An alarming rise in violence against journalists

There are inherent risks in journalism. Reporters race toward danger, often minutes behind first responders, with no means to protect themselves beyond helmets and flak jackets. From Colonial pamphleteers to 19th century muckrakers and modern digital reporters, journalists have for centuries been ridiculed and taunted. If they're doing their jobs right, they are exposing hard truths that someone doesn't want told.

Today feels different, however. Violence against journalists has increased markedly over the past couple of years in the United States. In 2023, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker recorded 45 assaults on journalists, 86 in 2024 and 139 so far this year — an alarming increase in a very short period.

Perhaps the most extreme example of violence against journalists came on Jan. 6, 2021, when 18 were assaulted at the U.S. Capitol. In one instance, rioters grabbed Associated Press photographer John Minchillo and shoved him through the crowd and down stairs before throwing him over a stone wall, Press Freedom Tracker reports.

Minchillo survived. A Long Islander was among those charged. Peter Moloney, 60, of Bayport, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to felony assault on law enforcement and a misdemeanor assault for attacking Minchillo and a camera operator. He was to be sentenced in February.

Before sentencing could take place, President Donald Trump, on his first day back in office Jan. 20, issued a mass clemency order, granting pardons to roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including Moloney, and commutations to 14 others.

Jan. 6 was one instance of a broader pattern of violence against journalists. In 2018, a mass shooting at the Capital Gazette in Maryland left five people dead — four journalists and a sales assistant. In 2022, Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was stabbed to death outside his home by Robert Telles, a Clark County public administrator, after publishing stories critical of him. Telles is serving a life sentence.

There was once an understanding, at least in the United States, that reporters are unarmed civilians, equipped with nothing more than pads, pens and recording equipment. Now, our nation's increasingly heated partisan rhetoric puts anyone in the public arena at risk, including those who cover it. The threat extends beyond journalists and officers, as demonstrated by the killing of 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.

It is long past time that we lay down our rhetorical arms, cast aside our political grievances and remember that words matter. Words can strike fear. Words can inflame an unstable mind.

Journalists are not "enemies of the people." Most report because they believe the First Amendment right to a free press is a cornerstone of our democracy — that citizens need factual information about events and issues within our society.

If journalists are afraid to do their jobs — to bring facts to light, to criticize — we all lose. The fear of covering the news, whether brought on by the threat of violence or a lawsuit filed by the president, diminishes our collective freedom, eroding all our rights as citizens.

Just last week, most journalists who cover the Pentagon turned in their press credentials rather than submit to a new set of overbearing rules that would subject them to potential criminal prosecution for asking difficult questions. The Pentagon Press Association called it a "dark day for press freedom."

To silence journalists is to silence democracy. We cannot let that happen. All of us must speak out against political violence and any other diminishment of the First Amendment rights to free speech and a free press, without regard to party affiliation.

This guest essay reflects the views of Hofstra University graduate journalism director Scott Brinton, a Press Club of Long Island board member, and the views of PCLI's board.