CHRIS SAMPSON:
How you doing, Brian? Good to see you, brother.
BRIAN KAREM:
Good to see you too.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
I was telling people before you came on: if information were like food, we’d know when we weren’t getting nutrients—when we drink but we’re not hydrated. I’m trying to get viewers thinking the same way about the information stream.
Thanks for joining us. And to everyone watching: one of the only books I brought from the U.S. four years ago when I came to Ukraine was Brian’s. It’s basically a bible for where we’re at.
So let me open with this: Is what’s happening with Trump new—did it just show up this week?
BRIAN KAREM:
No. What we see out of Donald Trump today is what we’ve seen out of Donald Trump ever since he became a public figure.
He has a two-prong approach to killing the press. One is having friends and wealthy allies buy out corporate media. The other is threatening and intimidating journalists into silence.
Donald Trump is always going to be Donald Trump, unfortunately.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Right. But before we get into the Trump era, you wrote about how we got here: media consolidation, the Telecom Act of 1996, the long erosion. I told viewers this problem has been building for decades—something the Founders would’ve recognized: control the newspapers, control the narrative.
In short form—what should people understand about the history of how we got here?
BRIAN KAREM:
In short form: it begins with Richard Nixon and then Ronald Reagan.
Nixon and Roger Ailes wanted to create a propaganda channel but couldn’t. Reagan comes in—Roger Ailes—Fox News—boom.
At the same time, Ailes and others aligned with the administration helped remove the guardrails of good journalism: the Fairness Doctrine gets eliminated; ownership limits get stripped—now you can buy up as much media as you want.
When I got into journalism, about 80% of what people saw, read, and heard was owned by roughly two dozen companies. Today, a handful of companies own almost everything. Local media is suffering. There are vast news deserts.
Strategic lawsuits against public participation—SLAPP suits—are real. We don’t have protections for confidential sources. FOIA is underfunded and too slow to be effective.
At the state and local level, governments pulled funds for public notice ads—those ads used to help subsidize small community papers. Many local outlets can’t survive.
Since the day I was born, there are about twice as many people on the planet—and about half as many reporters. That’s your problem.
Here are examples:
The Courier-Journal in Louisville used to be a major regional paper with bureaus across the state, in D.C., and abroad. A large chain bought it, closed bureaus, cut reporters, cut copy editors—destroyed it.
In Laredo, Texas: in the early 1980s, 100,000 people lived there. There were three daily papers, multiple radio stations and TV stations—all doing news. Today: far fewer outlets doing real news, with far more people living there.
We are not getting valuable, vetted information.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
And we’ve seen commercial interest take priority over truth—audience, advertisers, “don’t show war because it’ll hurt sales.” That changes how news gets produced.
BRIAN KAREM:
The biggest problem in covering news today is money. Everything’s dictated by money.
But the spine of journalism is vetted factual information. If you abandon that and only cater to one audience silo, you might get short-term money—but you’re destroying the long-term value.
A lot of these outlets are being bled dry for profit and then closed. That’s what’s happening.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
I also watch corporate TV bring on uninformed “panel voices”—people who don’t know what they’re talking about—just to stage the Tweedle-Dee/Tweedle-Dum fight.
BRIAN KAREM:
Exactly. We’ve lost the value of experience and knowledge. What replaced it is whoever can scream the loudest.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
What would Helen Thomas say about the press corps now—this influencer culture around Trump?
BRIAN KAREM:
Helen would say they’re trying too hard to be friends with the administration. If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
I remember her telling me that my first days in the White House. I said, “Isn’t that a Harry Truman quote?” She said, “Who do you think told it to Harry?” [laughs]
CHRIS SAMPSON:
We’re missing voices like that. And newer generations never knew them—people born in the 1990s never lived through the Cold War, yet they’re trying to set policy for Russia now.
BRIAN KAREM:
It’s an uneducated era. I’m seeing headlines like “If World War III breaks out, who gets drafted first?” If World War III breaks out, no one gets drafted—someone pushes a button and the survivors are living in caves. It’s ridiculous how stupid our culture has become.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
This week we saw cases like the arrest of Don Lemon. People shouldn’t be surprised given what happened to you—how the administration weaponizes its reach.
BRIAN KAREM:
Don Lemon’s a national name. He has lawyers. Going after him gives him a bigger audience.
But the bigger concern is the local reporter—people without resources, without legal insurance—who can be bankrupted and intimidated out of the field. Trump doesn’t care if someone spends a day in jail. He cares about bankrupting them and keeping them out of the limelight.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Tell people what it was like when you went to jail—standing up for protecting sources.
BRIAN KAREM:
It was an officer-involved shooting case in San Antonio. I had confidential sources. Authorities wanted names; I refused. It went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I was jailed multiple times—short stays and one longer stint. Eventually, after a source moved away, they came forward.
As a journalist, people trust you because you protect sources. That trust is essential to understanding context, finding the missing pieces of stories, and verifying what’s actually true.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Explain “off the record” vs “on background” and why it matters.
BRIAN KAREM:
Off the record: you can’t use it at all.
On background: you can use it without attribution.
Confidential sources often point you toward primary sources you can put on the record. They help you vet facts, fill gaps, and understand what’s missing.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
We saw a case recently where authorities raided a journalist’s materials and tried to seize work product and sources. How does that hurt the public?
BRIAN KAREM:
It’s dangerous in any administration, at any level—local, state, federal—because sources dry up. We don’t learn the truth.
People say our job is to speak truth to power—I say it’s to speak facts to power. If journalists can’t vet facts because sources are threatened, democracy breaks.
Raiding journalists shows incredible insecurity in government. It creates a chilling effect and undermines a well-informed electorate.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
A viewer question: When articles use anonymous sources, how does the reader assess credibility?
BRIAN KAREM:
You assess the credibility of the facts. My rule: if I use an anonymous source, there better be factual information I can independently verify and impart.
Often I use confidential sources to find primary sourcing I can put on the record. The information is valuable—not the identity.
And yes, whistleblowers have been targeted more aggressively for years—across administrations.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
So what do we demand from legacy media—print and TV—to protect journalism now?
BRIAN KAREM:
Bust up media monopolies. Diversify ownership again. Reinstitute guardrails. Create incentives—tax breaks and low-interest loans—for small journalism outlets.
Community journalism is the spine of the whole system. Every big national story started local.
Also: governments should be required to publish public notices in real newspapers—not just on websites they can change. Printed records matter in court.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
I see something hopeful: journalists pushed out of corporate networks are going direct to audiences on platforms like Substack. But I’m wary: you’re not really doing journalism unless someone edits you—unless there are guardrails.
BRIAN KAREM:
You always need a second set of eyes. Correct errors in real time. Admit mistakes. You’re the first draft of history, not the last.
Critical thinking is the audience’s job too: ask whether you’re hearing opinion or fact; who’s claiming it; what evidence supports it.
And if something sounds like too much [expletive] to be true, it probably is—so verify.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
What about making platforms accountable—Meta, X, and others that control access to information?
BRIAN KAREM:
Yes. Reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine principles in the modern environment. Platforms can’t hide behind “we’re just aggregators.” They’re publishers. They’re responsible.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Do letters to the editor still matter?
BRIAN KAREM:
Absolutely. Interact with journalists. Contact your representatives. Make noise.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Where do people get good news now?
BRIAN KAREM:
Support independent reporting. A lot of today’s journalism is compromised because protections were stripped over decades. If you want good reporting, you have to fund it.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
I hope you’ll come back. We’re in an era of cognitive warfare—an information DDoS. We need your expertise.
BRIAN KAREM:
I’m wherever good guitars are. I’ll be with you, brother.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Do you play?
BRIAN KAREM:
Oh yeah.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
What kind of music?
BRIAN KAREM:
Rock and roll is good for your soul.
CHRIS SAMPSON:
Alright—thank you, Brian. We’ll see you soon.
BRIAN KAREM:
Anytime, Chris. Pleasure.