The editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal has warned that wealthy individuals are increasingly launching legal challenges against media outlets before stories are even published, calling it a PR strategy. Emma Tucker told the Truth Tellers journalism summit that the tactic has become a significant threat to investigative reporting.
Tucker said that deep-pocketed people are using lawsuits as a PR move, because other journalists then report on the legal action itself. She noted that her own publication is currently being sued by Donald Trump over its reporting of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, but stressed that at least that defamation claim came after publication. Increasingly, however, legal challenges are arriving before any story runs.
The comments were made during a panel discussion on growing pressures facing investigative journalism worldwide. The World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders found that for the first time, more than half of all countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom, with less than 1% of the global population now living in countries where press freedom is rated “good”.
Fellow panellist Patrick Radden Keefe, an investigative journalist, noted that the Trump administration posed a tension for media: it challenged objective truth but was also “good for business” by generating clicks and subscriptions. He described the White House as a “reality TV presidency” that turns politics into entertainment.
Kath Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, said the combination of AI and political hostility to reporting makes “reality itself feel fake”. However, she argued that staying committed to the truth offers opportunities for news organisations to differentiate themselves. In a separate speech, Viner called for “transparently funded journalism in the public interest” as part of the solution.
