Broadcasting

No Ranting by Miller on CNN?

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Article in Raw Story bu Jennifer Bowers Bahney, 2/20/25

Headline:  “CNN cuts off Stephen Miller as he uses ‘softball’ question to launch into anti-media rant”

“CNN’s Boris Sanchez cut away from a White House press briefing Thursday after a reporter lobbed a “softball question” to Trump aide Stephen Miller that set him up perfectly to begin bashing the ‘liberal’ media and former President Joe Biden.

“The reporter began, ‘So, you spoke about DOGE; you said roughly $50 billion is set to be cut in a year of waste, fraud and abuse by unelected bureaucrats. We’re hearing this ironic narrative from the president’s critics and the left-wing media that Elon Musk is an unelected bureaucrat, and he’s doing all this terrible stuff. Isn’t one of DOGE’s objectives to get rid of the federal bureaucracy, the deep state?’ . . .”

 

Rt. Wing Media Attack/Defend AP?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 2/20/25

Headline:  “After Fox stars defend Trump’s restrictions on the AP, the network signs a letter calling them a 1st Amendment violation”

Subhead:  “Newmax also signed onto the letter, even as its on-air programming attacked the “Fake News AP” as ‘Associated Propaganda’ “

“The stars of Fox News have used their shows to defend President Donald Trump’s banning of Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One because the wire service refuses to adopt the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America.’ They’ve characterized the AP’s actions as ‘deadnaming’ the Gulf and said that ‘the White House is right’ to restrict its access in response.

“But Fox has also reportedly signed on to a letter calling on the Trump White House to restore the AP’s access and characterizing the ban as ‘serious breach’ of the First Amendment’s protections for the press. So has Newsmax, whose on-air talent praised the White House response while attacking the “Fake News AP” as “Associated Propaganda.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/after-fox-stars-defend-trumps-restrictions-ap-network-signs-letter-calling-them-1st

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/18/25

Headline:  “AP’s Back-Channel Press”

Subhead:  “News outlets across the political spectrum have united behind the AP, signing a WHCA-backed letter urging the White House to reverse its press ban, a copy of which Status has obtained.”

“On Wednesday, Julie Pace boarded a plane to Florida for a high-stakes meeting. The executive editor of the Associated Press had secured an audience with Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, to discuss the administration’s unprecedented decision to bar AP journalists from official events. . .

“One week prior, the White House blocked the AP over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America,’ a manufactured controversy that Trump has used to test his ability to control the media. Since then, all efforts to reverse the White House’s decision have been to no avail, leaving the global wire service in a precarious position. . .”

https://www.status.news/p/associated-press-donald-trump-white-house

 

Some Media Got it Right on Ukraine

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/20/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Good on the media for calling out President Trump’s falsehoods on Ukraine”

“Just when you thought our politics couldn’t get any more bizarre and divisive and distressing, something else transpired.

“As happens far too often these days, it was something said by President Donald Trump.

“In a truly stunning post on Truth Social, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘A Dictator without Elections.’ He also called Zelenskyy a ‘modestly successful comedian’ and, just as he did a day earlier, seemingly blamed Zelenskyy for starting the war with Russia even though it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. Trump wrote that Zelenskyy ‘talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle.’ ”

“In a positive sign, the media appropriately and responsibly covered Trump’s comments. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-truth-social-statements-ukraine-zelenskyy-elected-media/

Local Radio Says Job Sunset

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Article in Tony’s Kansas City, 2/19/25

Headline:  “Kansas City public radio isn’t too optimistic about the future or the local economy . . . In fact, if we are to believe the local NPR affiliate . . .”

LOCAL PUBLIC RADIO IMAGINES EPIC ECONOMIC PERIL THANKS TO MAGA LAYOFFS!!!”

“More serious people remind MANY SIDES that the federal government is the largest employer in the Kansas City metro and the impact of any mass layoffs will be REGIONAL.

“It’s probably worth mentioning that billionaire Elon Musk recently advocating for ‘de-funding’ NPR.”

” . . .’Federal workers in Kansas City whose jobs were eliminated under the Trump administration’s massive budget cuts will have a hard time finding comparable work in the area. Instability in the city’s workforce could lead to a recession.’

“KCUR: Kansas City doesn’t have enough jobs available for all the federal workers getting laid off”

https://www.tonyskansascity.com/2025/02/kcur-predicts-economic-doom-amid-local.html

FCC Carr Crash

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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

Suing Broadcast Icon

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Article in The Guardian by Robert Tate, 2/6/25

Headline:  “Trump calls for ‘termination’ of 60 Minutes in fresh attack on US media”

“President also makes baseless claim that USAid money has been illicitly funding news organisations”

“Donald Trump has called for the “termination” of 60 Minutes, a long-established fixture of US journalism, in a fresh onslaught against the media that also included baseless claims that money from the country’s beleaguered foreign aid body had been illicitly funding news organisations.

  • “The demand that 60 Minutes be taken off the air came in a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform. It was the latest salvo in his long-running dispute with the CBS program over its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris, last year’s defeated Democratic presidential candidate, over which Trump has lodged a $10m suit alleging ‘election interference’.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/06/trump-60-minutes-cbs

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Headline: “Trump: ’60 Minutes’ should be ‘immediately terminated’ after Harris transcript release”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5130138-trump-60-minutes-off-air-cbs-news/

New Assignment Editor?

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 2/2/25

Headline:  “‘He’s become America’s assignment editor’: US media owners bend to Trump”

Subhead:  “Billionaires and corporations leading TV networks and newspapers seem to have caved to the president’s pressure”

“In a tumultuous first two weeks back in power in the White House, Donald Trump has targeted many familiar enemies, including one of his most passionate obsessions: the US media, whom he has frequently dubbed “enemies of the people”.

“Trump’s new federal communications chair, Brendan Carr, is reported to have ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of taxpayer-supported NPR and PBS member stations – a media network long hated by conservatives who accuse it of a liberal slant.
‘Safe to be a white male again’: how conservative media covered Trump’s first week
Read more

“At the same time, and just as concerning for some media watchers, core segments of the US media landscape – via the wealthy billionaires and gigantic corporations that own them – have seemingly caved under Trump’s pressure or apparently sought to curry favor with the new administration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/trump-media-pressure?ref=upstract.com

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Edited content not safe?

Article in The Hill by Sterr Danielle Thomas, 2/1/25

Headline:  “CBS agrees to release Harris transcript to FCC amid Trump lawsuit “

“CBS News has agreed to release a full transcript of former Vice President Harris’s October interview with “60 Minutes” to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the outlet revealed Friday.”

The decision came after the FCC sent a letter to CBS asking for a “full, unedited transcript” of the interview, conducted ahead of Harris’s loss to President Trump in the 2024 election. The commission also requested the camera feeds from the episode.

“. . . A conservative law firm filed a complaint with the FCC last year following the interview, alleging that the outlet engaged in “significant and international news distortion.” The suit, originally dismissed under the Biden administration, was reopened by agency head Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the commission.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5120625-cbs-kamala-harris-60-minutes-transcript-fcc/

NPR / PBS, CPB Investigated?

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Update

Article in Washington Post by Anne Branigin, 1/31/25

Headline:  “Trump’s FCC chief orders investigation into NPR and PBS sponsorships”

Subhead: “FCC’s Brendan Carr also suggests an investigation could be relevant to conservative congressional efforts to defund the public broadcasters.”

“President Donald Trump’s newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS over their alleged “airing of commercials,” and suggested that the public broadcasters could be at risk of losing their federal funding.

““I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Brendan Carr wrote to the heads of both organizations Wednesday. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/01/31/trump-fcc-npr-pbs-investigation/

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Article in Freepress by Timothy Karr, 1/20/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Censorship Czar Orders NPR and PBS Investigation”

“On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS. In a letter to the chief executives of both publicly funded networks, Carr used the investigation as a pretext to suggest that Congress end federal funding for NPR and PBS.

“To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars,” Carr wrote.”

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/fcc-chairman-carr-npr-pbs-investigation

CNN Taking on Water

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Article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Betsy Morais, 1/24/25

Headline:  “The Flurry at CNN”

Subhead:  “A major network charts a digital course—and makes layoffs.”

“Washington weather report: “In a flurry of activity that is happening almost too swiftly to follow,” per CNN, “Trump is giving his critics every reason to think their worst fears for his new presidency will be realized and worse.” Back at CNN headquarters, there was other news in the air: a major restructuring that will cut about two hundred jobs focused on the company’s television programming and put about as many to work on digital products and services. “Recruiting the right people will take some time,” Mark Thompson, the CEO, wrote in a memo to the staff, “but we hope to open up and fill at least 100 new posts in the coming months to help execute the new plans.” He told the New York Times, “This is a moment where the digital story feels like an existential question. If we do not follow the audiences to the new platforms with real conviction and scale, our future prospects will not be good.”

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

Media Hiding Out Now?

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Imgflip

Article in The Nation by Jeet Heer, 1/24/25Headline:  “CNN Surrenders to Trump”

Headline:  “The corporate media’s commitment to fighting autocracy proves fickle.”

“US President Donald Trump points to journalist Jim Acosta from CNN during a postelection press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 7, 2018. ‘Will no one rid me of this troublesome journalist?’ (Jim Watson / AFP)

“CNN anchor Jim Acosta is fated to be a barometer of his network’s relationship with Donald Trump. During Trump’s first term, Acosta’s tough questioning at press conferences gave CNN credibility as a news outlet uncowed by the president’s bullying and willing to uphold the principle of accountability. In 2018, Trump denounced Acosta as a ‘rude, terrible person’ and the White House revoked Acosta’s press pass. CNN sued Trump and his top aides on behalf of Acosta, successfully forcing the White House to give the reporter back his press pass.

“If Acosta’s jousting with Trump was once celebrated by CNN, it has now become a source of shame. With Trump winning not just a second term but also having, for the first time, a popular vote victory (however narrow), CNN and other corporate media outlets have been thoroughly cowed.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/cnn-surrender-trump-corporate-media/