Journalists at UMass Event Address the Challenges of Reporting During the Second Trump Administration

By Kiera McLaughlin

This event was held on Zoom on November 12, 2025, and was recorded.   

Even though this is our second time around with President Donald Trump at the helm, the current administration has posed a greater threat to democracy and freedom of speech than the first one. To address current threats to journalism, the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy  and the Chancellor’s Community, Democracy and Dialogue Initiative, both at UMass Amherst, partnered to hold a discussion titled, “Investigative Journalism in an Age of Autocracy.”

Four young journalists were invited to share their experiences reporting first-hand on the second Trump administration. 

Jasper Craven moderated the event. He works as a freelance reporter covering the military and veterans issues with articles published by The New York Times, Mother Jones, and The Intercept.
The panel was comprised of Gaby Del Valle, a policy reporter for The Verge covering the far right and immigration, Shawn Musgrave, a media law attorney and newsroom counsel at The Intercept specializing in press freedom and investigative reporting, and Alexander Sammon, a features writer at Slate currently covering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and immigration policy. 

The evening focused on the importance of independent news organizations, and their coverage outside of legacy media.  The panelists were asked, as democratic norms erode and press freedoms face growing threats, to talk about how journalists can hold power to account and the challenges of truth-telling in an era of censorship, intimidation, and rising authoritarianism.

Craven said, “These days much of the most interesting work really is occurring in smaller outlets, not necessarily The New York Times or The Washington Post,” 

Musgrave argued that the breaking news often comes from larger, more powerful news outlets, and trickles down to small news outlets for ongoing investigation and accountability. He emphasized the importance of protecting the Freedom of Information Act which permits any citizen to request access to records from the United States government at the federal and state levels.

“I’ll say that where The Times and The Post and The Journal have access and deep sourcing and they get leaks, I largely do like first person magazine features stuff, I have something else, which is I’m allowed to have opinions and experiences and put them in print,” Del Valle pointed out, based on her experience covering the far right.

“Writing for smaller outlets that let you be ‘voiceier’, I think is a big opportunity in a lot of ways, and not necessarily a hindrance,” she added. 

Sammon observed that while covering the ICE raids and changes in immigration policy she has found that government officials are more likely to blatantly lie, both to reporters and in the courts, since the second administration came into office.

All the journalists agreed that when it comes to what the President can and will do, we are in a time of uncertainty which can greatly influence journalism. 

“I think that [Trump] and his stable of ridiculous lawyers are realizing they don’t need to change anything about libel law, if there are other levers they can pull on where they can file a ridiculous however many million dollar suit against CBS News and then it turns out they can just extract a settlement based off of a theory that is legally laughable and eminently winnable,” Musgraves said.

In the context of their conversation about large news outlets and her experience as a immigration reporter, Valle added, “I think because so much of elite journalism focuses on elite institutions and doesn’t understand the dynamics of what people are thinking and what they want, it leads to the Trump Administration thinking that they have a mandate on immigration.”

To see change for the better, Craven argued, local newspapers have the most power.

“I think what’s important, personally, is to see–on the local level–neighbors, people whose issues and whose activism can be tied to local matters. I think that’s how you start to understand these movements, and obviously there’s not local news everywhere. There should be more of it, and that’s a huge accelerant for all of these issues that we have been discussing tonight,” he said.

In the end, the journalists also agreed that personal stories are the most important and impactful. For Sammon, interacting with everyday people keeps him motivated and optimistic as a journalist.

“It is amazing actually how greatly our rights have been abrogated at some level, but by the same token, there are truly everyday people who are out there and are refusing to just take it lying down,” he said.

Going forward, the Ellsberg Initiative plans to continue highlighting journalists in their annual lectures. On November 19, the 4th Annual Ellsberg Lecture featured Farai Chideya, American multimedia journalist and radio host on NPR, who discussed similar topics around democracy and media in the United States. The event was titled How to Read the United States on the Eve of 250 (years). The  Indy will post a link to that presentation when it becomes available)

About the Ellsberg Initiative at UMass
In 2019, the UMass Amherst  announced the acquisition of the papers of Daniel Ellsberg, one of the nation’s foremost political activists and whistleblowers. The collection includes materials related to his prominent role in releasing the Pentagon Papers, his fight against nuclear weapons, and other steps he took to champion democracy, free speech, and social justice.

During the 2020–21 academic year, the university sponsored multiple ventures to explore his life and legacy, including a year-long seminar, the Ellsberg Archive Project website, a five-episode podcast series, and a free, online conference with more than two dozen high-profile scholars, journalists, former policymakers, whistleblowers, and activists.

The interest from students, scholars, and community members was undeniable, with thousands listening to the podcasts and participating in various events. To build on this momentum, the university launched the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy. The initiative’s mission is to promote public understanding, scholarship, and activism in support of compelling and sustainable alternatives to militarism, authoritarianism, and environmental degradation. It recognizes that some of the world’s most pressing problems are interrelated and can only be resolved adequately through multidisciplinary problem solving.