Media Reform

Some Media Like Deporting Citizens?

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Article in Media Matters by Jason Campbell, 8/25/25

Headline:  “As mass deportation intensifies, right-wing media expand their aim to include American citizens”

Subhead:  “MAGA volk: Right-wing media personalities are expanding their hostility toward undocumented immigrants and now are targeting naturalized and native-born citizens in an assault on American identity”

“Since its inception, the MAGA movement has focused energy on trying to purge the United States of people who do not have legal status in the country. The Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts accelerated this summer after passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, alongside the opening of new migrant detention centers. Now, MAGA media are extending that hostility toward immigrants to take aim at naturalized and native-born citizens in an assault on American identity itself. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/maga-trolls/mass-deportation-intensifies-right-wing-media-expand-their-aim-include-american

Acceptable Media Bias?

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Article in The New Republic by Perry Bacon, 8/22/25

Headline:  “The Media Should Be Biased—Against Authoritarianism”

Subhead:  “UMass Amherst journalism historian Kathy Roberts Forde says the news media has helped both entrench and erode authoritarianism in the U.S. in the past and should lean into its pro-democracy history now.”

“The news media has a powerful role in democracy, even if it often doesn’t acknowledge that, says Kathy Roberts Forde, a journalism historian who teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. . .”

“Forde argues that today’s Republican Party is using some of the authoritarian tactics that were employed in the American South in the twentieth century and by autocratic leaders abroad today. So she argues journalists can and should make those connections, even if that leads to Republicans attacking them as biased. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/199471/media-biased-against-authoritarianism

 

Watching the Press

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Article in Poynter by Ren LaForme, 8/21/25

Headline: “Join Poynter in keeping a close eye on press freedom”

Subhead: “Our new Press Freedom Watch project tracks federal actions that undermine America’s free press”

“A free press is a cornerstone of American democracy. It informs citizens, holds leaders to account and upholds democratic principles. But after decades of relative freedom, the U.S. press now faces a coordinated series of federal actions that is unmatched in recent decades.

“President Donald Trump and his administration have taken concrete steps since January to limit press freedom. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/press-freedom-watch-trump-federal-actions/

Ethics for Reporters?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Gerstein & Margaret Sullivan, 8/21/25

Headline:  “Thirteen Journalists on How They Are Rethinking Ethics”

Subhead: “We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, “fake news,” AI, and industry decline.”

“. . .This summer, the two of us—Margaret Sullivan and Julie Gerstein, of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University—have been exploring, in a series of pieces with CJR, whether those ethics are sufficient for journalists in the modern moment. Whether, in the face of artificial intelligence, “fake news,” eroding protections for sources, and the weakening of their business model, journalists should adjust their core tenets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/thirteen-journalists-on-how-they-are-rethinking-ethics-newsroom-leaders-ethicists-trump-fake-news-ai.php

Clean Money for Nonprofit Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Bernstein & Margaret Sullivan, 7/7/25

Headline:   “For Nonprofit Newsrooms, Ethical Funding Is Essential”

Subhead:  “How outlets are updating their strategies to protect editorial independence.”

“As advertising revenue for small news organizations dries up, donor money from foundations is playing a bigger role. This relationship presents some new ethical questions for journalists: Who should newsrooms accept money from? On what terms? And how should they disclose that relationship to the public? In considering these questions, we were reminded of an incident that happened at PBS in 2013, when the broadcaster announced ‘Pension Peril,’ a two-year series on a crisis in public employee retirement benefits. The series ran during PBS NewsHour Weekend and was spearheaded by its flagship New York station, WNET.   “However, PBS failed to disclose that the series was funded with a 3.5-million-dollar grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, founded by John Arnold, a billionaire hedge-funder with a history of involvement in pension policy reform. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/nonprofit-newsrooms-ethical-and-sustainable-funding.php

Journalism and Honor?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Margaret Sullivan, 6/12/25

Headline:  “It’s Time for a New Look at Journalism Ethics”

Subhead:  “The first part in a series on the challenges facing the media industry today.”

“It might seem like conventional wisdom among journalists that while the world around us may change, our standards do not. And certainly our ethics should not change.

“We believe in accuracy. In being honest with the public. In declining favors or gifts intended to bring more favorable coverage. In protecting our sources. . .”

“Yet a fresh look at journalism’s standards and practices—yes, its ethics—seemed a worthwhile pursuit in this moment. Trust in the press has declined. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/new-journalism-ethics-today.php

Preparing Journalism for the Future

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Article in Poynter by Nicole Slaughter Graham, 6/5/25

Headline:  “ASU is launching a $14.5 million center to speed up journalism’s transformation”

Subhead:  “The Knight Center for the Future of News aims to help strengthen local and regional journalism by bringing educators, research and newsrooms together”

“Journalism’s many issues are longstanding and well-known, and with its new center, Arizona State University is ready to take sweeping action to implement solutions.

“On July 1, ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication will open the Knight Center for the Future of News thanks to a $10.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation and a $4 million investment from the university. . .

Read the full article at:

“https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/asu-knight-center-future-of-news/

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/

Robber-Baron Media?

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Article in The New York Times by CeciliaKing, Mike Isaac, and David McCabe, 4/14/25

Headline:  “U.S. Argues Meta Built a Social Media Monopoly”

Subhead:  “The tech giant went to court on Monday in an antitrust trial focused on its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The case could reshape its business.”

“The Federal Trade Commission on Monday accused Meta of creating a monopoly that squelched competition by buying start-ups that stood in its way, kicking off a landmark antitrust trial that could dismantle a social media empire that has transformed how the world connects online.

“In a packed courtroom in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, the F.T.C. opened its first antitrust trial under the Trump administration by arguing that Meta illegally cemented a monopoly in social networking by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp when they were tiny start-ups. Those actions were part of a ‘buy-or-bury strategy,’ the F.T.C. said.”

https://archive.is/OKi9X#selection-751.0-767.46

Fox – “Nothing to see here”

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Article in Media Matters bu Matt Gertz, 4/1/25

Hedline:   “How Fox is handling reports that the Trump administration may have erroneously sent people to a foreign torture prison”

“Fox News propagandists are employing a variety of defenses in response to revelations that the Trump administration has sent people in error to a notorious foreign prison, from alleging that migrants don’t deserve due process to attacking other news outlets for reporting on the ‘one-offs’ to arguing that such mistakes are acceptable because ‘a lot of people in this country’ are ‘arrested for things that they didn’t do.’ ”

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/how-fox-handling-reports-trump-administration-may-have-erroneously-sent-people-foreign