CBS Evening News over the weekend released five “principles” that would guide the program under Tony Dokoupil, who was installed into the anchor role at the show as part of a number of changes by editor in chief Bari Weiss. One of the principles is “We Love America.” It mirrored how Washington Post Opinions section editor Adam O’Neal promised the section would be “unapologetically patriotic” under his leadership after he took the helm last summer.
Weiss is blocking anti-Trump content from being aired; O’Neal is directing an editorial page that now constantly defends the president, including an editorial on Saturday extolling Trump unilaterally overthrowing the Venezuelan government. That rightward shift is exactly what the billionaires (David Ellison and Jeff Bezos) who installed these new execs were aiming for.
But their framing of center-right, pro-Trump journalism as pro-America and patriotic is telling—and alarming. Patriotism and loving America, whether in journalism or politics, does not mean ignoring some of this country’s biggest problems, from racism to income inequality to an authoritarian president. And with Trump acting like a dictator, what we need from journalism and other key institutions in society right now is not celebrating the United States but its exact opposite: questioning how America got to the point where it twice elected a law-flouting madman and how to prevent that from ever happening again.
It’s worth unpacking what CBS and the Post are fighting against. Is there some vein of anti-American journalism out there? Yes, at least according to people who have embraced Weiss’s approach. The period from 2014 to 2024 saw a lot of journalism, including in mainstream outlets like the Post, CBS, and The New York Times, that deeply questioned the status quo in the United States. That coverage was inspired by what was happening politically, particularly the surprising rise of candidates like Trump and Bernie Sanders that reflected Americans’ dissatisfaction with both political parties and movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.
There was a lot of extensive reporting about the massive growth in the wealth of billionaires like Bezos and the widening inequality in power and money of people like him compared to average Americans. Some of this journalism questioned if the superrich truly deserved to have so much more money than everyone else. Meanwhile, the Times’ 1619 Project, the writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates, and other journalism on racial issues argued that the country remained rife with racial injustice and inequality.
These coverage directions irritated many in the center-right and right. Weiss’s other news outlet, The Free Press, is deeply critical of journalism that focuses on racism. Bezos, in explaining his new vision of the Post Opinion section last year, all but stated that being pro-America means being pro-Amazon, pro-billionaire, and pro-Bezos.
“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” he wrote. “Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical—it minimizes coercion—and practical—it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity,” he wrote in a tweet.
But patriotism and loving America do not require, as Bezos implies, accepting or condoning hyper-capitalism, income equality, racism, and other ills of the United States. There is an alternative patriotism, where one looks at the ideals that America has expressed since the nation’s founding, such as liberty, justice, and freedom, and keeps pushing the nation to try to reach those as fully as possible.
Writer Theodore R. Johnson uses the term “Black patriotism” to refer to Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and other prominent African Americans who were critical of the U.S. policies of their day but deeply committed to the nation itself. People in journalism like 1619 lead author Nikole Hannah-Jones and politicians like Bernie Sanders aren’t tearing down America by pointing at the nation’s flaws and suggesting ways to improve it.
But while I want to emphasize that journalism that is critical of America can still be patriotic, it’s also fine if journalism or individual journalists are not particularly pro-America. O’Neal and Weiss shouldn’t be imposing a patriotism test on the journalists who work for them. Politicians are supposed to appeal to the masses, and that requires being super patriotic. But the role of journalists is to report, investigate, speak clearly and forcefully, and hold the powerful accountable. The driving values of journalists should be accuracy, rigor, creativity, fearlessness, curiosity—not patriotism.
I would have written all that even if Joe Biden or Kamala Harris were president. But with Trump ripping the leaders of the other nations from their homes with no congressional authorization on flimsy legal pretenses and violating core democratic principles hourly, the idea that journalists (or really anyone else) should be celebrating America right now is crazy. All of the worst tendencies of America—racism, sexism, imperialism, cronyism, homophobia, hyper-capitalism, and more—have been concentrated into one administration and, really, one man.
Imagine you were a Native American or Black journalist at CBS or the Post, already aware of all of the other horrible things that have happened to your ancestors in the United States; and now you are required by your boss to celebrate America in the midst of the Trump presidency. You would be doing what all journalists are trained not to: lying.
In fact, some of the best journalism about the United States these days, particularly its foreign policy decisions, comes from The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and other outlets that are not U.S.-based. That’s in part because many U.S.-based outlets, not just the Post and CBS, are somewhat invested in being pro-America, which they interpret as being not too critical of the U.S. government. But this is a time for journalists to be aggressive watchdogs of Trump, his administration, the Republican judges and members of Congress allied with him, and even Democrats who want to duck holding this administration accountable. We need strong journalism in this period—even if it reveals that there are some things fundamentally broken with America that led us to this place.
If you’re reading The New Republic, you’ve probably already figured out that CBS and the Post Opinion section aren’t great places to get honest takes on Trump these days. Even if you’re no longer consuming their content though, it’s important to understand that those outlets and the billionaire class supporting them believe that being patriotic means celebrating America in 2025 and that pointing out our current realities means you are unpatriotic.
But in truth, whether you are a journalist or a regular citizen, true patriotism and loving America demands that you do whatever you can to stop this president. And if Trump being elected twice has robbed you of a sense of pride in America, that’s OK too. That’s how I feel right now.
