Media Politicize

Not “Pure Enough” Now?

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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?

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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/

Billionaires Buy the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Robert Reich, 11/13/25

Headline:  “Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back”

“The richest man on Earth owns X.

“The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS, and could soon own Warner Bros, which owns CNN.

“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.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/13/trump-media-ultra-rich-democracy

Frenemies in the Media

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

Headline:  “Following Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, fault lines have emerged as right-wing media battle over the future of MAGA”

Subhead:  “Some in MAGA media have tried to distance their movement from Fuentes and his ideas while others have suggested the white nationalist streamer is ‘mainstream now’ “

“Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has precipitated a right-wing media struggle over the future of the MAGA movement.

“While many traditional right-wing media figures criticized Carlson for platforming Fuentes and not pushing back strongly enough on his rhetoric, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts posted in support of Carlson, calling the former Fox host’s detractors a ‘venomous coalition” and Carlson a “close friend” to The Heritage Foundation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/nick-fuentes/following-tucker-carlsons-interview-nick-fuentes-fault-lines-have-emerged-right-wing

 

 

Kansas Newspaper Police-raid Update

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Article in AP by John D. Hanna and Heatber Hollingsworth, 11/11/25

Headline:  “Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million over law enforcement raid on a small-town newspaper”

“TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom, the paper’s editor said Tuesday.

Marion County was among multiple defendants in five federal lawsuits filed by the company that publishes the Marion County Record, its publisher, the estate of his late mother Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner, employees of the paper and a former Marion City Council member whose home also was raided. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c18f46a215908198335ca6f608c3360b

 

Yelling at the Media Cloud?

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 11/10/25

Headline:  “Angry Trump Snaps at Media as Brutal New Data Shows Size of GOP Losses”

Subhead:  “As Trump seethes at journalists amid the release of striking new analyses of the election, a reporter who covers Congress details how Republicans are barred from acknowledging Trump’s unpopularity—a dangerous place to be.     Donald Trump vehemently talks to media”

“Under questioning from reporters about last week’s GOP losses, President Trump seethed that worsening inflation on his watch—a driver of the outcome—is nothing but a Democratic ‘con.’ . . Then, when a reporter raised facts contradicting him, he snapped in anger, because only the despot says what reality is. . . .”

Read the full article at:

http://Read the full article at: https://newrepublic.com/article/202914/angry-trump-snaps-media-brutal-new-data-shows-size-gop-losses

BBC Brouhaha

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Article in The Guardian by Michael Savage, 11/10/25

Headline:  ” ‘Make no mistake – this was a coup’: the extraordinary downfall of the BBC’s top bosses”

Subhead:  “The whirlwind that started when Deborah Turness came under attack at a board meeting is part of a wider political story, some say”

“. . .The departures of Davie and Turness leave the BBC exposed and rudderless as it enters crucial talks over its future and the licence fee. . .”

“The episode has also left everyone wondering whether running the BBC is even possible in a politically hostile environment. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2025/nov/10/make-no-mistake-this-was-a-coup-the-extraordinary-downfall-of-the-bbcs-top-bosses

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Article in UPI, by Allen Cone, 11/10/25

Headline:  “Trump threatens $1 billion lawsuit against BBC over video of speech”

“. . .Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brit, wrote a letter to the British-based outlet demanding a retraction of a BBC Panorama documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit of ‘no less’ than $1 billion.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/11/10/Trump-threatens-lawsuit-Jan-6-speech/5861762799135/

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 11/10/25

Headline:  “BBC resignations over a Trump speech edit show the high cost of editorial mistakes in a polarized era”

Subhead: “A sloppy edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech sparked two BBC resignations and a reminder that even small errors can fuel big narratives”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2025/bbc-resign-director-tim-davie-ceo-deborah-turness/

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Article in The Guardian by Geraldine McKelvie, 10/8/25

Headline:  ” ‘BBC ‘100% fake news’, says Donald Trump’s press secretary”

Subhead:  “Comments by Karoline Leavitt follow allegations that Panorama documentary misled viewers with its editing of a Trump speech”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/08/bbc-100-fake-news-says-donald-trumps-press-secretary

Full Mental News?

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Article in AlterNet by Robert Reich, 11/6/25

Headline:  “The media once again misses the real news about Trump’s rapid mental decline “

” ‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT’ . . .”,  according to Pollsters,’ Trump posted after Tuesday’s blowout, not naming the pollsters.

“Yet the media obediently repeated Trump’s words, as if they were news.

“They aren’t news. They’re postures. His words and thoughts add nothing to our understanding of anything. Yet the media reproduces them as if they did.

“He says whatever happens to be in his brain at the moment. He posts about whatever annoys him at the moment. He constantly changes his mind. His brain wanders in ways that cause many to question whether he — who will be 80 in June, and whose family has a history of dementia — is all there. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-mental/

The Enemy Media

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Article in The guardian by Betsy Reed, 11/6/25

Headline:  “In his first term, Donald Trump called journalists the enemy. This time around, he’s treating us like one”

“From Hungary to Russia, authoritarian regimes have made silencing independent media one of their defining moves. Sometimes outright censorship isn’t even required to achieve this goal. In the United States, we have seen the administration apply various forms of pressure on news outlets in the year since Trump’s election. One of my great disappointments is how quickly some of the most storied US media organizations have folded . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/05/trump-journalists-enemy

Big Brother WaPo Now?

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Article in The New Republic by Michael Tomasky, 11/3/25

Headline:  “The Washington Post Has Become Right-Wing Even Faster Than I Thought”

Subhead:  “It’s not going to happen. It’s happening: The mainstream media is becoming right-wing. What are wealthy liberals going to do about it?”

“I almost wrote a column about The Washington Post’s new but increasingly clear editorial slant last week after I read the editorial headlined ‘In defense of the White House ballroom.‘ That’s the kind of headline, opening with ‘in defense of,’ that might be tongue-in-cheek; a bit catty. But no, it was a dull, moronic, straightforward defense of the president of the United States crushing to dust one-third of a building of singular historic importance that is owned by the American people, and doing so while not merely ignoring but saying a colossal fuck you to the rules and procedures that normally govern such changes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/202581/washington-post-right-wing-bezos