Wrestling with the terminology of turmoil

How should journalists frame Elon Musk’s takeover of important swaths of the federal government? An illegal seizure? An “aggressive incursion,” as The New York Times called it? Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic labeled it a “bureaucratic coup.”

A number of journalists in recent days have wrestled with this question. In her Substack newsletter “The Present Age,” Parker Molloy goes with “coup,” arguing that “it’s a hostile takeover.” In The Times, Michelle Goldberg says the word coup isn’t quite right, even though it feels like one because an administration “treating its own government like a hostile territory” is unprecedented.

Terminology aside, media watchers are questioning whether journalism has appropriately captured the current moment in Washington. Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan said on Bluesky that the media “are not conveying the scope and magnitude of what’s happening.” Nyhan’s Trump-era mantra on social media has been “What would you say if you saw it in another country?” The point is that an arms-length perspective might help.

In that vein, the journalist and historian Garrett Graff, writing in his newsletter Doomsday Scenario, took a stab at exactly that — what a foreign correspondent’s account of the U.S. right now might look like. For his dispatch, he chose the word “junta.”

News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> Duluth’s one-man newsroom embraces ‘bare-knuckles’ journalism (Minnesota Public Radio) 

John Ramos started his journalism career as a humor columnist and eventually transitioned to reporting. Then he started covering local meetings and found he was often the only reporter there, he told Dan Gunderson. The result is the Duluth Monitor, where he is the sole reporter (his wife is his editor). So far, it has 460 subscribers and focuses on covering the nuts and bolts of government.

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Culture & Inclusion

>> This founder launched a restorative retreat for wary and weary women journalists at a time when they need it most (Essence)

Gabrielle Wyatt, founder of the Highland Project, is holding a series of “Reporter Rest” pop-up events aimed at helping Black women in media with wellness practices, writes Jasmine Browley. With stops planned in Atlanta, New York and Washington D.C. this year, the events are designed to help participants “rest, dream new possibilities, and fellowship with other women across newsrooms.”

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> New from API: From listening to action: What a local news advisory committee taught Pittsburgh newsrooms

In the third and final phase of API’s Inclusion Index program in Pittsburgh, we created a community advisory committee to provide feedback to the four participating newsrooms to help them better connect with community members. To draw lessons from that experience, we asked newsroom participants, members of the community and others involved to share their insights, experiences and advice to other newsrooms that might try an advisory committee.

>> How El Tímpano is changing its reporting practices to protect immigrant sources (Nieman Lab)

Nuanced storytelling about the Latino and Mayan immigrant communities in the San Francisco Bay area is a central focus of El Tímpano. But at a time when those communities face fear and the threat of deportation under the Trump administration, it was imperative for the newsroom to avoid shining a light on identifying information. The result is new reporting policies designed to protect sources, writes Sophie Culpepper.

Related: ‘Panic benefits ICE’: local newsrooms fight back as immigrants face misinformation (The Guardian)

>> The 100 Days of Dignity newsroom collaboration (Hearken)

Hearken is collaborating with the Solutions Journalism Network, Trusting News, the Center for Cooperative Media and OpenNews to hold a webinar Feb. 26 to discuss how journalism can help people feel valued and respected. Register here.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> New from API: American Press Institute awards $80,000 in grants to 16 news organizations

The grants fall into two categories. Eight news organizations will get $5,000 each to evolve or iterate upon current experiments aimed at enhancing revenue. The grantees, all alumni of the U.S.-based Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program, will participate in peer-learning calls to help them clarify their experiments, share ideas and define effective tactics and strategies. A second group of eight newsrooms, also Table Stakes alumni, will also get $5,000 each to complete projects that strengthen internal workplace culture.

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What else you need to know

🌎 Covering Trump’s proposed tariffs? Here are 4 things you need to know (Journalist’s Resource)

🗽Breaker aims to roil New York media, starting downtown (Semafor)

🖱️The University of Florida is seeking a new Knight chair in journalism and technology

🔍 Introducing ONA’s focus areas for 2025 — and how you can get involved (Online News Association)