An Era of Silence and Fear

An era of silence, censorship, and fear is washing over America. 

Since returning to power, Donald Trump and his allies have carried out a series of aggressive actions that have sent many in positions of power into silence. While Trump campaigned on promises to end “censorship” and “bring back free speech,” his administration has instead orchestrated a systematic campaign to silence criticism, chilling speech across the media and political landscape. 

In recent weeks, the administration has blocked The Associated Press from events and taken control of the White House pool, throwing out a century of media independence and giving the government the power to select who is allowed to cover the president.

While some believed Trump would usher in a regulatory-friendly environment, his Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr has launched a flurry of politically motivated investigations into media outlets, opening probes into NPR and PBS and reinstating complaints about ABC, NBC, and CBS over their election coverage. Carr’s FCC has also opened investigations into Verizon and Comcast—the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC—over their diversity, equity and inclusion programs and threatened to go after others with the weight of the federal government. Sensing the peril, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery and others preemptively announced they would end or scale back their diversity programs that Trump has derided—a clear signal designed to placate the president.

On Thursday, Trump took it a step further, railing against MSNBC and demanding Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace resign over their coverage of his address to Congress. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s biggest financial booster and online propagandist, has fervently smeared the free press, even going as far as to demand that some journalists be fired over their reporting on the administration.

Inside the Trump administration itself, officials are now censoring reporting from news organizations, including from The Washington Post, The New York Times, MSNBC, WIRED, and others that have reported on Musk and DOGE’s brute force efforts to dismantle the government. At the same time, Trump’s White House digital strategy team has worked to undermine the press and amplify his messages, attempting to replace journalists with right-wing media sycophants and portray him as “KING.”

The disturbing moves, taking a page from the authoritarian playbook, come as long-standing news institutions are cutting staff and muzzling editorial pages from offering critical coverage or dissenting views of Trump’s moves.

“If you do not recognize [the] mass destruction of fundamental concepts of democracy and the US Constitution happening right now, you are either willfully ignorant or just plain stupid. I can’t put it any clearer than that,” TechDirt founder Mike Masnick wrote this week, announcing that the technology site would pivot to become a “democracy blog.”

The multi-pronged assault has silenced those in the highest echelons of power who might offer dissenting views of a government run amok. The billionaires who control some of the world’s largest technology platforms and previously stood up to Trump—Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and others—have now publicly bowed to him in hopes of protecting their business interests. While The Associated Press refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and was swiftly punished by the Trump White House, Google and Apple quickly updated their mapping services in line with Trump’s wishes. Google even went a step further and blocked reviews of the “Gulf of America” after criticism from users.

Others, including researchers and academics have quietly told journalists they are afraid to speak out for fear of retribution or being publicly singled out by Trump, Musk and their allies. And that’s the point.

“When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism,” Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard, told The New York Times this week.

Still, there are bright spots across the news media with many journalists working tirelessly to uncover the haphazard changes taking place. WIRED has devoted staff to exposing DOGE’s efforts, The New York Times reported on Trump officials pushing back against Musk, The Washington Post has charted Musk’s indiscriminate firing of federal workers, and The Wall Street Journal's editorial board has become a now-rare voice of criticism of Trump’s actions.

And here at Status, we’ve been aggressively pursuing the media’s transformation under the administration. This week, we reported on the pressure campaign on CBS News to settle a lawsuit with Trump, CNN offering MAGA pundit Scott Jennings a big pay raise, and The Washington Post publisher Will Lewis holding a private meeting with a conservative editor as it shifts to the right.

In other words, despite the pressure, not everyone is falling in line. Across the Fourth Estate, there are reporters and organizations committed to holding power accountable, refusing to be silenced or swayed. This work will be crucial in the years ahead, ensuring that factual information is readily available, questions are still asked, and the public remains informed—no matter how much those in power try to control the narrative.