Killing of Las Vegas reporter an example of dangers in modern journalism

The political climate in the U.S. and elsewhere, where the media is increasingly under attack from behind political podiums, is exacerbating an already dangerous situation.

The slaying of a Las Vegas newspaper reporter, allegedly at the hands of one of his investigative targets, is driving home a reality the U.S. hasn’t had to confront since the Civil War: journalism on home soil is becoming more dangerous.

Jeff German, 69, an old-school investigative reporter with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was stabbed to death outside his home last week – months removed from his expose of the Clark County Public Administrator’s office.

That administrator, Robert Telles, appeared in court Thursday to face murder charges, his forearms bandaged from what police – who allege that traces of his DNA were found under German’s fingernails – described as self-inflicted wounds.

“I would like to have said, ‘No, we didn’t see this kind of thing coming in the United States,’” said Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

“But we’ve often said that what’s happening in other parts of the world, where press freedoms are under significantly more pressure, is a harbinger of what could be coming in places like the United States.”

It worsened considerably during the presidency of Donald Trump, Gonzalez de Bustamante said, thanks to a brazen weaponization of media distrust that culminated in calling CNN “fake news” and supporters wearing T-shirts that read, “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.”

“People would say, ‘Oh, you know, this is just talk’ – but talk ends up creating an atmosphere and an environment where physical attacks against journalists are OK.”

So far in 2022, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, an online database managed by the Freedom of the Press Association, has catalogued 28 assaults against members of the media, most of them the result of direct targeting.