How Trump is attacking the media in US and what new system he wants to build
In America today, journalism still exists, but the chain that once ran from reporting to shared reality to institutional response has begun to break apart.
The consequence is a democracy where truth no longer matters, because facts can be published, verified, and still fail to trigger a response.
Democracy is dying in America because those in positions of power – starting with President Donald Trump. What began as a disinformation campaign has matured into a systematic project.
Read more about the dangerous strategy unfolding in the US in the column by Carla Norrlöf of the University of Toronto: Democracy dies without darkness. How Trump is killing the media in the US – and it's not just about the Washington Post.
The author notes that the new strategy of those in power in the US is aimed at diminishing the press’s ability to impose accountability at all.
According to Carla Norrlöf, silence is not the goal. The objective is not to monopolize media on paper, but to monopolize its effects.
"When major newsrooms are hollowed out through layoffs and cost-cutting, as the Washington Post’s just-announced 30% staff reduction illustrates, they lose the ability to be consequential. Single scoops are easily dismissed or waited out," the University of Toronto political science professor explains.
Moreover, when a major newsroom sits inside a conglomerate that is navigating mergers, regulatory scrutiny, and political exposure, independence can narrow without the need for an explicit instruction from the top.
Under such conditions, self-censorship becomes rational. It is implicit in the stories that never run, the investigations that are dropped because they might invite lawsuits or regulatory retaliation, and kid-glove coverage of politicians or corporate figures who could make the parent company’s life difficult. Once editors understand that certain fights have become corporate liabilities, risk avoidance becomes the new normal.
Another part of the strategy, the author adds, concerns public media, where the target is not just investigative capacity but services that cut across state borders, demographics, and ideology.
"Defunding National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), as Trump has done, is not merely about cultural grievance. The point is to apply structural pressure, eroding the shared facts on which democratic argument depends," Carla Norrlöf adds.
But distribution is perhaps the most underappreciated front. For more than a decade, Twitter functioned as the central circulatory system for American public discourse.
Then Elon Musk bought the platform, gutted its staff, and renamed it X.
"Soon enough, it stopped functioning as a shared civic distribution system for verified information. It now prioritizes engagement over verification, weakens credibility cues, and makes reach less predictable," the author writes.
In her view, taken together, these moves form a system. Journalism and facts still exist, but the chain that once ran from reporting to shared reality to institutional response begins to break apart.
According to Carla Norrlöf, accurate reporting no longer compels action, because facts can be published, verified, and still fail to trigger a response. When information loses its force, impunity follows.
"We are witnessing a systemic attack on American institutions and the American public’s ability to hold power to account. Democracy does not die only when speech is banned. It also dies when truthful speech ceases to matter," the author concludes.