Pressing the Police and Policing the Press: The History and Law of the U.S. Press-Police Relationship

Quindelda McElroy (Ph.D. student). “Pressing the Police and Policing the Press: The History and Law of the U.S. Press-Police Relationship.” By Scott Memmel, Columbia, University of Missouri Press, 2024. Published in American Journalism Journal, April 2026. https://doi.org/10.1080/08821127.2026.2662161  Summary: The relationship between journalists and law enforcement is long and convoluted. Pressing the Police and Policing the Press explores the complexities of the strained, yet sometimes symbiotic association throughout history. The author elaborately outlines the backstory of how these pivotal U.S. institutions began and mutually evolved over time. The increasingly tense clashes between the press and police – particularly since the cultural flashpoint caused by George Floyd’s death by the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 – are not a novel problem. In fact, the book argues, they reflect a historic pattern of interactions that have been alternately cooperative and contentious for centuries. The text concludes by considering legal ramifications affecting the entities as well as potentially prescriptive suggestions for maintaining periods of cooperation in which both institutions can ultimately serve the public good.