May 20, 2025
Journalism Schools Are Facing Dual Pressures Under Trump
By Phoebe Grandi
The administration’s attacks on both news outlets and universities can place journalism schools—and their students—at an alarming intersection.
President Trump has threatened colleges across the country with federal funding cuts. As a letter from the administration to Harvard University last month made clear, academic programs with supposed “records of antisemitism” are facing demands to curb “ideological capture”—seemingly to shut down open discussion about Israel and its treatment of Palestinians in classrooms.
At the same time, the White House escalated its war on the free press earlier this month with the announcement of cuts to public subsidies for PBS and NPR for spreading “radical, woke propaganda.” These attack lines of “radical” and “woke” are commonly wielded by Trump and his allies to undermine journalists. And as the March abduction of a Tufts international student by plainclothes ICE officers for criticizing Israel in an op-ed makes clear, for student journalists, this faultline is particularly dangerous.
