After CECOT – LULAC Begins News

Article in FAIR by Carolina Abbott Galvão. 8/4/26

Headline: ‘The Most Accurate Truth’

Subhead: “After CBS News hit the brakes on a 60 Minutes story about CECOT prison, the League of Latin American Citizens decided it was time to start their own newsroom. Within months, El Grito Media has become a definitive resource.”

“n July 7 in Houston, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a fifty-two-year-old Mexican man. Audrey Colocho and Katherine Torres of El Grito Media—which this spring started publishing stories directly on Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok instead of on a dedicated site—tried to piece together what happened, beginning with a social media post. Soon, they had collected more footage, from more angles—providing a definitive account that became a source for major news outlets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/getting-the-story/the-most-accurate-truth-el-grito-media-ice-salgado-killing-shooting-cecot-el-salvador-venezuela-60-minutes-cbs-news.php

Fox News Ignoring Something in the Room?


Article in Media Matters by Tyler Monroe & Kayla Gogarty, 8/3/26

Headline:  “Fox News and podcasters in the right-wing media ecosystem bury recent reporting on alleged domestic abuse by Ohio GOP Rep. Max Miller”

Subhead:  The Benny Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Megyn Kelly Show, Steve Bannon’s War Room, The Ben Shapiro Show, Loomer Unleashed, Tim Pool Daily Show, and Timcast IRL all ignored the story”

“The right-wing media ecosystem has largely buried recent reporting detailing reports of alleged domestic abuse by Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), with Fox News spending just 4 minutes discussing the story and several popular podcasters ignoring it completely. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/congress/fox-news-and-podcasters-right-wing-media-ecosystem-bury-recent-reporting-alleged-domestic

Running from a WaPo Crash?

Article in Status by Natalie Korach. 8/2/26

Headline: The Post’s Opinion Parting”

Subhead:  “Days before his abrupt exit from The WaPo, Adam O’Neal was privately boasting that he had pushed the Opinion section further to the right—raising new questions about what really drove his departure.”

In the days leading up to his shocking exit last week, Adam O’Neal gave no indication he was on his way out as The Washington Post’s Opinion editor. In recent private conversations, Status has learned, he struck precisely the opposite tone, sounding triumphant and boasting that he had pushed the paper’s storied opinion section further to the right. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/adam-oneal-washington-post-opinion-exit

Media Literacy Events

Source:  Neutrality Studies

NATIONALLY KNOWN  AUTHOR, ROBIN ANDERSEN

CONDUCTS MEDIA LITERACY EVENT AND BOOK TALK

 On August 4th  at 6:00 CST, Robin Andersen, Professor Emerita from Fordham University, New York City, and author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles on media, war, refugees, etc., will conduct a workshop on how to “Expose media lies and have fun doing it” in joint with two others in the “large meeting room” in the Plaza Branch Library, 4801 Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri.

Andersen collaborates in this workshop with Katerina Canyon, Executive Director of the Peace Economy Workshop, headquartered in St. Louis. The workshop will be moderated by Spencer Graves, President of Friends of Community Media. This workshop is designed to promote critical thinking about what appears in the media.  The public is encouraged to attend and may register with email for free at savethemedia@cs.com. The event begins with a reception at 5:30 PM.

In addition Robin Andersen will speak August 5th at 7 PM at Rainy Day Books in 2706 W 53rd Street, Fairway Kansas, on her new book, The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza (OR Books, published June 2, two months ago).

Friends of Community Media (FCM, ourfcm.org) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in Kansas City, whose mission includes educating citizens on the nature of the media and encouraging media to be responsive to the public. FCM also has a daily blog that examines national media from a progressive viewpoint.

Harassing Freelancers Now?


Article in The New York Times by Devlin Barrett, 8/1/26

Headline:  “Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources”

Subhead:  “A previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the government’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of secrets.”

“A freelance reporter has been fighting a subpoena from the Trump administration seeking to force him to reveal his sources for a New York Times article about a failed top secret mission in North Korea, according to people familiar with the matter. . .”

“In the months since Mr. Cole’s subpoena, The Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have faced similar subpoenas seeking information about their reporting. The news organizations have resisted. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/us/politics/times-subpoena-reporter-trump-north-korea.html

Media Lying About a Lie?

Article in Daily Kos by whitroth, 7/31/26

Headline: “About Nicaragua and US media”

“Remember the big fuss a week or so ago about Ortega of Nicaragua saying “there would be no more elections”?

“It was all a lie. Literally. Every report that we saw LIED by editing out half the words.

An ex of mine found this link on bluesky. What Ortega actually said was ‘none who promoted a violent anti-government insurrection in 2018 will be allowed to stand for office.’

“Well, gee, that’s not exactly “no more elections. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/31/800077977/community/about-nicaragua-and-us-media/

No More Mister Nice Network!


Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 7/31/26

Headline:  “Opinion | ABC is done playing defense against the FCC”

Subhead:  “The network’s unusually forceful filing accuses the FCC of retaliation and warns of a chilling effect on the media”

“For more than a year, the Federal Communications Commission and its chairman Brendan Carr have repeatedly hassled, threatened and tried to intimidate ABC. . .”

“But now, ABC says it has had enough.

In a fervent filing with the FCC, ABC is accusing the commission of “attempted censorship.” The FCC is targeting the network, ABC claims, simply because the FCC doesn’t like what the network sometimes says. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/abc-accuses-fcc-attempted-censorship/

WaPo Slowly Going Under?


Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 7/31/26

Headline: Washington Post’s opinion editor resigns after just one year in role:

Subhead:  “Adam O’Neal did not give reason for his departure at end of August in another major shakeup at US publication”

The Washington Post had realized a state of relative calm in the five months since the paper was turned upside down in February, when nearly half the newsroom was laid off and its unpopular publisher, Will Lewis, abruptly resigned.

“But on Friday, staffers were shocked to find out that Adam O’Neal, a millennial hired last year to lead its opinion section, was already leaving. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/31/washington-post-opinion-editor-resigns-adam-oneal

Local Owned Doesn’t Guarantee Local News


Article in Poynter by Jennifer Nehrer, 7/29/26

Headline:  “A community can have local newspapers and still lack local news”

Subhead:  “California’s local news landscape — from a thriving weekly in Carmel to a one-reporter newsroom in Merced — shows why counting newspapers isn’t enough”

“. . .At first glance, California’s local news landscape seems to be thriving. Even the state’s least populous areas compare favorably to some of the United States’ largest regions by one common measure. . .”

“Matt Pearce, director of policy at Rebuild Local News, prefers to add a second statistic to present a fuller picture of who is bringing local news to California communities: the ‘Local Journalist Index,’ a tool that analyzes the number of ‘Local Journalist Equivalents’ in each U.S. county. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/how-to-measure-local-news/