Nicolais: The news is bad for independent journalism these days

On Tuesday night I found myself unexpectedly heated in defense of journalism and the Fourth Estate. Sitting on a panel at the Denver Press Club, I wanted the audience to understand the significant threat the current environment for journalism poses to our country.

My tirade erupted as we discussed how journalists have been forced into obsequiousness.

The recent changes at the Washington Post ignited my passions. Owned by Amazon bazillionaire and oligarch Jeff Bezos, WaPo made national headlines in October when it announced it would not endorse in the upcoming presidential election. As a leading national paper that had made such hard choices for decades, it was more obvious than the shine on Bezos’ head that he did not want to earn the ire of Donald Trump.

After the election, the Bezos backslide gained momentum. 

For example, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit after the paper killed a cartoon she had submitted. The one-frame sketch depicted a few easily recognizable titans of industry, including a red-panted mouse, groveling before a statue of Trump and offering up gifts. One of the individuals holding out a bag of cash was Bezos.

Fast-forward a few months and Bezos issued a new edict to his editorial board. No opinion piece would be published that opposed his preferred viewpoint. The opinions editor, David Shipley, promptly quit. He understood that a paper willing to sell its integrity had better use at the bottom of a bird cage than in newsstands.

Most recently, columnist Ruth Marcus, whose career at WaPo stretched across five decades, left when her column taking umbrage with Bezos’ choice faced a similar fate. To leave a place that formed the centerpoint of your identity must have crushed Marcus. To leave because you could no longer watch its demise had to have taken a part of her soul.

In the wake of these changes and others like them, WaPo has bled subscribers. Hundreds of thousands of people — including me — have canceled in protest. Many believe that Bezos does not care about the effect on WaPo as long as his golden goose, Amazon, remains in the good graces of Trump.

But Bezos obviously does not care about our democracy either.

The death of independent journalism due to the actions of men like Bezos runs neck-and-neck with the assault on the judicial systems as a threat to our country’s form of government. I wrote about the former last week, even before reports that Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s sister had received death threats. It seemed fitting to address the latter now.

Bezos and WaPo are hardly alone. Major media outlets have made extraordinary changes in the wake of Trump’s election. For example, MSNBC has fired or moved on from a swath of on-air talent, predominantly from minority positions, since Trump came to office.

For those that have not chosen to kowtow, there have been consequences. For example, the Associated Press came into Trump’s crosshairs for calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico rather than his preferred Oceanic-esque “Gulf of America.” Trump banned the AP from the Oval Office and several of his agencies followed suit.  

This is Autocracy 101. Co-opt courts, kill independent journalism.

It would be naive to imagine this is entirely Trump-created. To the contrary, it seems to be more and more common in every aspect of the world we live in today. Proof of that sat to my left on the panel Tuesday night.

Sean Keeler is a sports columnist for the Denver Post. He is a skilled writer who spent decades honing his craft. He has a critical eye and relays his thoughts authentically to his audience. Which is how he ended up with his most prominent position: Deion “Primetime” Sanders’ personal whipping boy. 

This past August, the University of Colorado, my alma mater several times over, made national headlines when it banned Keeler from asking Sanders questions during news conferences. Apparently, Primetime had no time for anyone that had anything but positive reviews of him and his program. The state’s highest paid public employee could not handle a little public scrutiny.

More shameful, CU backed his play. I understand that there are financial ramifications — Sanders earns his paycheck and then some through the dollars he brings in — but it is shameful that an institution of higher learning would allow a journalist to be muzzled for what he put in print.

It is equally shameful that a room full of reporters did not walk out in solidarity with Keeler. Instead, they keep their questions Primetime-approved in hopes he will continue to grace them with quotes to fill their column inches.

That is trading accountability for access. A few years ago, Kyle Clark gave an eloquent interview about the problems it causes. Effectively, journalists launder slanted spin to an unsuspecting public in exchange for access. The resulting stories are both misleading and dangerous.

Years ago I authored a column for an infamous editorial page entitled “News Matters.” If we are not careful to protect that, we could find ourselves in a place where nothing matters.

Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on Bluesky: @MarioNicolais.bsky.social.

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