Upside Down Media


Article in Raw Story by David Edwards, 2/17/25

Headline:  ” ‘Maybe there is a DEI situation’: Right-wing media hosts speculate on upside-down plane”

“Two right-wing anchors quickly speculated former President Joe Biden’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies could be to blame after a Delta Airlines flight flipped upside down while landing Monday afternoon in Toronto.

” ‘Yeah, breaking news that just happened within the hour: a plane again going from Minneapolis to Toronto — to Toronto Pearson Airport, CP24, a local affiliate, saying about eight people injured,’ Matthew Alvarez announced on Right Side Broadcasting Network.

” ‘. . . [Maybe] it was a situation where the flight should have been diverted and somebody with maybe they’re overworked, maybe too much, you know, maybe there is a DEI situation again,’ Alvarez opined. ‘And I’m not — this is not really against people that are of any kind of look or way they are, right?’ ”

https://www.rawstory.com/plane-crash-2671169829/

Anti-Musk Ads Not Allowed?


Article in The Hill by Alexaner Bolton, 2/17/25

Headline:  “Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order”

“The Washington Post this week backed out of a ‘Fire Elon Musk’ advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.

“The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with the Post to run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper, as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.”

https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/

Absolutely No Media Conflict!


Article in Daily Kos by Alix Breeden, 2/17/25

Headline:  “How Trump is paving the way for his failing media company to thrive”

After President Donald Trump’s media company reported major losses in 2024, he now appears to be clearing the way for his business—and bottom line—to succeed.

The Trump Media & Technology Group Corp’s recent 10-K filing listed multiple risk factors for why its platforms—such as Truth Social or the new Truth.Fi—might fail.

One such factor is the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Trump temporarily paused with a Feb. 10 executive order. The FCPA makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials for government contracts.

Per Trump’s executive order, Attorney General Pam Bondi will revise the FCPA to “promote American competitiveness.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/17/2304349/-How-Trump-is-paving-the-way-for-his-failing-media-company-to-thrive?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web

Media Wedgie


Article in Raw Story by AFP, 2/16/25

Headline:  “Trump vows media will not drive wedge between himself and Musk”

“Donald Trump has mocked what he said were media depictions of Elon Musk as the real power in the White House, saying attempts to drive a wedge between himself and the tech billionaire have failed.

“They do it all the time,” the US president says in excerpts posted Saturday from a Fox News interview to be aired Tuesday.

“Speaking as if in a news anchor’s voice, Trump went on, ‘We have breaking news: Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight…’ ”

 

AP on Burning Bridge

Article in Committee to Project Journalists by Staff, 2/14/25

Headline:  CPJ denounces Trump administration’s actions against AP, other retaliation against media”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the White House decision to block The Associated Press (AP) from covering official events after AP’s decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally known name, calling the action the latest in an alarming pattern of retaliation against a free press in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s administration.

“The White House barred an AP reporter from covering two official events at the White House following AP’s issuing of widely used style guidelines saying that Trump’s order changing the name to Gulf of America only carried authority in the U.S. and that as a global news agency it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its 400-year-old name “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”

https://cpj.org/2025/02/cpj-denounces-trump-administrations-actions-against-ap-other-retaliation-against-media/

– – – – –

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/13/25

Headline:  “Opinion | From absurd to disturbing as Trump White House bans AP from important media events”

Subhead:  “Reporters are barred from Oval Office news events after The Associated Press refuses to change its style to Gulf of America.”

“It was a story that started off completely laughable and so absurd that no one actually took it seriously. But it has quickly gone from ridiculous to alarming. Very alarming.

“President Donald Trump had this goofy idea of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Why? Because it’s Trump and he does goofy stuff like that. He signed an executive order announcing the change.

“Recognizing just how ludicrous this all was, and wanting to continue calling things by their official, worldwide-recognized name, The Associated Press announced it would continue to call the body of water the Gulf of Mexico. . . ”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/from-absurd-to-disturbing-as-trump-white-house-bans-ap-from-important-media-events/

All News is Fake! Delete it!


Article in Columbia Journalism Review in The Media Today by Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen, 2/13/25

Headline:  “Fighting the Great Federal Website Purge”

Subhead:  “Journalists, judges, and archivists are keeping government data online.”

“Two weeks ago, when the new administration instructed agencies to scrub content related to ‘gender ideology’ from government websites, federal workers scrambled to comply, temporarily, and in some cases permanently, taking pages offline so that they might be monitored for language related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As reported by Popular Information this week, the National Security Agency is reportedly now executing a purge of pages that contain terms including ‘privilege’ and ‘bias’ — a dragnet that is also affecting ‘mission-related’ work, according to a source and documents. The discussion around so-called ‘banned words,’ as well as the deletion of datasets inconsistent with the administration’s ideology, has left data archivists concerned.

The news media has been busy keeping track of many of the webpages that have gone dark. At the beginning of this month, the New York Times put the number of removed pages at eight thousand; Wired is periodically scanning more than a thousand government domains for their accessibility. Such projects may prove especially useful down the line, not just to the public, but to the media industry itself . . . ”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/trump_administration_website_purge_court_order_cdc.php

A Media Template for the U.S.


Andras Petho – Viktor Orban Documentary

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Josh Hersh, 2/14/25

Headline: “A Warning from a Hungarian Journalist: ‘Brace Yourself for the Worst’”

Subhead: “András Pethő has watched American media head down a familiar path.”

“András Pethő is a Hungarian journalist and a cofounder of Direkt36, an independent investigative news outlet.

“Over the past decade, he’s watched as the government of Viktor Orbán—the world leader whom Steve Bannon once praised as Trump before Trump’—has systematically eroded the freedom of the press in his country, in ways that may feel familiar to Americans watching corporate news leaders succumb to pressure from the administration.

“András’s 2022 essay on the lessons he learned from experiencing Hungary’s crackdown on a free press ‘Direkt36’s latest investigation: a documentary about the secret wealth of Orbán and his allies . . . ‘ ”

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/hungary-viktor-orban-direkt36-andras-petho.php

FCC Carr Crash


Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/12/25

Headline: “A Runaway Carr”

Subhead: “Pressed by Status over text message, FCC boss Brendan Carr defended his actions—including his decision not to go after Rupert Murdoch’s Fox.

” On Tuesday evening, as I was putting the finishing touches on the previous edition of this newsletter, news broke that Brendan Carr, Donald Trump’s handpicked Federal Communications Commission chairman, had launched yet another investigation into a media company. Carr had already revived petitions filed by pro-MAGA forces against ABC, NBC, and CBS. He had also announced a string of investigations targeting NPR, PBS, and the Soros-backed Audacy. Now, he had written to Comcast boss Brian Roberts, informing him that the FCC would be investigating whether the company—which owns NBC—had violated the law because of its D.E.I. initiatives.

Carr has been aggressive in pursuing media companies with news divisions that have scrutinized Trump, but, as we have pointed out, he has conspicuously given Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation a pass. . .”

https://www.status.news/p/brendan-carr-fcc-fox-interview

A Widening Gulf in the Media


Article in Common Dreams by Brett Wilkins, 2/14/25

Headline: “As Trump Targets AP, Media Urged to Resist Moves Like ‘Gulf of America’ Renaming”

Subhead:  “It’s at times like these that journalists need to put down their pens and advocate for accountable leadership,” asserted one campaigner.”

“First Amendment defenders are calling on media organizations and journalists to stand up to bullying and intimidation by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration on Friday confirmed the indefinite exclusion of one of the world’s largest news agencies from White House press briefings and Air Force One flights over its refusal to adopt the Republican leader’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico.

“White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said that because The Associated Press “continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change” of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, it will be indefinitely banned from White House news conferences and the president’s official airplane.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-gulf-of-america