Media Supression

Lebanon Invisible to Reporters?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Zahra Hankir, 3/31/26

Headline:  “Who Is Left to Cover Lebanon?”

Subhead:  “A nation that helped shape modern war reporting is now treated as peripheral. In the wake of journalist killings, the consequences are clear not only for members of the press, but for how the story of Lebanon is being told.”

“. . .Western newsrooms have, thus far, largely framed the story of Lebanon as a sideshow to the war in Iran. Coverage of the bombardment and subsequent invasion has been reactive, relegated to live blogs and breaking news updates; there are few in-depth stories on the political and humanitarian situation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/who-is-left-to-cover-lebanon.php

Damaged Public Media Comeback?

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Article in The Guardian from Associated Press, 3/21/26

Headline:  “Federal judge blocks Trump order to end funding for NPR and PBS”

Subhead:  “Citing the first amendment, judge says president’s executive order is unlawful and unenforceable”

“Citing the first amendment, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), two media entities that the White House has said are counterproductive to American priorities.

“The operational impact of US district judge Randolph Moss’s decision was not immediately clear – both because it will probably be appealed and because too much damage to the public-broadcasting system has already been done, both by the president and Congress.

“Moss ruled that Donald Trump’s executive order to cease funding for NPR and PBS is unlawful and unenforceable. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/31/judge-blocks-trump-npr-pbs-funding-cut

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Article in New York Times by Benjam,in Mullin, 3/31/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Executive Order on NPR and PBS Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules”

Subhead:  “The ruling will have minimal effect on the federal money going to public media because Congress voted to claw back funding. But it could have implications for any future funding.”

Read the article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/business/media/trump-npr-pbs-executive-order-ruling.html

Revenge on the Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 3/30/26

Headline:  “Was the FBI Raid on a Washington Post Reporter’s Home an Act of Retribution?”

Subhead: “Investigators ‘assisted’ Hannah Natanson in applying her right index finger to a Post-owned MacBook Pro, accessing all its data.”

“. . .As [KAsh Patel] said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in 2023, ‘We’re gonna come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re gonna come after you—whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out—but yeah, we’re putting you all on notice’. . .”

“At 6:05am on January 14, the FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter who had spent much of Trump’s first year back in office covering the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it took a hatchet to the civil service. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/was-the-fbi-raid-on-a-washington-post-reporters-home-an-act-of-retribution.php

Pyrrhic Victory over Evil Media?

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Article in Status by John Passantino. 3/28/26

Headline:  “Carr Blares the Horn”

Subhead:  “The FCC chairman’s comments at CPAC laid bare the Administration’s views controlling the media and sidelining critics as a political victory”

“On Friday afternoon, Brendan Carr took the stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, where thousands of MAGA faithful gathered to cheer on the movement’s right-wing agenda. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission sat on a comfortable white chair in front of the crowd and bragged about Donald Trump’s dismantling of media outlets and the journalists who have lost their legacy platforms. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/brendan-carr-media-cpac-trump-fcc

War on CNN Too?

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Article in The Guardian by Agence France-Presse, 3/38/26

Headline:  “Media association condemns ‘violent assault’ on CNN crew by Israeli soldiers”

Subhead:  “CNN team detained while reporting on aftermath of attack by settlers in West Bank, Foreign Press Association says”

“An international media association has condemned what it described as a “violent assault” by Israeli soldiers who detained a CNN crew in the occupied West Bank this week.

“A CNN team was reporting on the aftermath of an assault by Israeli settlers and the establishment of an illegal outpost near the Palestinian village of Tayasir on Thursday when it was detained by Israeli soldiers, the Foreign Press Association said on Saturday. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/28/israeli-soldiers-cnn-crew-west-bank-foreign-press-association

Shaping the Media

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Article in Mediaite by Kathryn Wilkens, 3/27/26

Headline:  “ ‘Trump Is Winning’: FCC Chair Boasts He’s Remaking the Media by Pushing Out Left-Leaning Figures”

“During a Friday CPAC appearance, FCC Chair Brendan Carr bragged that he’s remaking the media by pushing out left-leaning figures, declaring, ‘[President Donald] Trump is winning.’

“ ‘When he ran for office, he ran directly at the fake news media,’ said Carr. ‘He said, “You don’t get to decide what we say, what we think, how we’re gonna vote inside the voting booth.” President Trump took on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning.’

“Look at the results so far,” he continued. “PBS — defunded. NPR — defunded. Joy Reid — gone from MSNBC. Sleepy-eyed Chuck Todd — gone. Jim Acosta — gone. John Dickerson — gone.”

“[Stephen] Colbert is leaving,” Carr continued. “CBS is under new ownership, and soon enough, CNN is gonna have new ownership as well.” After this list, cheers could be heard from the audience.

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-is-winning-fcc-chair-boasts-hes-remaking-the-media-by-pushing-out-left-leaning-figures/

Time to Speak Out?

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Article in The Guardian by David Smith, 3/27/26

Headline: ” ‘Break your silence’: Jane Fonda leads rally against Trump crackdown on arts and media”

Subhead:  “Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to ‘stand tall against authoritarianism’ and resist free-speech threats”

“The actor Jane Fonda joined journalists, musicians and writers outside Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday. . .”

“At a damp but defiant rally hosted by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment, around a hundred invited guests gathered to hear speakers and singers rail against book bans, political censorship and other threats to free speech under Donald Trump.

“ ‘Today, books are being banned, plaques and monuments depicting historical events this administration wants to forget are being removed,’ Fonda said from a stage under a grey, rainy sky. ‘Museums, the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts councils, public broadcasting – they’re all being defunded.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/27/jane-fonda-kennedy-center-rally-trump

Neuter All Critics?

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Article in FAIR by Ari Hall, 3/25/26

Headline:  “Trump’s FTC Wages a War on Media Criticism”

“NewsGuard, a company that rates news outlets’ accuracy using what it calls apolitical journalistic criteria…to identify reliable sources of information, has filed a lawsuit to block the Federal Trade Commission’s demand for a list of all its customers.

“The FTC in May 2025 launched a wide-ranging probe into NewsGuard and 16 other groups—including left-leaning watch group Media Matters for America, and the Global Disinformation Index, a nonprofit media ratings service. The agency alleged the groups were part of ‘a conspiracy to boycott conservative and independent media.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/trumps-ftc-wages-a-war-on-media-criticism/

Media and Money

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 3/24/26

Headline:  ” ‘A Media System Built on Profit Is Incredibly Fragile’:”

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Jim Naureckas on MAGA vs. the First Amendment”

“. . . All of the conflicts we were told we were either making up or exaggerating are out in broad daylight. The president is overtly handing control of the country’s media outlets to a tiny group of MAGA billionaires. The Trump-appointed head of the public interest–defending regulator is stating that any outlets that don’t toe the Trump line, wherever that is today, could lose their broadcasting license for that reason. . .”

“There is lots of informed, impassioned debate going on right now about the various nightmares unfolding in and from the US. What does it mean that that’s happening largely outside the still-influential news media outlets that have long shaped public understanding?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/a-media-system-built-on-profit-is-incredibly-fragile/

Here Comes the Judge

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Article in The Guardian by Jer3emy Barr, 3/24/26

Headline:  “New York Times accuses Pentagon of defying judge’s press access order”

Subhead:  “DoD announces ‘interim’ policy for journalists decried by newspaper as ‘end-run around the court’s ruling’ “

“The New York Times on Tuesday accused the Pentagon of disobeying a judge’s ruling that undid much of the restrictive agreement journalists were forced to sign or lose access to the building.

The judge, Paul Friedman, granted an injunction on Friday that overturned much of the language in the ‘media in-brief’ document that had so concerned many news organizations that cover the Pentagon that almost all journalists chose instead to give back their press badges. He also ordered that seven journalists from the Times be returned their badges.

Instead of complying with the judge’s order, the Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on Monday night that the department would permanently close a designated work space for journalists known as ‘correspondents’ corridor’ and create a ‘new and improved press workspace’ in an annexed facility outside the building. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/24/pentagon-correspondents-press-restrictions