American Media Under the Boot: Journalism, Corporate Interference, and Complicity

The American press is facing a multi-front assault, from the Washington Post’s decimation to high-profile settlements at ABC and CBS. As the American media landscape is increasingly cowed by legal and financial intimidation and widespread distrust, is the erosion of the fourth estate accelerating beyond repair? 

Featuring Ruth Marcus, contributing writer at The New Yorker and former editor at the Washington Post, Oliver Darcy, founder and lead author at the daily newsletter Status and former senior media reporter at CNN and Franklin Foer, staff writer at The Atlantic and former editor of The New Republic. Moderated by former co-anchor of the CBS Evening News and IOP Pritzker Fellow John Dickerson.

This event is the keystone for the IOP’s annual David S. and Ann Broder Journalism Week, which honors the legacy of two University of Chicago alumni – David Broder, a titan of journalism who changed the game of political reporting in Washington and Ann Broder, a lifelong champion of civic service. David Broder’s columns for the Washington Post on the Watergate scandal inspired his nickname “Dean of the Press Corps” and earned him the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. His wife Ann generously directed that the funds her family has donated to UChicago for years be allocated for the IOP to support values of journalistic inquiry and civic engagement among the student body and beyond.

Co-sponsored by the Gate.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact iopevents@uchicago.edu.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Ida Noyes Third Floor Theatre
5:30 - 6:45 pm