Op-Ed: Why Are So Many Of Us Cowards?

What are journalists willing to give up in order to retain access?

2025 has been a long year, and there have sadly been too many moments when rage has bubbled just below the surface of my day. And today I finally felt myself snap, over a moment which might not seem that important in the scheme of things.

On Friday, President Donald Trump was being quizzed by journalists on Air Force One, and based on video of the exchange, Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey appeared to ask Trump a question relating to Jeffrey Epstein before the President began waving a finger in her face.

“Quiet, quiet piggy!”

There is something about that moment, the image of the President of the United States calling anyone a “piggy” and waving his finger in their face, that launched me into an incandescent rage. Not just at the reminder of how the stature of the American President has been degraded to the level of an extremely powerful carnival clown. Not just at the unwillingness of the rest of the journalists on the plane to say anything in defense of their colleague. But mostly at the cowardice of the executives at Bloomberg, who seem to be incapable of standing up for their reporter.

In fact, Lucey found herself the target of Trump’s erratic anger again over the weekend, when she asked the President a question regarding Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes during a press event on Sunday on the tarmac near Air Force One.

“You are the worst! You’re with Bloomberg, right? You are the worst! I don’t know why they even have you.”

And the reaction from Bloomberg executives? Crickets. Maybe they privately offered support to Lucey, but what they didn’t do was anything that could have been perceived as pushback by the White House. Like a dog that has been abused so much that it reflexively cowers when their owner walks into the room, the White House press corps - and more importantly, their bosses - have apparently decided that retaining “access” is more important than anything else. No abuse is too far over the line, no comment is too much to bear if responding to it means angering the White House and running the risk of being barred from covering every moment of the Trump presidency.

So what should have happened after the “piggie” comment?

Every mainstream news organization should have refused to travel on Air Force One without Lucey receiving an apology from someone at the White House. Every news manager should speak with their White House correspondent and let them know they don’t have to take similar abuse from the President. They can speak up at the time or not. But whatever they do, their job will not be endangered, and there won’t be any second-guessing by management.

And Bloomberg specifically should have posted a prominent story about the exchange with a headline such as “President Trump Calls Our Reporter ‘Piggie.’”

I can hear the pushback already. “Oh, we’ll just get barred from Air Force One or future press conferences! What will we do?!?”

My glib answer is that you put on your big boy pants and continue to cover the president. But the truth of the matter is that the Trump Administration needs the mainstream press more than the press needs him. He needs the mainstream press to push against; he needs them to pass along his often crazy political theories. And he knows that, as much as he argues the mainstream press can’t be trusted, he needs the credibility of the press to get his message out to the people who aren’t his supporters. Having a White House Press Corps that consists of nothing other than sycophants doesn’t help the messaging of the White House. But the mainstream press doesn’t seem to be willing to make that bet.

Access is important for any journalist. But access without respect is an empty exercise. Agreeing to be someone’s lapdog just because you get to sit quietly on your abuser’s lap and remain close to them is meaningless.

So why are so many of us cowards?