The silence and the siege

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This month began with Paramount announcing it had agreed to pay $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s lawsuit over a segment aired on ‘60 Minutes,’ making CBS News the latest news outlet to capitulate to pressure from the president.

First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams — who represented The New York Times during the Pentagon Papers case — called the agreement “an ominous blow to press freedom in our nation.”

Unsurprisingly, Trump boasted of his victory on his social platform, Truth Social, and warned the rest of the “Fake News Media” to toe the line or they’d be next.

“Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle,” he wrote. “The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER.”

On July 18, the president followed through on his threats to sue the Journal, alleging that the newspaper deliberately defamed him with its reporting on a letter he purportedly sent to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was later charged with sex trafficking of minors.

Silencing the witnesses

This time last month, I reported that the Tracker had documented nine arrests or detentions of journalists, 20 assaults, and multiple instances of equipment being searched or damaged amid anti-deportation protests in California.

In July, we received reports of dozens of additional aggressions against journalists across the country, from Atlanta to Spokane. We’ve documented 14 arrests or detentions, 64 assaults, eight instances of journalists’ equipment being damaged, and two where it was searched. Of the more than 75 affected journalists, most reported exposure to chemical irritants at least once.

While the Tracker is investigating two dozen additional reports, one thing is already clear: Law enforcement officers responding to the protests — including federal agents — either don’t care that members of the press are being injured or are deliberately targeting them.

Independent journalist Mason Lake told the Tracker that federal agents intentionally shot him with a crowd-control munition June 13. “They were aiming specifically down the barrel of my lens,” Lake said. “They see me. They just want to get rid of me.”

An agency staff photographer said they were also singled out amid protests in LA even though they identified themself to the line of police officers and sheriff’s deputies. “They’re not supposed to shoot people unless they’re being a threat, and I so obviously was not,” they said.

“It was like they were just having target practice for fun or something.”

Multiple journalists and news outlets have filed or intend to file civil lawsuits against law enforcement and local authorities for violations of their First and Fourth amendment rights. The Los Angeles Press Club was granted a temporary restraining order against the Los Angeles Police Department on July 11, which bars the department from limiting journalists’ ability to cover the protests, including by removing, detaining or using projectiles against the press.

Several journalists in LA have told me that the order is holding, at least for now.

Other notable updates and incidents

• Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, urged Congress to gut Voice of America at the end of June, calling the agency “a rotten piece of fish.” And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced her department was looking for ways to criminally charge CNN.
• Mario Guevara, an El Salvadoran immigrant, still faces potential deportation after he was arrested at a “No Kings” protest against the Trump administration on June 14, even though all charges against him were dropped as of July 10.
• Former journalist Ayman Soliman, who was granted asylum in the United States in 2018 after he was persecuted for his journalism in Egypt, had his status revoked and has been jailed in Ohio since July 9.
• A reporter for The Wall Street Journal was removed July 21 from the press pool for President Trump’s trip to Scotland at the end of the month in retaliation for the newspaper’s reporting on Trump and Epstein’s relationship.