Media Politicize

Pushing Media Around

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 4/14/26

Headline: “Opinion | Trump’s Truth Social posts are driving the news cycle — and raising alarms”

Subhead:  “From threats about Iran to attacks on the pope and an AI image of himself as Jesus, the president’s posts have drawn unusually broad criticism”

“President Donald Trump has never been one to avoid chaos and controversy, especially on Truth Social. . .”

“Does he have a crazy-like-a-fox strategy behind his posts? Does he do it to troll people? Does he do it to draw focus away from other matters? Is he so starved for attention that he’ll post anything to be at the top of the news cycle?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/trump-as-jesus-post-taken-down/

 

Trump-Jesus in News Again.

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Article in Media Matters by Payton Armstrong, 4/8/26

Headline: ” ‘Heretic’: After Trump spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain likens Trump to Jesus during Easter, right-wing media figures lash out”

Subhead: “Tucker Carlson called it ‘so vile’ and ‘such a sacrilege,’ while conservative influencer Brett Cooper said, ‘Maybe these people should not be involved in our government’ “

“Right-wing media figures are lashing out at President Donald Trump’s personal spiritual adviser and senior adviser to the White House Faith Office Paula White-Cain for likening Trump to Jesus during an Easter event, labeling her an ‘unabashed heretic’ and ‘batsh*t crazy.’

“White-Cain is a televangelist, pastor, and Trump’s longtime spiritual adviser who has ‘long been a prominent and polarizing figure in evangelical circles.’ White-Cain has an extensive history of extreme rhetoric, including declaring that opposition to Trump is equivalent to opposition to God. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/heretic-after-trump-spiritual-adviser-paula-white-cain-likens-trump-jesus-during

No Defamation?

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Article in The New York Times by Katie Robertson, 4/13/26

Headline:  “Judge Dismisses Trump’s Suit Against The Wall Street Journal”

Subhead:  “The judge said President Trump had not “plausibly alleged” that The Journal published the article with actual malice.”

“A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal over its report of his lewd birthday greeting to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Judge Darrin Gayles in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida said in his decision that Mr. Trump had not ‘plausibly alleged’ that The Journal published the article with “actual malice,” a legal standard meaning that it knew what it was publishing was false or had acted with reckless disregard as to its accuracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/business/media/trump-wall-street-journal-lawsuit-dismissed-epstein.html

News Predictions Can be Wrong?

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Article in Media Matters by Zachary Pleat, 4/10/26

Headline:  “Fox promised oil and gas prices would quickly drop once US attacks on Iran ended. Analysts say prices will be elevated well into next year.”

“Analyses from consulting firms, economists, and at least one government agency are contradicting rosy promises by Fox News personalities that oil and gasoline prices would quickly drop toward pre-war levels once U.S. attacks on Iran ceased. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-promised-oil-and-gas-prices-would-quickly-drop-once-us-attacks-iran-ended-analysts-say

Stupid Media People?

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 4/9/26

Headline: “Trump slams conservative media figures over splitting with him on Iran “

“President Trump on Thursday tore into several right-wing media figures who had been reliably supportive of him during his second term until the U.S. war in Iran broke out. . .”

“ ‘I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon,’ Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform. ‘Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5824607-trump-iran-war-tucker-carlson-megyn-kelly/

TV President Redux?

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Article in Poynter by Pete Croatto, 4/9/26

Headline:  “Q&A: What Tucker Carlson’s path reveals about where journalism is headed”

Subhead:  “New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle, author of a biography on the former Fox News star, breaks down why Carlson may run for president”

“Tucker Carlson’s career is ‘a good cautionary tale,’ says The New Yorker’s Jason Zengerle, author of ‘Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind,’ a riveting, sharp-eyed biography of the political pundit’s rise from acclaimed magazine writer to cable news mainstay to leading MAGA shriek.

“His path also represents the crumbling of journalism and the growing, troubling influence of a man who increasingly lives in an echo chamber. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/jason-zengerle-tucker-carlson-unraveling-conservative-mind/

Throw the Book at Pentagon Media?

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Article in The Guardian by Jefemy Barr, 4/9/26

Headline:  “US judge rules Pentagon has violated his order in press access case”

Subhead:  “Paul Friedman grants New York Times’s motion to force implementation of earlier ruling that gutted restrictive new policy”

“A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon has not complied with an order last month that undid much of a restrictive new press pass policy implemented by the Department of Defense, and ordered the return of credentials to seven New York Times reporters.

The newspaper, which sued the Trump administration in December, had urged the judge to compel implementation of his 20 March ruling after the Pentagon responded to the judge’s determination by creating a new press access policy, which the newspaper called an ‘end-run’ around the judge’s ruling. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/apr/09/pentagon-judge-press-access-case

Voice of Who?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty, 4/6/25

Headline:  “VOA’s Legal Fight for Independence”

Subhead:  “Journalists at Voice of America have been to court in the hope of getting back to their jobs. Now they are suing to protect against censorship.”

“For the embattled journalists of Voice of America (VOA), first came the fight to return to the newsroom they’d been unceremoniously booted from by the Trump administration. Now comes another daunting challenge: clawing back their editorial independence.

Late last month, four employees joined with Pen America and Reporters Without Borders to sue the administration over allegations that President Trump and his political appointees at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, had censored their coverage, transforming the newsroom into a “partisan mouthpiece of the administration” and breaching a congressionally created editorial firewall. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/voas-legal-fight-for-independence.php

Christian Media Missiles?

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 4/6/26

Headline:  “On The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses how the Iran war is seen in the Christian nationalist media space: ‘They’re getting impassioned because he’s making these very explicit calls to their religion’ “

“. . .And the undercurrent that’s taking place that this is in fact a Holy War, that it is Biblical. And the rhetoric that you pointed to is the most mild examples of that. I mean, Trump has posted a video, tapping into a notion that he is the prophecy come to life, that part of what he is doing now was prophesized in the Bible. And that lit up Christian nationalist communities. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/weeknight-angelo-carusone-discusses-how-iran-war-seen-christian-nationalist-media

Fox on the Run?

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Article in Media Matters by Ed McMaster & Isabella Sherk

Headline:  “Right-wing media figures castigate Fox News for pushing ‘blatant propaganda” on the war in Iran’ “

Subhead:  “Former Fox hosts and other right-wing media figures have called out the network for ‘cheerleading’ Trump’s war”

“Right-wing media figures including former hosts for Fox News are calling out the network for its sycophantic coverage of the Iran war.

Ex-Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly are attacking their former employer over its role in promoting President Donald Trump’s Iran war, with Kelly accusing Fox of ‘cheerleading’ the conflict and Carlson claiming the network is advocating for escalating to a ground invasion. Other right-wing media figures have similarly accused the outlet of ‘endless cheerleading’ for the war and spreading ‘blatant propaganda.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-figures-castigate-fox-news-pushing-blatant-propaganda-war-iran