Editor’s note: This episode of The Metro aired prior to the president signing an executive order directing federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR.

Public trust in the free press has been steadily declining for decades and President Donald Trump’s combative relationship with the news media has further eroded that trust. He frequently refers to the free press as “the enemy of the people” and “fake news.” 

Those words have had an impact. 

In 2020, American journalists faced a sharp rise in attacks, especially during the Black Lives Matter protests. 

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, “at least 400 press freedom violations were reported, including physical assaults, arrests, and damage to equipment.”  

The committee found that many of these incidents, including roughly 300 assaults, were attributed to law enforcement.

On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump continued his rhetoric against the press.

“To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. I don’t mind that so much,” he told a crowd in Pennsylvania.

Now, after Trump’s first 100 days in office, the Committee to Protect Journalists is sounding a louder alarm. 

It says the beginning of Trump’s term has “been marked by a flurry of executive actions that have created a chilling effect and have the potential to curtail media freedoms. These measures threaten the availability of independent, fact-based news for vast swaths of America’s population.”

Trump has banned reporters from his press conferences. He is selective of which media outlets he speaks to, and he has filed multiple lawsuits accusing media companies of misconduct against him. 

The president is also taking aim at NPR and PBS.

NPR reported last month that the administration plans to request Congress cut funding from NPR and PBS — news and information that is not profit-based and relies on funding from listeners, sponsorships, and the government. WDET is an NPR affiliate station that also would feel strong impacts from these cuts.

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik joined The Metro on Thursday to talk more about this.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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Gaza is a “news graveyard,” according to the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

At least 232 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began. Some appear to have been targeted by the Israeli army, while others were killed alongside civilians. 

“The war in Gaza has, since October 2023, killed more journalists than the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined,” a Costs of War report reads.

On Sunday, the number of journalist fatalities grew when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent camp in a hospital complex in southern Gaza. 

Journalist Helmi al-Faqawi was among the 10 killed. At least nine other journalists were severely injured when the encampment caught fire. 

It has been said — about journalists in Gaza and in many other places — that you can kill a journalist, but you can’t kill the story. 

This unflinching spirit of the press — to seek out the truth and report it at any cost — is central to The Gaza Project. It is a collaboration among more than 40 journalists across a dozen news organizations. Forbidden Stories is coordinating the project. The nonprofit works “to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder.”

Hoda Osman is the executive editor at Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, among the news organizations working on The Gaza Project. She joined The Metro to discuss the findings thus far from The Gaza Project and some of the journalists who have been killed.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Tuesday, April 8:

• Detroit’s oldest choir has a new director
• ‘Jazz-A-Bet’ book bridges music history and children’s literature
• Fighting food waste with composting in metro Detroit

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.