Code for Journalists

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liz Skalka, 8/10/26

Headline:  “Revising the Ethics Code”

Subhead: “The Society of Professional Journalists is taking a red pencil to its ethics guidelines—the first update since 2014.”

“The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), a more than century-old industry organization. . . might be best known for its code of ethics, a set of bullet-pointed precepts that can fit on a poster designed to hang in journalism classrooms and newsrooms: ‘Seek Truth and Report It’; ‘Minimize Harm’; ‘Act Independently’; ‘Be Accountable and Transparent.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/society-professional-journalists-spj-revising-the-ethics-code-ethical-precepts-ai-voice-content-creators.php

Rt. Media Don’t Like Vote?


Article in Media Matters by Jack Winstanley & Zachary Pleat, 8/10/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media have been arguing for decades that fewer Americans should have the right to vote”

Subhead:  “Repealing the 19th Amendment, disenfranchising welfare recipients, and requiring a civics test — right-wing media are full of ideas about how to restrict voting “

“. . .President Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress the vote have a significant ideological precedent. For decades, right-wing media have advocated restrictions on voter eligibility, laying the groundwork for Trump and his allies to undermine the upcoming midterms and push for policies that would make it harder for some Americans to vote. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/election-denial-voter-fraud-and-suppression/right-wing-media-have-been-arguing-decades-fewer

Media Saying Difference?

Article in The Guardian by Mehdi Hassan, 8/10/26

Headline:  “The media is infatuated with Gadi Eisenkot, the ‘anti-Netanyahu’. Why?”

Subhead:  “The challenger to Netanyahu is more of the same. His record makes that abundantly clear”

“Western media outlets cannot seem to get enough of Gadi Eisenkot.

“Israel’s former military chief and the leader of the newly formed Yashar party has been embraced by the international press as he and his party take the lead in the polls in the run-up to October’s elections.

“Will Israel embrace the ‘anti-Netanyahu’ who lost a son in Gaza?” asked the Times of London. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/10/media-gadi-eisenkot-anti-netanyahu

Media Sinking Into the Swamp?

Article in AP by Bernard Condon, 8/10/26

Headline:  Trump media company announces a massive loss and new turnaround effort”

“The president’s media company posted a massive loss in the second quarter and announced plans to ditch new business lines and refocus as a forum for users to post their views.

“Trump Media & Technology, the company behind the Truth Social platform, said Monday that it lost $238 million in the three months through June as it branched into businesses unrelated to media, including crypto. That was more than 10 times the loss from a year earlier. The per-share loss widened to 86 cents from 8 cents. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/truth-social-media-trump-djt-crypto-e86747f01cc12dbee0146c5f0e79012b

So, Who Gets the Megaphone?

Article in The Bulwark by Sonny Bunch, 8/7/26

Headline:  “The Government Shouldn’t Pick Winners and Losers in Media”

Subhead:  “The real reason to worry about the FCC’s latest move.”

“. . .So, basically: Brendan Carr wants to decide who gets a pass and who doesn’t. . .”

“But really, no government entity should have this power. And I think on some level, most Americans agree with that. It is noxious to American beliefs about freedom of speech and the First Amendment that the government should determine who should or shouldn’t get to own an outlet dedicated to the promulgation of news and opinions and entertainment due to the viewpoints of the owners. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-government-shouldnt-pick-winners-and-losers-in-media-brendan-carr-fcc

Reporting is “Treason”?

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones and Angela Fu, 8/7/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Donald Trump accuses The Washington Post of treason”

Subhead: “A reported squabble with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week resulted in “fake news” accusations from the Trump administration”

“. . .In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump wrote ‘The Fake News, as usual, is spreading false and completely unfounded rumors. I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing.’. . .”

He later wrote, “This rumor was started by The WashingtonComPost, [sic] one of the worst Media Outlets in the business, despite our telling them their story is completely FALSE. In actuality, I really believe their fake ‘reporting’ is treasonous!”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/donald-trump-accuses-the-washington-post-of-treason/

Progressive Media Growing

Article in Reuters by Helen Coster, 8/6/26

Headline:  “How the new generation of left-wing US media is powering progressive candidates “

“. . .This fast-growing world of left-wing websites, podcasters, YouTube hosts and livestreamers – many of whom blend opinion journalism and activism – affords candidates a sympathetic space to sharpen their message and mobilize grassroots support. But it also risks deepening the fissures in the Democratic Party, analysts say, and alienating moderates in the coalition. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/how-new-generation-left-wing-us-media-is-powering-progressive-candidates-2026-08-06/

FCC Free Speech Threat?


Article in Free Press by Staff, 8/6/26

Headline:  “Free-Speech Advocates Mark Out Chairman Carr’s History of Censorship as the FCC Convenes Its August Meeting”

“On Thursday, sign-holding volunteers and advocates marked out FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s disturbing history of censorship outside the entrance to the agency’s Washington headquarters. . .”

“The Corruption Walk exposes the FCC chairman’s role as President Donald Trump’s censorship czar. This shameful history, recounted in a series of 11 signs, details the chairman’s corrupt attempts to silence and bully any media that refuse to bow to Trump’s anti-democratic White House agenda. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-speech-advocates-mark-out-chairman-carrs-history-censorship-fcc-convenes-its-august

Robots Reading You the News?

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew 7/6/26

Headline:  “All the News While Doing the Dishes”

Subhead:  “News organizations have embraced AI narrators. But how does artificial mediation change our relationship to a piece of writing?”

On major news sites, you may have started noticing a button—maybe a triangular ‘play’ symbol, or a little headphones icon—allowing you to hear an article read aloud. Tap the button, and you may be told that the piece is being ‘read by an automated voice.’ News outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal . . . have all embraced automated text-to-speech tools to oralize their journalism in recent years. . .”

“Does hearing journalism narrated by a synthetic voice change a reader’s relationship to the story?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/all-the-news-while-doing-the-dishes-ai-narration-artificial-mediation-relationship-writing-new-yorker-new-york-times-singer-remnick-elevenlabs-staniszewski.ph0p

Climate Not Reported?


Article in Media Matters by Evlondo Cooper, 8/6/26

Headline: ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nearly 200 segments about three U.S. heat events without mentioning climate change”

Subhead:  “In coverage from June 29 to July 26, national broadcast networks failed to link multiple successive heat waves to global warming”

“From late June through July, successive heat waves swept across large portions of the United States, breaking temperature records and placing more than 100 million people at a time under heat alerts. ABC, CBS, and NBC closely tracked the extreme heat as it moved across the country, repeatedly reporting threatened or broken records and warning viewers about dangerous conditions.

“What the networks did not explain was why these events kept arriving in rapid succession. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/abc-cbs-and-nbc-aired-nearly-200-segments-about-three-us-heat-events-without