Hot Type: 'What the Hell Are We Doing Here?'

Heidi Siegmund Cuda reports on the escalating war against journalism and truth under the Trump administration

Rally in support of a Free Press outside of ICE Headquarters after attacks on journalists by ICE agents in New York City, 1 October 2025. Photo: Christopher Penler/Alamy

In a recent Hot Type column, I wrote about the genocide of journalists occurring in Gaza. I’m sure it’s been long forgotten in a sea of clips featuring a weekend anchor fat-shaming leaders of the US military and Nigel Farage’s latest lies about immigrants eating royal swans.

But the Fourth Estate, which used to be the thing that separated democracy from autocracy, is under siege in ways that once seemed unthinkable.

A journalist in America was hospitalised on Tuesday. Federal immigration agents were caught on video pushing journalists to the floor in New York City at 26 Federal Plaza, where members of the press have been documenting the increase in immigration hearings. L.Vural Elibol, a photographer for the Anadolu Agency, was knocked down in the confrontation, and his head is seen hitting the floor. Later, he is seen in a neck brace being treated by medics on a stretcher. This comes less than a week after a woman was shoved to the ground by another ICE agent, who is back on active duty.

Credentialed journalists documenting the detainees at asylum hearings are not breaking any laws, but they’re being treated like criminals. On Tuesday, they were shoved out of the elevator, resulting in the kind of violence usually associated with authoritarian countries.

“Masked ICE agents shoved and injured journalists today at Federal Plaza… What the hell are we doing here?” wrote New York Governor Kathy Holchul on X/Twitter .

Reports from Chicago aren’t much better.

On September 29, ICE agents shot at journalists documenting a demonstration in Broadview, Illinois, using rubber bullets and chemical agents. And in July, police took aim at journalists covering anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, who were also hit with rubber bullets and trampled by horses.

Nice statements in support of journalists were issued by various professional organizations, but anyone doing this work for the last decade is are aware just how vulnerable we now are.