Join the DC SPJ online program Monday, April 8 at 2 pm ET on covering the 2024 election where the future of democracy on the ballot. Our special guests will be Margaret Sullivan and Barton Gellman.
Register for the free webinar HERE
This November, the U.S. will hold one of the most consequential elections in its history. One candidate challenged the results of the 2020 election, helped gin up support for the January 6 insurrection, and has no qualms about what he’d do if re-elected in 2024. He’s suggested using the Justice Department to go after his political enemies, weakening protections for a nonpartisan civil service, and using an 1807 law to send in U.S. troops to police unrest in cities. This year, writes journalism professor Jay Rosen, the election must be about “not the odds, but the stakes.”
This election and its potential consequences cannot be left to big media outlets. Despite extensive coverage of what’s at stake by the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR and network news outlets, surveys in some key swing states reveal that two-thirds of voters are not aware of these threats. That’s not surprising, since polls show that Americans tend to trust local media more.
That means it will be up to hundreds of reporters, freelancers, and college journalists across the country to cover the 2024 presidential contest, as well as down-ballot races, in a way that informs the public and keeps faith with the SPJ code of ethics, which advises: “Search for and report the truth,” and “Minimize harm.”
Our two panelists embody the best in our profession. 
Media critic and author Margaret Sullivan, formerly executive editor of The Buffalo News, was public editor at The New York Times and a columnist for The Washington Post. She now writes a weekly column for the Guardian US, and is executive director of Columbia Journalism School’s Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security.
Barton Gellman, a three-time Pulitzer-prize-winner, and author, reported for The Washington Post for more than two decades, was a staff writer for The Atlantic, and is now senior advisor to the Brennan Center for Justice.
They will discuss how journalists can address these unprecedented challenges to their craft in a conversation you won’t want to miss.
Moderated by DC SPJ Chapter Board Member and Author, Celia Wexler.