Media Politicize

The Ends Meet

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 7/21/25

Headline: “The Epstein Effect”

Subhead:  “Has the mainstream press gone QAnon?”

“In Thursday’s edition of this newsletter, Emily Bell wrote about the increasingly curious right-wing-media dynamics surrounding the biggest political story of the moment: the Trump administration’s frantic, yet seemingly doomed, attempts to move its base on from conspiracy theories related to Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile who killed himself in jail in 2019, and the base’s refusal to be moved. ‘Trump is now confronting the outcome of a media ecosystem he invented, one based on panicky, consensus-squashing conspiracy theories,’ Bell observed. . .”

“. . .I’d argue that the MSM, on the whole, has never sounded as much like MAGA media as it has this past fortnight; as one unnamed reporter put it to New York’s Charlotte Klein last week, ‘Perhaps for the first time, the mainstream media and far-right media are sort of rowing in the same direction,’ at least when it comes to calling for Trump to release more records. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/epstein-effect-mainstream-media-press-qanon-conspiracy.php

How to Control: Ban Access

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Article in the New York Times by Katie Robertson, 7/21/25

Headline: “White House Bans Wall Street Journal From Press Pool on Trump’s Scotland Trip”

Subhead: “The president sued the publication last week, accusing it of defamation for an article about his ties to the disgraced former financier Jeffrey Epstein.”

“The White House said on Monday that it had barred Wall Street Journal reporters from the traveling press pool for President Trump’s coming trip to Scotland, attacking the publication again for its reporting on ties between the president and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“On Thursday, The Journal published an article saying that Mr. Trump had sent Mr. Epstein a lewd birthday note in 2003. It included a drawing of a nude woman, The Journal reported, and ended with Mr. Trump writing, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/business/media/trump-scotland-wsj-press-pool.html

A Dirge for Public Media?

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Public media is not state-controlled media

Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 7/18/25

Headline: “Congress signs off on Trump’s request to rescind $1 billion in funding for public broadcasting”

Subhead: “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will lose its funding starting in October — a first in its history”

“For the first time in its 58-year history, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the organization responsible for distributing federal dollars to NPR, PBS and other public broadcasters — will lose its funding.

“The loss is a result of Congress’ striking deference to President Donald Trump. Under the Constitution, Congress holds the power to control government spending. But early Friday morning, at Trump’s request, the House joined the Senate in agreeing to take back $9 billion in funds it had already appropriated. That money included $1.07 billion for CPB and nearly $8 billion in foreign aid. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/trump-defunds-npr-pbs-cpb-public-broadcasting/

Goodbye to Some Media

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Public media is NOT state-controlled media

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Andrew Mercein, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Inside the Radio Stations Devastated by Public Funding Cuts”

Subhead:  “ ‘If we have to make cuts, there’s no easy choice,’ one station manager said.”

“At noon on Friday, just hours after Congress revoked more than 1.1 billion dollars in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, more than a hundred and fifty member stations joined a closed-door Zoom call with NPR leadership. The federal funding they had spent months trying to save was gone. What remained was a shared sense of loss, exhaustion, and the daunting task of reevaluating their mission and programming.

“In an emotional hour-long call, station leaders grappled with fallback plans and infrastructure gaps. Some large stations offered to share resources with smaller ones. Others voiced gratitude for NPR’s efforts in Washington. But no one believed the damage could be undone quickly—if at all. ‘It was, in some ways, a postmortem,’ said one person who listened to the call. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/public-radio-stations-funding-cuts-rescission.php

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Defunding NPR and PBS passed the Senate — and it’s a direct hit to rural America”

“As feared, President Donald Trump, with the help of Congress, is making good on his threat to cut federal funding for NPR, PBS and other public broadcasting.

‘It’s a dark day for journalism, the free press and, perhaps most importantly, everyday Americans who are going to feel the effects of what happened Thursday. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/defunding-npr-and-pbs-passed-the-senate/

Native American Media in Jeopardy

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Article in Indian Country Today by AP & Kevin Abourezk, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Native public media reels after federal budget cuts”

Subhead:  “Congress approves Trump’s $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid”

Francene Blythe-Lewis spent Friday morning crying at her desk, trying to assess how the loss of nearly half of her organization’s $2.8 million annual budget would impact its ability to support public media by and about Native people.

“ ‘It’s been very stressful,’ she said. ‘I don’t know 100 percent how it’s going to affect us. It’s not going to close Vision Maker Media.’

“Vision Maker Media’s woes were realized early Friday when the U.S. House approved President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid . . .”

“The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. . .”

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. . .”

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/news/native-public-media-reels-after-federal-budget-cuts/

Alligators Can Bite in Undrained Swamp

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Article in AlterNet by Carl Gibson, 7/17/25

Headline: ” ‘Worse by the day’: Analyst reveals how Trump is rapidly losing backing of far-right media”

“President Donald Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case has resulted in a vast multitude of far-right media figures turning on the person they helped elect, according to a new analysis.

“In a Thursday article in anti-Trump conservative outlet The Bulwark, author Will Sommer detailed how some of the biggest names in the MAGA media sphere have deemed Trump a heretic over the administration’s insistence that the Epstein matter is closed and that the rumored ‘client list’ purportedly including contact information for Epstein’s criminal associates never existed. He listed multiple examples suggesting that Trump’s biggest online advocates may not forgive him over the Epstein issue. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-right-wing-media/

Immigrant Plight Ignored

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffe & Torri Lonergan

Headline:  “Right-wing media claimed the ‘worst of the worst’ would be housed at Florida’s new immigrant detention center. Hundreds of detainees have no criminal record.”

“Right-wing media have heralded the Trump administration’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ as a detention center for ‘pedophiles’ and ‘drug traffickers,’ but new reporting shows over 250 detainees have no criminal charges.

“Contrary to right-wing media’s narrative about the detention center, detainees include asylum-seekers and people who have been held over minor infractions like traffic violations — despite insistence from right-wing media figures that the harsh camp would be reserved for ‘the worst of the worst’ and the ‘baddest of the bad hombres,’ with one calling the detainees ‘subhuman’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-claimed-worst-worst-would-be-housed-floridas-new-immigrant-detention

Media Make Frank Unhappy

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Article in Raw Story by Robert Davis, 7/14/25

Headline:  ” ‘They’re pissed’: CNN hosts slam Trump for losing control of ‘MAGA Frankenstein’ “

“CNN host Abby Phillip and reporter Donie O’Sullivan slammed President Donald Trump on Monday night over his inability to speak to his base following the latest scandal.

“Last week, Justice Department officials issued an unsigned memo contradicting many points of the Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theory that Trump and his surrogates have parroted for multiple years. The move set off a firestorm within the MAGA base and has become a political liability for the Trump administration.

” ‘Perhaps it’s not surprising that his ‘MAGA Frankenstein’ doesn’t believe him,’ Phillip said. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2673207755/

Press Secretary in a Huff

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 7/9/25

Headline:  “Trump Press Sec’s Fury at Media Over Texas Flood Exposes Worst of MAGA”

Subhead:  “As Karoline Leavitt rages at the media and Democrats for probing whether Trump policies made the Texas disaster worse, a writer on climate change argues that this absolutely is the time for such hard questions.”

“At least 109 people have died amid devastating flooding in Texas. Distressingly, 27 deaths occurred at a summer camp for girls, and the toll continues to rise. This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt angrily lashed out at the news media and Democrats for asking whether Trump administration policies bear any blame for the disaster’s impact. What struck us, though, is her demand that we all treat this as a ‘national’ tragedy. She’s right that we should do this. But that solicitude is precisely what Donald Trump and MAGA deny to non-MAGA America at other urgent moments. And that’s the true MAGA ethic at its ugliest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/197723/trump-press-sec-fury-media-texas-flood-exposes-worst-maga

How do you Cover Extremism?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott

Headline: “How Local Reporters Manage the Dangers of Covering Extremism”

Subhead: “The extremism beat has gone mainstream—but in local markets, it’s still intensely personal.”

“Last Thanksgiving, Steven Monacelli was awoken early in the morning by the sound of police officers knocking on the door of his Dallas home. Someone had called the cops to report that Monacelli, a freelance investigative correspondent for the Texas Observer, was abusing his girlfriend. Monacelli’s girlfriend—who has since become his fiancée—came to the door to demonstrate that the abuse claims were false.

Monacelli was disturbed—but not particularly shocked. ‘I pretty much immediately knew why they were there,’ he said. For more than four years, he’s been covering the rise of far-right extremism across the state of Texas, including stories about right-wing influence in Texas schools and a so-called ‘white nationalist fight club.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/local-reporters-dangers-covering-extremism.php