Media Politicize

Media History Repeated?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by John Alsop, 6/16/25

Headline:  “The Other Echoes of 2020”

Subhead:  “How this media moment mirrors the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, beyond police attacks on the press.”

Last week, I wrote in this newsletter about attacks, mostly perpetrated by law enforcement, on journalists covering the protests that followed the recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, and how they echoed the summer of 2020, when police assaulted journalists covering the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd: an Australian TV reporter was hit while talking to camera, which also happened in 2020; ditto the on-air detention of a CNN correspondent; as of last Monday, the US Press Freedom Tracker was working to document at least twenty-six anti-press incidents in LA . . . As last week progressed, the echoes continued: the confirmed number of injured Australian journalists alone jumped to three; an LA police officer was caught on camera shoving and screaming at an ABC journalist; as of Friday, the Press Freedom Tracker was working to document at least fifty anti-press incidents.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/other-echoes-2020-floyd-padilla-australia.php

Media Caused War?

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Article in The Guardian by Jason Stanley, 6/13/25

Headline:  “The mainstream media has enabled Trump’s war on universities”

Subhead:  “For the past decade, the US press has fueled a moral panic over leftists on campus while failing to report on the right’s assault”

“. . .The US mainstream media has waged a decade-long propaganda campaign against American universities, culminating in the systematic misrepresentation of last year’s campus anti-war protests. This campaign has been the normalizing force behind the Trump administration’s attack on universities, as well as a primary cause of his multiple electoral successes. Unless the media recognizes the central role it has played, we cannot expect the attack to relent. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/13/mainstream-media-trump-universities

 

Should Media Lie for a President?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 6/11/25

Headline:  “Fox’s bizarre lies shield viewers from the fact that Trump was wrong about Newsom call”

“A Fox News anchor, the network’s White House correspondent, and two of its prime-time hosts all apparently decided to lie to their audiences on Tuesday about a dispute over when Donald Trump last spoke to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, with each dissembling over what Trump or Newsom said rather than admitting that the president was wrong. And Trump’s own furious response to an inaccurate Fox chyron apparently set off that Orwellian chain of events. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-bizarre-lies-shield-viewers-fact-trump-was-wrong-about-newsom-call

Rt. Wing Calls Protestors “Invaders”?

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Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 6/11/25

Headline:  “As military is deployed to LA, rightwing media decry protesters as ‘invaders’”

Subhead:  “From Newsmax to Charlie Kirk, outlets and podcasts are calling for ‘hard actions’, arrests and the Insurrection Act”

“There were unsavory scenes in Los Angeles over the weekend, as police used teargas and ‘less-lethal munitions’ on thousands of people gathered to protest against the arrest of undocumented immigrants.

The events playing out on rightwing TV channels and in the conservative podcasting realm were almost as miserable, as excitable media figures decried protesters as “invaders”, called for both the mass arrest of elected officials and the invocation of a two-century old laws and used the chaos to push racist conspiracy theories.

It came as the Trump administration said the military will remain on the ground in LA for two months . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/11/la-ice-protests-trump-rightwing-fox-charlie-kirk

No Protection for Journalists?

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Article in Common Dreams by Eloise Goldsmith, 6/9/25

Headline:  “Reporters Without Borders Decries ‘Wave of Violence’ Against Journalists at LA Protests”

Subhead:  ” ‘These protests are a matter of huge public interest and the public has a right to know exactly what’s going on,’ said the executive director of RSF USA.”

“The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, on Monday condemned recorded attacks carried out largely by law enforcement, but also by protestors, against journalists reporting on protests that took place in Los Angeles this past weekend. . .”

” ‘The wave of violence against journalists on the streets of Los Angeles this weekend is unacceptable. These protests are a matter of huge public interest and the public has a right to know exactly what’s going on. The only way that can happen is if journalists are allowed to do their jobs freely,’ said Clayton Weimers, the executive director of RSF USA.

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/los-angeles-rsf-reporters-immigration

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Article in in Committee to Project Journalists by Staff, 6/9/25

Headline:  “Law enforcement injure multiple journalists, others assaulted while covering Los Angeles protests”

“We are greatly concerned by the reports of law enforcement officers’ shooting non-lethal rounds at reporters covering protests in Los Angeles. Any attempt to discourage or silence media coverage by intimidating or injuring journalists should not be tolerated,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. ‘ . . .“

Read the full article at:

https://cpj.org/2025/06/law-enforcement-injure-multiple-journalists-others-assaulted-while-covering-los-angeles-protests/

 

Truth or not Truth?

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Article in AlterNet by Staff, 6/8/25

Headline: ” ‘No concern that they weren’t true’: BBC hits back at Karoline Leavitt’s ‘fake news’ “

“The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, recently gave a press briefing about Palestinians killed close to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on June 1.. .”

” ‘Unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas as total truth, she said. “We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC.‘ . . .”

“Meanwhile, the corporation’s analysis editor, Ros Atkins, put out a brief but carefully worded video, via BBC Verify, that concluded Leavitt’s accusations were ‘repeatedly false’. It affirmed that BBC reporters had quoted figures ‘with clear attribution’ from the ‘the Hamas-run health ministry’. It also used sources such as the independent Red Cross and quoted the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in stories that day. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/karoline-leavitt-bbc/

War on Media Continues

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Article in The Hill by Ellen Mitchell, 6/8/25

Headline:“Hegseth brings warfighter men  tality to media relations “

“The Defense Department’s relationship with reporters has gone from bad to worse following a string of missives from Secretary Pete Hegseth and his office aimed at controlling the Pentagon press corps.

“Hegseth’s war on the media includes taking desks away from legacy outlets, locking the doors to one of the few places reporters have access to the internet in the Pentagon, and restricting their movement within the building. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5338740-hegseth-brings-warfighter-mentality-to-media-relations/

Newspapers and Polls

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Article in Raw Story by Travis Gettys, 6/6/25

Headline:  ” ‘Corrupt as hell’: Trump wakes up seething about his polling in two newspapers “

Subhead:  “President Donald Trump lobbed another attack against the nation’s two leading newspapers over their polling.”

“The president started off Friday morning with a fresh complaint about his approval rating measured by the New York Times and the Washington Post, suggesting that ‘real polls’ showed he was actually more popular than ever.

” ‘The Failing New York Times and the Washington ComPost, two ‘papers’ that have ruthlessly fought me for years, have each done Polls where a vast majority of those sampled are Democrats,’ Trump posted on Truth Social at 7:20 a.m. EST . . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-2672321734/

 

Cutting Rural America’s . . .

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan,6/6/25

Headline:  “If Trump cuts funding to NPR and PBS, rural America will pay a devastating price”

Subhead:  “Much of the country has little access to local news, with public media filling the void – and serving as a lifeline”

“When Hurricane Helene walloped North Carolina last fall, residents were hit by a second threat at the same time: the dire need for accurate information.

“The loss of electric power amid the widespread flooding meant that people – especially those in isolated areas – were deprived of basic news. They needed to know about everything from road closures to the whereabouts of their family and friends to sources of drinkable water.

“Blue Ridge Public Radio stepped into the breach. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/06/trump-funding-cuts-npr-pbs-rural-america

Rt. Wing Medicaid View

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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel, 6/4/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media solidify around “able-bodied” myth as Senate GOP weighs Medicaid cuts”

Subhead:  “Congressional Republicans are set to kick millions off of Medicaid by implementing work requirements, which conservative pundits falsely claim will strengthen the health insurance program”

“As Republicans in Congress negotiate a budget expected to deliver massive tax cuts to the wealthy while decimating the social safety net, right-wing media figures are perpetuating the myth that large numbers of Medicaid recipients are able-bodied people who refuse to work and therefore should be removed from the program.

“The messaging from conservative pundits echoes rhetoric from the Trump administration, which denies that its proposals will kick millions of people off of Medicaid. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/right-wing-media-solidify-around-able-bodied-myth-senate-gop-weighs-medicaid-cuts