The Spoke Editorial Board voted 20-4 in favor of this editorial, with 0 people abstaining.
Donald Trump has a conflicting history with the press. During his 2020 reelection campaign, he sued The Washington Post for defamation in two opinion pieces, one week after suing The New York Times for the same reason. Then, in November of this year, as revealed in a letter addressed to lawyers at The New York Times and Penguin Random House, Trump’s attorneys demanded $10 billion in damages over “false and defamatory” statements made in a book by Times journalists regarding his financial dealings, despite The Times maintaining that the reporting is accurate and including evidence in a statement.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Trump has published 1,339 tweets about the media that were “critical, insinuating, condemning or threatening” since his 2016 candidacy announcement. In 2019, he said journalists were “truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Given these instances, the near future of the press is more than unpredictable — it’s worrying. Trump’s remarks directly target news outlets, despite journalism being the only constitutionally protected profession: The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” On top of that, professions in traditional media are quickly declining.
According to researchers at Northwestern University, the loss of local newspapers accelerated in 2023 to an average of 2.5 per week, leaving more than 200 counties nationwide as “news deserts.” With the decline of local and small news outlets, student publications end up doing more reporting for their communities often with less support from their administrations. As an example of unjust withdrawal of administrative support, The Daily Collegian, the student-run newspaper at Penn State, received a 100% funding cut by the university in 2023, which will bring its funds to zero by 2025. Just this past September, Penn State removed all on-campus copies of the publication, claiming the students violated the college’s advertising rules. But to create a society where press and speech restrictions are acceptable endangers a hallmark of American democracy.
In 2017, The Washington Post adopted a slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness.” For as long as we — the student journalists and advisers of The Spoke — have been in the newsroom, our mission has been to bring light to the voices of our school and community. However, the ease with which legal attacks transpired and harmed the ability of local publications like The Daily Collegian at Penn State and large newspapers like The New York Times to report the truth will always concern us at the high school level. We cannot write Trump’s actions off as antics or empty threats. He has shown that he will take action against the press, and his intentions are clear: to limit his dissenters, including youth, in journalism.
Thinking of the next four years instills a feeling of uncertainty. Our ability to serve Conestoga by reporting ethical and truthful stories is what defines our responsibility as student journalists. Potential future restrictions sanctioned by the government are not just a risk to our staff and advisers, but also to the news coverage of our community. Regardless, the stories we present will continue with the intention to report the news so that community members make informed decisions. We hope this will always be the case for the future of The Spoke, no matter who the president is and what opposition we face as student journalists.
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