The Trust Spiral

The day after the 2016 United States presidential election, the team behind New York Public Radio’s On the Media recorded an editorial meeting that was then broadcast to its million-plus weekly listeners. In a raw and unfiltered segment, the hosts, Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, and their executive producer, Katya Rogers, processed feelings of shock and fear and anger, contemplated mistakes they may have made covering Donald Trump’s campaign, and pondered how they might approach the new administration. Given that they believed Trump’s presidency was a “historic threat to our democracy and to our values,” the central dilemma, as articulated by Garfield, was whether the show should continue moving in the direction of advocacy journalism —“amp up the skepticism and outrage”— or whether they should pull back as more dispassionate observers.

“Do we try to approach our jobs as leaders of a movement for truth and justice?” Garfield asked. “Or do we just try to...