President Donald Trump has referred to the media as either “fake news” or the “enemy of the people” hundreds of times. He has threatened to file more lawsuits against journalists “to straighten out” the press and to revoke broadcasting licenses of networks that displease him. Which risks are the most worrisome and how can the media defend against them? How should the media operate in a second Trump administration amid such intimidation? What lessons have journalists learned over the past decade of covering Trump the politician?

Former Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron in conversation with Stanford Carlos Kelly McClatchy Lecturer Janine Zacharia

 Martin (Marty) Baron retired at the end of February 2021, after eight-plus years as executive editor of The Washington Post. News staffs under his leadership have won 18 Pulitzer Prizes. The Post won 11 Pulitzers for coverage during his tenure that included the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol and investigations of the National Security Agency and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. While he was top editor of The Boston Globe, it won six Pulitzer Prizes, including for its investigation into the Catholic Church’s concealment of clergy sex abuse. That coverage was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.” His book, “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post” was released in October 2023.

 Janine Zacharia, a former journalist for the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters and other news outlets, is an award-winning instructor at Stanford where she teaches news reporting and writing fundamentals and foreign correspondence. She is the author of newsroom playbooks including How to Report Responsibly on Hacks and Disinformation and Polarization and the Press: 12 Ways to Restore Respect for Your Reporting.