Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 3/30/25

Headline:  “Revenge is his number one motivation’: how Trump is waging war on the media”

Subhead:  “The president – who believes he has been treated unfairly by the press – is squeezing the media in different ways than his first term”

“On Tuesday 4 March, Donald Trump stood in the House of Representatives to issue a speech to a joint session of Congress, the first of his second term.

“Near the beginning of what was to be a marathon address, the president declared: ‘I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It’s back.’

What Trump did not mention was that less than three weeks earlier he had barred Associated Press journalists from the Oval Office, because the news agency refused to use his preferred nomenclature for the Gulf of Mexico. He did not mention that he was waging lawsuits against ABC and CBS, nor that the man he appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission had ordered a flurry of investigations into NBC News, NPR and PBS.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/30/trump-media-attacks

– – – – –

Article in Poynter by Anela Fu, 3/31/25

Headline: “As Trump attacks the press, many Americans aren’t hearing about it”

Subhead:  “Just 36% of Americans say they’ve heard ‘a lot’ about the Trump administration’s relationship with the media, down from 72% in 2017”

“From suing outlets to banning The Associated Press, President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought an unprecedented flurry of attacks on the media. But news about these events doesn’t appear to be reaching many Americans, according to a Pew Research Center study released Monday.

“The study, based on a survey of 5,123 adults between Feb. 24 and March 2, found that just 36% of Americans reported hearing “a lot” about the Trump administration’s relationship with the news media. Nearly a fifth said they’ve heard “nothing at all,” and 44% said they’ve heard “a little” about it.

Though national news consumption has generally been on the decline, those changes are slight and wouldn’t explain the dramatic decrease that Pew found, Shearer said.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans described the relationship between the Trump administration and the press as “very” or “somewhat bad.” Just 11% described it as “very” or “somewhat good,” and 22% said it is “neutral.”

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/president-donald-trump-relationship-attacks-journalists/