Media Politicize

Rt. Wing Media Women

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Silman, 4/25/25

Headline:  “Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican”

Subhead:  “A crop of conservative personalities such as Brett Cooper and Candace Owens, and outlets like Evie, are convincing young women of a gender-essentialist worldview”

“Analyses of the 2024 election widely heralded the ‘manosphere’ – the coalition of bro podcasters and YouTubers popular with male audiences – as key to delivering Donald Trump’s victory. According to an AP poll, 56% of men under age 30 went for Trump compared with 41% four years prior. . .”

“Now, there are the beginnings of an organized effort to create a similar alternative rightwing media ecosystem targeting young female US audiences – one of the few demographics that has, until now, leaned substantially Democratic.

“This new ‘womanosphere’ includes (Brett) Cooper’s channel as well as lifestyle magazines like the Conservateur and Evie, Candace Owens’s Club Candace, Alex Clark’s Maha (‘Make America Healthy Again’) talkshow Culture Apothecary, conservative Christian influencer Allie Beth Stuckey’s Relatable, and swimmer turned anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines’s podcast Gaines For Girls. . . . the female answer to Tate. . .”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/24/womanosphere-conservative-women

Unchain the Media?

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 4/24/25

Headline:  “A majority of Americans believe press freedom is important. Far fewer believe the press is actually free.”

Subhead:  “Only 33% of Americans say the media is ‘completely’ free to report the news, according to a new Pew Research Center survey”

“Though two-thirds of Americans believe press freedom is very important, only a third say that the media is actually completely free to report the news, according to a Pew Research Center study released Thursday.

“That gap — where more people say press freedom is important than report actually having it — is found across countries as diverse as Chile and Turkey, the study finds. Pew’s study is based on surveys of more than 50,000 adults across 35 countries and covers perceptions of free speech and internet freedom in addition to press freedom.

“In the U.S., 67% of adults said it is “very” important that the media can report the news without government censorship, while 26% said it is “somewhat” important. While those figures are slightly higher than the median across the 35 countries surveyed, several countries like Sweden and Canada had higher shares of adults who said that press freedom is “very” important. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/is-the-media-free-press-freedom/

Media Detergent Needed!

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Article in Raw Story by Andrew Chapman, 4/23/26

Headline:  ” ‘Wow’: Chuck Todd floored as MAGA allies ‘air dirty laundry’ to media”

“President Donald Trump has vehemently denied any plans to get rid of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — but that resolve already appears to be cracking, former NBC anchor Chuck Todd told a CNN panel on Wednesday evening, as the scandals continue to mount and his position becomes less and less tenable. . .”

” ‘Is there ever a more straightforward sign in Trumpworld that you are on your way out the door than the president suddenly starting to ask the people around him about you?’ anchor Kasie Hunt asked Todd.

“Todd agreed. ‘By the way, for some of us in the press who have had an on-again, off-again relationship with the president, I’ve been on the receiving end of that myself,’ said Todd.”

https://www.rawstory.com/chuck-todd-2671833819/

Yet More Media Attacks

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Article in AOL The Morning Dispatch by Charlotte Lawson and Cole Murphy. 4/22/25

Headline:  “Trump Steps Up His Media Attacks”

Subhead: “Trump V. Journalists”

“President Donald Trump isn’t getting along with the news media.

“That isn’t exactly breaking news. He directed no shortage of jabs at mainstream outlets throughout his first term, but—with notable exceptions—his ire toward the media was limited mostly to rhetoric. Trump 2.0 may be different. The president’s attacks on the media have shifted from talk to action, with news organizations facing substantive retaliation for getting sideways with the new administration. And, if the escalation continues, the Trump administration could find itself running afoul of Constitutional protections—if it hasn’t already.”

https://www.aol.com/trump-steps-media-attacks-103601409.html?guccounter=1

Only Unfairness Doctrine Now.

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Article in Poynter by Liam Scott, 4/22/25

Headline:  “The repeal of the fairness doctrine accelerated the polarization of US media”

Subhead:  “When broadcasters no longer had to present diverse viewpoints, conservative radio thrived”

“The walk from his Federal Communications Commission office to the commission meeting room felt particularly long for Dennis Patrick on Aug. 4, 1987.

“That was the day that Patrick, then FCC chairman, and his colleagues unanimously voted to repeal the Fairness Doctrine, a policy that had mandated broadcast networks to fairly present differing viewpoints on controversial issues.

“Patrick remembers how quiet it was as he walked to the meeting that day with one of his aides.

“Finally he said to me, just before I opened the door to enter the commission meeting room, ‘Mr. Chairman, are you sure you really want to do this? You are going to have hell to pay,’ Patrick recalled. ‘And I said to him, “We are going to do the right thing, and I’m sure that we will have hell to pay.’ ”

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/poynter-50-repeal-fairness-doctrine-rush-limbaugh-conservative-talk-radio/

Ministry of Truth Spokespersons

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Article in Media Matters by Jack Winstanley & Shelby Jamerson, 4/21/25

Hedline:  “Right-leaning online shows claiming to be nonpolitical pushed pro-Trump messaging during the administration’s first 30 days”

“Media Matters reviewed 12 supposedly nonpolitical online shows and found two-thirds of episodes praised Trump or his administration or pushed right-wing misinformation/narratives

“Popular online shows that self-identify as comedy, business, or another supposedly nonpolitical category but have a right-leaning ideological bent — including those of Joe Rogan and Patrick Bet-David — pushed pro-Trump messaging and right-wing misinformation/narratives during the first 30 days of the Trump administration. . .”

https://www.mediamatters.org/google/right-leaning-online-shows-claiming-be-nonpolitical-pushed-pro-trump-messaging-during

Hegseth Burning Up About Media?

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Article in The Hill by Brett Samuals, 4/21/25

Headline:  “Hegseth blasts media, ‘disgruntled former employees’ over latest Signal controversy”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at the media and ‘disgruntled former employees’ Monday as he finds himself embroiled in fresh controversy over his sharing of sensitive information and his management of the Pentagon. . .”

“. . .’What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,’ Hegseth said, responding to new reporting from The New York Times.

“This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,’ . . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5258597-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-media-controversy/

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Article in Huffpost by Arthur Delaney, 4/21/25

Headline:  “Hegseth Lashes Out At Media After Firing His Own Aides Amid Pentagon ‘Meltdown’ “

Subhead:  “An angry Hegseth called reporters ‘hoaxsters’ who used ‘disgruntled former employees’ to ruin people.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at reporters Monday over a question about his use of a personal phone to discuss war plans in group chats with unauthorized participants.

Speaking in front of his children at the White House Easter Egg Roll, Hegseth suggested the stories had been planted by his own aides, three of whom he recently fired. . .”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-pentagon-meltdown_n_68068f65e4b0dae10a35e8ae

Journalists Targeted, Who is Next?

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Article in The Contrarian by Liam Scott, 4/18/25

Headline:  “Trump Officials Trolling Journalists is Just the Tip of the Iceberg”

Subhead:  “Behind the harassment of individual reporters is a full-scale assault on media freedom”

“When The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed last month that he had inadvertently been invited into a Signal group chat of senior U.S. national security officials, the news dominated headlines, cable broadcasts and social media for several days.

“While Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation into the incident, Trump officials set their sights elsewhere: on Goldberg himself. . . The harassment Goldberg faced was an unusually intense pile-on, but it underscores the increasingly common trend of targeting individual journalists by administration officials and even President Donald Trump.

“ ‘It’s clearly an effort to intimidate and silence journalists,’ Kathy Kiely, chair in free press studies at the Missouri School of Journalism, told me. . .”

For years, Trump has accused the mainstream media of bias and has even referred to it as “the enemy of the people,” in an increasingly contentious relationship that has also long featured journalist harassment. . .”

“And now, it’s not just Trump. Others, including Vance, Hegseth, Leavitt, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Special Envoy Richard Grenell and DOGE’s Elon Musk, have all targeted journalists online — with varied frequency and intensity — since Inauguration Day three months ago. . .”

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trump-officials-trolling-journalists

When You Jilt Your Media Fans

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Article in Politico by Michael Kruse, 4/18/25

Headline:  ” Trump’s Most Important Relationship Is Ending. And the Break-Up Isn’t Pretty.”

Subhead:  “For a half-century Trump and the mainstream media have mutually benefited from a stormy symbiosis. Why is he trying to kill the institution that made him?”

“. . .“I’m thinking seriously of running for president,” Trump said. “Why aren’t you writing about me?”

“ ‘He knew that you couldn’t be a serious presidential candidate in this country at that time unless your name showed up in every newspaper in the country,’ Fournier told me. ‘And if the AP wrote about you, that’s what would happen,’ he said.

“Trump used to court the AP. Today he’s in court with the AP — key members of Trump’s administration are defendants in a lawsuit filed by the flagship wire service after he booted its reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One for not following his order to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. . .”

Because his relationship with the media is his most important relationship. More than his three wives — more than any business partners — Trump’s symbiotic relationship with the media helped him craft an identity that has fueled every other achievement.

No longer. In the wake of his election last fall and at the outset of his second presidential term, Trump has turned his performative anti-media schtick into actual anti-media deeds. Wielding lawsuits, executive actions and the unleashing of allies and aides, he’s attempting to starve, squelch or shutter network television stations, global news agencies and reporters in Washington and beyond — a roster of targets ranging from ABC to CBS to NPR to the publication you’re reading right now. . .”

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/18/trump-media-history-ap-apprentice-00271192

Rt, Wing Listeners Flying Away

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffem 4/17/25

Headline:  “Callers to conservative radio shows voice their displeasure with Trump’s tariffs”

Subhead:  “Caller: ‘To me, this is just reckless, and I’m so angry. I’ll be darned if I’ll vote for another Republican again.’ ”

“Conservative radio listeners have been vocal about their displeasure as President Donald Trump’s tariffs created economic uncertainty and sent stock markets plunging.

“Though many right-wing media figures have dismissed the stock market volatility and praised Trump’s tariff policy, some listeners of right-wing radio shows were displeased, calling in to pronounce it ‘reckless,’ ‘sloppy,’ and ‘the single biggest, dumbest move in political history’. . .”

https://www.mediamatters.org/tariffs-trade/callers-conservative-radio-shows-voice-their-displeasure-trumps-tariffs