Mr. Froomkin, an acute observer of the press, will be discussing how the media should respond to, and cover, the current threats of MAGA extremism. Dan is a trailblazer of accountability journalism with more than two decades of experience as a reporter, editor, and observer of the press. He began his career as a local journalist, and for over a decade edited the enormously popular White House Watch column for the Washington Post.
Dan founded Press Watch (presswatchers.org) in 2019. He has been a pioneer of online journalism building, editing and contributing to websites including the Huffington Post, The Intercept, and the Nieman Foundation’s Watchdog Project. He teaches in NYU’s American Journalism Online master’s program.
Long before Trump’s challenges to the Press, Dan Froomkin provided consistent critiques of the media for being shallow, focused on the political horse race and too easily distracted; for treating elitist conventional wisdom as objective fact, and being out of touch with the rest of America. Today, with one party becoming authoritarian and promoting dangerous lies, “both-sidesism” has become a threat to our democracy. Dan will discuss what the press must do to meet the challenge of our times.