Editor's note

Until four journalists were killed in Annapolis early this year, only seven American journalists had been killed in the U.S. in the last 26 years. But as media historians Jennifer Moore and Michael Socolow write, violent acts against the media are as old as our nation. Perhaps Americans are just not accustomed to seeing them because most grew up in the second half of the 20th century, an era largely devoid of the partisan rancor that was once a hallmark of American journalism – and that seems to have returned. Is the end of journalism’s depoliticized era related to what seems to be a return of violence against the media?

Last week The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed that describes a resistance within the Trump administration in which senior officials work to undermine the president’s “half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless” decisions. University of Washington political philosopher Michael Blake writes why he thinks writing such an op-ed is unethical and sets a dangerous precedent.

It has been 10 years since the Large Hadron Collider began smashing particles together to discover the fundamental building blocks of the universe. The discovery of the Higgs boson particle completed a missing part of the Standard Model of physics, and Florida State University’s physicist Todd Adams believes this is just the beginning of the many mysteries that could still be solved.

Naomi Schalit

Senior Editor, Politics + Society

Top stories

The Capital Gazette in Annapolis lost five staffers in a shooting. AP/Patrick Semansky

Violence against the media isn’t new – history shows why it largely disappeared and has now returned

Jennifer E. Moore, University of Minnesota Duluth; Michael J. Socolow, University of Maine

Violence against journalists is on the rise. Many people don't realize that such acts have a long tradition in the US, where partisan rancor was once a hallmark of American journalism.

What are the ethics of anonymous resistance? Vincent Diamante

Why the anonymous op-ed sets a dangerous precedent

Michael Blake, University of Washington

An expert argues why the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times can hardly be considered an act of civil disobedience and why it might make things even worse in the Trump administration.

The activity during a high-energy collision at the CMS control room of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, at their headquarters outside Geneva, Switzerland. AP Photo

Ten years of Large Hadron Collider discoveries are just the start of decoding the universe

Todd Adams, Florida State University

The Large Hadron Collider has generated mind-blowing science in the last decade – including the Higgs boson particle. Why is the LHC so important, and how will physicists use it in the years to come?

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