Best-selling author Molly Jong-Fast believes much of the news industry has “shrunk” under the weight of the Trump administration’s assault on the media. But during a conversation at the Power Women New York breakfast on Thursday, Jong-Fast said she expects this challenging time for the press to pass.
“I‘m not convinced it’s as dire as we think it is,” she told moderator Sharon Waxman, the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of TheWrap as part of a “Making Sense of the Noise” panel on the challenges facing the media. “What I think is really important to realize is, Donald Trump is on the back foot.”
The conversation came a few days after Trump took a victory lap on Truth Social, where he posted a graphic showing how he was “reshaping the media.” Jong-Fast — a five-time author, New York Times Opinion contributing writer and host of the podcast “Fast Politics” — acknowledged that Trump’s verbal and legal threats against news organizations have left fewer avenues for independent reporting than his first term. And yet, she said, “none of this is quite as simple as Trump world makes it seem.”
Jong-Fast discussed the state of CBS News, which has faced accusations of politicization since Paramount CEO David Ellison, who has appeared friendly with the president, appointed anti-woke opinion journalist Bari Weiss as the network’s editor-in-chief. Ellison has said he wants the network to appeal to an audience that would “define themselves at center-left to center-right.”
The columnist questioned whether the desire to appeal to viewers of all political stripes holds much appeal and said she worried that Weiss’ decision to temporarily hold a “60 Minutes” piece critical of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts to an El Salvadoran prison may have damaged trust in the CBS brand beyond repair. (Weiss has said the story needed a voice from the administration, and the segment, “Inside CECOT,” aired virtually unchanged in January.)
“They had sort of this Goldilocks of not being partisan and but being newsy,” Jong-Fast said of CBS News’ past. “The moment she held that story, that ’60’ CECOT story, it was over, and so you can’t get that back. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”
Still, she sees hope on the media horizon. While Jong-Fast acknowledged that journalists were starting independent ventures “partially just out of necessity” to survive. She also pointed to news outlets still holding the administration accountable, including Trump lawsuit targets the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal; ProPublica, the Pulitzer-winning nonprofit newsroom tracking Trump’s border crackdown and efforts to reshape federal agencies; and the Washington Post, which even in its diminished state after mass layoffs she said “still does incredible reporting.”
She added that the work of local news outlets in Minnesota helped lead to the administration to deescalate its immigration crackdown there after law enforcement killed two U.S. citizens there.
For opinion columnists like her, she said, “we have to have reporting to work off of, and reporting is what keeps power accountable.”
“In Trump 1.0, he was sort of unable to do a lot of the stuff that he might have wanted to do,” Jong-Fast added. “This time, he’s been so unfettered that I do think there’s going to be a real blowback in the midterms that it’s just hard to sort of calculate until you see it.”
As voters recognize the effect of some of Trump’s actions, such as striking Iran, have on their wallets, all while the “the richest are doing amazing,” she said, they are likely to elect more Democrats in November.
“I think people are going to be really pinched,” she said. “I think the midterms are going to be really, really bad for Trump’s party.”
Watch the full panel above.
About Power Women New York:
TheWrap Foundation’s invite-only Power Women Breakfast returns to New York with an exclusive gathering of 100 leaders across entertainment, media and business, featuring intimate conversations with trailblazing women across the industry.
The event is sponsored by STARZ #TakeTheLead, the exclusive entertainment sponsor, and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment. Table sponsors include Blank Rome LLP, Britbox, Disney Entertainment, Gersh, The Lede Company, NBCU, PMK Entertainment, Superconnector Studios, Versant and Whalar.
