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NPR Tuning Out Trump?

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 5/27/25

Headline: “NPR Flips the Dial on Trump”

Subhead: “When Trump signed an order to defund NPR, the network faced a choice over how it would respond—but CEO Katherine Maher made one thing clear from the start: there would be no backroom negotiations.

“In the days following Donald Trump’s May 1 executive order to strip NPR of all federal funding, leaders at the public broadcaster began deliberating their options. But even before the network’s legal team got to work on the litigation, one decision had already been made. NPR chief executive Katherine Maher made clear that the outlet would not quietly negotiate with the White House—an approach other media companies have recently taken under immense political pressure.

“As an independent media organization,” Maher told me by phone Tuesday, “we wouldn’t go ahead and have that conversation because that would be negotiating on editorial principle.” . . .”

Read the full story here:

https://www.status.news/p/npr-sues-trump-funding-katherine-maher-interview

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 5/27/25

Headline:  “NPR sues Trump administration over executive order to cut federal funding to public media”

“National Public Radio and three of its local stations sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday, arguing that his executive order cutting funding to the 246-station network violates their free speech and relies on an authority that he does not have.

Earlier this month, Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to cease funding for NPR and PBS, either directly or indirectly. The president and his supporters argue their news reporting promotes liberal bias and shouldn’t be supported by taxpayers.

Retaliation is Trump’s plain purpose, the lawsuit argues. It was filed in federal court in Washington by NPR and three Colorado entities — Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KUTE, Inc., chosen to show the system’s diversity in urban and rural areas.

“By basing its directives on the substance of NPR’s programming, the executive order seeks to force NPR to adapt its journalistic standards and editorial choices to the preferences of the government if it is to continue to receive federal funding,” Katherine Maher, NPR’s CEO, said Tuesday.

Read the full story here:

https://apnews.com/article/npr-trump-lawsuit-public-radio-f320314b30df6934238a5b6af47c5067

Broadcaster Over the Volcano

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Article in MSN by Meg James, 5/27/25

Headline:  “Trump, ’60 Minutes’ and corruption allegations put Paramount on edge with sale less certain”

“One fateful October decision to trim two convoluted sentences from a ’60 Minutes‘ interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris has snowballed into a full-blown corporate crisis for CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, and its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone.

“President Trump’s $20-billion lawsuit — claiming ’60 Minutes’ producers deceptively manipulated the Harris interview to make her look smarter — has festered, clouding the future of Paramount and the company’s hoped-for $8-billion sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.

“The dispute over the edits has sparked massive unrest within the company, prompted high-level departures and triggered a Federal Communications Commission examination of alleged news bias. The FCC’s review of the Skydance deal has become bogged down, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to comment.. .”

Read the full article here:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/ar-AA1FyJMu

Journalists Cover Real History

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Article in Huffpost by Jazmin Tolliver, 5/26/25

Headline:  ” ‘60 Minutes’ Reporter Rips Into Trump In Viral Commencement Speech”

Subhead:  “The veteran CBS News reporter also accused Trump of working to ‘rewrite history with grotesque false narratives.’ “

“Journalist Scott Pelley accused President Donald Trump of ‘attacking’ free speech and spreading ‘insidious fear’ among the public during a commencement address at Wake Forest University.

“The speech came as concerns grow over the country’s free speech rights amid Trump’s targeted attacks aimed at universities over a range of topics, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices and foreign students’ enrollment. Trump and Harvard University are currently embroiled in a heated legal battle over its enrollment of foreign students.

“Our sacred rule of law is under attack,” Pelley began his message. ‘Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack, and insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses and into our private thoughts.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/journalist-scott-pelley-trump-attack-free-speech_n_6834bbbce4b0b885650cba0a?swk

Restrict Press, Make Hegseth Safe

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 5/26/25

Headline:  “Hegseth’s Safe Space”

Subhead:  “As backlash brewed over new restrictions on press access, the Pentagon made a second, quieter move—one that sent another troubling signal about how far it’s willing to go to create a safe space for Pete Hegseth”.

“On Friday afternoon, just before the holiday weekend was set to begin, word began to spread among Pentagon reporters: new, even more restrictive press limitations were imminent. Shortly after, the Pentagon Press Association was informed just how sweeping they would be. Pete Hegseth, the embattled Secretary of Defense, announced he would revoke journalists’ long-held ability to navigate the Pentagon’s unclassified hallways freely, cutting off access that has been permitted across Republican and Democratic administrations for decades. . .”

“Hegseth cloaked the decision in the language of national security. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/pete-hegseth-pentagon-press-access

Journalism Requires Evidence?

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Article in Daily Kos by Bison, 5/26/25

Headline:  “On anonymous sources, aging presidents, and the media’s eternal craving for redemption from Damnation”

“Yes, the recent book Original Sin introduces new reporting that escalates concerns about President Biden’s mental and physical decline to near-scandalous levels. But that’s precisely the problem. Much of the content is based on anonymous sources. This approach might hold in journalism but fails the standard of evidence required in history and political science, where claims must be transparent and verifiable. Instead of offering clarity, the book ends up echoing a long-standing, distorted narrative promoted by right-wing media: that Biden is a hollowed-out figure, mentally absent and manipulated by shadowy figures. At that point, it veers into propaganda—not journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/26/2324415/-The-Gospel-According-to-Whispers-How-Original-Sin-Became-Scripture-for-Media-Reckoning?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Both Sides Are OK – Right?

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Article in FAIR by Jim Naureckas, 5/23/25

Headline: “An ‘Objective’ Press Won’t Alert You to Threats to Democracy”

“. . .if you follow the Times‘ approach to journalism, in which you must never say that something is happening if someone in power claims it is not happening, then your audience won’t know when their government is acting illegally, or denying truth and reality. . .”

“. . .Journalists inevitably, inescapably, have values, and those values necessarily affect what they communicate to their audiences. If they value democracy, then they communicate to their audience that arrests of opposition lawmakers are dangerous. If, on the other hand, they value the appearance of neutrality above all else, then the message readers will get is: Who’s to say?”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/an-objective-press-wont-alert-you-to-threats-to-democracy/

VOA Angst

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Article in Poynter by Liam Scott, 4/23/25

Headline: ” ‘I am angry most of the time’: Inside a small VOA cohort’s return to work”

Subhead: “The bare-bones return has been marked by low morale, confusion and uncertainty, VOA sources say”

“Several weeks after the Trump administration began gutting Voice of America in March, the news agency is back — except, not really.

“A small cohort of Voice of America staffers quietly returned to the Washington office in early May, where they have been tasked with covering the news at a tiny fraction of the agency’s previous capacity.

“Instead of 49 languages, the congressionally funded but editorially independent news network is barely publishing in four. And instead of some 1,300 staffers, only about 30 are working. . .”

read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/voice-of-america-staff-back-office-skeleton-crew/

Book Sales Drive Media?

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Article in AlterNet by Ailia Zehra, 5/22/25

Headline:  ” ‘Fake outrage to gin up ratings’: Critics say Tapper’s book is ‘everything wrong with the media’ “

“CNN anchor Jake Tapper is being criticized over the information he supposedly had about former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity before the 2024 election as he promotes his new book about the former president’s decline.

“Some commentators have argued that talking about President Donald Trump’s actions and their impact is more important than discussing Biden’s cognitive health during his presidency.

“Political commentator Tristan Snell wrote on the social platform X: “Dear Jake Tapper, No, the original sin was JANUARY 6 — and not convicting Trump immediately after. Anything else is fake outrage to gin up ratings and book sales.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/jake-tapper-book/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 5/22/25

Headline:  “Trump-related crisis deepens at CBS News“

“The departure of two top executives at CBS News in recent weeks has shaken journalists at the outlet and fueled speculation the network’s corporate parent will soon settle a high-profile lawsuit brought against the company by President Trump.

“The resignation this week of CBS President Wendy McMahon came just weeks after that of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens.

“The back-to-back resignations served as the latest sign that a brooding crisis for one of the country’s largest and oldest broadcast news networks is reaching an inflection point. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/media/5312467-cbs-executives-resign-trump-lawsuit/

Insulting Journalists Presidential?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/22/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Another day, another press conference with President Donald Trump insulting a journalist”

Subhead:  “Trump goes after NBC’s Peter Alexander for Qatari plane question during meeting with South African president”

“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A reporter asks a perfectly legitimate question of President Donald Trump. And because Trump doesn’t like the question, he verbally accosts the reporter, and the reporter’s news organization, with insults.

“Rinse and repeat.

“It’s getting tiresome, isn’t it? Not the story, but Trump’s repeated pettiness and attacks against the press that is unbecoming of the President of the United States. . .”

Read the full article at :

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/another-day-another-press-conference-with-president-donald-trump-insulting-a-journalist-wesley-lowery-lady-gaga/