Center for Communication & Civic Renewal

In 2025 the United States ranked 57 world wide on press freedom. That is a pretty bad score. It was based on 2024 data, before Trump took office.

One can hardly imagine what the 2026 score and ranking will be like.

#pressfreedom

We'll have more analysis from the party delegate survey in 2026, with deeper dives beyond the descriptive stats here.

Thanks! /End

Threats:

2/3 of delegates in both parties answered 'yes' to "Because of your political views or your role, has anyone ever made you feel physically unsafe?"

Threats were reported most from the opposing side. Democrats were slightly more likely to report threats from more than one direction. 10/

Democrats distrusted Fox News (79%) and conservative media (99%) most, while Republicans distrusted MSNBC (42%) & CNN (37%) most.

Democrats tended to distrust the sources that Reps trust most, while Republicans tended to distrust sources that Dems don't trust as much. 9/

Chart: Dems chose NYT (19%) and NPR (22%) as most trusted outlets, along with 14% choosing progressive outlets. 9% for MSNBC. Reps chose Fox News (31%) and conservative media (58%) most. 19% said they trust none.

Media Trust:

Democratic delegates tended to trust mainstream news outlets most, while Republican delegates trusted Fox News and other rightwing media most. 8/

Dems support national popular vote for president 95 vs. 7 for Reps, support making Puerto Rico a state 93 vs. 14, support amending the constitution by popular vote 51 vs. 15, and support more protections for workers & consumers against corporate harm 96 vs. 23.

Party gaps among delegates were similarly stark for supporting specific changes for rights, representation, and well-being.

The amendment item was about ratifying national constitutional changes by popular vote, as many states do. The corporate item referenced protecting workers & consumers. 7/

Chart Dems favor ensuring a decent life 68% to 42%, favor equal treatment by government 81 to 24, favor equal say in gov't 88 to 13, and 43% of Reps chose "none of these" compared to 1% of Dems.

Goals for America:

The survey also showed enormous gaps between the parties on which democratic values they endorse as goals for America, with far greater endorsement among Democrats. 6/

Chart. 40% of Reps and 34% of Dems agree delegates should have more discretion to choose nominees. Almost twice as much as disagree.

72% of Reps and 60% of Dems believe delegates should write public platforms.

Delegates thought their party would do a little better if delegates had more autonomy to choose presidential nominees, as they did pre-1972.

And they agreed that their party should write public platforms. 5/

Chart showing 51% of Reps & 75% of Dems think the parties should try to find more common ground on policy in government.

Majorities in both parties agreed that the parties should spend more time finding common ground on policy-making. Democratic delegates were substantially more likely to agree with this idea than Republican delegates. 4/

Chart showing Dems & Reps perceive an even split in successful party strategy between persuading vs. mobilizing for both parties, but each party thinks the other does a little better when they do more persuading.

Party Strategy:

Delegates in both parties were evenly split when forced to choose an election strategy of mobilizing existing supporters versus persuading undecided voters. But each party thinks the other does a little better when they do more persuading. 3/

First, here's a link to the full report, which covers delegates' views on party strategy, goals for America, media trust, and experiences with threats. 2/ cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...

Republican and Democratic convention delegates agree on strategy and not much else A look at a new survey on party convention delegates

CCCRers @nathankalmoe.bsky.social & @prowag.bsky.social have a post on party convention delegates in Tusk today! Thanks to @smotus.bsky.social for the guest post & @bcburden.bsky.social for organizing the survey!

Below is a 🧵 w/ more details from the report. 1/ smotus.substack.com/p/republican...

Thanks for letting us crash the party, Seth! cc: @nathankalmoe.bsky.social

Full survey report here:
cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...

Republican and Democratic convention delegates agree on strategy and not much else A look at a new survey on party convention delegates

Nice guest post up at Tusk from @nathankalmoe.bsky.social and @prowag.bsky.social on the results of a @bcburden.bsky.social survey of 2024 national convention delegates from both parties.
smotus.substack.com/p/republican...

Here is a list I post from time to time. My answer to a reader who asked me: what could journalists do NOW to break with some of their more corrosive habits. Defense of democracy seen as basic to the job. Symmetrical accounts of asymmetrical realities seen as malpractice. “Politics as strategic game” frame seen as low quality, downmarket, amateurish— and overmatched. Bad actors with a history of misinforming the public seen as unsuitable sources and unwelcome guests. Internalizing of the “liberal bias” critique seen as self-crippling, a historic mistake in need of correction.

Here's something I post from time to time. My answer to a reader who asked me: what could journalists do NOW to break with some of their more corrosive habits.

The full write up is here:

Was It Something The Democrats Said?
A Response to Third Way’s Political Language Memo

open.substack.com/pub/dcinboxi...

The only thing I can say about this paragraph is read it. Sit with it. Read it again. @michaelharriot.bsky.social

With Cuts to Federal Funding, How Will Public Media in the U.S. Survive? - Nieman Reports With cuts to federal funding, how will public media in the U.S. survive? Gabe Bullard writes, "The closure of the CPB will hurt NPR and PBS, but the most immediate and devastating blow will be to the ...

I'm closely interviewed for this Nieman Lab report that discusses how rural areas will be affected by loss of funding for local NPR reporting. We must not underestimate the importance of equal access to information - we're about to witness a seismic ideological shift in American sense of "place."

We just learned we are the most visited nonprofit news site in the U.S.

How effective are user corrections on social media, and does adding a link to a fact check improve effectiveness?

In piece led by @sachaltay.bsky.social we find corrections have small effects, adding a fact-check unlikely to make them more effective misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/the-... 1/6

[deep sigh]

I legitimately wonder where the senior managers pushing LLM tools get the notion that they will save time. Personal experience says it's the equivalent of double checking the work of a particularly incompetent work-study student.

Such is management disconnect from the work being done.

A book cover with title “Listeners Like Who? Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry”

Copy of my book just arrived in the mail today! Feels unreal. You can preorder it here: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Missouri AG: Any AI That Doesn’t Praise Donald Trump Might Be “Consumer Fraud” (No, Really)

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey just sent threatening letters to Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta, claiming their AI chatbots violated Missouri's consumer protection laws. The crime? When asked…

When NPR left Twitter, traffic dropped by only a single percentage point.

niemanreports.org/npr-twitter-...