Press Protections

Legacy media, and beyond

Apr 12, 2024

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Over the past couple of days there has been significant media coverage of reporter Catherine Herridge’s testimony in favor of the PRESS Act, currently before Congress.

Her story is compelling. She is thought to be a witness to facts at issue in a civil lawsuit, and a federal judge has held her in Contempt for refusing to reveal the sources that contributed to her investigative reporting about the matter.

She is facing fines of $800.00 per day, for protecting her confidential sources.1

a close up of an old fashioned printing press — Photo by Alex Zaj on Unsplash

Ms. Herridge made it clear in her testimony the impact an eroding away of reporter’s ability to protect their sources would have on the media, and by extension on our ability to make informed electoral decisions.

“Forcing a reporter to disclose confidential sources would have a crippling effect on investigative journalism, because without reliable assurances of confidentiality, sources will not come forward. The First Amendment provides protections for the press because an informed electorate is at the foundation of our democracy.”

Laws similar to the proposed PRESS Act exist in States, including my own, and it does appear as if the PRESS Act will eventually pass into law, extending those protections federally.

It seems as if all will eventually be well for Ms. Herridge and others who might one day be similarly situated.

But the media of my middle age is nothing at all like the media of my young adulthood.

The Joe Rogan Experience podcast has 16.4 million subscribers.2

Fox News, the most watched cable news network averages 1.2 million viewers per day.3

The Free Press has gathered 520,000 subscribers in a few short years.4

The Washington Post has lost 500,000 subscribers in a few short years.5

Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ has 1.2 million subscribers.6

The New Yorker has roughly the same, with its 1.2 million subscribers.7

Why am I recounting these random facts?

To show that the way we consume news, and who gathers news, has changed dramatically over time.

The Joe Rogan Experience, The Free Press, and Letters from an American didn’t exist just a few years ago. And all three of them were started by an individual or two, not a corporation or investor.

Heck, even I have thousands of readers here on Substack, and I’m just the proverbial crazy guy in his basement. - Ok, so this isn’t quite true, Mrs. Bailey does unlock the door and let me come upstairs once in a while. -

So yes. It is vitally important that we protect press freedoms. We need to protect Ms. Herridge and her former employers CBS, FOX, and ABC. We need to protect the massive New York Times, and the tiny Marion County Record.8 We need to protect all those who write for them.

But it is just as vital that we extend protections to the bloggers, podcasters, newsletter writers, YouTubers, and everyone else that makes up the new media ecosystem. An ecosystem increasingly composed of individual creators, working without the support systems and resources offered by legacy media outlets.

Only by protecting these new forms of media and those reporting through them are we able to meaningfully defend a free press so vital to our Republic.