Media obsequiousness

Make Media do the Job?

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Headline:  “Veterans’ D-Day rally is a chance to set the media straight”

Subhead:  “Americans need to know how Trump is hurting those who served.”

“Over the next two weeks, a new battle will take place over the U.S. military. The chief theater in which it’s fought will be the media. . .”

“Having spent two decades inside big legacy media, and now tracking its epic failures through my podcast and newsletter They Stand Corrected, I know some things we can expect. Unfortunately, Trump and his supporters are likely to get the exact kinds of storylines they want — unless the rest of us push the media to do its job. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/veterans-d-day-rally-is-a-chance

Too Scared to Report?

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Article in The Atlantic by David Frum, 6/4/25

Headline:  “Why Are the Media So Afraid of Trump?”

Subhead:  “How Trump is bullying the media and why it’s working”

“On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with a warning about how Donald Trump’s second term has brought a more systematic and punishing assault on American media, through regulatory pressure, retaliatory lawsuits, and corporate intimidation. . .”

“David closes the episode by reflecting on the recent media overhyping of President Joe Biden’s age issues. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/06/david-frum-showwhy-are-the-media-so-afraid-of-trump/683029/

Media Joining the Parade?

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Article in The Guardian by Judith Levine, 5/30/25

Headline:  “We’re minimizing the horror of Trump’s military birthday parade”

Subhead:  “The media has focused on the price tag and potholes. But history may mark 14 June as the ceremonial birth of US fascism”

“In 2017, watching a two-hour Bastille Day procession, Donald Trump told the French president that we’d have one too, only better. . .”

“This time, as Washington prepares for a huge military shindig on 14 June, Trump’s 79th – and, oh yes, the US army’s 250th – birthday, the generals are silent. The Republicans have sworn allegiance to the king. And the media are focused on the price tag, the potholes and the impending pomp; on tensions between the blue city of Washington and the red capital; and on the decimation of veterans’ healthcare, housing, and pensions while the administration throws $25m to $45m at a circus of war. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/30/trump-military-parade-fascism

 

PBS Station Caves?

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Article in The Intercept by Nikita Mazurov, 5/29/25

Headline:  “PBS Station Wipes Drag and Trans Content After DOGE Outcry”

Subhead:  “PBS producer WNET quietly erased episodes containing a drag queen and a trans character from its platforms.”

“The New York-area PBS station WNET has scrubbed its archives of at least three educational TV episodes that discuss transgender identity and drag expression, The Intercept has learned, as Congress and the Trump administration target public broadcasters with attempts to strip their funding.

“The station’s educational program ‘Let’s Learn’ became an object of ire for the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency this spring over the 2021 episode. . .The subcommittee’s chair, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., opened the ‘Anti-American Airwaves’ hearing in March by claiming that ‘PBS News is not just left-leaning, but it actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical, left positions like featuring a drag queen on the show . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/29/drag-trans-pbs-wnet-censorship-doge/

Media Bribery?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 5/20/25

Headline:  “Shari and the Senators”

Subhead:  “A new letter from three top Democratic senators warns Shari Redstone that settling Trump’s lawsuit could be more than a capitulation—it could be a crime.”

“On Tuesday morning, three senators dispatched a letter to Paramount Global boss Shari Redstone, the culmination of growing worry among Democrats on Capitol Hill that the media conglomerate could be on the brink of engaging in an unlawful quid pro quo with Donald Trump. In the letter—signed by Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Bernie Sanders—the lawmakers warned that if Paramount settles Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over a ’60 Minutes’ segment to win favor with the Trump administration, it could constitute criminal bribery—something that I’m told has also been cause for concern among the company’s three co-chief executives. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.status.news/p/senators-warn-paramount-trump-lawsuit

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 5/20/25

Headline:  “For CBS News, Wendy McMahon’s resignation marks more than just a leadership change”

Subhead:  “CBS is caught in the crosshairs of a Trump lawsuit, an FCC probe and a looming merger. And its top news executive just stepped down.”

“McMahon, the president and CEO of CBS News and Stations as well as CBS Media Ventures, told staff in a memo that the past few months have been “challenging.”

“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” McMahon wrote. “It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”

“McMahon’s resignation comes as CBS faces a $20 billion lawsuit from Trump over its editing of a ’60 Minutes’ interview last October with then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/cbs-news-wendy-mcmahon-resign-why-trump-60-minutes-shari-redstone/

Missing Coverage?

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan, 5/17/25

Headline:  “Yes, the media’s Biden coverage was flawed. But its reporting on Trump was far worse”

Subhead:  “A new book has fueled controversy over press handling of the ex-president’s decline. But that distracts from a bigger problem”

“With a new book out about Joe Biden’s failed re-election campaign, a media reckoning is in full swing. . .”

It goes something like this: mainstream journalism failed the voters. Reporters were complicit; they didn’t tell us how much the elderly president had declined. . .”

“. . .As a media critic, I’m always happy to see a good reckoning for the mainstream press.

“But this one makes me wonder. When is the reckoning coming for the failures to cover Trump effectively? . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/17/trump-biden-election-media-coverage

Can’t Praise Too Much!

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Article in the New Republic by Greg Sargens, 5/12/25

Headline:  “Trump Press Sec’s Fawning Over Him to Media Takes Scary, Cultlike Turn”

Subhead:  “As Karoline Leavitt goes full North Korea in her obsequious praise for Trump, a sharp observer of Trumpism explains what all this says about the “MAGA aesthetic” and its likeness to authoritarian propaganda.”

“In her most recent media briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went full North Korea with a number of worshipful monologues about Trump. Yet at around the same time, another journalist’s criticism of Trump caused him to explode in a wild, triggered fury that undercut the image Leavitt tried to project of a leader who is strong, calm, and in command of events. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/195103/trump-press-sec-fawning-media-takes-scary-cultlike-turn