We’re Demanding That Newsrooms Improve Their 2024 Election Coverage

With our democracy under threat, it’s more important than ever for news executives and journalists to step up and put the public before profit, democracy before tyranny, and truth before lies.

Yesterday, the Media and Democracy Project, along with 3,258 individuals, sent an open letter to executives, publishers, and union leaders of major media organizations (ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, Washington Post, NYT, Gannett/USAToday, Reuters, AP, PBS, CNN, WHCA) urging them to adopt pro-democracy election coverage guidelines that center fact-based reporting, push back against election lies, and uplift voting. MAD’s proposed guidelines respectfully request newsrooms switch their focus from polls and drama to candidates’ policies, past-governance, and behavior. 

MAD’s guidelines contain 18 recommendations organized into three categories—a focus on substantive issues coverage, extensive reporting on threats to democracy, and protecting Americans against the spread of disinformation. The guidelines provide specific actions reporters and editors can take to ensure practices that help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box

An overview of our guidelines asking newsrooms to prioritize substance over horse race. More information on each guideline can be found at our website.

The open letter emphasizes how crucial it is for voters to understand what’s at stake in November and the damaging impact that election lies have already had on our democracy. For instance, lies about the 2020 election have caused a spike in death threats for election officials and poll workers, making it difficult to recruit and retain them.

The letter includes signatories such as Ruth Ben-Ghiat, NYU Professor of History and author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present and the Lucid newsletter, who stated, "It's never been more important for news organizations to analyze the threats to U.S. democracy in clear and precise terms. Americans deserve to know the scale and nature of the challenges we face this November and beyond."

The rights and freedoms that Americans cherish are at risk. As an essential pillar of democracy, journalists and the news media have a moral responsibility to inform Americans about anti-democratic extremist movements. Another signatory, Mark Jacob, former Chicago Tribune editor and author of the Stop the Presses newsletter, said, “The news media know it's their job to warn people when a hurricane is bearing down on them. But when a fascist assault on our democracy is bearing down on them, the media sometimes think it would be biased to warn people about it. That has to change before it's too late.”

It’s more important than ever for journalists, editors, and their publishers to step up and put the public before profit, democracy before tyranny, and truth before lies. "Democracy is at stake–and as the open letter so powerfully demands, we need our news media to step up and be responsible,” said Norm Ornstein, political scientist and Senior Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute.

Do Your Part

You can learn more about each guideline, see who else signed the open letter, and add your name to this ongoing effort, by visiting MAD’s website. Signing our letter ensures that your frustrations with media’s failure to stand up for American democracy will be heard loud and clear.

Share the letter and guidelines with friends, civic organizations, and everyone who cares about the future of America. Ask them to sign on. Everyone can use the guidelines as a reference tool to demand better coverage by writing letters to the editor, or reaching out directly to journalists, when they fail to stand up for democracy (you should also praise journalists when they do a great job!). 

It’s time that newsrooms start to cover elections like they matter more than sports scores. Our democratic institutions are under attack and it’s incumbent upon newsrooms to recalibrate their political coverage to adopt and adhere to practices that are pro-truth, pro-voting, and pro-democracy. Together, we can help journalists make the moral choice to defend and uplift American democracy in its darkest hour.