The free press is under attack in the United States. President Trump and his followers never miss an opportunity to criticize journalists. Trump delights in telling falsehoods about specific news organizations, and one of his favorite pastimes is to publicly say nasty things to female reporters.

If you take time to watch his press conferences, speeches, and interviews, you know what I’m talking about.

We have not in my 73 years had any other U.S. President who had a personal vendetta against the free press. His contempt for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is frightening to those of us who treasure freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

To mark World Press Freedom Day tomorrow, I will give just two examples of what we were made aware of this week thanks to the free press.

Defense Department Drone Deal

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Defense is going to purchase drones from a company owned by Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump.

You did not get that information from The White House or from the U.S. Department of Defense.

You got it from a free press.

1,000-Year-old UNESCO Site Damaged by Department of Homeland Security

The Washington Post reported that a bulldozer cut a 60-foot swath out of a 200-foot Native American archeological treasure on Friday, April 24, 2026.

Did The White House report it? Did the U.S. Department of Homeland Security report it?

No, the free press reported it.

The priceless site in in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) treasure that was partially destroyed was an etching in the desert sand known as an intaglio.

At least 1,000 years ago, ancestors of the Hia-ced O’odham Indigenous People scraped down to white soil under the desert sand to create a 200-foot long etching of a fish.

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issuing waivers for the construction of Trump’s border wall, the Trump Administration does not have to abide by the federal laws protecting the environment or sacred Indigenous sites while building the wall.

Now, thanks to those waivers and a President’s administration devoid of respect for history, nature, or indigenous peoples, a 60-foot swath has been ripped through the etching as the construction of the Trump wall between the United States and Mexico continues at the rate of three miles per week.

The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. An anonymous employee of that department confirmed to The Washington Post that the damage had been done by the Department of Homeland Security.

The Tohono O’odham Nation was able to prevent the first Trump Administration from building the wall across its reservation. They were able to protect the intaglio and a sacred burial site then, but that protection has been ignored by the second Trump Administration.

Archaeologist Rick Martynec, who has studied the site over the last 20 years, reported that the Refuge had been in discussions with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure the intaglio was not damaged. When he visited the site a couple of weeks ago, he saw stakes in place that marked the boundaries of the etching.

Various people and groups were actively working to make sure the Department of Homeland Security did not destroy the site, but it was all to no avail.

And we would not know it if not for the free press.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.