Broadcasting

Widening Gyre Public Media

by

Article in Free Press by Staff, 4/14/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Plan to Defund Public Broadcasting To Face Opposition from Americans Who Overwhelmingly Support NPR and PBS“

Subhead:  “White House source tells press of plan to cut more than a billion dollars from the budget, effectively zeroing out federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting”

“According to Politico and New York Times reports Monday, the White House will send Congress a request to claw back nearly $1.1 billion in already-approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the entity that provides federal support for NPR and PBS affiliates across the country. . .”

https://www.freepress.net/news/trumps-plan-defund-public-broadcasting-face-opposition-americans-who-overwhelmingly-support

Soon – Media Required to Praise Leader?

by


Article in Huffpost by Lydia O’Commor 4/14/25

Headline:  “Trump Is Ramping Up His War With The Press As He Demands Media Praise”

Subhead:  “Nobody watches you anymore. You have no credibility,” Trump snapped at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.”

“President Donald Trump has been escalating his war with the media, allowing members of his administration to take turns bashing a reporter, denying journalists access to the Oval Office and calling for networks to be punished.

“In his latest installment, Trump lashed out at CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins before she could even finish asking him a question on Monday. . . .”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-war-with-press_n_67fd47bfe4b081fb1e97209b

Money-Truth on the Radio

by


Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Josh Hersch 4/11/25

Headline:  “Kai Ryssdal Was America’s Economic Voice of Reason This Week”

Subhead:  “The Marketplace host on Trump’s economic policies, and telling it like it is.”

“Kai Ryssdal has been the host of Marketplace, a leading daily radio show and podcast about the economy, produced by American Public Media, since 2005.

“He delivers the news—from the bitter latest on our 401(k)s to unexpected interviews about the modern-day resurgence of train robberies—with an affable, direct tone. . .”

“This week on The Kicker, Ryssdal explains what, exactly, just happened with the economy, and why he feels it’s so important for Marketplace to call it like they see it. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/kai-ryssdal-marketplace-trump-economy.php

Windfall for Some Media Giants?

by


Article in Free Press by Staff, 4/10/25

Headline:  “Kill the Bill: Press Group Fights Oregon Measure on Payment by Tech Firms”

“Free Press Action noted that the bill would divert millions into the pocket of corporate media giants and incentivize tech platforms to block local news content entirely.”

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/404954/kill-the-bill-press-group-fights-oregon-measure-o.html

First Amendment and Media?

by

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Sarah Grecy Gotfredsen, 4/10/25

Headline:  “Entry: Denied”

Subhead:  “The “intolerable risk to press freedom” posed by device searches at the border.”

“. . .In 2019, The Intercept documented how journalists covering the so-called migrant caravan faced ‘coordinated harassment’ from US and Mexican authorities. Through a series of interviews, the journalist Ryan Devereaux tells how members of the press were forced to turn over their notes, cameras, and phones while border officers interrogated them for information about activists working with members of the caravan. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/entry-denied-us-border-customs-device-unlock-search-journalists-detain.php

– – – – –
Article in Fair by Janine Jackson, 4/10/25

Headline:  ” ‘This Is an All-Out War on the First Amendment’ “

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Jessica González on Trump’s FCC”

“Janine Jackson:  ‘There are reasons that the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, is an opaque entity for many people. The fact that there is a federal agency setting the terms for media companies’ operations conflicts with many Americans’ understanding of the press corps as a group of brave, independent individuals looking to tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.’

“There are, in fact, many community-supported, differently structured news outlets doing just that. . .”

https://fair.org/home/this-is-an-all-out-war-on-the-first-amendment/

Protect Your Sources

by


Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 4/8/25

Headline:  “Legal experts advise journalists to strengthen reporting security in the face of rising press restrictions”

Subhead:  “Journalists can protect their sources by maintaining good digital hygiene and being aware of security vulnerabilities, experts say”

“At a time when President Donald Trump’s administration has accelerated attacks on the press, accessing information and protecting sources might become more difficult for journalists, experts say.

” ‘Concerns about libel law and the protections from landmark Supreme Court case New York Times Co. v Sullivan have been exaggerated’, said New York Times deputy general counsel David McCraw and Center for Investigative Reporting general counsel Victoria Baranetsky. Instead, they advised journalists to take measures to secure their reporting material and be cognizant of the pressures they face in the current political climate. Their remarks came Monday during a Poynter webinar called ‘Safeguarding your journalism against legal threats. . .’

“Trump has already taken measures to curtail press access. His administration has laid off communications staff, reallocated dedicated office space in the Pentagon to conservative outlets, taken over the White House press pool and defunded global radio stations. Most notably, his administration has banned The Associated Press from accessing key White House spaces like the Oval Office. Members of his administration have also threatened to investigate leaks.

“Newsrooms may see more subpoenas seeking their communications and reporting material, McCraw warned. To that end, journalists should be cognizant of the documentation that they generate and keep. An unflattering private message to a colleague, for example, could be unearthed in court — as was the case earlier this year when a jury found CNN guilty of defaming a security contractor. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/trump-legal-threats-journalists-source-protection/

 

Not in the News? – it Didn’t Happen

by


Article in The New Republic by Parker Molloy 4/7/25

Headline:  “Print Media to Mass Protests: ‘Please Turn to Page 18’ ”

Subhead:  “Here’s how newspapers across America minimized one of the largest demonstrations since Trump’s return to power.”

“On Saturday, April 5, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets across the nation to protest the harmful policies of Donald Trump’s second term. The ‘Hands Off!’ demonstrations represented what organizers called ‘the largest single day of protest since Trump entered office’ with more than 1,100 rallies scheduled in all 50 states. From Chicago to Washington, D.C.; Asheville to Boston; Milwaukee to Louisville—people showed up in droves.

“CNN reported that organizers estimated “millions” turned out coast to coast for these protests that united civil rights organizations, veterans, women’s rights groups, labor unions, and LGBTQ advocates. Even with conservative estimates, we’re talking about one of the largest mobilizations in recent American history.

“But if you picked up a major print newspaper the next day? You’d barely know it happened.

“The New York Times relegated the protests to an image below the fold with a caption instructing readers to turn to page 18 for more information.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/193683/print-media-downplay-mass-protests

– – – – –

Article in Fair by Miranda C. Spencer, 4/4/25

Headline: “The Resistance Will Not Be Televised ”

“. . . Their common thread is opposition to Trump’s fascistic ideology and rapid rash of likely unconstitutional executive orders, such as freezing federal budget outlays approved by Congress, the mass firing of government workers and the dismantling of institutions by the ‘Department’ of Government Efficiency by unelected ‘adviser’ Elon Musk.

But if you relied on articles and broadcasts from the legacy national news media during early 2025, you wouldn’t know the extent of grassroots action prompted by this discontent. A FAIR examination of five major outlets found that coverage of anti-Trump/pro-democracy protests . . . (January 22 to February 26) was minimal, and downplayed the significance of this opposition, especially around the inauguration. . . Mostly tepid coverage

“Broadcast coverage was abysmal. None of the four network shows in our study ran any reports focused on any of the three protest events. ABC World News Tonight mentioned none of the events, and GMA referred to only one of them in passing. In their coverage of the January 18 protests, CBS Evening News and Mornings gave more coverage to speculation about violent protest than they did to actual (nonviolent) protest. . .”

https://fair.org/home/the-resistance-will-not-be-televised/

 

Tariffs in the Media

by

Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent. 4/4/25

Headline:  ” ‘Horrifying’: Trump’s Weird, Confused Rant to Media as Markets Tanked”

Subhead:  “As Trump’s shockingly destructive global tariffs cause the markets to crater and he rambles bizarrely about it to reporters, congressional scholar Norm Ornstein walks through how this madness can be stopped.”

“After President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from all over the globe, prompting the markets to implode, he took a question about it on Thursday. He ranted and rambled delusionally about how everything is just great. He bizarrely likened the country to a patient that had just undergone advanced surgery without grasping why this metaphor is the opposite of reassuring. . .”

https://newrepublic.com/article/193604/horrifying-trump-weird-confused-rant-media-markets-tanked

– – – – –

Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 4/4/25

Headline:  “Jim Cramer: Trump tariff numbers ‘do not make any sense’  “

Subhead:  “CNBC host Jim Cramer tore into President Trump over the sweeping new tariffs his administration announced this week on nearly all foreign trading partners.”

“ ‘The numbers do not make any sense,’ Cramer said Thursday on CNN.  He claimed the president’s economic advisers and aides on trade ‘really screwed up’ and constructed the tariffs ‘in an ill-advised way.’

“ ‘And I was very let down as someone who really, truly believes that free trade is awful for the American working person,’ Cramer continued in the comments, first highlighted by Mediaite. ‘This is what they came up with? Jeez, come on. Have some gumption. Have some math.’ . . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5232027-jim-cramer-cnbc-donald-trump-tariff-numbers/

– – – – –

Article in The Washington Post by Jeremy Barr, 4/4/25

Headline:  “Some corners of conservative media aren’t thrilled with Trump’s tariffs”

Subhead:  “The Wall Street Journal editorial board, the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro and some voices on Fox News have expressed concern about higher prices for Americans. . .”

“President Donald Trump’s global tariff plan, which has unsettled financial markets around the world since it was announced Wednesday, has so far received the backing of many of his most reliable supporters in conservative media. ‘The world’s free ride is now over,’ Fox News host Sean Hannity said in his monologue that night, and borrowed the president’s branding by calling the tariffs a ‘liberation day shake-up’ on Thursday. . .”

“Still, several prominent conservatives in media notably came out against the tariffs, citing the potential for higher prices for the American people and hits to businesses.

“Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the Daily Wire, called Trump’s tariffs ‘probably unconstitutional” and also illogical. ‘The president’s vision of international trade is, I’m sorry to say, mistaken,’ he said on his Thursday streaming show. ‘This is a massive tax increase on American consumers. That’s what it is.’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/04/04/fox-news-tariffs-ben-shapiro-conservative-media-trump/

– – – – –

Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffe & Noah Dowe, 4/4/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media tell Americans to embrace the tariff pain, wait for a ‘golden age’ “

“Right-wing media are predicting a ‘golden age’ as President Donald Trump’s so-called ‘Liberation Day’ hits some of the United States’ closest trading partners with sweeping tariffs.

“Economists are warning about recession, inflation, and job loss as a result of Trump’s tariffs, but right-wing media are largely ignoring these predictions as they endorse the White House’s economic agenda, downplaying the negative stock market and telling their audiences to anticipate a return of American manufacturing.

“While some right-wing personalities have voiced concern over the tariffs’ potential harms, much of the commentary has held that the U.S. must embrace ‘short-term’ pain in order to get long-term benefits, that tariffs will bolster the U.S. economy and raise revenue, or that the tariffs are just a ‘negotiation weapon.’ ”

https://www.mediamatters.org/tariffs-trade/right-wing-media-tell-americans-embrace-tariff-pain-wait-golden-age

Media Overload

by


Article in The Guardian by Michael Savage. 4/1/25

Headline:  “‘I can’t cope with it any more’: newsrooms scramble to retain audiences amid the big switch-off”

Subhead:  “In an international survey last year, 39% of respondents said they selectively avoid news to some degree”

“When Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, informed her staff recently that she was shaking up how they worked as part of a drive to combat “the growing trend of news avoidance”, she had in mind the likes of Dave Ayres, a handyman from Leeds.

“ ‘I used to have the news on the TV every morning for an hour or so as I got the children ready for school and completed my household tasks,’ he said. ‘Now it has literally been switched off and unplugged. I can’t cope with it any more. It’s just too much and there’s nothing I can do about it.’

“Though he dips into his favourite news apps occasionally in the evening, he now strictly limits his news consumption. He’s not alone. The Guardian has been contacted by a series of one-time news junkies who are now seeking to restrict their news intake after suffering from disturbed sleep or a downturn in their mood.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/apr/01/i-cant-cope-with-it-any-more-newsrooms-scramble-to-retain-audiences-amid-the-big-switch-off

PBS Indoctrinating Our Kids?

by


Article in New York Times by Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum, 3/26/25

Headline:  “Elmo and Elon Musk Are Cited as G.O.P. Lawmakers Grill PBS and NPR“

Subhead:  “Dark pronouncements by Republicans about a ‘communist agenda’ espoused by public media were intercut with lighter references to “Sesame Street” and ‘Curious George.’ “

“Congressional Republicans laced into PBS and NPR on Wednesday, accusing the country’s biggest public media networks of institutional bias in a fiery hearing that represented the latest salvo against the American press by close allies of the Trump administration.

“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who organized the hearing — which she called ‘Anti-American Airwaves’ — opened her remarks by deriding PBS and NPR as ‘radical left-wing echo chambers’ that published skewed news reports and indoctrinated children with L.G.B.T.Q. programming.

“The leaders of both PBS and NPR testified that those claims were untrue, arguing that their stations served as a crucial source of accurate information and educational programming for millions of Americans, even as the NPR chief executive acknowledged regrets for posting critical remarks about President Trump before she joined the broadcaster. . .”

“Representative Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, said that Republican lawmakers would rather go after Big Bird than President Trump. “If shame was still a thing, this hearing would be shameful,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/business/media/pbs-npr-congress-hearing-republicans.html

– – – – –

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 3/26/25

Headline:  “NPR and PBS Leaders Face Grilling Before House DOGE Subcommittee”

Subhead:  “We are essential, especially in remote and rural places,” the head of Alaska Public Media testified.”

“It was standing room only at Wednesday’s House subcommittee hearing on the public broadcasters NPR and PBS.

“Titled ‘Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,’ the hearing, held by the DOGE subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, comes as various Republican lawmakers have spent the past few weeks making a rallying cry out of their calls to pull federal funding from the broadcasters over perceived liberal bias. . .”

“Press freedom groups, meanwhile, say the hearing is taking place in the context of a broader campaign against the media in the United States in the form of lawsuits, government investigations, and hostile rhetoric from officials.

“This fits into the broader pattern that we’ve been observing since Trump became president of using the government as a tool to harm the media in any way,” said Clayton Weimers, the head of the US office of Reporters Without Borders.

“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and the subcommittee’s chair, began the hearing by recounting how she—and her three children—grew up watching PBS. Her tone quickly shifted.

“ ‘NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical, left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America,’ Greene said in her opening statement, claiming that the broadcasters are ‘brainwashing and trans-ing’ children. . .”

“Maher (NPR CEO) and Kerger (PBS CEO) defended the broadcasters. ‘I do not believe we are politically biased,’ Maher said at one point. ‘We are a nonpartisan organization.’

“Kerger highlighted PBS’s educational programming for kids, which she said especially benefits children whose families cannot afford pre-kindergarten. ‘I strongly believe that the programming we offer to prepare children for the future is the most essential work that we do today,’ she said.

“Public media has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades. A 2017 national survey from Rasmussen Reports found that just 21 percent of Americans—including less than a third of Republicans—supported cutting federal support of public broadcasting”.

https://www.cjr.org/news/npr-and-pbs-leaders-face-grilling-before-house-doge-subcommittee.php