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Using Media Company to Coerce

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Article in The New York Times by Jack Nicas, 2/19/25

Headline:  “Trump Media Group Sues Brazilian Judge Weighing Arrest of Jair Bolsonaro”

SubHead:  “The lawsuit came hours after the justice received an indictment of Brazil’s former president, who is an ally of President Trump.”

“President Trump’s media company sued a Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday, accusing him of illegally censoring right-wing voices on social media. . .”

“The Trump Media & Technology Group — which is majority owned by Mr. Trump and runs his Truth Social site — sued the Brazilian justice, Alexandre de Moraes, in U.S. federal court in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday morning. Joining as a plaintiff was Rumble, a Florida-based video platform that, like Truth Social, pitches itself as a home for free speech.

“The lawsuit appeared to represent an astonishing effort by Mr. Trump to pressure a foreign judge as he weighed the fate of a fellow right-wing leader who, like him, was indicted on charges that he tried to overturn his election loss.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/world/americas/trump-brazil-bolsonaro-judge.html

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Article in Axios by Avery Lotz, 2/19/25

Headline:  “Trump’s media group sues Brazilian judge after Bolsonaro indictment”

“President Trump’s media group on Wednesday sued a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, alleging that he censored right-wing voices on social media platforms. . .”

https://www.axios.com/

 

 

Reporting on Politicians Not Allowed?

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Article in Daily Beast by Liam Archacki, 2/7/25

Headline:  “Trump Megadonor Asks SCOTUS to Eliminate Key Media Protection”

Subhead:  “UNDER ATTACK Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn is seeking to eliminate a precedent protecting the press’ ability to cover politicians.”

“A Donald Trump megadonor is asking the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to gut the media’s ability to assertively cover politicians.

“Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn, who has donated millions to Trump’s presidential campaigns, is petitioning the court to disavow The New York Times v. Sullivan, a key precedent protecting the press.

“The landmark 1964 decision raised the standards to sue the press for libel when a false statement is published about a public figure.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-megadonor-steve-wynn-asks-scotus-to-strip-media-protection/

Media Labor Victory

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Klaudia Zawinska, 2/6/25

Headline:  “In a Volatile Landscape for AI and Labor Rights, Journalists at ABC Secure a Win”

Subhead:  “How union contracts give workers a say in how AI shapes their industry.”

“Last week, the bargaining unit representing journalists at ABC News, which belongs to the Writers Guild of America East, “overwhelmingly” voted to ratify a three-year contract. Among other things, it includes binding protections against potential harms posed by generative artificial intelligence that the WGAE described as a “precedent setting win” for the news business. The agreement ensures that ABC News will not lay off current employees due to the use of generative AI and requires management to provide union members with advance notice before implementing AI systems into newsroom workflows.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/in-a-volatile-landscape-for-ai-and-labor-rights-journalists-at-abc-secure-a-win.php

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/

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

Another Medium Pays Homage

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Article in UPI by Mike Heuer, 1/29/25

Headline:  “Meta to pay $25M to settle Trump censorship lawsuit”

“Social media giant Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle censorship accusations made by President Donald Trump after Meta suspended his Facebook and Instagram accounts in 2021.

“About $22 million of the settlement will help fund the Trump Presidential Library, which so far is a website operated by the National Archives but likely will have a physical site in the future, NBC News, CNN and Variety reported.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/01/29/trump-zuckerberg-meta-25M-settlement/2931738199020/

Stomping Out the News

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Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe, 1/20/25

Headline:  “CNN defamation case foreshadows Trump media crackdown, experts say”

Subhead:  “Contractor Zachary Young wins damages over Afghanistan story in trial notable for prosecution’s aggressive stance”

“A combative defamation trial in Florida, involving CNN and a former US security contractor in Afghanistan, is providing a roadmap for a crackdown on media independence during the second Trump administration, experts believe.

The case was already unusual because CNN chose to defend itself and risk millions in damages, while other media giants such as ABC News and the Washington Post have opted to back down in the face of threats of persecution from the incoming president. Ultimately, after 18 hours of deliberation, the jury found that CNN defamed the contractor and awarded Zachary Young $4m in lost business and $1m in personal damages.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jan/20/cnn-defamation-trial

The Law vs. The Media

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Article in Axios by Felix Salmon, 1/3/25

Headline:  “The hot new publishing platform is a legal filing”

“Filing a legal complaint is rapidly becoming the self-publishing option of choice for individuals looking to make explosive public allegations — regardless of whether they actually care about a judge finding in their favor.

“Why it matters: In an era of steadily declining trust in media, the dry formalities of a legal template provide not only an imprimatur of institutional credibility, but also the freedom to go into extreme amounts of detail without seeming petty, tedious or self-indulgent.”

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/02/lawsuits-publishing-platform-lively-baldoni

Telecom Giants Stop Net Neutrality

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Article in New York Times by Cecelia Kang, 1/2/25

Headline:  “Net Neutrality Rules Struck Down by Appeals Court”

Subhead:  “After nearly two decades of fighting, the battle over regulations that treat broadband providers as utilities came to an end on Thursday.”

“A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s landmark net neutrality rules on Thursday, ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband internet providers as utilities.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said the F.C.C. lacked the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing or blocking access to internet content. In its opinion, a three-judge panel pointed to a Supreme Court decision in June, known as Loper Bright, that overturned a 1984 legal precedent that gave deference to government agencies on regulations.

“Applying Loper Bright means we can end the F.C.C.’s vacillations,” the court ruled.

“The court’s decision put an end to the Biden administration’s hallmark tech policy, which had drawn impassioned support from consumer groups and tech giants like Google and fierce protests from telecommunications giants like Comcast and AT&T.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/technology/net-neutrality-rules-fcc.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Media Better Duck

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Article in The Atlantic by Jonathan Chait, 12/18/24

Headline:  “Trump Has Found the Media’s Biggest Vulnerability”

Subhead:  “Most major media properties are tied to larger business interests that can benefit from government policy—or be harmed by it.”

“Now that the election is over, Donald Trump has returned to one of his most cherished pastimes: filing nuisance lawsuits. Abusing the legal system was a key precept of Trump’s decades-long career as a celebrity business tycoon, and he kept it up, out of habit or perhaps enjoyment, during his first term as president.

The newest round of litigation is different. Trump has broadened his targets to include not just reporters and commentators but pollsters. On Monday, his lawyers filed an absurd lawsuit against the polster J. Ann Selzer, accusing her of “election interference” and consumer fraud for a now-infamous poll released on the eve of the election that showed Trump losing to Kamala Harris in Iowa. (The lawsuit also names The Des Moines Register, which published the poll, and its parent company, Gannett, as defendants.) An even more important difference is the behavior of the targets of his threats. Unlike during his first term, when they mostly laughed off his ridiculous suits, much of the media’s ownership class now seems inclined to submit.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/12/trump-media-lawsuits-vulnerability/681082/