It has been a tough few weeks as far as the media are concerned. The White House Correspondents Association Dinner became the expected embarrassment, and this week the Pulitzer Prizes were doled out, honoring not reporting greatness but examples of fractured journalism. Then there has been the week long melodrama surrounding the defunding of PBS and NPR. Just mayhem to be seen all around from the outmoded media.

Now we can add to that another dose of dysfunction from alleged press experts. The self-important global press authorities Reporters Without Borders (aka “Reporters sans Frontieres”, or RSF) has released what it calls the World Press Freedom Index, and the U.S. ranks low, as it slid in this year’s measurement on our press freedoms. It is to be expected this European-led outfit would resort to emotional hectoring and woke standards, which leads to rather comical results from a measurement of fact-based standards.

Far be it from a media critic such as myself to fall back on “How dare you!” histrionics regarding out domestic media, but when looked at objectively (an admitted crutch for a pragmatist like me) this is pure farce on display by the RSF. This study supposedly looks at threats to press freedoms and journalist safety, There are flaws aplenty, starting with this being a measure for 2025, and we are barely four months into things.

So of course, this is made as a reflection largely on the supposed threats imposed by President Trump – who has barely been in place for 100 days. This is the level of applied intellect we are served up. Unsurprisingly the European countries dominate their list, with the first non-Euro entrant seen at #16, New Zealand. 

Laughably Great Britain and Canada - two countries with both nationalized media and a recent history of stifling expression - rank high, at #20 and #21. Germany is currently involved in a crackdown on the press and social media by arresting people for alleged speech violations, and they nearly cracked the top-10. So where do we find our own nation’s press condition? The U.S. has dropped to #57. The most open and dedicated to free expression nation you can find is said to be assaulting the press, with things only getting worse. Let’s plunge into this idiocy:

_________

After a century of gradual expansion of press rights in the United States, the country is experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history, and Donald Trump’s return to the presidency is greatly exacerbating the situation.

Questions abound. A “prolonged decline”, you say? That would indicate we have seen press pressure pre-Trump, would it not? As for “greatly exacerbating” this condition, we see the U.S. plummeted all of two positions. So under Joe Biden we only ranked #55?! Well arguably, the 10-point drop last year was blamed on Trump winning the election…in November. The man is a terror, it seems.

While the media in the United States generally operate free from government interference, media ownership is highly concentrated, and many of the companies buying American media outlets appear to prioritize profits over public interest journalism. 

Sense the conflict here? They offer muted praise that we have “generally” freedom of the press (as this conflicts with their insistence we are oppressed), but then they hint that private ownership is a bad thing. So…they favor government supported media – which leads to propaganda and government interference, you European dolts.

Donald Trump’s second term as president has led to an alarming deterioration in press freedom, indicative of an authoritarian shift in government. With trust in the media plummeting, reporters face increasing hostility.

You would not be able to show specifically where “press freedom” has been curtailed. Cutting the AP out of the White House press pool is not a freedom issue, as other outlets were still permitted. No news organization has been silenced. And blaming Trump for the drop in trust is comical. That trend has been taking place for a generation now, and blame for that is fully in the press.

Local news outlets are disappearing, turning vast swaths of the country into “news deserts.” 

This is a canard fully cooked up in Leftist think tanks. If local news is deteriorating it is due to a lack of support from the locals. If they do not want it they will not miss it. Yes, there are a number of economic factors also leading to the drop in local coverage, but largely it is the migration of interest to digital, which indicates where local interest rests.

A growing interest in partisan media threatens objectivity, while public confidence in the media has fallen dangerously.

So a varied and widespread marketplace is considered a negative? Apparently they are selling the concept that having options and other voices is contrary to objectivity. This would be time for a reminder of how highly ranked nations cracking down on expression are seen, as that leads to approved and homogenized news coverage.

[President Trump’s] early moves in his second mandate to politicize the FCC, ban the Associated Press from the White House, or dismantle the US Agency for Global Media, for example, have jeopardized the country’s news outlets.

No other president has politicized the FCC? And what precisely has transpired as a result of this transformed FCC? That is a detail we are never told, nor are we told of this other jeopardy.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution provides broad protections for the press. However, no meaningful press freedom legislation has been passed at the national level in recent years despite the country’s consistent slide on the Press Freedom Index. 

This would be because the protections are still working, so there has been no need for new legislation; the 1st Amendment is still operational and prevents federal wrangling. Just because some European hand-wringers put a number next to our label is no reason for us to transform into the media squishes they are celebrating.

According to recent studies, more Americans have no trust in the media than trust it a fair amount. Online harassment, particularly towards women and minorities, is also a serious issue for journalists and can impact their quality of life and safety. 

Trust in the press is not a threat to press freedom; if anything it is a result of the press running around unfettered and creating an environment people turn away from of late. And it is cute that after bemoaning the rise of alternative digital outlets they now count online harassment as a genuine issue. Oh dear, people dare to criticize journalists! Hint for the Europeans: That 1st Amendment allows for the two-way discourse that they find so offensive.

Politicians’ open disdain for the media has trickled down to the public. Journalists reporting on the ground can face harassment, intimidation and assault while working. 

You have to love the approach that somehow journalists are above this kind of reaction. These would be the same journalists mind  you who love to tell us they are akin to firefighters or the soldiers storming beaches. But somehow they shrivel when somebody dares raise a voice and criticize their bias.

According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, there were 49 journalist arrests in 2024 compared to only 15 in 2023.

I’m sorry, what were those years, once again? You say that Joe Biden oversaw 49 arrests last year, but Donald Trump is allegedly a bigger problem?! This is mitigated by the RSF delivering its own stats to the contrary.

You have to marvel the Press Freedom Index by @RSFUSA lowers the U.S. for 2025, citing canards that journalist threats and safety accelerated.
This, despite current stats coming in better than under Biden, when nearly 50 reporters were arrested.

Somehow Zero is "worse". pic.twitter.com/x1cPPAzvAd

— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) May 10, 2025

It is beginning to be evident that the issues and problems in the journalism landscape may be an even bigger problem than noticeable. As the past month has displayed, many of the very problems seen from outlets are manifested in the upper reaches of the industry, as groups overseeing the press are displaying the very same flawed issues.

When the authorities are engaged in the very behaviors undermining the industry it is going to be an even more involved process to repair things. Instead we see them awarding the fractured journalism, and this press police group RSF is denigrating the very foundational aspects they should celebrate. The repair will be long in the making.