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Exacerbated by a polarized political climate, an increasing number of reporters in the U.S. are facing unrelenting threats of violence and harassment from people online. In Columbus, several reporters have experienced harassment directly.
“It was maybe a week after we ran the piece,” recalled Andy Downing, editor at Columbus Alive. “I started getting all these random calls on my cellphone, like from South Africa, just all over, leaving threatening voicemails.”