Rebecca Carroll, Farai Chideya, Bret Stephens, & Roger Berkowitz
The Press + The Resistance
Thomas Jefferson wrote that if forced to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” A free press was so important to the Founding Fathers that they included its protection in the First Amendment, alongside free speech. With the three branches of our government now controlled by one party, does the Fourth Estate – the press – have a higher obligation to hold the government accountable? Or do those circumstances make the independence and impartiality of the press even more important than before? Should the press even attempt a neutral stance when the institution of journalism, and journalists themselves, are attacked and de-legitimized by the executive branch? Join reporter and political/cultural analyst Farai Chideya, Bret Stephens and Roger Berkowitz for a conversation moderated by Rebecca Carroll on the role of the press in an endangered liberal democracy.
*Closed captioning provided.
Roger Berkowitz | Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center
Farai Chideya | Author, Political Reporter and Analyst, and Program Officer for Journalism at the Ford Foundation
Bret Stephens | Contributing columnist, The New York Times
Rebecca Carroll | Editor of special projects at WNYC New York Public Radio, author and cultural critic
