Journalists Susan Glasser and Peter Baker voiced their concerns about the future of journalism under a second Donald Trump term at the Edgewater Hotel Sept.19, reflecting on their experience covering Trump's “hostile takeover” of the Republican party.
Glasser, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and Baker, the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, headlined a ‘Celebration of Journalism’ banquet, part of The Cap Times’s eighth annual Idea Fest. Baker and Glasser, who are married, spoke about Trump's rise to power and his divisive first-term, which they covered in their book “The Divider.”
Both Baker and Glasser took aim at Trump’s relationship with the media, spotlighting Trump’s use of the phrase “the enemy of the people” when referring to journalists, which Glasser criticized as “the language of tyranny.”
“What Trump has been trying to do has been to undermine the very idea of free press,” Baker said. “He wants us to be the opposition.”
Baker added that fact checking Trump’s frequently baseless claims drove both the former president and senior Democrats to paint journalists as his enemies.
He relayed an anecdote from 60 Minutes anchor Lesley Stahl, who asked Trump at the beginning of his presidency why he attacks the media. Baker said Trump replied, “in order to discredit you, so that when you write things about me I don't like, people won't believe it.’”
Glasser likened Trump’s hostilities toward the media as that of an “aspiring authoritarian,” one who influences his supporters into discounting otherwise “unbiased” news to “prevent any contrary information.”
Baker, who covered Trump’s campaigns for president and interviewed him in the White House, said he found Trump’s path to the presidency particularly concerning. He drew parallels to his time reporting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in the late 1990’s, viewing both men as “being part of a minoritarian movement that has the possibility to take control over the whole country.”
Baker and Glasser said Trump’s path to the presidency was “concerning,” with Baker likening Trump to an “outsider” who undertook a “hostile takeover” of the Republican Party.
The duo also discussed their book, which documented the dysfunction and infighting that characterized Trump’s first term. Glasser said the book was an “opportunity” to document a “crime scene.”
She said if Trump were to be given a new term, many of the military generals and other government officials who served as checks on his power would be replaced with ardent supporters.
The future of journalism holds more ‘hunger for information’
Glasser said seeing journalism through the eyes of their son Theo, an award-winning student journalist, made her realize young journalists are harnessing information and technology in new ways.
“There's more hunger for information than ever before,” Baker added. “There's more need for journalistic, vetted information than ever before."
He underlined his belief the free press will continue to provide this service regardless of who is in power.
Capping off the seminar, moderator David Maraniss gave a hopeful statement on the future of journalism. “Formats will inevitably change… but two things that can't change are the need for humans to understand their world through story, and the need for people to go out and try to find the truth.”
