No one knows exactly how the next four years will play out, but here’s one thing that seems almost certain: the media will be challenged — and scrutinized — perhaps like never before. And with that pressure will likely come less cooperation from sources.

Journalists will need to be aware. ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit from the incoming president over comments made on-air by veteran anchor George Stephanopoulos. There is no doubt that the new administration is keeping close tabs on the media and will be quick to pounce on anything it deems unfair or inaccurate.

At the same time, we all have jobs to do, and these times demand that we strive for our best. As government officials at all levels — and from both major political parties — dig in, we must navigate sources that can be uncooperative if not outright hostile.

We must also get ready to work with a whole lot of nothing.

Specifically, it’s the tried and true crutch from a source who doesn’t want to participate: the “no comment.”

Editors should push reporters to do more than merely hit up a source for a quick statement. But airways, newspapers and websites these days are littered with some variation of the phrase, “We reached out to ‘source name’ and they had no comment.” Deadlines are tight, pressure is high. It’s not easy. But we should be intentional with our source strategies.

Earlier this year I co-authored a report with recommendations and a tip sheet to help newsrooms navigate this situation. One recommendation stood out to me as one worth further exploring: Give the shutdown a platform. In other words, don’t bury this lead.

“News organizations should not only take the time to let their audience know that a source denied them access, but they should also include context beyond ‘no comment,’” said my co-author, Mel Grau, Poynter’s director of program management. “How many times and on how many occasions? On the phone or via email?”

Media organizations must be transparent with audiences — it’s a core journalistic principle, after all. Readers, viewers and listeners should know how we went about getting our information or when we hit a roadblock while searching for it. Newsmakers who deny us access are actually denying information to their public, which has a ripple effect.

“We have seen that public figures capitalize on the public’s lack of understanding of the journalistic process by demonizing it, which creates confusion, contributes to the erosion of trust, and could even fuel swarms of harassment against the individual journalist,” Grau said. “Our report suggests that journalists and news organizations do a better job telling their own story because it’s being told for them in erroneous and sometimes dangerous ways. This is a way to tell more complete stories.”

How an independent journalist deals with this issue

Major outlets aren’t the only ones getting stiff-armed from sources. Anyone practicing our craft is a candidate for roadblocks.

Mario Guevara is a Salvadoran immigrant and a combination of journalist and influencer — he has more than 590,000 Facebook followers and another 180,000 on TikTok. He worked at larger media outlets in Atlanta before starting his own outlet, MG News, earlier this year. He believes he’s more plugged into his community than ever before.

“I consider myself less bureaucratic than other outlets. I’ve removed myself from the typical framework of journalism,” Guevara said. “We were taught at school that a journalist shouldn’t involve himself in the story, that the story should tell itself. But in the past years, I’ve transformed in a way as some sort of activist.”

“Activist” in Guevara’s eyes, means keeping a laser focus on serving his audience’s needs.

“It’s not enough for me to just do stories about people who need help. I actually look for that help,” he said.

I first met Guevara more than a decade ago in a Poynter immigration and data training in El Paso, Texas. Back then, just as he is today, his style was direct and unapologetic. He has taken what he’s learned from legacy media and built on it. He’s familiar with the dark art of the “no comment” and has developed a plan for it.

“In my opinion, any restriction on information by a source with authority should be reported immediately and through all possible means,” he said. “This should not only apply when they deny us access to relevant data on topics of public interest but also when they provide us with partial information or only what benefits them.”

One thing working in Guevara’s favor: He has established himself as a trusted brand within his community. When blocked, he not only publicizes it but also workshops his social media channels to find other sources or experts that can help. Neighbors and families jump in to assist, which helps Guevara avoid hanging a story on a single source. He can always pivot to find someone else willing to talk.

Guevara also has a thought for journalists who are hesitant to inject themselves into their reporting.

“It’s not about making ourselves the main characters of the story but about not staying silent,” he said. “We are directly affected when we can’t expose something, and I believe that remaining silent just to avoid ‘getting involved’ in the news will only allow this harmful practice by certain people in power to continue indefinitely.”

How a student newspaper dealt with the no comment

When Alan Halaly was editor-in-chief of The Independent Florida Alligator, the daily student newspaper at the University of Florida, in 2022, he said one source in particular dominated the student paper’s coverage: Nebraska’s Republican U.S. senator-turned-UF president, Ben Sasse.

Coverage intensified as the university conducted its presidential search, a process that proved to be controversial and secretive.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law that made college presidential applications confidential until the late stages of selection. The law was seen by critics as a mechanism to protect politically charged candidates in university positions.

Once named president, Sasse all but cut off communication with the student newspaper.

“For the rest of the fall semester as managing editor, we were told he wasn’t engaging at all with the existing UF communications team and there was radio silence when we requested an interview with his press team in D.C.,”  Halaly recalls. “This persisted into the spring, when the university was slow to comply with records requests for his schedule, and I asked every month if Sasse was ready to sit down and speak to the Alligator.”

The paper’s ongoing effort to reach Sasse drew local and national attention.

“People were looking to the Alligator to form their opinions about their new president,” Halaly said.

The newspaper produced a series of editorials to inform readers of Sasse’s lack of availability.

“When Sasse came to campus for Q&As that were later stormed by protesters, we formally requested an interview through an editorial,” Halaly said.

Bylined to the editorial board, the first few paragraphs read:

Dear Ben Sasse,

Hi — we’re The Independent Florida Alligator. You may have seen our continuous coverage of your time as presidential finalist, but we haven’t formally met yet. Not to say we haven’t tried — phone calls, emails, you name it.

But now that you’re wrapping up your presidential selection process, there’s no better time to chat.

A lot of students, faculty and staff have questions about your presidency, Mr. Sasse. How do you plan to put your politics aside, and how do you plan to represent and protect our community’s minority groups?

The editorial board published another front-page editorial about Sasse’s lack of visibility on campus and refusal to speak with media outlets:

Paging Dr. Sasse…

Ever since Ben Sasse, a former Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, took office, there’s been a president-sized hole left in much of the UF community.

For eight years, he dealt with national political reporters as a senator in the Beltway. Dr. Sasse, we promise we are far more humble than the D.C. press corps.

Whatever the president’s agenda, we can’t report on it clearly if he won’t talk to us. We tried emailing him, we tried calling him, we tried leaving him hand-written notes and we tried saying his name three times in the bathroom with the lights off. None of it worked.

The university is also behind on giving us Sasse’s schedule — despite our incessant weekly public records requests trying to locate his whereabouts.

We’ve all been ghosted, we’ve all felt crazy after not getting a response back, but we shouldn’t get that treatment from the university’s president.

The newspaper continued to report on his work as president, including a full edition dedicated to how the campus could change with him at the helm.

“We also continued to background him as best we could, and our university administration reporter completed a pretty damning investigation into his effectiveness as president of Midland University, a small Lutheran college,” Halaly said.

That was a bold move from a group of Florida students.

Ultimately, there are three simple key steps an editorial team could take after getting shut down from a newsmaker source.

1. Explain why you chose to make the no-comment a focus — why and how does it impact the lives of your audience? If you couldn’t land a key source, your audience should understand how it affects them.
2. Make sure to note that “silence” isn’t “neutral,” and quite possibly an attempt to control a narrative or dodge scrutiny.
3. Explain your job as a journalist, your purpose and your role in serving your audience.

For more strategies and tips for dealing with sources who shut down, please read our full report.