Looking at Media You Don’t Like?

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones

Headline:  “The White House’s ‘media offender’ list will fizzle. The reporting won’t.”

Subhead:  “The Trump administration’s latest attack on reporters won’t stop newsrooms from holding it accountable”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/white-house-media-offender-list-trump-press-attacks/

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Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff

Headline:  “Trump administration’s ‘media bias’ list raises alarm, CPJ says”

https://cpj.org/2025/12/trump-administrations-media-bias-list-raises-alarm-cpj-says/

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Article in The Guardian by Marina Dunbar, 11/29/25

Headline:  “White House launches website to excoriate media for ‘biased’ stories”

Subhead:  “Trump administration lists reporting it objects to in latest escalation of attacks on US journalism”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/29/white-house-media-website-trump

Buying All The Media?

Article in Common Dreams by Robert Reich, 11/26/25

Headline:  “The Billionaires Destroying Our Media System and What To Do About It”

Subhead: “In an era when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals who have bought up key media, there is a growing danger that the public will not be getting the truth it needs to function in this democracy”

“The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

“The fourth-richest man owns The Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

“Another billionaire owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.

“Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic — some might say sinister — reason. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/billionaire-ownership-media

Courts & Media Intimidation?

Article in Axios by Sara Fisher and Kerry Flynn, 11/25/25

Headline:  “Trump’s media lawsuits keep falling flat”

“Despite two very visible settlements with ABC and CBS in the past year, President Trump’s legal pressure on media companies has still faced ample pushback in court.

“Why it matters: Lawsuits, even if eventually dismissed are extremely costly and burdensome for news organizations to fight. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.axios.com/2025/11/25/trump-media-lawsuits-dismissed

New Reporters Party?

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Amos Barshad, 11/24/25

Headline:  “Partying at Mar-a-Lago with the New MAGA Media Stars”

Subhead:  “While major news outlets obsessed over the anticipated release of the Epstein files, Trump-friendly news influencers celebrated how far they’ve come.”

“. . .The event is a chance for the new right to gather and celebrate itself: While Trump freezes out or directly attacks legacy media, MAGA content creators exist in an influential, symbiotic relationship with the White House, where they are welcomed into the press room as never before. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/james-okeefe-media-group-citizen-journalist-award-gala-maga-news-influencer-content-creator-mar-a-lago-trump-news.php

Control All Media

Article in The Nation by Ben Schwartz, 11/21/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Quest for Total Media Control”

Subhead:  “Look beyond the petty celebrity feuds, and you’ll see a plan to transform American media companies into outlets for MAGA agitprop.”

“. . .Colbert, Kimmel, and Meyers are just comedy collateral damage in Trump’s pursuit of his bigger goals. Trump’s brain operates simultaneously at the pettiest and grandest levels of venality and scheming. He could have Brendan Carr make private calls to Comcast executives to let them know what’s coming. Instead, Trump went after Meyers to show he’s always in there slugging—but also to remind Comcast of what he’d already done to Colbert and Kimmel.

“It’s easy to get distracted by Trump’s celebrity feuds, but we should never lose sight of Trump’s master plan: to push our media world so far to the far right that he’s never again asked about his sexually predatory or homicidal friends.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-skydance-comcast-wbd/

TV Anchors’ Pink Slips?

Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 11/20/25

Headline:  “Is CNN next on Trump’s media hit list?”

“Billionaire Larry Ellison, whose company Paramount Skydance is considering acquiring the parent company of CNN, reportedly discussed firing anchors at the network with the Trump administration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/20/2354770/-Is-CNN-next-on-Trump-s-media-hit-list?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_recent_news&pm_medium=web

Some Media: Selective Treason

Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffe & Jack Winstanley, 11/20/25

Headline: “Right-wing media figures are calling a recent video from Democratic lawmakers ‘treason’ and ‘sedition’ ”

“Sean Hannity: “The video that encourages military members to defy illegal orders ‘is unlawful, a brazen act of subversion against our country’ ”

“After six Democratic lawmakers released a video encouraging active members of the military and intelligence community to ‘refuse illegal orders,’ as they are required by law, many right-wing media figures claimed that they are committing ‘treason,’ fomenting ‘sedition or insurrection,’ and trying to “trigger a military coup.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-figures-are-calling-recent-video-democratic-lawmakers-treason-and

Media – Going, Going, Gone

Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 11/18/25

Headline:  “USA: 8 ways Trump is shrinking the space for press freedom – literally”

“The attacks against the press carried out by President Donald Trump since the start of his second term have increasingly stretched beyond rhetoric and policy and turned into physical limitations for journalists. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is highlighting eight ways the US administration is physically restricting journalists’ access to areas where they were previously free to report. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-8-ways-trump-shrinking-space-press-freedom-literally

Not “Pure Enough” Now?


Article in Media Matters by John Knefel, 11/14/25

Headline:  “MAGA media figures are furious over Trump’s immigration apostasy”

Subhead:  “The president’s comments on H-1B visas were “a little hard to stomach,” said one Fox News host.”

“. . .For years, Trump has benefited from a symbiotic relationship with his hardcore supporters in right-wing media, allowing him to achieve narrative dominance that extends beyond conservative spaces. Now he’s showing signs of faltering; even Trump isn’t nativist enough for the top influencers on the right.

“The current feud stems from Trump’s Tuesday interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, during which the president defended the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to sponsor foreign-born workers for some high-skilled jobs. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/maga-media-figures-are-furious-over-trumps-immigration-apostasy

Destroy American Broadcasting?

Illustration from Fire.org

Article in The Guardian by John Oliver, 11/17/25

Headline:  “John Oliver on the mass defunding of US public media: ‘Just stupid’ “

Subhead:  “The Last Week Tonight host delves into the many vital functions of US public media imperiled by congressional Republicans’ defunding plan”

“On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver checked in on the ‘dire’ state of public media in the US, where almost all public media falls under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Until recently, the CPB distributed funding to more than 544 radio TV grantees representing more than 1,500 locally managed and operated stations nationwide, reaching more than 99% of the US population . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/17/john-oliver-public-media-cuts

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Article in Freepress by Staff,   11/17/25

Headline: Free Press Action’s Mike Rispoli Testifies Before the New Jersey State Senate on Behalf of Public Funding for Public Media “

“. . .In September, NJ PBS — the state’s only public-television station — announced that it will cease operations in 2026. The move is related to Congress’ decision earlier this year to claw back $1.1 billion in funding from the previously approved federal budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the CPB’s subsequent decision to shut down operations. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-actions-mike-rispoli-testifies-new-jersey-state-senate-behalf-public-media-funding

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Article in The Atlantic by Gilad Edelman, 11/17/25

Headline: “The ‘Easy Way’ to Crush the Mainstream Media”

Subhead: “FCC chair Brendan Carr is on a crusade to Trumpify the airwaves.”

“. . .when he issued a mob-style threat over a Jimmy Kimmel monologue that Republicans didn’t like—’We can do this the easy way or the hard way’—he made the Trump administration’s appetite for censorship unignorable.

“Most of the administration’s efforts to manipulate the media up to that point had retained at least a patina of deniability. Here, by contrast, was an uncomplicated threat of government interference—one that prompted Disney, ABC’s parent company, to fall in line by suspending Kimmel’s show. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/11/brendan-carr/684936/