In a Second Trump Presidency, We Will Cover Without Fear or Favor
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Dear Reader,
"With President-elect Donald J. Trump returning to the White House, media outlets large and small are taking steps to prepare for what they fear could be a legal and political onslaught against them from the new administration and Mr. Trump’s allies inside and outside the government," warns The New York Times.
Speaking to Times staff reporter David Enrich, I laid bare the stakes facing the only science news outlet by and for Asian Americans:
[Mr. Ip's] fear is that subjects of critical articles will harass the site with retaliatory litigation.
“We’ve already seen an escalating trend of journalists being targeted by both Republican and Democratic local administrations prior to the election,” Mr. Ip wrote in an email. “However, after the election, my personal judgment is that we cannot afford not doing prepublication review for these stories anymore, because the risk is too large, especially from far-right bad actors.”
Last November, our newsroom unanimously voted to remove our presence on Twitter, after our reporters received increasing xenophobic and racist attacks. Right now, lawyers from the University of Georgia First Amendment Law Clinic are poring over documents, photos, and manuscripts we gathered during two big investigations into law-breaking behavior by governmental agencies and industry power players in the climate and energy sectors.
I live just steps away from the burial place of Julia Collier Harris, the first Georgian to win a Pulitzer Prize. She wrote tirelessly about Black America in Jim Crow, the KKK, and the Scopes Monkey Trial, which sought to ban the teaching of evolution in schools. I specifically asked to have my photo for the Times story taken at Historic Oakland Cemetery to remind myself — and Times readers — what the stakes are and what we stand for.
Atlantans have been at the forefront of science and society coverage, and we are not about to let Mrs. Harris and you down.
Democracy needs news. News needs you.
Will you answer the call?
Thank you so much!
With gratitude,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor,
The Xylom
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