Broadcasting

Enough Media Coverage?

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Article in The Washington Post by Eric Wemple, 5/9/25

Headline:  “Did legacy media fail in its Biden coverage? Not if you ask them!”

Subhead:  “What the big-time players have to say about missing the story of the former president’s decline”

“In a recent interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, CNN host Jake Tapper called for a reckoning over the coverage of former president Joe Biden’s age. ‘There should be a lot of soul searching,’ said Tapper, ‘not just among me, but among the legacy media . . .”

“Few souls are undergoing a pat-down. I asked 17 news outlets at the forefront of White House coverage whether they believe they had failed in any aspect of their coverage of Biden’s age.

“They do not. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/09/legacy-media-biden-age-coverage/

Cutting Rural America’s . . .

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

Headline:  “If Trump cuts funding to NPR and PBS, rural America will pay a devastating price”

Subhead:  “Much of the country has little access to local news, with public media filling the void – and serving as a lifeline”

“When Hurricane Helene walloped North Carolina last fall, residents were hit by a second threat at the same time: the dire need for accurate information.

“The loss of electric power amid the widespread flooding meant that people – especially those in isolated areas – were deprived of basic news. They needed to know about everything from road closures to the whereabouts of their family and friends to sources of drinkable water.

“Blue Ridge Public Radio stepped into the breach. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/06/trump-funding-cuts-npr-pbs-rural-america

Cancelling Free Radio

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 6/4/25

Headline:  “Q&A: Tamara Bralo on Fighting to Protect Radio Free Asia’s Journalists”

Subhead:  “ ‘It’s difficult to remain calm when you’re dealing with this much trauma.’ ”

“he veteran journalist Tamara Bralo was at home in the Washington, DC, area when she learned one Saturday morning in March that the Trump administration was trying, via executive order, to terminate funding for Radio Free Asia, an international broadcaster under the US Agency for Global Media—part of a broader attempt to gut USAGM, which also oversees outlets including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/tamara-bralo-interview-radio-free-asia-rfa-protect-journalists.php

A Threat to Many Broadcasters

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Quilt showing many community radio stations

Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 6/3/25

Headline:  “Trump asks Congress to revoke $1 billion in already approved funding for public broadcasting”

Subhead:  “Congress has 45 days to consider the request, which would jeopardize operations at NPR, PBS and hundreds of local stations if approved”

“The White House formally asked Congress Tuesday to revoke more than $1 billion in already approved funding for public broadcasting, jeopardizing operations at NPR, PBS and local stations across the country.

“The request specifically targets the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit created and funded by Congress. Every year, CPB receives more than half a billion dollars, which it then distributes to NPR, PBS and more than 1,500 local radio and television stations in the form of grants. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/what-is-a-rescissions-package-pbs-npr-defunded/

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 6/3/25

Headline:  “Trump Launches Latest Attack on a Free and Independent Press with Bid to Claw Back All Federal Funding for Public Broadcasting”

“On Tuesday, the Trump White House issued a rescission request, which according to press reports calls on Congress 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. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/trump-tells-congress-rescind-funding-public-media

Reluctant Reporting Truth

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 6/2/25

Headline:  “Even Fox & Friends can’t completely deny that the GOP’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” is set to blow up the deficit”

“Reality crept into Fox News’ coverage of the Republican tax bill on Monday when a Fox & Friends co-host acknowledged that the legislation will increase the budget deficit because the GOP Congress is prioritizing President Donald Trump’s tax cut agenda. . .”

“But Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt acknowledged the following morning that the bill will cause the deficit to increase due to its tax cuts — though she minimized by how much.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/even-fox-friends-cant-completely-deny-gops-big-beautiful-bill-set-blow-deficit

Public Media Are Sueing

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 5/30/25

Headline: “PBS sues Trump administration in wake of calls to strip funding”

“PBS is suing President Trump’s administration on First Amendment grounds, arguing the president is trying to pull funding the from the broadcaster because of editorial coverage he disagrees with.

“The suit filed Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., accused the president of trying to “upend public television” and argues the law “forbids” him from pulling funding to it and other public broadcast outlets.

“PBS’s suit follows a similar lawsuit filed earlier this week by NPR. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5326430-pbs-sues-trump/

PBS Station Caves?

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Article in The Intercept by Nikita Mazurov, 5/29/25

Headline:  “PBS Station Wipes Drag and Trans Content After DOGE Outcry”

Subhead:  “PBS producer WNET quietly erased episodes containing a drag queen and a trans character from its platforms.”

“The New York-area PBS station WNET has scrubbed its archives of at least three educational TV episodes that discuss transgender identity and drag expression, The Intercept has learned, as Congress and the Trump administration target public broadcasters with attempts to strip their funding.

“The station’s educational program ‘Let’s Learn’ became an object of ire for the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency this spring over the 2021 episode. . .The subcommittee’s chair, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., opened the ‘Anti-American Airwaves’ hearing in March by claiming that ‘PBS News is not just left-leaning, but it actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical, left positions like featuring a drag queen on the show . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/29/drag-trans-pbs-wnet-censorship-doge/

FCC Commissioner Defends Press Freedom

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 4/28/25

Headline:  “At Lively Public Forum, FCC Commissioner Gomez Rallies Angelenos in Defense of First Amendment Rights and a Free Press”

“On Wednesday, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez took a forceful stand against government censorship and intimidation of U.S. media during a boisterous Los Angeles forum co-hosted by Free Press.

“ ‘I launched this First Amendment tour to bring attention to this administration’s campaign of censorship and control — and I want to be clear, this is an administration-wide campaign,’ Gomez said during the event. ‘Freedom of the press requires journalists that are able to do their job without interference from their corporate parents. We are not seeing that today because of the actions of this administration and it is so dangerous. We all need to understand what is happening and we need people to speak up and to push back. . .’

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/fcc-commissioner-gomez-rallies-angelenos-defense-first-amendment-rights

Reporting a Hidden War

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Nalova Akua, 5/27/25

Headline:  “The Hidden Toll of Reporting on the Sudanese Civil War”

Subhead:  “Local journalists say it often feels like belligerents are waging an undeclared war against the press.”

“In June 2023, Nader Shilkawi, a thirty-four-year-old journalist working with the Sudan Radio and Television Corporation, was returning home from a reporting trip when he was seized by members of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces. The group—a party in a brutal civil war that has torn the country apart since April 2023—accused the reporter of working with the Sudanese army to monitor its movements. ‘I was subjected to torture in detention,’ Shilkawi said recently via a WhatsApp message. ‘I was beaten. I received threats.’

“He was eventually released, after three days of detention. But Shilkawi’s story is not so uncommon. The Sudanese civil war, now in its third year, has left more than 150,000 people dead and an estimated fourteen million more displaced. It has also quietly become one of the most dangerous conflicts in the world for journalists. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/journalism-reporters-sudan-civil-war.php

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