Concern is rising among journalists as to what role the press will have in the new order of American politics and beyond.
It is a justified concern because the "press" isn't defined as it used to be, at least not in minds of many readers and viewers who are prone to accept "news" from any source.
That's the issue at the heart of current conversations about the rise of "fake news," particularly that which is spread so wide and so far and so quickly as is possible on social media.
Consider this particularly chilling article from the Washington Post, a legitimate news source if ever there was one.
The Post reported the flood of fake news this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the express goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton and helping Republican Donald Trump.
Russia's propaganda machine "echoed and amplified right-wing sites across the Internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers," according to the Post.
Information in the article is attributed to two teams of independent researchers, who say what happened during this past election is part of a long-held strategy by the Russians to sow distrust in U.S. democracy and its leaders.
Tactics included all those hacks of emails that were trickled out through the final months of the campaign.
But the effort is much broader. One research team identified more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda. They estimate that stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times.
While some players knew they were part of the propaganda campaign, others were "useful idiots" who unknowingly were assisting the Russians.
The efforts, according to researchers, were not unlike tactics used in the Cold War by the Soviet Union. But the propagandists then didn't have the Internet nor the millions of Americans who use social media, largely unwittingly, to spread the Russian messages.
Despite the assertions of U.S. authorities that Russia may have hacked the accounts of election officials, the Kremlin has repeatedly denied interfering.
Now, match that influence against the roar of criticism that has been sounded against the American "press," that unidentifiable collection of outlets that includes the more traditional legitimate newspapers and broadcasters but also a host of other sites that generate their own perspectives on "news."
Donald Trump, the candidate, was among the fiercest critics of the press, even shouting down the reporters who covered him at rallies. Donald Trump, the president-elect, has continued that tone.
He famously tweeted after the election that the protesters who took to the streets in many American streets were "professional protesters incited by the media."
Christiane Amanpour, the respected chief international correspondent for CNN, brought up that tweet in a recent speech about challenges journalists face in a Trump era.
"I never in a million years thought I would be up here on stage appealing for the freedom and safety of American journalists at home," she told a New York audience as she delivered what she called a "postcard" from the world.
"This is how it goes with authoritarians like Sisi, Erdogan, Putin, the Ayatollahs, Duterte, et al," she said.
"First the media is accused of inciting, then sympathizing, then associating -- until they suddenly find themselves accused of being full-fledged terrorists and subversives. Then they end up in handcuffs, in cages, in kangaroo courts, in prison -- and then who knows?"
Amanpour encouraged fellow journalists to recommit to "robust fact-based reporting without fear nor favor -- on the issues" and told them "not to stand for being labeled crooked or lying or failing."
If ever there was a time to celebrate, honor, protect and mobilize for press freedom and basic good journalism, she said, that time is now.
She, too, talked of "the tsunami of fake news sites -- aka lies -- that somehow people could not, would not recognize, fact check or disregard" in this election cycle.
Amanpour said journalists face an existential crisis, "a threat to the very relevance and usefulness of our profession."
And, as she stressed a recommitment to real reporting in a world in which "journalism and democracy are in mortal peril," she, too, noted that foreign powers like Russia are paying to churn out and place false news, hacking into democratic system here and allegedly in other countries as well.
Amanpour's message was to her colleagues in the media about their continuing responsibilities to a free press and to democracy in the U.S. and in the world.
But the message must be heard, too, by all who readily take in the false news and who are so quick to share it on social media.
It is a challenging task, but people must question their sources or risk being "useful idiots" who may help derail democracy.
Commentary on 11/27/2016