Media Intimidation

Another Newspaper Attack

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/2/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump threatens The New York Times as his press attacks continue”

Subhead:  “He lashed out after a Times report said Paramount may settle his baseless lawsuit — a move tied to its pending sale”

“President Donald Trump unleashed more unhinged attacks on the press Wednesday, going after both CBS’s “60 Minutes” and The New York Times — even going so far as to threaten legal action against the Times.

“His “60 Minutes” attacks are nothing new. He already is suing CBS’s owner, Paramount, claiming the network deceptively edited an interview last October with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to, in effect, help her win the election. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-nyt-liable-tortious-interference/

 

 

Broiling the Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Kelly Stout, 5/2/25

Headline:  “Chat, Are We Cooked?”

Subhead:  “Trump and the people who work for him don’t care about journalistic norms. Is it time for journalists to rethink them, too?”

“he first hundred days of Trump 2.0 brought forth more material than infinity reporters typing on infinity laptops for infinity years could possibly report. The ‘flood the zone’ strategy—brought to us from the mind of Steve Bannon, the MAGA media strategist—has been around since at least 2018, but now, as the New York Times put it, ‘the flood is bigger, wider and more brutally efficient’; the same article also included the phrases ‘overwhelming sensory overload,’ ‘drinking from a fire hose,’ and ‘gasping in outrage.’ Each of these metaphors hit the news media directly, and hard. And then, on March 11, they gushed into the Signal chat of one journalist in particular. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/feature-2/signal-chat-atlantic-goldberg-trump-norms-ethics.php

Don’t Like What the Media Say?

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Article in Washington Post by Scott Hover, et al, 5/2/25

Headline:  “Public media ready to fight ‘unlawful’ Trump order defunding PBS, NPR”

Subhead:  “Legal scholars say the executive order may exceed presidential authority and violate First Amendment, while local stations fear impact on communities.”

“President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end federal funding for NPR and PBS — because of news coverage he called “biased and partisan” — triggered a fierce backlash from public broadcasters that appears poised to expand the White House’s larger legal battleground with the media industry.

“Issued Thursday night, the order instructs the congressionally chartered Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cut off direct funding to the venerable public media giants — producers of long-running news shows such as “All Things Considered” and “PBS NewsHour” — as well as any grants to local stations that might underwrite the national broadcasters’ programming. . .”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/05/02/trump-npr-pbs-executive-order-funding-cut/

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Article in The Nation by John Nichols, 5/2/25

Headline: “Trump’s Assault on PBS and NPR Chooses Oligarchy Over Press Freedom and Democracy”

“As the supporters of speaking truth to power celebrate World Press Freedom Day, Trump seeks to defund public media in the United States. . .”

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-npr-pbs-threat/

Erasing References Ensures Survival?

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Article in Poynter by Kelly McBride, 4/30/25

Headline:  “People who fear the Trump administration are asking editors to remove their names from old news stories.”

Subhead:  “Here are some questions to ask while managing these requests”

“Government workers, teachers and green card holders across the country are asking editors to remove their names — and the record of their support for causes now targeted by the Trump administration — from old stories.

“Journalists from around the country routinely ask me for ethics help. In the last month, I’ve heard from the editor of a gay newspaper, several alternative publications, a newsroom that covers immigrant issues, student newspapers and several mainstream commercial newsrooms.

“Kevin Naff, the editor of the Washington Blade, the nation’s oldest gay newspaper, reached out to me for advice in March. Government employees were asking that their names be scrubbed from his archives. They feared that an open record of their sexual orientation, or their views on issues that run contrary to President Donald Trump’s, could make them targets for job cuts. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/how-handle-source-removal-requests-journalism/

PBS is Subversive?

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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 4/30/25

Headline:  ” ‘Ok, But Sesame Street?’ Jake Tapper Taken Aback When House Republican Likens PBS to North Korean Media”

“CNN’s Jake Tapper sparred with Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) over funding for PBS, which the lawmaker compared to state-sponsored propaganda à la China and North Korea.

“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said he is looking to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which administers PBS and NPR, and receives about $500 million a year from Congress. The CPB is also funded by individual donors, grants, and sponsorships. Still, a loss of federal funding would be the biggest hit to PBS since Larry David attacked Elmo on live television last year.. . .”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/ok-but-sesame-street-jake-tapper-taken-aback-when-house-republican-likens-pbs-to-north-korean-media/

Questions by the Media are ‘Stupid’

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Article in Raw Story by Erik De La Garza, 4/29/25

Headline:  ” ‘ Stupid question’: Trump lashes out at reporter in new exclusive interview”

“President Donald Trump didn’t hold back his frustrations with a journalist during a heated moment in an exclusive ABC News interview, where he refused to say whether he had “100% confidence” in his embattled defense secretary.

“The tense exchange came in a new interview with ABC’s Terry Moran, who pressed Trump about ongoing turmoil inside the Pentagon involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“ ‘Do you have 100% confidence in Pete Hegseth? Moran asked Trump in the Oval Office moment previewed on CNN Tuesday evening.

“ ‘I don’t have 100% confidence in anything, okay? Anything,’ Trump said as he bristled between his responses. ‘It’s a stupid question. ‘ . . .”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lashes-out/?utm_source=superhead

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

Yet More Media Attacks

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Article in AOL The Morning Dispatch by Charlotte Lawson and Cole Murphy. 4/22/25

Headline:  “Trump Steps Up His Media Attacks”

Subhead: “Trump V. Journalists”

“President Donald Trump isn’t getting along with the news media.

“That isn’t exactly breaking news. He directed no shortage of jabs at mainstream outlets throughout his first term, but—with notable exceptions—his ire toward the media was limited mostly to rhetoric. Trump 2.0 may be different. The president’s attacks on the media have shifted from talk to action, with news organizations facing substantive retaliation for getting sideways with the new administration. And, if the escalation continues, the Trump administration could find itself running afoul of Constitutional protections—if it hasn’t already.”

https://www.aol.com/trump-steps-media-attacks-103601409.html?guccounter=1

Hegseth Burning Up About Media?

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Article in The Hill by Brett Samuals, 4/21/25

Headline:  “Hegseth blasts media, ‘disgruntled former employees’ over latest Signal controversy”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at the media and ‘disgruntled former employees’ Monday as he finds himself embroiled in fresh controversy over his sharing of sensitive information and his management of the Pentagon. . .”

“. . .’What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,’ Hegseth said, responding to new reporting from The New York Times.

“This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,’ . . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5258597-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-media-controversy/

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Article in Huffpost by Arthur Delaney, 4/21/25

Headline:  “Hegseth Lashes Out At Media After Firing His Own Aides Amid Pentagon ‘Meltdown’ “

Subhead:  “An angry Hegseth called reporters ‘hoaxsters’ who used ‘disgruntled former employees’ to ruin people.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at reporters Monday over a question about his use of a personal phone to discuss war plans in group chats with unauthorized participants.

Speaking in front of his children at the White House Easter Egg Roll, Hegseth suggested the stories had been planted by his own aides, three of whom he recently fired. . .”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-pentagon-meltdown_n_68068f65e4b0dae10a35e8ae

Journalists Targeted, Who is Next?

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Article in The Contrarian by Liam Scott, 4/18/25

Headline:  “Trump Officials Trolling Journalists is Just the Tip of the Iceberg”

Subhead:  “Behind the harassment of individual reporters is a full-scale assault on media freedom”

“When The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed last month that he had inadvertently been invited into a Signal group chat of senior U.S. national security officials, the news dominated headlines, cable broadcasts and social media for several days.

“While Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation into the incident, Trump officials set their sights elsewhere: on Goldberg himself. . . The harassment Goldberg faced was an unusually intense pile-on, but it underscores the increasingly common trend of targeting individual journalists by administration officials and even President Donald Trump.

“ ‘It’s clearly an effort to intimidate and silence journalists,’ Kathy Kiely, chair in free press studies at the Missouri School of Journalism, told me. . .”

For years, Trump has accused the mainstream media of bias and has even referred to it as “the enemy of the people,” in an increasingly contentious relationship that has also long featured journalist harassment. . .”

“And now, it’s not just Trump. Others, including Vance, Hegseth, Leavitt, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Special Envoy Richard Grenell and DOGE’s Elon Musk, have all targeted journalists online — with varied frequency and intensity — since Inauguration Day three months ago. . .”

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trump-officials-trolling-journalists