Editorial Content

Journalism: Holding Feet to the Fire

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/13/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Instead of answering legitimate ethics questions, Trump goes to his playbook and lobs insults at a reporter”

Subhead:  “He attacked ABC’s Rachel Scott after she questioned why he’d accept a $400 million jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One”

“Holding the powerful to account. That’s a key role for journalists.

“Among those in power are government officials. So whenever there is potential wrongdoing or misbehavior or shady business practices by our elected officials, it’s the duty of journalists to dig in and then confront those officials. . .”

“Journalists should press the president about whether it really is OK to accept such a gift from a foreign country. And that’s exactly what ABC News’ Rachel Scott did on Monday.

“Instead of answering these legitimate questions and explaining to Scott, to the media and, really, the rest of the country and world his rationale, Trump instead chose to attack Scott. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/qatar-give-us-plane-trump-ethics/

Media Not Accurate?

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Article in Alternet by Robert Reich Reich, 5/5/25

Headline:  “The Media Needs to stop pretending about Trump’s ‘conflicts’ “

“Words matter. When the media points out Trump’s ‘potential conflicts of interest,’ as it has in recent days when describing Trump’s growing crypto enterprise, it doesn’t come close to telling the public what’s really going on — unprecedented paybacks and self-dealing by the president of the United States, using his office to make billions.

“The correct word is corruption. . .”

“He posts news-making announcements on Truth Social, the company in which he and his family own a significant stake. Truth Social thereby becomes the world’s semi-official means of knowing Trump’s thinking and policies. . .”

“To describe these as ‘potential conflicts of interest’ misses the point. A ‘potential conflict of interest’ sounds like an unfortunate situation in which it’s possible that Trump might choose his own personal interest over the nation’s. Stated this way, the problem is the conflict. . .”

“Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. His self-dealing makes Warren G. Harding’s look like a child shoplifting candy.

“Why isn’t the media calling this what it is? Americans deserve to know. . .”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-maga-2671892224/

‘New Media’ – “Tell Us What to Write”

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Article in the Daily Dot by Mikael Thalen, 4/29/25

Headline:  ” Trump’s first ‘new media’ briefing hosts influencer who spent 7 days convinced the moon had disappeared”

Subhead: ” ‘Has anyone seen the moon lately? I’ve been looking for 7 days.’ “

“A conservative influencer who was convinced last year that the moon had disappeared attended a press briefing on Monday held at the White House.

“Kambree Nelson, an ambassador for the American First Policy Institute, was one of several individuals permitted to join a special briefing reserved solely for members of the ‘new media.’

“ ‘This is our first official influencer briefing,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at the press conference’s start. ‘Millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets . . .”

“Nelson, who boasts more than 625,000 followers on X, was immediately ridiculed for her performance, asking Leavitt to tell her what questions she should ask the administration.

“Yet among all the members of the new media invited to the White House, a collection of independent journalists who all support President Donald Trump, Nelson is receiving extra attention given her outlandish beliefs and fears. . .”

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/kambree-nelson-moon-white-house-press-briefing/

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Article in Mediaite by Ahmad Austin Jr., 4/28/25

Headline:  ” ‘New Media’ Reporter Straight Up Asks Karoline Leavitt to Tell Her What to Cover: ‘What Direction Do You Advise Me to Go In?’ “

“During the new media briefing, American First Policy Institute ambassador Kambree Nelson first bashed traditional media outlets for their coverage of the president — before asking Leavitt to give her marching orders.

“ ‘I’ve noticed — this is kind of like a repeat of 2016 — the legacy media has gone back to not reporting anything on President Trump,’ Nelson said. ‘In the beginning, we had them reporting everything that he was doing. Now, they’re kind of going back, again, to not reporting everything that he is actually doing.

“ ‘I’m kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting. I’m not the headline news girl. I’m the nuts-and-bolts, I’m the policy-type nerd; so what direction do you advise me to go into? Like the White House files that y’all send out every single day? Because that’s what people are used to. When they wanna ask me questions, they wanna know the nuts and bolts of everything.’ . . .”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/new-media-reporter-straight-up-asks-karoline-leavitt-to-tell-her-what-to-cover-what-direction-do-you-advise-me-to-go-in/

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Article in Media Matters by Pete Psipis & Reed McMaster, 4/24/25

Headline:  “By the numbers: As Trump snubs legacy media, data shows his press briefings elevate right-wing outlets”

“A Media Matters review of White House press briefings held so far in President Donald Trump’s second administration found that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called on right-wing media outlets 41% of the time, and 4 of the 5 reporters called on most were from right-wing outlets.

“The press briefings now include a ‘new media’ seat which the White House has used to amplify more right-wing voices. While the White House attacks traditional press freedoms, the press briefings are now littered with biased questions from the administration’s most staunch supporters. . .”

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/numbers-trump-snubs-legacy-media-data-shows-his-press-briefings-elevate-right-wing

Media Missing Something?

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Article in The New Republic bu Michael Tomasky, 4/25/25

Headline:  “Trump Just Did the Most Corrupt Thing Any President Has Ever Done”

Subhead:  “He’s using the White House to get rich from anonymous investors—and it’s hardly even a news story.”

“Imagine that Joe Biden, just as he was assuming office, had started a new company with Hunter Biden and used his main social media account to recruit financial backers, then promised that the most generous among them would earn an invitation to a private dinner with him. . . .”

“Take a minute, close your eyes. Let yourself see Jim Jordan’s face go purple in apoplexy, hear the moral thunder spewing out of Jesse Watters’s mouth, feel the shock (which would be wholly justified) of the New York Times editorial board as it expressed disbelief that the man representing the purported values and standards of the United States of America before the world would begin to think it was remotely OK to do such a thing. The media would be able to speak of nothing else for days. Maybe weeks. . .”

https://newrepublic.com/post/194420/trump-memecoin-dinner-corrupt-president

 

60 Minutes CBS Shame?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 4/23/25

Headline:  “The Shaming of Shari”

Subhead:  “The public shaming of Shari Redstone has been swift and scathing—but inside CBS News, the fury is even more pronounced, as staffers blame her for undermining the crown jewel of American TV journalism.”

“On Wednesday morning, Shari Redstone found herself at the center of a media firestorm. The unyielding heiress who controls Paramount Global—and, by extension, CBS News – was the target of one of the most brutal headlines in recent memory. The Drudge Report, still an influential force in the world of media, ran a stark image of Redstone above a brutal banner headline: ‘WOMAN WHO DESTROYED CBSNEWS.’ Below it, the accusations piled on: ‘REDSTONE GREED ENDING LEGACY?’  ’60 MINUTES’ SACRIFICED FOR SALE.’ ‘FREE SPEECH BATTLE OVER TRUTH’ ”

“It wasn’t an anomaly. Over the past 24 hours, Redstone has been subjected to a remarkable public shaming. Jake Tapper delivered a stinging on-air report, asserting that in her ‘quest to sell the company,’ it’s clear she will ‘bow to presidential pressure.’. . .”

https://www.status.news/p/shari-redstone-60-minutes-cbs-news

NYT – A Dubious Win?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alson, 4/23/25

Headline: “Q&A: Bill Grueskin on the New York Times Beating Sarah Palin (Again)”

Subhead: ” ‘Two things can be true: you can publish something about a public figure that is clearly false, and you can avoid being held financially liable for having done so.’ ”

“. . .the gods of the media beat soon handed down another big story. Compared with the 60 Minutes and USAGM imbroglios, which are relatively recent, this one concerned a much longer-running drama and a central character—Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate—who can perhaps be seen as an ur-Trump. Back in 2017, after a gunman opened fire on a congressional baseball practice, Palin sued the Times for defamation over an editorial that wrongly suggested she had helped incite the shooting of a different member of Congress, Gabby Giffords, six years earlier. (Palin’s PAC had published a map with crosshairs drawn over Giffords’s district. . .”

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

No Journalistic Independence Now

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Article in The Guardian by Leonie Chao-Fong, 4/22/24

Headline:  “60 Minutes executive producer leaves program over journalistic independence”

Subhead:  Bill Owens says in staff memo ‘it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it’ “

“Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, says he is leaving the flagship news program because he lost his journalistic independence.

“In a staff memo obtained by the New York Times, Owens said that ‘over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to . run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience’ . . .”

“He said the show will continue to cover the new Trump administration, adding: ‘The show is too important to the country. It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer.’ ”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/22/60-minutes-executive-producer-leaves-bill-owens

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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 4/22/25

Headline: “Tapper Rips CBS Owner for 60 Minutes Shakeup Amid Trump Pressure: ‘Hope the Money’s Worth It, Shari’ “

“CNN’s Jake Tapper pilloried the controlling owner of CBS’s parent company after the departure of the executive producer of 60 Minutes on Tuesday.

“President Donald Trump is suing CBS over an interview 60 Minutes conducted last year with then-vice president Kamala Harris after she secured the Democratic presidential nomination. CBS aired two different parts of a response Harris gave to a question. One part of the response was in a teaser for the show, and the other was aired on the show itself.

“ ‘The president alleges that editing the 60 Minutes interview and running two different answers to the same question helped Vice President Harris and amounted to electoral fraud,’ Tapper explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Lead. ‘In reality, this is just editorial discretion. Editors do it all the time with recorded interviews, including all the time with taped interviews by Fox [News]’. . .”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tapper-rips-cbs-owner-after-60-minutes-shakeup-amid-trump-pressure-hope-the-moneys-worth-it-shari/

 

Media Not Covering The Resistance?

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Article by in the Washington Post by Erik Wemple, 4/18/25

Headline:  “Heard the resistance was dead? You’ve been reading too much.”

Subhead:  “The zone might be flooded, but an anti-Trump protest movement is well underway.”

“. . .the civil rights protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020 appropriately made front pages across the country. The current mobilization has not reached that level. It’s still robust, yet ‘you can barely find word of it in the major outlets,’ said Chenoweth, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and founding co-director of the Crowd Counting Consortium.

“. . .“People are turning to noncorporate podcasts in the media space and influencers on social media because they can’t trust what they read in the Washington Post or the New York Times anymore,” said Levin, who rips the papers for not having placed their April 5 protest stories on the front page.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/18/anti-trump-protests-resistance-media/

Not in the News? – it Didn’t Happen

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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

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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/

 

Bezos Loses Another Post Star

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Wikipedia photo, Grace Skidmore

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

Headline:  “Pulitzer-winning columnist leaving Washington Post“

“Longtime Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson is leaving the newspaper, he announced this week.

Robinson informed his Post colleagues of his decision Thursday, he wrote on the social platform X.  “I’m retiring from my longtime journalistic home but not from journalism, and I’ll keep you posted as I decide what my next chapter will be,” he said.

Robinson has been writing for the Post’s opinion section since 2005 and in recent years has been a regular on MSNBC and other cable news shows.

He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his columns on the 2008 presidential race.

Robinson is the latest in a slew of Post opinion writers to leave the news organization as it goes through major changes to its editorial strategy and business under billionaire owner Jeff Bezos.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5232097-eugene-robinson-washington-post/