Former Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron expressed concern for the future of the free press under the President Donald Trump administration in conversation with communication professor and journalist Janine Zacharia at the 58th annual McClatchy Symposium hosted by the Department of Communication Tuesday. 

The symposium focused on the risks facing journalists under Trump’s second term. Addressing a packed audience at Blount Hall, Zacharia and Baron discussed options to counter attacks from a president who has called the news media the “enemy of the American people.”

“When you have a president who is inciting the American public every day against the press, then the odds increase that something terrible is going to happen,” said Baron, who led The Post’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and The Boston Globe’s coverage of the Catholic church’s sexual abuse scandal, which inspired the 2015 film “Spotlight.” 

Trump’s re-entrance to office follows a string of lawsuits he brought against numerous media outlets, including ABC, CBS and CNN, citing defamation and misinformation. More recently, Trump has removed four major news outlets, including The New York Times, from their spaces at the Pentagon to make room for other outlets in a new media rotation program.

James Hamilton, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and communication professor, told The Daily he hoped the symposium would “bring a deep discussion about press freedom to campus.” 

Following the talk, Baron spoke briefly with The Daily about the role of student journalists in future reporting. 

“If they have the right communication skills and technical skills, [students] can shape journalism for the future because they’ll be the ones inventing a new journalism for a new era,” Baron said. 

During the previous Trump administration, he hired additional security for his reporters out of fear of “harassment and real threats” they faced from the Trump administration, Baron recalled. He sees the same dangers in the second administration.

Baron is the author of the book “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post,” which covers the economics of news and the ethics of accountability. Throughout his career, Baron oversaw coverage leading to numerous accolades, including 11 Pulitzer Prizes while he was executive editor at The Post and six while he was top editor at The Boston Globe. 

Eight years ago, in Feb. 2017, Zacharia moderated a panel on how journalists should cover Trump. 

“[The symposium] feels not only like a follow on to that conversation, but an emergency update,” she said. “Today, Trump sues news outlets… his FCC chairman is investigating our top media public outlets.”

Prior to her move to Stanford, where she teaches news writing and reporting, Zacharia worked at numerous news outlets, including The Washington Post, where she reported throughout the Middle East. 

Baron worried Trump would go beyond subpoenas to “outright prosecut[ing]” journalists under suspicion of espionage. Trump has previously threatened to jail reporters for coverage he disliked. 

Zacharia agreed with Baron’s sentiment, placing emphasis on public media sources such as NPR and PBS that risk becoming “a billboard for Trump’s aggressive attacks” due to their reliance on federal funding.

Baron expressed gratitude for Jeff Bezos’ approach to ownership of The Washington Post during the last Trump administration, “letting [them] do their work” and “resisting enormous pressure from Trump.” However, after The Washington Post declined to endorse a candidate for the 2024 election, Baron surmised that “something has changed” in Bezos, likely a fear of retaliation.

The pair also reflected on journalism’s evolving role in society. 

“The hard part is reaching people who don’t necessarily read you,” Baron said. “Forget about a far right media… a third of the American public don’t even get their news from media.” 

Baron urged greater transparency in the news, calling for outlets to release the documents and videos behind their reporting as a means to improve trust.

“There are people everywhere who are struggling, and their struggles are not understood by the mainstream media,” Baron said. He pointed to a decrease in local journalism as part of the problem, saying that many don’t see journalism in their local communities and never know “the human being involved.” 

In recent years, the share of adults who consume local news has dropped, and more than half of U.S. counties have no access or very limited access to local news, reflecting a significant decline in local newsrooms.

Hannah Woodworth M.A. ’25, a master’s student in data journalism, found a sense of renewed encouragement in the event. 

“The ease with which he speaks about journalism reaffirmed to me why this matters and why we need to go into this work,” she said. “I believe investing in local news is the answer right now. And he reaffirmed that.”

George Porteous contributed reporting.