Top national news organizations increase security for employees

-- SCOOP: NEWSROOMS UP SECURITY -- Some national news organizations have recently increased their security for employees as tensions continue to run hot toward the media. In recent months, the Washington Post has increased security at its downtown D.C. HQ, with both more security at the door and more security guards walking around the newsroom during the day. In the past few weeks, McClatchy Newspapers' DC bureau has begun requiring employees to swipe their key cards to access their floor in their downtown D.C. building (which also houses the WSJ) -- they also have locked the doors to get into the newsroom once people reach their floor, according to a source familiar with the building.

"We upgraded security from essentially nothing to something consistent with other news organizations in Washington. It wasn't in response to a specific threat. It's simply general acknowledgement of the environment in which we all work," Kristin Roberts, executive editor of McClatchy Washington, told us. CNN, which had already ramped up security after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, has stepped up its security following an increasing number of threats against reporters and anchors, according to a source familiar with the network's plans. WaPo and CNN declined to comment.


The security concerns haven't just affected national news organizations. One general manager for a top Florida TV station told us that accusations of bias, some of which are threats, have increased tenfold since the election. To increase security, the manager last year ordered the building of a fence around their perimeter that didn’t exist before, has changed the station’s protocol for visitors and has prohibited drop-ins from unannounced visitors.

Local TV stations have always been targets for people like stalkers (especially of female anchors), conspiracy theorists and other disturbed individuals. But the top-20 Florida station’s television executive said there’s an “environment of hostility from anti-government groups and our government” has led to many more “accusations that TV stations are either carrying the water for the liberals, giving Trump too much press coverage or being part of a fake news apparatus.”