Article in the Washington Post By A.G. Sulzberger (New York Times Publisher), September 5, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Headline: “Opinion: How the quiet war against press freedom could come to America”

Subhead: “Some foreign leaders have ruthlessly curtailed journalism. U.S. politicians could draw from their playbook”

“After several years out of power, the former leader is returned to office on a populist platform. He blames the news media’s coverage of his previous government for costing him reelection. As he sees it, tolerating the independent press, with its focus on truth-telling and accountability, weakened his ability to steer public opinion. This time, he resolves not to make the same mistake.

“Within a few years, only pockets of independence remain in the country’s news media, freeing the leader from perhaps the most challenging obstacle to his increasingly authoritarian rule. Instead, the nightly news and broadsheet headlines unskeptically parrot his claims, often unmoored from the truth, flattering his accomplishments while demonizing and discrediting his critics.“

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/05/sulzberger-free-press-new-york-times/