First Amendment

Democracy Needs Journalism

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 4/10/26

Headline:  ” ‘Local News Is a Genuine Public Good We Need for Our Democracy’ “

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Alex Frandsen on Local News Day”

“Janine Jackson: News media can be like the old joke about the weather: Everybody complains, but nobody does anything. But as we’ve seen billionaire owners turning news into yet another profit-driven enterprise—not, to be clear, entities that need to sustain themselves, but that need to generate ever-higher quarterly profits for shareholders—the truth is there has been plenty of, not just protest and criticism, but ground-level organizing to find other ways to support the work we need from journalism in the public interest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/local-news-is-a-genuine-public-good-we-need-for-our-democracy/

Damaged Public Media Comeback?

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Article in The Guardian from Associated Press, 3/21/26

Headline:  “Federal judge blocks Trump order to end funding for NPR and PBS”

Subhead:  “Citing the first amendment, judge says president’s executive order is unlawful and unenforceable”

“Citing the first amendment, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), two media entities that the White House has said are counterproductive to American priorities.

“The operational impact of US district judge Randolph Moss’s decision was not immediately clear – both because it will probably be appealed and because too much damage to the public-broadcasting system has already been done, both by the president and Congress.

“Moss ruled that Donald Trump’s executive order to cease funding for NPR and PBS is unlawful and unenforceable. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/31/judge-blocks-trump-npr-pbs-funding-cut

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Article in New York Times by Benjam,in Mullin, 3/31/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Executive Order on NPR and PBS Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules”

Subhead:  “The ruling will have minimal effect on the federal money going to public media because Congress voted to claw back funding. But it could have implications for any future funding.”

Read the article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/business/media/trump-npr-pbs-executive-order-ruling.html

Revenge on the Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 3/30/26

Headline:  “Was the FBI Raid on a Washington Post Reporter’s Home an Act of Retribution?”

Subhead: “Investigators ‘assisted’ Hannah Natanson in applying her right index finger to a Post-owned MacBook Pro, accessing all its data.”

“. . .As [KAsh Patel] said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in 2023, ‘We’re gonna come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re gonna come after you—whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out—but yeah, we’re putting you all on notice’. . .”

“At 6:05am on January 14, the FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter who had spent much of Trump’s first year back in office covering the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it took a hatchet to the civil service. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/was-the-fbi-raid-on-a-washington-post-reporters-home-an-act-of-retribution.php

Fool the Judge on Press Access?

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 3/30/26

Headline: ” ‘What’s going on?’: US judge calls aspects of new Pentagon press policy ‘weird’ “

Subhead: “Judge seems skeptical of Pentagon’s restrictive protocol but did not rule on forcing compliance with an earlier order”

“Federal judge Paul Friedman seemed skeptical of the new press policy implemented by the Pentagon last week, calling aspects of it “weird” and Kafkaesque.

“Friedman struck down key aspects of the previously implemented Pentagon media policy on 20 March, but at the latest hearing on Monday stopped short of ruling on a motion filed by the New York Times to force compliance of his decision.

“Friedman was particularly skeptical about the ways in which press space was being provided to the seven New York Times reporters, whom he previously ruled should have their press access badges returned. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/30/judge-pentagon-press-policy-weird

Media in Court – or Not?

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Article in Huffpost by Hannah Schoenbaum, 3/13/26

Headline:  “Utah Judge In Charlie Kirk Killing Case Weighs Media Access”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus is due back in court Friday as a state judge weighs whether certain documents and proceedings should be open to the public.

The outcome will set the stage for an April hearing in which attorneys for Tyler Robinson will make their case to exclude TV cameras, microphones and photographers from the courtroom.

Judge Tony Graf has been weighing the public’s right to know details about the case against concerns by defense attorneys that the media attention could undermine Robinson’s right to a fair trial.

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/utah-judge-charlie-kirk-killing-case-weighs-media-access_n_69b415afe4b0676e64bf175a?origin=home-zone-c-unit

 

 

Untrustworthy Media Search?

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Article in ArsTechnica by Jon Brodkin, 2/25/26

Headline:  “Judge doesn’t trust DOJ with search of devices seized from Wash. Post reporter”

Subhead:  “Court to search devices itself instead of letting government have full access.”

“A federal court will conduct a search of devices seized from a Washington Post reporter after a magistrate judge decided yesterday that the Department of Justice cannot be trusted to perform the search on its own.

“US Magistrate Judge William Porter criticized government prosecutors for not including key information in a search warrant application. The court wasn’t aware of a 1980 law that limits searches and seizures of journalists’ work materials when it approved the warrant, Porter acknowledged. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/judge-doesnt-trust-doj-with-search-of-devices-seized-from-wash-post-reporter/

Reporters Defend Reporting

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Image from Poynter

Article in Poynter by Staff, 1/30/26

Headline: “Journalists should prepare to defend their right to report the news”

Subhead:  “The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort on Friday signal an increasing willingness for the federal government to criminalize newsgathering activities.

“While the legal merits of those arrests have yet to be tested, they are a red flag for journalists and newsroom leaders everywhere. Given the speed and unpredictability of recent federal actions — including the seizure of a Washington Post reporter’s equipment earlier this month — every newsroom must prepare now to defend its right to report the news. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/journalists-should-prepare-to-defend-their-right-to-report-the-news/

Broadcasting “Fairness Doctrine” Redux?

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Article in Daily Beast by Owen Mason-Hill, 1/29/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Media Goon Lashes Back at ‘Fake News’ Late-Night Host”

“FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s crackdown on late-night TV shows no signs of slowing down.

“In the Federal Communications Commission’s January press conference, Carr, 48, whom late-night host Jimmy Kimmel referred to as Trump’s ‘little ferret in the FCC,’ addressed the equal opportunity measure that the Commission rereleased earlier this month.

“ ‘If you’re fake news, you’re not going to qualify as the bona fide news exception,’ Carr declared.

“With the ‘bona fide news’ exception, Carr is referencing an FCC-issued public notice reiterating broadcasters’ obligation to provide political candidates with equal opportunities to appear on their shows. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/trumps-media-goon-lashes-back-at-fake-news-jimmy-kimmel/

Journalist Exposes Secret Lists

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Article in Common Dreams by Brett Wilkins, 1/28/26

Headline: ” ‘She’s Lying’: Journalist Exposes Secret Watch Lists That Trump Official Says Don’t Exist”

Subhead:  ” ‘If we don’t explore more why all of these secret lists exist,’ one US intelligence officer said, there could be ‘even more of an environment of paranoia on the ground and more tragic killings.’ “

“Despite denials from a senior Trump administration official, secret watchlists of Americans are being used by federal agencies to track and categorize US citizens—especially protesters, activists, and critics of law enforcement—as ‘domestic terrorists,’ investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reported Wednesday.

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/secret-watchlists-of-americans

Passes & Dossiers on Journalists?

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Article in Mediaite by Colby Hall, 1/23/26

Headline:  “Don Lemon, WaPo, Ozturk: Trump’s War on the First Amendment Now Alarmingly Clear”

“In a functioning democracy, the federal government does not compile dossiers on students for their political views, threaten journalists with prison for covering protests, or seize reporters’ devices as a warning to sources. Yet all three have now come into focus in the United States, supported by newly unsealed court records and recent actions by the Trump administration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/don-lemon-wapo-ozturk-trumps-war-on-the-first-amendment-now-alarmingly-clear/