Media Intimidation

Cuts Hurt Public Media

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Article in The Verge by Charles Pulliam-Moore, 8/15/25

Headline:  “PBS is slashing its budget in response to Trump’s attack on public media”

Subhead:  “The broadcaster also plans to reduce its member station dues by $35 million.”

“Now that Congress has passed a bill that will defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS is taking drastic measures to stay alive. . .”

“The Trump administration has made clear that it sees public media outfits like the CPB, NPR, and PBS as bastions for an liberal bias. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theverge.com/news/760026/pbs-is-slashing-its-budget-in-response-to-trumps-attack-on-public-media

Targeting Journalists?

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Update

Article in The Guardian by Lorenzo Tondo, 8/17/25

Headline:  “Israeli media ‘completely ignored’ Gaza starvation – is that finally changing?”

Subhead:  “A growing focus on hunger in Gaza in the global media has led some Israeli outlets to report on it for the first time”

“. . .more than three-quarters of Jewish Israelis – 79% – said they were either ‘not very troubled’ or ‘not troubled at all’ by reports of famine and suffering among Gaza’s Palestinian population.

“According to Anat Saragusti, an expert on the media, the reason is simple: most people in Israel are unaware of those reports because for months they have never seen them.

“ ‘Until a couple of weeks ago, you could count only a handful of reports from Gaza not filtered by the IDF,’ said Saragusti, the head of freedom of the press at the Union of Journalists in Israel. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/17/israeli-media-completely-ignored-gaza-starvation-is-that-finally-changing

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Article in The Guardian by Mohamad Bazzi, 8/16/25

Headline:  “Western journalists are failing to stand up for their colleagues in Gaza”

Subhead:  “This hypocrisy of western media has been laid bare by Israel’s targeting of journalists since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack”

“For nearly two years, Israel has been systemically targeting and killing Palestinian journalists in Gaza. On Sunday night, the Israeli military brazenly killed another six journalists, who had been sheltering in a tent housing media workers in Gaza City. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/16/israel-gaza-war-journalists

D.C. & Media

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Trump Occupying DC: WaPo Used to Be Disgusted”

“. . .With DC’s self-governance under threat, the city’s paper of record is positioned to play a critical role. Right off the bat, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher sounded the alarm about Trump’s actions, telling the New Yorker (8/11/25), ‘This is troops-in-the-streets, shades-of-authoritarian-rule bad.’

“The next day, however, Fisher sounded like a different person in Post column (8/12/25). Trump was transformed from authoritarian to ‘astute-but-flawed leader’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/trump-occupying-dc-wapo-used-to-be-disgusted/

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffee & Chloe Simon, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy National Guard to other American cities after DC”

Subhead:  “TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk: ‘We got a big military. We should be willing to use it.’ “

“After President Donald Trump announced on August 11 that he is deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and suggested he would do it in other major U.S. cities too, many in right-wing media celebrated the announcement, claiming D.C. should be a ‘test case’ and arguing that ‘we need full military occupation’ of other ‘problematic cities’ like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. . .”

Red the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-cheer-trump-deploy-national-guard-other-american-cities-after-dc

Journalist Jailed by ICE

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Mario Guevara Facebook page

Article in Free Press by Staff, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Press-Freedom Groups Call on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to Immediately Release Journalist Mario Guevara from Prolonged ICE Detention”

Subhead:  “In a powerful letter to Noem, groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Free Press, PEN America and Reporters Without Borders mark two months since Guevara’s unjust arrest. ”

“. . .The letter — signed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Free Press, the Atlanta Press Club, Common Cause Georgia, First Amendment Coalition, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Georgia First Amendment Foundation, Georgia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Society of Professional Journalists — expresses the groups’ alarm that Guevara has remained in detention for two months despite the fact that he is not facing any charges and was legally in the United States at the time of his arrest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-freedom-groups-call-kristi-noem-immediately-release-mario-guevara

Disappear Reporters – No News

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Article in Common Dreams by John Marks, 8/12/25

Headline:  “Killing the Witness: Gaza’s Journalists and the Global Blueprint of Disappearance”

Subhead:  “The Israeli missile that hit Al Jazeera’s tent targeted more than five people; it struck at the principle that the public has a right to know and at the belief that truth should outlive the men and women who report it.”

“On the night of August 10, 2025, the air over Gaza City hung heavy with dust and the steady thrum of generators. In a modest press tent pitched outside the bomb-scarred shell of al-Shifa Hospital, Al Jazeera’s last reporting team in the city worked with the quiet urgency of people who knew each second could be their last chance to bear witness. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/killing-witness-gaza

Journalists Targeted?

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Article in The Guardian by Jason Burke, 8/11/25

Headline: ” ‘I risked everything’: remembering six media workers killed by Israel in Gaza”

Subhead: “CJP says the period since 7 October 2023 has been the most deadly for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992”

“Journalists have been prominent among casualties since the war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s incursion into Israel in October 2023. . . ”

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent non-profit organisation based in the US that promotes press freedom worldwide, says at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/i-risked-everything-remembering-six-media-workers-killed-by-israel-in-gaza

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Article in Al Jazeera by Mat Hashed and Abdelhakim Abu Riash, 8/11/25

Headline:  “Anas and Mohammed, journalists slain by Israel, remembered as role models”

Subhead:  “Colleagues pay tribute to assassinated Gaza journalists, vowing to continue their work.”

“Late Sunday evening, Israel’s military targeted Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza correspondents Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh and three others, killing them in a drone strike against their media tent at the gate of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/11/anas-and-mohammed-journalists-slain-by-israel-remembered-as-role-models

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Article in Mother Jones by Julianne Mcshane, 8/11/25

Headline: “Israel Has Killed Nearly 200 Palestinian Journalists in Gaza”

Subhead: “The latest killings were targeted attacks on reporters covering the war in Gaza, according to the news network that employed them.”

Read the article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/israel-gaza-palestinian-war-journalists-killed/

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Story in Democracy Now by Mohamed Moawad, 8/11/25

Headline:  “Silencing the Coverage”: Israel Assassinates 5 Al Jazeera Journalists in Targeted Strike in Gaza”

Read the story at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/11/al_jazeera

Independent Media – Future U.S?

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Article in Reporters without Borders by Parteger, 8/8/25

Headline:  “ ‘Almost all independent media were eradicated’ in Belarus: after detention and forced exile, journalist Ihar Karnei speaks out”

“Ihar Karnei, a Belarusian journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has talked to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) about his ordeal for the first time since the Belarusian authorities released him on 21 July and forced him into exile. His account illustrates the regime’s total control of the media five years after President Alexander Lukashenko’s rigged reelection in 2020 and the ensuing violent crackdown. RSF reiterates its call for the release of the 39 Belarusian journalists still held. . .”

Red the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/almost-all-independent-media-were-eradicated-belarus-after-detention-and-forced-exile-journalist

No News Media for Rural Areas?

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Public Media are NOT state-controlled media

Article in Common Cause by Staff, 8/6/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Funding Cuts Are Already Gutting Rural Public Media Stations Across the Country”

Subhead:  “Trump signed a bill cutting $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, putting local NPR and PBS stations at risk, especially in rural areas.”

“Trump just signed a bill to cancel $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in a move that jeopardizes local NPR and PBS stations across the country, especially in rural areas.

“In their latest attack on public media, Donald Trump and his allies in Congress have cancelled over a billion dollars in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which finances NPR and PBS.

“While federal funding makes up 2% of NPR’s annual budget and 15% of PBS’s, some stations will be hit much harder by these cuts. Member stations in rural areas disproportionately rely on federal funding, since they have fewer donors and sponsors that can contribute to their operating budgets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commoncause.org/articles/trumps-funding-cuts-are-already-gutting-rural-public-media-stations-across-the-country/

Impact on Native Americans

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Article in Indian Country Today by Kevin Abourezk, 8/2/25

Headline:  “Radio silence? Public media braces for impact of federal budget cuts” 

Subhead:  “Tribal communities will be impacted by $1.1 billion in federal budgets cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to dozens of tribal community radio stations, plus funding cuts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency “

Article ins waves of snow battered the Rosebud Indian Reservation in December 2022, John Miller went to work alerting his community about closed roads, closed tribal programs and places where people could take shelter. Residents learned about the storm’s extent from the radio, which broadcast National Weather Service alerts, from people they knew and trusted.

Many residents of the South Dakota reservation lived in remote places that had become cut off by impassable roads, and some were cut off for as long as two weeks and ran out of propane to heat their homes. Miller, station manager for KOYA 88.1 FM, answered phone calls from people seeking help and directed them toward programs that could help. . .”

“Even though there were other ways people learned about the storm and where they could find help, many still relied on their local radio station, KOYA 88.1 FM, to provide them with constantly changing weather information and resources. . .”

“ ‘People may see media such as radio as something that is very dated, but it’s absolutely not,’ Edsitty said. ‘They are the first and foremost for these communities providing news and community updates, cultural programming, emergency alerts given circumstances that a lot of Indigenous communities experience’. . .”

” ‘Most of our stations are going to lose most of their funding’ he said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/news/radio-silence-public-media-braces-for-impact-of-federal-budget-cuts/

Lessons From Sudan

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/4/25

Headline:  “Applebaum on Autocracy”

Subhead:  “Anne Applebaum warns that Sudan’s descent into chaos whoushows what happens when institutions fail – and why a free press is essential to prevent America from following the same path”

“Anne Applebaum has spent decades chronicling the rise of authoritarianism and the collapse of democratic norms around the world. In her latest piece for The Atlantic, appearing on this week’s cover, she turned her attention to Sudan, where a brutal civil war has displaced millions of people. . .”

“In a conversation with Status, she explained why Sudan’s tragedy is a warning for the U.S. as it drifts further from the post-war role it has played in geopolitics, with Donald Trump in his second term. Applebaum also discussed the hollowing-out of independent media and why decisions like Paramount’s payout to Trump matter in the slide toward autocracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/anne-applebaum-autocracy-interview