Events

Spencer Graves, FCM president has some thoughts about the new year and the media.  Read his 2024 holiday epistle here:

https://ourfcm.org/opinions/spencers-new-year-thoughts/

Video on 404 Media’s YouTube channel (1 hr) by Staff 12/31/24

The Media Year in Review

Here’s a special year in review episode! We riff on the last year in AI, media, journalism, and more. We’ll be back with a normal news show in the new year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5RuHgk52MM

Article in the New York Times by Emma Bubola, 12/27/24

Headline:  “Italian Journalist Is Detained While Reporting in Iran”

Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, but news of her detention only became public on Friday. The reason for the arrest of Ms. Sala, a well-known reporter, has not been made public.

“A prominent Italian journalist was arrested in Iran and jailed in the country’s infamous Evin prison after spending days reporting in Tehran, Italian officials said.

Italy’s foreign ministry said Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, but news of her arrest and detention only became public on Friday. The reason for the arrest of Ms. Sala, one of Italy’s most renowned foreign correspondents, has not yet been made public.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/world/middleeast/cecilia-sala-italian-journalist-arrested-iran.html

Article in The Washington Post by Jennifer Rubin, 12/20/24

Headline:  “Courage is in short supply among Democrats and the media”

“. . . Most problematic to me are the troubling decisions of legacy media owners. We saw the pattern starting with The Post’s and the Los Angeles Times’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate, followed by MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s trek to Mar-a-Lago and then the spectacle of legacy and new media owners (including Post owner Jeff Bezos) kicking in $1 million each for the Trump inauguration. The widely panned ABC News defamation settlement might have been the worst instance of capitulation in the history of major defamation litigation. (In a whole other category of awful: the new, patently absurd L.A. Times “bias meter,” a sort of trigger warning for readers who cannot figure out which way a Times opinion columnist leans, and the constant owner-meddling.”

“Decisions like these don’t mollify Trump; they invite further abuse. . .”

“. . . The sort of behavior we have witnessed from many legacy outlets will not help win back audiences who have lost faith in them. (Progressives are horrified; right-wingers will never patronize them.)”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/20/trump-democrats-media-courage/

Article in Daily Kos by Alan Singerm 12/19/24

Headline:  “Could Trump Silence the Media?”

“With the Presidency, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court controlled by rightwing Republicans, the fundamental mechanism embedded in the Constitution by its authors, checks and balances that can constrain extremists and can control a radical President, may no longer operate.”

“. . . Trump and his allies are also launching legal attacks on the media charging it with misrepresentation and bias in campaigns to silence criticism.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/19/2292750/-Could-Trump-Silence-the-Media?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Article in Daily Kos by Max Burns, 12/16/24

Headline:  “What the Media Missed: DeSantis might defy Trump—but senators won’t”

“This was the week that the wealthy and powerful bent the knee to Donald Trump. Tech CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took their turns at Mar-a-Lago wining, dining, and dropping off million-dollar checks for Trump’s slush fund of an inaugural committee.

“The media also accelerated its own surrender to Trump’s authoritarian future. On Saturday, ABC News announced its bizarre decision to settle a defamation suit filed by Trump to the tune of a $15 million payout and a formal apology. The decision was even stranger given the fact that Trump has failed in all of his previous media defamation lawsuits—leading critics to argue that ABC News prematurely surrendered in order to avoid Trump’s presidential wrath.

“Most of that news flew right by the cable news media this weekend, which dedicated more air time to Elon Musk’s mom than to the creeping autocracy down at Mar-a-Lago”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/16/2292169/-What-the-Media-Missed-DeSantis-might-defy-Trump-but-senators-won-t?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_6&pm_medium=web

Article in Media Matters by Olivia Little, 12/5/24

Headline:  “Right-wing media launched a migrant witch hunt in rural Indiana”

Subhead:  “Hate groups, a local politician, and the Heritage Foundation tried to take advantage of the misinformation-fueled panic”

“Months after the Trump campaign’s flagrant lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, went viral, right-wing media continue to fuel fear of Haitian migration. In Indiana, a small city was the focus of a misinformation-fueled migrant witch hunt led by right-wing media that emboldened hate groups and is now being used as a case study to justify anti-immigrant policies.

“Logansport is a rural city with a population of about 18,000 residents. In mid-September, Kayla Blakeslee, a right-wing talk radio host based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, posted on Facebook screenshots of emails that claimed “20,000 plus Haitian immigrants” were “dropped off” in Logansport over the last six months. Blakeslee wrote, ‘Is Logansport, IN the new Springfield, OH???’ ”

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-launched-migrant-witch-hunt-rural-indiana

Photo from CPJ

Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff, 12/2/24

Headline:  “Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war”

Subhead:  “The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023”

“As of December 2, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, famine, the displacement of 90% of Gaza’s population, and the destruction of 80% of its buildings.. . ”
https://cpj.org/2024/12/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/