Aidan White, CEO of the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), recently published an article on the network’s site, analyzing the effects of Donald Trump’s election campaign on journalism and the American media landscape. According to the New York Times, Donald Trump’s candidacy has tested American journalism to the limit. White seconds this sentiment, arguing that the candidate has forced editors and reporters to question their attachment to the cardinal principles of journalism — balance and impartiality.

White believes that Trump’s personality and behavior have forced mainstream journalist to question how to appropriately cover a candidate for presidency like Trump, who encourages hate and challenges the values of tolerance, pluralism and humanity upon which democracy, if not journalism itself, depends. He understands that due to the fact that Trump’s language and actions fall outside society’s acceptable social norms, journalists may be justified in parking their duty of detachment in favor of more openly critical reporting. He goes on to stress that with his outrageous behavior and difficult media-relations; Donald Trump poses a global threat to press freedom and therefore needs to be handled with outermost care by journalists reporting on him.

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