Petition: Media Must Cover DOJ's Press Attack as Autocracy

The Trump administration subpoenaed four New York Times journalists after they reported that the Qatari-gifted Air Force One lacked key security features of the older presidential aircraft — and that the Secret Service advised Trump not to fly it out of Turkey amid heightened tensions with Iran. The reporters have been ordered to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan. The Freedom of the Press Foundation called it out plainly: "When the government claims it needs to investigate journalists to protect national security, it really means its own reputational security." This is not the administration's first attack on the press — it has revoked credentials, banned outlets from briefings, and filed lawsuits against journalists throughout Trump's second term.

Subpoenaing reporters for publishing accurate, newsworthy information about the president's safety is not a national security measure. It is retaliation. It is an attempt to intimidate journalists, dry up sources, and signal to every newsroom in the country that covering this administration honestly carries legal consequences. Every authoritarian government in history has used the same playbook: call accurate reporting a crime, prosecute the reporters, and watch the coverage soften.

We call on the media to cover the DOJ's subpoenas of New York Times journalists not as a legal procedural story, but as a direct assault on press freedom — one that threatens every outlet's ability to hold this administration accountable. The public deserves reporting that treats attacks on journalism as attacks on democracy itself.