A Two-Front War (or Is It Three?)

By Gordon Hopkins This week I read two news stories that have me especially concerned. Most news stories these days are concerning, of course, but these two stand out in my mind because they are news stories about the news, the industry in which I make my lively hood and also, if you'll forgive a moment of self-importance, an industry vital to a healthy society.These two stories seem to have nothing to do with each other, other than both involving news outlets. Yet, they may be more closely related than is obvious at first blush. Story Number OneJust this morning I learned that Lee Enterprises has confirmed what a lot of tech-type folks have already been saying, that the cyberattack that crippled publication of I don't know how many newspapers was the result of ransomware.Lee Enterprises is one of the largest newspaper groups in the United States, publishing 75 daily newspapers and another 350 weekly newspapers and specialty publications in 26 states, including right here in Nebraska.Now, there have been a lot off ransomware and other cyberattacks on some big companies recently. I know because I've had to report on some of them. So, what makes the Lee Enterprises attack different from those others? Hackers hack banks and insurance companies and tech companies because they want money or information that can be traded for money or personal information that can be used for fraud or identity theft, which is a way of making money.Hackers don't attack newspapers to make money. Hackers attack newspapers to make a point.This is not the first cyberattack on Lee Enterprises. On November 19, 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported, “Iranian hackers last year infiltrated the computer systems of newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises as part of a broader effort to spread disinformation about the 2020 U.S. presidential election, people familiar with the matter say.” Story Number TwoA judge in Mississippi issued a restraining order against a local newspaper, the Clarksdale Press Register, for an editorial critical of the mayor and city leaders of Clarksdale.That editorial, “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust,” was removed from the newspaper's website.Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney for Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, summed up the situation, “Clarksdale has asked a court to order a local newspaper to remove an editorial asking why the city was not being more transparent about a proposed tax increase. As a result of the city’s lawsuit, a court has ordered the Clarksdale Press Register to delete the online editorial.”This is a problem. Layne Bruce, executive director of the Mississippi Press Association, said “It clearly runs afoul of the First Amendment and we fully support the Press Register’s right to report and offer commentary on the business of Clarksdale’s city government.”Using the courts to stifle freedom of the press is not new. Just a few weeks ago, I published a story about the Onyx Hotel murder, which happened back in 1976, and how FJN had to fight court-ordered prior restraint. This happened just a few years after courts tried to halt the publications of the Pentagon Papers and just a couple of months before Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, a landmark Supreme Court case that is still taught in journalism classes today. A War on Two FrontsWhat I see when I read these two stories are not two separate, unrelated attempts to shut down the press. I see a war against the press being fought on two fronts, one legal and the other, illegal.Attacks in the press are not just becoming more common. They are becoming more acceptable. There was a time when there was public outrage against such actions. Now, people outside the news industry barely seem to notice.Perhaps this is not a two-front war after all, but a three-front war. The third front being apathy.

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