Media Corruption

MAGA Media Pointing. . .

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Article in Media Matters by Noah VanDowe & Zachary Pleat, 11/5/26

Headline: “‘A clown show’: The right-wing media blame game over the midterms is full steam ahead”

Subhead: “Reeling from Republican losses, conservative hosts blamed each other, the party, and Donald Trump himself”

“Following the 2026 midterm elections, which resulted in massive Democratic victories to flip control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as an end to decades of Republican dominance in Texas and other Southern and Midwestern states, right-wing media commentators wasted little time before searching for scapegoats. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/clown-show-right-wing-media-blame-game-over-midterms-full-steam-ahead

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 11/4/26

Headline:  “MAGA’s Midterm Meltdown”

Subhead: “After Democrats’ historic victory Tuesday night, MAGA Media figures are turning on one another over the GOP debacle – and telling Status the party must move on from Trump”

“. . .By the end of the night, of course, the picture looked dramatically different. Democrats had delivered a stunning rebuke of Republicans, flipping longtime GOP strongholds in the Senate, including Texas and South Carolina, and leaving right-wing media figures scrambling to explain how they had so badly misread the electorate. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://archive.ph/74jty#selection-639.0-679.104

Some Reporters are Partial

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Article in Media Matters by Hanne MacDonald & Jack Wheatley, 11/2/26

Headline:  “These 49 figures within the right-wing media ecosystem are claiming they have had contact with Donald Trump or the White House”

Subhead: “Since May, media personalities and election denial activists have made at least 123 claims about speaking with Trump or White House staff and even influencing policy”

“. . .Many of these individuals — who range from prominent election deniers to Fox News personalities and influential podcasters — claim to have discussed policy during phone calls and texts with Trump, meetings in the Oval Office, or other interactions with White House staff. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/these-49-figures-within-right-wing-media-ecosystem-are-claiming-they-have-had-contact

Press Missing Something?

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 11/2/26

Headline:  “When Trump’s Prosecutions Become Persecutions, Headlines Should Say So”

“With the midterm elections shaping up to be a stinging rebuke of his gold-plated presidency, the tempo of Donald Trump’s political prosecutions—a hallmark of his second term—has increased. Headlines and story-framing lead paragraphs, however, routinely fail to highlight the authoritarian nature of these persecutions. . .”

Read the full Article at:

https://fair.org/home/when-trumps-prosecutions-become-persecutions-headlines-should-say-so/

Media Ignore Something Important?

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Article in The Nation by Elie Mystal, 10/30/26

Headline: “Why Is the Media Ignoring the Stunning New Trump-Epsteim Allegations?”

Subhead: “In this week’s Elie v. U.S., our justice correspondent asks why the media is obsessing over Obama’s Cheesecake Factory joke while largely ignoring allegations of Trump’s sexual assaults. . .”

“. . .If asked, mainstream media types would no doubt argue that the lack of coverage of these latest rape allegations stems from the fact that previous rape allegations failed to ‘move the needle.’ Trump’s sexual misconduct (both alleged and litigated) is ‘baked in’ to people’s understanding of the man. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/newsletter-why-is-the-media-ignoring-the-stunning-new-trump-epstein-allegations/

Fox in a Whirlpool

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Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rosza, 10/29/26

Headline:  “Celebration as Dan Rather exposes Fox News crash and burn”

“. . .’It was satisfying to learn that Fox “News, long the biggest blight on American journalism, is losing viewers just before a momentous election,’ reported Dan Rather and Team Steady on Thursday. ‘And it’s not a small drop. Fox has lost more than a quarter of its viewers compared to a year ago. It was the largest decline of any cable news channel in the month before an election in a decade, according to The Hollywood Reporter. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-rather/

Former Press Sec. a Bot?

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Article in The Hill by Finya Swai, 10/29/26

Headline: “Piers Morgan, Katie Zacharia tangle in contentious interview: ‘You sound like a robot’”

“. . .Zacharia refused to share details of the exchange, instead repeatedly declaring her loyalty to the president and accusing the media of trying to distract from his agenda. . .”

“ ‘Let’s cut the crap here and have a serious genuine conversation,’ Morgan said after several unsuccessful attempts to get Zacharia to answer his questions. ‘You sound like a robot. Has Donald Trump got some program plugged into you to make you come out with all this stuff?’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6181114-piers-morgan-katie-zacharia-clash/

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Article in Comic Sands by Alan Herrera, 10/29/26

Headline: “Katie Zacharia Just Tried To Blame ‘The Media’ For Her Ouster As Press Secretary—And Was Hit With An Instant Reality Check”

Subhead: “After lasting just five days as White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia went on Newsmax to try to claim that “the media” was really to blame—and nobody’s buying it.”

“. . .When Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt asked her to explain why she thinks “this didn’t work out,” Zacharia responded:

“. . . ‘They would not let me do my job, which was to focus on him and focus on what he’s doing to win and it became too amassed over me.’ . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.comicsands.com/zacharia-blames-media-ouster

Citizens Fight Media Supression

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Article in AP by Jocelyn Noveck, 10/26/26

Headline:  “6 citizens sue Trump, saying media ban deprives them of news as audience stakeholders”

“In the increasingly bitter legal standoff between President Donald Trump and media outlets whose reporting he dislikes, a new and crucial third party has emerged: citizens who watch and read the news and need it to do their jobs.

“A lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of six such citizens — essentially representing the wider public audience — argues that it’s not only the rights of news organizations that are violated when Trump bans them from White House premises. Even more fundamentally, the lawsuit argues, such bans violate the public’s right to independent reporting about its president and government. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-media-ban-citizens-lawsuit-f5a70baaa97dba1bdd4cda365b5f635d

Despicable Ad Draws Media

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Article in The Bulwark by Will Sommer, 10/22/26

Headline:  “MAGA Media Learns to Love Vile Vivek Ramaswamy Ad”

Subhead:  “For these supposed moral authorities, the only question is whether it works.”

“. . .Instead of denouncing the ad, [Ben] Shapiro said it was no worse than members of the Kennedy family criticizing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or relatives of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) opposing his re-election. Besides, Shapiro asked, do you remember when Democrats said JD Vance had sex with a couch?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-media-learns-to-love-vile-vivek-ramaswamy-ad

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehman, 10/22/26

Headline:  “Vivek Ramaswamy’s New Attack Ad Should Be a National Scandal”

Subhead:  “The Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate has accused his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, of lying about being raped when she was 12 years old.”

“. . .When the ad surfaced as part of an online poll, it met with a proper wave of outrage and disbelief. A MAGA movement that’s long dismissed and excused sexual assault, up to and including President Donald Trump’s special pleading for the defendants in the Cornell gang-rape case, was now attacking the credibility of a 12-year-old rape victim. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/ramaswamy-acton-attack-ad/– – – – –

Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 10/21/26

Headline:  “Vance Defends ‘Vile’ Ramaswamy Ad, Offering Preview of ‘Venom’ He’s Likely to Deploy in 2028 Race”

Subhead: “Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad exposed him as ‘disgusting, vile, and unfit,’ said one former Republican lawmaker, but ‘JD Vance arrives to show there’s someone even worse.'”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jd-vance-vivek

FCC Chair Doesn’t Carr about Hatch Act?

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff. 10/19/26

Headline:  “USA: RSF and DDF file complaint against FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for potential misuse of office during partisan campaigning”

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) filed a complaint on October 19 asking the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to investigate whether Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr and two other officials violated the Hatch Act by appearing with President Donald Trump at a campaign rally for Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-rsf-and-ddf-file-complaint-against-fcc-chairman-brendan-carr-potential-misuse-office-during-0

Alternative Network for Alternative Facts

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, Ren LaForme and Amaris Castillo, 10/19/26

Headline:  “Opinion | The White House has a workaround when networks refuse to replace CNN”

Subhead:  “Since the White House restricted CNN’s press access, other networks have refused to replace it. It has turned to Real America’s Voice.”

“Over the weekend, CNN was once again blocked from traveling with President Donald Trump on Air Force One as part of the White House pool.

“And once again, conservative network Real America’s Voice was waiting in the wings, ready to provide pool footage after the other major networks declined to take CNN’s place. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/white-house-cnn-ban-real-america-voice/