed by Project 2025 author Brendan Carr — launched an investigation into several news organizations, and “60 Minutes” has continued dealing with their lawsuit after being sued by Trump for their interview of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. 

These moves have propelled the Trump administration past a point of extremism onto a path reminiscent of authoritarianism. The first step toward achieving autocracy is controlling the media; maintaining a monopoly of information that can be used to fuel propaganda and dissipate any opposing political opinions. 

Though U.S. media organizations remain privatized and are not state-owned — apart from non-profit organizations like NPR or PBS — Trump’s attacks on the press are a direct attack on the First Amendment. 

Authoritarian control has come not only through direct confrontations of media organizations, such as the aforementioned FCC investigation and “60 Minutes” lawsuit, but also through the censorship of semantics. The simple language used to describe exactly what the administration is doing has been removed from any governmental discourse. 

The current administration has flagged terms like “race,” “LGBT,” “bias” and “discrimination” as ones to avoid. So, instead of calling Executive Order 14168 a refusal to recognize transgender identities, Trump named it “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” Instead of framing Executive Order 14173 as an elimination of equal opportunities for underprivileged groups, Trump named it “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” 

After tackling semantics, Trump’s next step in attempting to monopolize information communications comes about through his restrictions on the press. Censoring his own government is one thing, but regulating the news and attempting to mediate the truth is reminiscent of tyrants like Mao Zedong and Vladimir Putin.

For a nation that once prided itself on being a model of democracy, our government doesn’t seem to appreciate the values that fit that title. Since 2021, the U.S.’ world press freedom index has fallen from 76.07 to 66.59, losing its rating of “satisfactory.” 

Professionals are taking note of this alarming trend, as media watchdog groups have become concerned about the current state of journalistic integrity. Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, likened Trump’s actions to those of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who dissolved his country’s democracy during his tenure in office. 

“This is the path that Orbán took in Hungary, where you use the power of the state to ensure that the media is compliant, that outlets are either curbed and become much less willing to be critical, or they are sold to owners who will make that happen,” Gertz said in an interview with The Guardian last month.

Though Trump hasn’t reached these extremes just yet, the signs of media compliance are already showing. Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong, owners of The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, respectively, have begun shaping their news organizations to appease Trump and build a beneficial rapport with the President. 

Bezos told The Washington Post opinion section that they would exclusively promote the libertarian values of “personal liberties and free markets.” Meanwhile, nearly all of Soon-Shiong’s L.A. Times editorial board resigned after he refused to let the paper endorse Harris last fall. 

But this is the exact opposite of these organizations’ responsibility. Journalistic institutions exist to hold the government accountable, not to satisfy it. 

Journalism acts as a sort of fourth branch of the government; another institution in place to check the actions of the executive, judicial and legislative systems. This is especially important when the Supreme Court, Senate, House of Representatives and the Presidency are all controlled by a largely Trumpist Republican party. 

A free press is the last thing standing between Trump and autocracy. If the public can’t understand exactly what’s taking place, then they can’t be enraged by it. Journalistic publications are responsible for providing truth to the people no matter how much executive pressure attempts to dissuade their integrity.