The Influential Watchdog

PAST EVENT:

The American Press. Are they truth sayers? Advisors to guide our votes? Neutral eyewitnesses? Or are they simply disappearing somewhere in between?

In 1791, freedom of the press was established in the First Amendment.  Over 230 years later, with an ever-evolving technological and information landscape, what does freedom of the press and the responsibility of the press mean today?

After the first 2024 presidential debate, CNN was criticized for not fact checking candidates, especially former President Trump. The press also came under scrutiny for not shining a light on health concerns for President Biden. And although newspapers have been trending away from political endorsements, following the debate, the The New York Times editorial board called for President Biden to “leave the race” and declared former President Trump “unfit to lead.” Now, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy, the press has been chided for not asking tougher questions of the vice president, including not pushing more forcefully for a sit-down interview in a timely fashion.

Against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential election, this panel event featured a discussion on the press’ role and influence on U.S. elections, diving into questions about whether the press continues to serve the basic principles that our founders envisioned, the role of local newsrooms, impacts of a polarized electorate and media landscape on local and national elections, and Americans’ views on the role and responsibility of the press.

Steve Kraske, host of “Up to Date” on KCUR 89.3 moderated the panel discussion. Featured panelists included:

• • David Bauder, national media and entertainment writer – The Associated Press (AP News)
  • Joshua Darr, political scientist and associate professor – Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
  • Jessica González, co-CEO – Free Press
  • CJ Janovy, director of content – KCUR 89.3 (Kansas City’s NPR Affiliate)
  • Nick Mathews, Ph.D., assistant professor – Reynolds Journalism Institute at University of Missouri

This event was presented in partnership with KCUR 89.3, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, and the Kansas City Media Collective.

Program Recording

Event Photos

Steve Kraske hosts “Up to Date,” a daily talk show on KCUR, the public-radio affiliate in Kansas City. His topics range from housing to race to poverty to the Kansas City Chiefs. Steve talks to governors, best-selling authors and citizens affected by the social forces of the day. He also teaches journalism and is a career-long print and broadcast journalist. He has covered every president since Gerald Ford, 13 national political conventions, the Iowa caucuses, and numerous races for governor, the U.S. Senate, and Congress.

He was a 1992 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and a 2016 fellow at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. In 2019, 435 Magazine named him one of the 50 most powerful people in Kansas City. He holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

David Bauder is the national media writer for The Associated Press. He has covered the television and music industries for AP, and also covered state capitols in New York and Connecticut for AP and the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate.

He is an adjunct professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and has served as a juror for the DuPont-Columbia Awards, broadcast journalism’s most prestigious prize.

Joshua P. Darr joined the Newhouse School in Fall 2023. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Darr was the associate dean of research and strategic initiatives and associate professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University.

Professor Darr’s research focuses on campaign strategy, political knowledge, partisan polarization and local news. In their 2021 book, “Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization” (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Darr and co-authors studied what happened when a local newspaper dropped national opinion coverage, finding less polarization and more discussion of state and local issues in the resulting space.

Among the numerous awards he’s received, Darr received the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2022 for his project, “Partnering with Local News to Reduce Polarization,” which investigates the ways that newsrooms can earn back trust and reduce political polarization through their coverage of local and national politics.

Darr earned a Ph.D. in political science in 2015 and an M.A. in political science in 2011 from the University of Pennsylvania. He also received a B.A. in political science from Boston College in 2009.

Jessica González leads efforts to change the nation’s media system so that it can support a just and multiracial democracy. A public-policy lawyer by training, Jessica knows that the biggest problems in our media can be solved only by organizing and building power with ordinary people.

Jessica cut her teeth representing civil-rights and pro-democracy groups in regulatory proceedings and appellate court cases as a staff attorney and teaching fellow in a Georgetown Law clinic. She then ran the federal policy shop and coordinated campaigns against racist and xenophobic media programming at the National Hispanic Media Coalition. In her two decades in the field, Jessica has advanced policy efforts at the intersection of media, tech, racial justice and democracy. She regularly appears as an expert witness before Congress and in the media, with press appearances on the BBC, CBS, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post and more.

Jessica co-led Stop Hate for Profit’s Facebook advertising boycott, which pushed over 1,000 advertisers to drop Facebook in protest of its lax enforcement of rules to stop hate and protect democracy ahead of the 2020 election. The effort forced Facebook to deplatform Q-Anon and showed the tech industry that it will be held accountable for destabilizing democracy. Recently she co-led the Stop Toxic Twitter campaign in response to Elon Musk’s reckless leadership, pushing more than half of Twitter’s main advertisers to leave the platform over his re-platforming of white supremacists and Big Lie conspiracists.

Jessica grew up in a working-class union family in Los Angeles. She’s been a grocery-store clerk, a public-school teacher, a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School and a Ricardo Salinas Scholar at the Aspen Institute. She sits on the Real Facebook Oversight Board and the board of directors of America’s Voice and the Latino Media Collaborative, and is a former board member of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and the Media and Democracy Coalition.

C.J. Janovy is director of content for KCUR, Kansas City’s NPR affiliate, where she has also been digital managing editor and an arts and culture reporter.

Before joining KCUR, Janovy spent a decade as editor of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt-weekly, and served in academic communications. Her book “No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas,” won the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize and was named a Kansas Notable Book.

Dr. Nick Mathews is a two-time graduate of the University of Missouri, a veteran newsroom leader, a respected mentor and teacher and a prolific and award-winning academic scholar. From his first day as a freshman in 1997 to earning a master’s degree in 2019 to his current position as an assistant professor, Dr. Mathews proudly proclaims he is #MizzouMade.

Dr. Mathews is a leading researcher of rural and local news and information ecosystems. His work has earned top-paper honors at ICA and AEJMC conferences and has been published in top peer-reviewed journals. In much of his research, Dr. Mathews seeks to represent the audience, translating their lived experiences for news organizations to help improve those news organizations’ stability and viability in their communities. Ultimately, Dr. Mathews’ goal is to help journalism — through his scholarship, teaching and service to the field.

Before earning his doctorate from the University of Minnesota, he worked in the news industry for 22 years, including positions as the sports editor at the Houston Chronicle and a regional editor-in-chief for Berkshire-Hathaway.

Roving Reporter

Josh Merchant is The Beacon’s local government reporter in Kansas City.

After graduating from Seattle University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, they attended Columbia Journalism School, earning a master’s degree in investigative journalism. Josh aims to go beyond writing the news of the day to help community members understand how government works, why it matters and how to get involved.

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Fact Checkers

Ashley Muddiman, Ph.D., is the associate professor and associate chairperson of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas.

Maria Benevento is the education reporter for The Beacon Kansas City and covers K-12 and higher education on both sides of the state line. She spent three years as a Report for America corps member and has reported for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Columbia Missourian and National Catholic Reporter. She graduated from Creighton University in 2015 and from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism in 2021.

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