Can’t Hide from BBC

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Article in The Guardian by Emma Brokes, 10/15/26

Headline: “Trump should fear the BBC. Instead he’s picked a fight – and he seems to be losing”

Subhead:  “The president is used to bullying his media targets. The quagmire that is his libel actions shows the broadcaster is working to a different script”

“. . .This week, as news broke that the BBC has been cleared by a judge to serve legal papers on Trump’s children, while still seeking judicial intervention to force him to show up to his own deposition, the president must be wondering what’s going on. In August, Trump applied to the court to block the BBC from deposing Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, and yet … the corporation simply ignored him and ploughed on with its mission. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/15/donald-trump-bbc-lawsuit-public-broadcaster-truth-power-noels-house-party

 

Despicable Ad Draws Media

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Article in The Bulwark by Will Sommer, 10/22/26

Headline:  “MAGA Media Learns to Love Vile Vivek Ramaswamy Ad”

Subhead:  “For these supposed moral authorities, the only question is whether it works.”

“. . .Instead of denouncing the ad, [Ben] Shapiro said it was no worse than members of the Kennedy family criticizing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or relatives of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) opposing his re-election. Besides, Shapiro asked, do you remember when Democrats said JD Vance had sex with a couch?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-media-learns-to-love-vile-vivek-ramaswamy-ad

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehman, 10/22/26

Headline:  “Vivek Ramaswamy’s New Attack Ad Should Be a National Scandal”

Subhead:  “The Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate has accused his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, of lying about being raped when she was 12 years old.”

“. . .When the ad surfaced as part of an online poll, it met with a proper wave of outrage and disbelief. A MAGA movement that’s long dismissed and excused sexual assault, up to and including President Donald Trump’s special pleading for the defendants in the Cornell gang-rape case, was now attacking the credibility of a 12-year-old rape victim. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/ramaswamy-acton-attack-ad/– – – – –

Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 10/21/26

Headline:  “Vance Defends ‘Vile’ Ramaswamy Ad, Offering Preview of ‘Venom’ He’s Likely to Deploy in 2028 Race”

Subhead: “Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad exposed him as ‘disgusting, vile, and unfit,’ said one former Republican lawmaker, but ‘JD Vance arrives to show there’s someone even worse.'”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jd-vance-vivek

Trump in Court Over BBC?

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Article in The Wrap by JD KLnapp, 10/22/26

Headline:  “Trump Must Sit for $10 Billion BBC Defamation Deposition by Early December, Judge Rules”

Subhead:  “The Dec. 11 deadline comes after the president canceled his planned Oct. 16 date due to a “matter of national importance,” though he was actually campaigning in Georgia”

“President Donald Trump must sit for a deposition in his $10 billion BBC defamation case by Dec. 11, a judge ruled on Thursday.

The update from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett comes a week after the president canceled his planned Oct. 16 deposition date due to a “matter of national importance,” though he was actually just campaigning in Georgia. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/public-policy-legal/trump-bbc-defamation-lawsuit-december-deposition-discovery/

Carr Threatens Licenses Over Polls

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, Ren LaForme, Angela Fu and Nicole Slaughter Graham, 10/22/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Brendan Carr warns broadcasters about ‘fake polls’ as a real polling scandal unfolds”

Subhead: “Carr didn’t identify the polls he was targeting but warned that broadcasters could run afoul of their federal licenses”

“Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr warned broadcasters Wednesday that airing what he calls “Fake Polls and Suppression Polls” could violate their regulatory obligations, putting the FCC in the middle of how broadcasters cover political polling less than two weeks before the midterm elections. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/brendan-carr-fcc-fake-polls-broadcasters/

One State Advances Local Journalism

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Article in Free Press by Staff 10/21/26

Headline:  “Pennsylvania House Advances Vital Legislative Package to Support Local Journalism and Civic Information”

Subhead:  “The two bills are part of a growing national push for state-level action to address America’s local-journalism crisis”

“HARRISBURG — On Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives passed two important journalism and civic-information bills (HB 2047 and HB 2048). The legislation is designed to support independent public-interest news that meets the most pressing information needs of communities across the Commonwealth. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/pennsylvania-house-advances-vital-legislative-package-support-local-journalism-civic-information

Picking Them Off One-by-One

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Article in The Hill by Sarah Davis, 10/21/26

Headline:  “WHCA condemns removal of journalist from White House pool”

“White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Jacqui Heinrich on Wednesday condemned the White House’s decision to restrict a journalist’s access to cover President Trump after the president lashed out at him in the Oval Office earlier this week.”

“Andrew Feinberg, a correspondent for The Independent, was scheduled to serve as the print pool reporter on Thursday. The White House pulled him from this duty, which included traveling with the president, according to Feinberg. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/media/6164506-whca-condemns-trump-retaliation/

No Reporters Need Apply

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Article in The Washington Post by Scott Nover and Miriam Waldvogel

Headline: “White House takes new swipes at press, blocking a reporter and threatening an outlet”

Subhead:  “The moves mark the latest attempt by the White House to push back on coverage it dislikes by revoking access normally granted to members of the media.”

“The White House this week launched new broadsides against the news media, blocking a reporter from serving in the pool covering the president and sending a letter threatening Politico over its coverage of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/10/21/white-house-takes-new-swipes-press-blocking-reporter-threatening-an-outlet/

Billionaires Bought the Media

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Article in The Hartmann Report by Thom Hartnann, 10/20/26

Headline:  “No Kings? Then Why Are We Letting Billionaires Rule What America Can See and Hear?”

Subhead:  “Millions march against authoritarianism while a handful of powerful men control the digital public square, shape our news, and decide which voices Americans get to hear… “

“As many of us were showing up this past Saturday for our local No Kings marches, with over 3,000 of them underway, the movement’s organizers suddenly found themselves locked out of their Instagram account for hours. . .”

“Then yesterday morning Christiane Amanpour announced that after reporting for CNN for 43 years she’s leaving the network. While she didn’t mention nepo-baby David Ellison who now owns the network, she didn’t have to . . .”

“What we’re seeing here with these two companies in microcosm is that the men who own the social media digital square where a near-majority of people get their news. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://hartmannreport.com/p/no-kings-then-why-are-we-letting-4ee

Trump Still Blocks CNN

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 10/20/26

Headline: “CNN threatens Trump’s DOJ with further legal action over Air Force One blocks”

“CNN is threatening President Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) with further legal action if the White House continues blocking the network from performing its duties in pool rotation.

In a letter to the DOJ this week, CNN’s attorney Ted Boutrous wrote “these efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” the outlet reported. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6161064-cnn-threatens-doj-legal-action/

Donors Saving Public Media

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Article in Poynter by Paul Farhi, 10/20/26

Headline:  “Public broadcasting found a lifeline after defunding. How long will it last?”

Subhead:  “A surge of ‘rage giving’ and philanthropy helped stave off widespread closures, but many public media organizations remain vulnerable”

“. . .President Donald Trump was urging Congress to wipe out almost all federal funding of public broadcasting — some $1.1 billion in subsidies. As many Republicans had before him, Trump demonized PBS and NPR as biased against conservatives. But the ‘rescission,’ or formal clawing back of funds appropriated by a previous Congress, would be a historic reversal: the first time Washington had withdrawn the financial support. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/public-broadcasting-federal-funding-cuts-donations/