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    Censorship

    Trump may also continue to pursue aggressive defamation or consumer fraud lawsuits that, even if meritless, further demonize the press, are costly to defend, and chill important reporting. Facing these suits, some news organizations and social media companies have already begun to further the cycle of anticipatory obedience by entering into settlement agreements rather than relying on constitutional protections to defend themselves.

    -Kenneth Parreno and Janine Lopez, If You Can Keep It

    History of Conservative War on the Media

    • 2025: Trump has sued private channel CBS, regional newspaper The Des Moines Register, and pressured ABC which paid $15 million when threatened with a defamation lawsuit.
    • 2025: Pressing to dismantle US overseas outlets Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, and threatening to starve NPR public radio and PBS television of federal funds.
    • 2025: Elon Musk has even said the team behind CBS's flagship "60 Minutes" show deserve prison.
    • 2025: The Federal Communications Commission -- headed by a Trump ally -- has launched probes into CBS, ABC and NBC, alongside NPR and PBS, he said as an example.
    • 2024: The US fell from 45th to 55th place in World Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders
    • 2024: Trump threatens to punish media critics like CNN during his campaign
    • 2017: Trump accused press of being “an enemy of the people” which changed the language from critical to adversarial
    • 2016: Gallup Polling finds 32% of Americans trust the press and only 14% of conservatives
    • 2016: Trump uses phrases like “lying meida” and “fake news” to dispell truth in major news outlets - often calling out reporters and news orgs by name
    • 2016: Various ads at the 2016 RNC building read “DON’T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA” - modeled after Trump’s rhetoric but paid for by the Media Research Center
    • 2015-2016: Trump begins cultivating relationships with independent alt right media while Fox news still was not on board with the Trump train
    • 2016: Founder of MRC Brent Bozell says “There are two options facing conservatives: Either get them to do their jobs correctly or neutralise them” in regards to media bias, during this time period he was endorsing Ted Cruz and denouncing Trump
    • 1996 Fox News Channel is laughed by Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes as a right-wing counterweight to CNN and other liberal networks
    • 1987: Media Research Center (conservative advocacy group) is formed to highlight examples of alleged bias in news organizations and hold them accountable - thus pushing the agenda of the culture wars
    • 1986 Gallup Polling Finds 65% of Americans have great deal or fair amount of trust in the press
    • 1950s: Conservatives launched publications like National Review and Human Events
    I spent many years criticizing the media, pointing out bias. But, as with so much in the conservative world, things changed, and suddenly you had people hammering away," saying "not just that there was bias that needed to be rebutted, but that they were actively lying, and that they were the enemy. They took the whole question of media bias and weaponized it to become a very large part of the right-wing critique of the world.

    -Mona Charen, American Conservative Journalist

    Effects of Censorship

    Autocrats do not outright ban speech - rather they use the government to punish contrarian speech. Those who follow their preferred messaging are praised and become a “defacto state media”

    Further Reading