Media Intimidation

Journalists Have Right to Opinions

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 7/24/26

Headline:  “Washington Post ordered to reinstate opinion writer fired over Charlie Kirk posts”

Subhead: “Arbitrator determined the Post improperly fired Karen Attiah, a union-protected employee, over social media posts”

“An independent arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire the high-profile opinion columnist Karen Attiah, abruptly fired by the news organization last September over comments she made on social media about Charlie Kirk, the then recently killed conservative activist.

“On Monday, an arbitrator ruled that the Post had violated her rights as a union-protected employee and ordered the newspaper to reinstate her and compensate her for lost wages.

“ ‘This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct,’ Attiah said in a statement. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/24/washington-post-reinstate-karen-attiah

FCC Second Home?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 8/20/26

Headline:  “Opinion | How close is FCC chair Brendan Carr to the Trump White House? New records offer a look.”

Subhead:  “The FCC is supposed to operate as an independent agency. New records reveal extensive ties among its chair, the White House and conservative media.”

“The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to be an independent government agency that “regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.”

“But it’s pretty clear that under FCC chair Brendan Carr, the agency has been acting on behalf of President Donald Trump through threats and actions against network programming that Trump doesn’t like. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/fcc-ties-white-house-trump-conservative-media/

Afraid of Women Reporters?

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Article in The Hill by Ashleigh Fields, 8/19/26

Headline: “Trump attacks on female reporters ‘much nastier,’ ‘much more aggressive’: Haberman”

“. . .Haberman, who has often been the subject of Trump’s affronts, told CNN during an interview that she’s seen his attacks grow ‘nastier’ during his second stint in the Oval Office.

“The ‘attacks on female reporters have gotten much nastier and much more aggressive and much less just about being a keyboard warrior where he would do it on Twitter in term one,’ she told host Christiane Amanpour on her podcast, ‘The Ex Files.’

“CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Haberman have faced Trump’s ire directly and covered the fallout both on air and in print. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6037866-maggie-haberman-blasts-donald-trump-rhetoric-female-reporters/

Media and Exploding Lawsuits

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Article in Axios by Sara Fisher and Kerry Flynn, 8/18/26

Headline:  “Trump’s media and defamation legal battles skyrocket”

Subhead:  “Media and defamation lawsuits involving Trump”

“. . .Trump’s efforts to target government-funded broadcasters and broadcasters regulated by the Federal Communications Commission have prompted many of those cases.”

“. . .According to Axios’ analysis, Trump, his businesses and his administration have been involved in 61 media and defamation lawsuits since 2015, including 16 in 2025 and nine so far in 2026.

Read the full article at:

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/18/trump-media-defamation-lawsuits

Battle for Free Press?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/18/26

Headline:  “Disney Goes To War”

Subhead:  “In an extraordinary lawsuit, the Josh D’Amaro-led company accused the federal government of serious First Amendment violations and warned that if it loses, “the press could in no way be described as free.”

“. . .It was evident to Disney executives all along that Carr’s probe into the company was about much more than its D.E.I. policies. A person familiar with the Josh D’Amaro-led company’s thinking told Status. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/disney-abc-fcc-lawsuit-brendan-carr-stations

Media Damage Control?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 8/17/26

Headline:  “What Karoline Leavitt Leaves Behind”

Subhead:  “The outgoing press secretary further damaged the relationship between the federal government and the journalists who cover it.”

“. . .What Leavitt seemed to understand better than many of her predecessors was that, inside the MAGA court, the goal of press relations is to put on a good show. . .”

“. . .The Guardian’s Arwa Mahdawi wrote on Friday. ‘Leavitt’s legacy in government was attacking Trump’s enemies and spouting lie after lie after lie.’

“What I find most troubling about Leavitt’s tenure is how she and the wider Trump administration seemed to conceptualize the role of their press relations team. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/what-karoline-leavitt-leaves-behind-trump-press-secretary-outgoing-damaged-relationship-white-house-press-corps-federal-government-journalists-combative-style-showmanship.php

Media Didn’t Smile for Trump

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Article in Daily Beast by Erkki Forster, 8/16/26

Headline: “Trump, 80, Declares Fox News Host an Enemy of MAGA”

Subhead:  “The president worked himself into a fury after watching the Fox News host.”

“President Donald Trump melted down at Fox News host Shannon Bream after her Sunday broadcast failed to flatter him.

“The TV-obsessed president appeared to have tuned into Bream’s program on Sunday morning, where the Fox News host grilled Trump’s handpicked attorney general Todd Blanche over the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization” fund and pressed him on why the president is building the White House ballroom without congressional authorization. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-80-declares-fox-news-host-shannon-bream-an-enemy-of-maga/?via=mobile&source=Reddit

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. . .  wait, wait there’s more! . . .

Article in The Guardian by Sam Levin, 8/17/26

Headline: “White House launches personal attack on CNN reporter over question to Trump”

Subhead:  “CNN says attack ‘beneath the office’ after Kristen Holmes asked president about Jon Ossoff’s comments on key aide”

“The White House launched a personal attack against a CNN reporter on Monday with a social media post that mentioned her children and accused her of asking a ‘disgusting and inhumane question’. . .:”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/white-house-personal-attack-cnn-reporter-trump

Avoiding Shot in the Dark

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Article in Status by Brett LoGiurato, 8/14/26

Headline:  “The Media’s Vaccine Hesitancy”

Subhead:  “Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to gut the childhood vaccine schedule was built on debunked science. Too much of the news media’s coverage treated it as a political dispute.”

“. . .the position pediatric medicine has been forcibly pushed into over the past decade, or even longer—having to defend established science to the public because of the rampant mis-and-disinformation poisoning the public discourse.

“That is also the kind of posture the press should have taken this week when Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to drastically reshape the childhood vaccine schedule. Unfortunately, much of the news media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/trump-vaccine-order-media-coverage-mmr

Kansas Newspaper Restitution

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Article and photo in AP by John Hanna, 8/12/26

Headline: “A Kansas town will pay $850K to end a reporter’s lawsuit over a 2023 raid on her paper’s offices”

“A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper’s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom.

“Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit that the raid violated press freedoms and protections from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. She also said it almost immediately led to health problems, causing the return of potentially life-threatening seizures that had been controlled for years with medication. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c94e93cb264256678194d891a36108c9

Attacks on Media Outlined

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 8/10/26

Headline: “What 100-plus federal actions reveal about the Trump administration’s campaign against the press”

Subhead: “For 18 months, Poynter has tracked federal actions affecting journalists and news access, revealing a rapid, sweeping change in the media landscape”

“Since taking office, President Donald Trump has reshaped much of American political and civil life, and in doing so, indelibly altered the country’s media landscape. Over the past year, Poynter has documented more than 100 federal actions affecting journalists and access to the news through its Press Freedom Watch project.

“Some have targeted individual reporters, resulting in raids, assaults and detentions. Others have taken aim at outlets, subjecting disfavored newsrooms to investigations, lawsuits and funding cuts. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/trump-press-freedom/