Editorial Content

Media Caught Off-Guard

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/23/25

Headline:  “Opinion | ‘Extraordinary and unprecedented’: The media reaction to Trump’s Iran attack”

Subhead:  “Trump’s order to bomb Iran drew sharp media scrutiny over its timing, global risks and potential to drag the US into war”

“Stunning news broke Saturday night when it was learned the United States, under the orders of President Donald Trump, bombed three sites in Iran in an effort to dismantle that country’s nuclear program. . .”

“So, what has been some of the media reaction?. . .”

“Speaking on MSNBC, host Rachel Maddow said, ‘There have been factions within U.S. politics who have advocated for the United States to go to war with Iran for decades. President Trump is generally politically credited with standing in opposition to those kinds of factions in U.S. politics. But he has now made their dreams come true without really making a case to the U.S. public that there is a need to urgently act right now, to have done this — and that has a few different consequences’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-iran-airstrikes-media-reaction/

Media Rabbit Hole?

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Article in The Washington Post by Eric Wemple, 6/23/25

Headline:  “Does the media need to take a closer look at Trump’s acuity? I answered your questions.”

Q:  “To what extent should mainstream media explain ways to resist this administration?

Is it OK to write about tactics people use to avoid cooperating with ICE? Is it OK to remind people of protest dates and locations? Is it OK for media to call out hatred, as Terry Cowan did recently?

What can media do to help Americans challenge the unconstitutional acts of the Trump administration? . . .”

A: “. . .Yes, in my opinion, it’s fine to report on how people are avoiding cooperation with ICE; that’s a newsworthy trend with implications for everyone. The protests that have occurred in American cities and towns in recent months are also quite newsworthy, and so it’s appropriate that news organizations would write about plans for, say, the next wave of “No Kings” demonstrations or whatever. But providing how-to advice about joining such protests, in my opinion, is a loser’s undertaking, simply because fairness would require doing so for all kinds of other causes as well — and that would send editors and reporters down a rabbithole. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/23/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/

Media Beating a War Drum?

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Article in The New Republic by Edith Olmsted, 6/23/25

Headline:  “Fox News Played Unsettling Role in Trump’s Decision to Bomb Iran”

Subhead:  “Here’s where Donald Trump got the idea to strike three of Iran’s nuclear facilities”

“Donald Trump’s decision to drag the United States into a war in the Middle East was all about how it would look on television.

“The New York Times reported Sunday that Trump had been effusive about Israel’s sweeping military operation in Iran, targeting the latter country’s ballistic missile and nuclear facilities, military officials, and nuclear scientists.

” ‘Ever the entertainer, Trump asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were “playing” on Friday June 13. ‘He said that “everyone” was telling him he needed to get more involved,’ the Times reported, but it’s not clear who exactly Trump was talking about.

“The next day, Trump’s team reportedly paid close attention to how his supporters were responding to Israel’s military campaign. Meanwhile, Trump kept his eyes glued to Fox News as it aired “wall-to-wall praise” of Israel’s operation and hosted guests urging the president to wade into the conflict. . .”

“Last week, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Fox News had gone all in on attacking Iran. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/post/197110/donald-trump-bomb-iran-fox-news-role-decision

 

Rt. Wing Calls Protestors “Invaders”?

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Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 6/11/25

Headline:  “As military is deployed to LA, rightwing media decry protesters as ‘invaders’”

Subhead:  “From Newsmax to Charlie Kirk, outlets and podcasts are calling for ‘hard actions’, arrests and the Insurrection Act”

“There were unsavory scenes in Los Angeles over the weekend, as police used teargas and ‘less-lethal munitions’ on thousands of people gathered to protest against the arrest of undocumented immigrants.

The events playing out on rightwing TV channels and in the conservative podcasting realm were almost as miserable, as excitable media figures decried protesters as “invaders”, called for both the mass arrest of elected officials and the invocation of a two-century old laws and used the chaos to push racist conspiracy theories.

It came as the Trump administration said the military will remain on the ground in LA for two months . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/11/la-ice-protests-trump-rightwing-fox-charlie-kirk

Reporters Expose Things

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 6/9/25

Headline: “Doin’ It Live”

Subhead:  “A timely televised play won’t save the republic.”

“Fuck it! We’ll do it live! These, of course, are the immortal words of Bill O’Reilly. But George Clooney had a similar thought recently—involving a different former CBS newsman—when he decided to mount a live televised production of Good Night, and Good Luck, a Broadway play that he cowrote, based on a movie that he cowrote, based on Edward R. Murrow’s famous takedown of the demagogue Joseph McCarthy in the fifties. . .”

“Of course, Clooney and CNN were also interested in televising the show because its subject matter is supremely relevant right now, as every journalist covering it dutifully pointed out. The historical echoes ‘are extraordinary,’ even ‘eerie,’ CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, noting the play’s themes of ‘unrestrained political power, corporate timidity and journalistic integrity.’ Clooney told the Times that, “unfortunately, this play always is timely. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/doin-it-live-clooney-cnn-good-night-good-luck-tv-live-broadcast-murrow-friendly-mccarthy.php

Make Media do the Job?

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Article in The Contrarian by Josh Levs, 6/4/25

Headline:  “Veterans’ D-Day rally is a chance to set the media straight”

Subhead:  “Americans need to know how Trump is hurting those who served.”

“Over the next two weeks, a new battle will take place over the U.S. military. The chief theater in which it’s fought will be the media. . .”

“Having spent two decades inside big legacy media, and now tracking its epic failures through my podcast and newsletter They Stand Corrected, I know some things we can expect. Unfortunately, Trump and his supporters are likely to get the exact kinds of storylines they want — unless the rest of us push the media to do its job. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/veterans-d-day-rally-is-a-chance

When Free Press is Gone

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Article in Poynter by Ren LaForme, 6/3/25

Headline:  “Opinion | We’re tracking the rising threats to press freedom”

Subhead:  “Because the warning signs are no longer subtle”

“There’s a saying: Health is a crown the healthy wear that only the sick can see. Most of us don’t recognize the treasure of good health until it’s gone.

“I wonder whether, when the dust settles, America will feel the same about press freedom — a right our Founding Fathers valued so deeply that they made it the First Amendment. . . .”

Read the full article here:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/press-freedom-watch/

CBS – How Times Have Changed

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Edward R. Murrow, 1962

Article in New York Times by James Poniewozik, 5/30/25

Headline: ” ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ Remembers When TV Had a Conscience, and a Spine”

Subhead:  “A TV critic looks at George Clooney’s play about CBS News standing up to political pressure, even as its current ownership might succumb to it.”

“In the Broadway play ‘Good Night, and Good Luck,’ the CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow (George Clooney) allows himself a moment of doubt, as his program ‘See It Now’ embarks on a series of reports on the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s.

“ ‘It occurs to me,’ he says, ‘that we might not get away with this one.’

“It is a small but important line. We know Murrow’s story — exposing the red-baiting demagoguery of Senator Joseph McCarthy — as history. And history, once set down on the page and stage, can seem inevitable.

“But Murrow’s success was not preordained. It required hard, exacting work. It required guts. It required journalists to risk personal ruin and some of them to experience it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/arts/television/good-night-and-good-luck-cbs-paramount.html

Media Joining the Parade?

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Article in The Guardian by Judith Levine, 5/30/25

Headline:  “We’re minimizing the horror of Trump’s military birthday parade”

Subhead:  “The media has focused on the price tag and potholes. But history may mark 14 June as the ceremonial birth of US fascism”

“In 2017, watching a two-hour Bastille Day procession, Donald Trump told the French president that we’d have one too, only better. . .”

“This time, as Washington prepares for a huge military shindig on 14 June, Trump’s 79th – and, oh yes, the US army’s 250th – birthday, the generals are silent. The Republicans have sworn allegiance to the king. And the media are focused on the price tag, the potholes and the impending pomp; on tensions between the blue city of Washington and the red capital; and on the decimation of veterans’ healthcare, housing, and pensions while the administration throws $25m to $45m at a circus of war. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/30/trump-military-parade-fascism

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