In the first episode of Breaking the News, Jeff Jarvis, Julie Roginsky, and Michelle Kinney examine how American media is helping normalize authoritarianism — from the killing of Renée Goode to the press’s increasingly sanitized coverage of Trump’s behavior and abuse of power. Through a sharp, unsparing conversation about language, narrative, and access journalism, they connect how violence, corruption, and delusion become “just politics” when the press refuses to tell the truth.

This episode sets the tone for a new weekly series dedicated to holding the media accountable for how power is reported, framed, and ultimately protected.