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Attack on Media Sources?

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“Ve haf vays to make you talk!”

Article in Rolling Stone by Peter Wade, 6/29/25

Headline:  “Trump Threatens to Force Journalists to Reveal Sources Who Leaked Iran Intel Report”

Subhead:  ” ‘We can find out. You go up and tell the reporter, “National security, who gave it [to you]?” You have to do that, and I suspect we’ll be doing things like that,’ the president said”

“Donald Trump threatened to force journalists to reveal sources who leaked a Pentagon intelligence assessment that concluded the U.S. air strikes on Iran only set the nation’s nuclear program back ‘months,’ contradicting administration claims that the facilities were ‘obliterated.’

“ ‘You tweeted the Democrats leaked an intelligence [report],’ Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo said to Trump in an interview.

“ ‘They should be prosecuted,’ the president responded.

“When Bartiromo asked ‘who, specifically’ should be prosecuted, Trump did not name any names but said his administration would demand reporters reveal the sources of their reporting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-journalists-reveal-sources-iran-intel-report-1235375074/

Changing Media Horses?

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Article in Status by Jon Passantino, 6/28/25

Headline:  “Gavin Takes Off the Gloves”

Subhead:  “Gavin Newsom spent months cozying up to MAGA media – now he’s suing Fox News for $787 Million, signaling a sharp break from his flirtation with the far right”

“After months of cozying up to the far right—hosting MAGA extremists on his podcast where he offered them praise, and trying on a strange ‘reach across the aisle’ persona—the California governor made a sharp reversal. On Friday, the likely 2028 contender filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging the network manipulated video footage to falsely portray him as lying about a phone call with Donald Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/gavin-newsom-fox-news-lawsuit

 

Media Cheerleader for Republicans?

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 6/28/25

Headline:  “Why Republicans desperately want the media to be their cheerleaders”

“Following the decision to bomb Iranian nuclear targets without first seeking congressional approval, the Trump administration renewed its ongoing war against the media for reporting factual information.
Republicans want cheerleading, not journalism.

“President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other Republicans challenged reporting that revealed that the Pentagon did not believe Iran’s nuclear capability had been decimated. In fact, the Trump administration argued that journalists should celebrate Trump’s actions. . .”

Republicans, particularly Trump and his orbit, have spent more than a decade whining about media coverage—which has largely been laudatory of him and has promoted his favored (false) narratives—but this week’s behavior explicitly argued that the press should “cheer” for Trump, as Hegseth said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/28/2330499/-Why-Republicans-desperately-want-the-media-to-be-their-cheerleaders?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web

Helpful Media

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan, 6/28/25

Headline: “Struggling in politics? Consider a war – the media will help”

Subhead:  “Trump’s Iran strike knocked everything else out of the news, including the Minnesota shootings – and it was little surprise”

” ‘You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war,’ was the storied response of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to Frederic Remington after the illustrator was sent to Cuba to cover an insurrection and cabled back to the boss that there was little going on.

Much has changed since that famous (if true) exchange of the late 19th century, in the heyday of sensationalism known as yellow journalism.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is that there’s nothing like military conflict to capture the attention of the public, with plenty of help from the media. And the media – whether a tabloid newspaper or a cable news network – benefits, too. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/28/trump-iran-war-media-support

Ask a Question – Get Yelled-At

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“The List” photo

Update:

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/27/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth targeted a Fox reporter. The journalism community had her back”

Subhead:  “In defending Jennifer Griffin, journalists signal that truth-telling still matters — no matter the network.”

“The Trump administration continues its signature bashing of the media. This time, it was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insulting Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin. . .”

“What was noticeable, however, was just how many journalists came to Griffin’s defense, including those from rival news outlets.

Say what you will about Fox News and how many of the network’s hosts fawn over Trump and conservatives. Griffin is a top-notch, plugged-in and unbiased reporter.

During a press conference with Hegseth on Thursday, Griffin posed a completely legitimate question. . .”

“She suggested that satellite imagery showed there might have been movement from the facility leading up the attack.

“Hegseth snapped, ‘Of course we’re watching it. Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.’

“Griffin wasn’t having it. She pushed back . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/pete-hegseth-attacks-fox-reporter-journalists-respond/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 6/26/25

Headline:  “Hegseth slams Fox reporter at press conference: ‘You’ve been about the worst’ ”

Subhead:  “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked Jennifer Griffin, his former colleague at Fox News and a longtime member of the Pentagon press corps, amid a broader push to discredit media outlets reporting on intelligence laying out the extent of damages done by U.S. strikes to Iranian nuclear sites.”

“ ‘Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain?’ Griffin asked Hegseth during a contentious press conference early Thursday morning. . .”

“ ‘Of course we’re watching it,’ Hegseth said before attacking the reporter. ‘Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst. The one who misrepresents the most intentionally.’  ”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5370774-hegseth-briefing-jennifer-griffin-fox/

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Article in Huffpost by Ron Dicker, 6/26/25

Headline:  “Pete Hegseth Calls Former Fox News Colleague ‘The Worst’ In Tense Iran Presser”

Subhead:  “The defense secretary zeroed in on Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin as he continued to rail against the lack of media fawning over the Iran strikes”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called former Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin ‘the worst’ as he faced more questions about the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites on Thursday.

“The Pentagon press conference turned downright hostile as Hegseth, who once occupied the curvy couch of ‘Fox & Friends’ before he got his Cabinet gig, slammed Griffin, the network’s chief national security correspondent. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-jennifer-griffin-the-worst_n_685d4e2ae4b0f78c57383fb2

 

Leave the Reporting to . . .?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Gerstein and Margaret Sullivan, 6/26/25

Headline:  “Can AI Tools Meet Journalistic Standards?

Subhead:  “So far, the results are spotty.”

“Tech companies promise that AI tools can do more with less—so perhaps they can help news outlets survive declining subscription sales and evaporating advertising revenue. Certainly, AI is being used effectively by some journalists to crunch numbers at lightning speed and make sense of vast databases. . .”

But more than two years after the public release of large language models (LLMs), the promise that the media industry might benefit from AI seems unlikely to bear out, or at least not fully. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/can-ai-tools-meet-journalistic-standards.php

– – – – –

Article in Poynter by Jennifer Orsi, 6/26/25

Headline:  “A lot has changed since we created AI ethics guidelines for newsrooms. Here’s what you need to know now”

Subhead:  “We’ve updated Poynter’s ‘starter kit’ for newsrooms to build AI policies,
including sections for visual journalists and product teams”

“More than a year ago, the Poynter Institute published a ‘starter kit’ for newsrooms to create their own ethics policies for using artificial intelligence in their journalism. AI use in newsrooms has grown swiftly since then — and gotten more complex — and the team behind the starter kit has just published a new update, adding more information for visual journalism and for those developing products in newsrooms. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/a-lot-has-changed-since-we-created-ai-ethics-guidelines-for-newsrooms-heres-what-you-need-to-know-now/

TV Network Validates Climate Change

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Article in The Nation by Mark Hertsgaard, 6/26/25

Headline:  “CBS News Leans Into the Climate Connection”

Subhead:  “Since Trump’s election, the network has produced more than 60 stories on the climate crisis.”

For years, most TV newscasts have neglected to make the climate connection with the kind of extreme heat blasting much of North America this week. In the summer of 2024, for example, when record high temperatures brutalized outdoor workers, withered crops, and worsened hurricanes, only 12 percent of US national TV news segments mentioned climate change, though its role in driving such extreme heat has long been scientifically indisputable.

“This week, CBS News decisively broke that pattern. David Schechter, the network’s national environment correspondent, aired two pieces that left no doubt that the ghastly heat afflicting tens of millions of Americans is climate change in action. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/cbs-news-climate-journalism/

NYT Not Caving?

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Article in Mediaite by Alex Griffing, 6/26/25

Headline: “Trump Threatens to Sue The NY Times and CNN Over ‘Unpatriotic’ Reporting”

Subhead:  “No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.”

“The New York Times struck a defiant tone in a Thursday letter in response to a personal lawyer for President Donald Trump demanding the paper ‘retract and apologize’ or be sued over a report on the state of Iranian nuclear sites following Trump’s bombings.

“The Times reported on the letter sent by Alejandro Brito, which threatened to sue the paper and CNN for publishing reports on a leaked Pentagon assessment that said Trump’s bombings only set Iran’s nuclear program back a few months. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-threatens-to-sue-the-ny-times-and-cnn-over-unpatriotic-reporting-on-u-s-military-intel/

Impact of no VOA on N. Korea

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 6/26/25

Headline:  “A Secret Program Allowed VOA to Broadcast Television into North Korea. Now It’s Gone.”

Subhead:  “How the Trump administration undermined its own strategic position.”

“The mission of Voice of America, to “tell America’s story to the world,” is hard to fulfill when you’re broadcasting into the void of North Korea. For decades, VOA’s Korean service struggled to meet its mandate . . .”

“Then, in January of 2023, after a decade of difficult negotiations, VOA reached an agreement with the South Korean government to use state-controlled broadcast towers along the border to send a TV signal deep into the North. . . .”

“But the demise of VOA’s Korean service—along with the USAGM-funded Radio Free Asia, whose programming also targeted North Koreans—means that information-starved North Koreans now have less access to independent news about what is happening in their country and around the world. . .’

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/trump-lake-secret-program-voice-of-america-north-korea-tv-broadcast-gone.php

Meltdown on the Media

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Article in Daily Beast by Sarah Ewall-Wice, 6/25/25

Headline:  “Trump, 79, Melts Down in Incoherent Rant About ‘Hero Pilots’ “

Subhead:  “The president attacked the media for reporting on the initial intelligence assessment on Iran.”

“President Donald Trump accused the media of demeaning the military after the initial U.S. intelligence report on Iran leaked.

“The president did not deny the existence of the preliminary assessment or its content, which suggested the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities resulted in limited damage, but he insisted it was wrong.

“He also claimed to have spoken to one of the pilots, who told him it was a ‘perfect’ bomb drop.
Trump first harangued reporters with claims that they attacked the brave men and women who carried out what was an operationally successful mission on Saturday night to drop the bombs and exit Iran without being fired on.

“ ‘They were maligned and treated very bad, demeaned by fake news CNN,‘ Trump claimed on Wednesday.  The media did report on the U.S. intel assessment, but it did not demean pilots who carried out the mission. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-melts-down-in-incoherent-rant-about-hero-pilots/