This is no time for American journalists to cower or retreat, with a president-elect showing an authoritarian streak in so many disturbing ways.

If the demise of democracy elsewhere in the world has shown us anything, it is that the neutering of independent media is an essential element of the authoritarian playbook.

So, a robust, defiantly courageous defense of a free press by news organizations with the stature and credibility to warn the citizenry of the threats among them is not just a fulfillment of their duty endowed by the founding fathers in the First Amendment.

It’s also in their self-interest.

Sadly, disturbingly, we are seeing what Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University, has called “anticipatory obedience” — basically, to cower and grovel before they come after you.

As he wrote in his book “On Tyranny,” most of the power of authoritarianism is “is freely given.”

The latest high-profile example of this phenomenon came when MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski last week made the trek to Mar-a-Lago to restart communications with President-elect Donald Trump, whom they’ve been describing as hateful, racist, bigoted and — yes — comparable to Adolf Hitler.

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Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with an incoming president’s journalistic critics coming in to get a better understanding of him.

But here’s a pro tip for Joe and Mika: bring your video crew and probing questions. Otherwise, it looks for all the world like an........

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