Press freedom among Americans has become a matter of situational ethics. Depending on which political party holds office, support for or opposition to press freedom varies, based on data from Pew Research.
The Associated Press (AP) recently highlighted findings which showed a partisan divide. Their report indicates Democrats are more likely than Republicans to oppose government efforts to curb or censor news reporting. For example, Republicans are likelier to agree that the government should have the power to remove news stories for national security reasons. Nearly 70% of Republicans support this compared to about 50% of Democrats.
Democrats prioritize a free press more than Republicans, with around 80% of Democrats considering it ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important, contrasting with about two-thirds of Republicans.
However, these findings are context-dependent. The positional differences between parties were not always this way. For instance, during the early Biden administration years, the percentage of Democrats favoring government action to limit false online information rose from 40% in 2018 to 65%. The preference for tech companies to restrict false information also grew from 60% to 76% among Democrats in the same period.
Conversely, Republican support for government restrictions on false information decreased from 37% in 2018 to 28% in 2021. Support for tech censorship among Republicans also declined from 48% to 37%.
By July 2023, the trend among Democrats to support government intervention in curbing “false information” online had intensified to 70%, while those advocating for the protection of freedom of information even when it allowed publication of false information dropped to 28% from 57% in 2018. Among Republicans, 39% supported government action against false information, but 59% maintained that freedom of information should be preserved even with false content.
Pew Research reported that Democrats had become far more supportive than Republicans of government censorship of false information online.
Upon Donald Trump’s re-election in 2025, Republican support for restricting false online information rose to 43%, while Democratic support dropped to 58%. Democrats who supported protecting freedom of information increased to 40%, compared to the previous 28%.
By 2026, a greater proportion of Democrats expressed concern over potential press freedom restrictions than Republicans—64% versus 29%. Additionally, concerns about freedom of speech were prevalent among 61% of Democrats versus 39% of Republicans.
The data reflect fluctuating views, heavily tied to current political leadership, across party lines. These shifts suggest that both sides support press freedom primarily as long as it serves their political agenda. A reliable, apolitical organization could theoretically provide unbiased analysis to counteract this tendency, yet such an institution remains absent in the U.S.
Instead, the contemporary media landscape has become increasingly distrusted, a sentiment shared with the disfavor experienced by Wall Street. This lack of trust is not unfounded.