Media Turmoil

Media Concerned About Cuckoos?

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Article in Media Matters by Jason Campbell, 4/14/26

Headline:  “Even some in right-wing media are now asking questions about Trump’s age and mental acuity”

“In the past few days, some right-wing media pundits have criticized 79-year-old President Donald Trump over concerns about his age and mental acuity, describing him as an ‘old man.’ The New York Times recently scrutinized Trump’s potentially diminished mental and physical capacities to serve as president, and polls indicate that a majority of the American people are growing increasingly concerned that Trump’s advanced age is causing him to be more erratic.

“Over the past two months, a growing chorus of dissident voices in right-wing media have broken with Trump over his war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/even-some-right-wing-media-are-now-asking-questions-about-trumps-age-and-mental-acuity

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

Another Legal Domino Falls?

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Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe, 4/13/26

Headline:  “Trump media company drops lawsuit against the Guardian”

Subhead: “TMTG drops defamation claim over report that prosecutors were investigating payments received as possible money laundering”

“Donald Trump’s media corporation has dropped a defamation claim against the Guardian and two other defendants over a report that federal prosecutors were investigating $8m in payments the company received from entities with ties to Vladimir Putin as possible money laundering. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/13/trump-media-guardian-lawsuit

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/

If it Bleeds – it Doesn’t Lead Anymore

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Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rozsa, 4/6/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media empire hemorrhaging subscribers as Trump’s coalition crumbles”

“President Donald Trump’s media ecosystem for a long time depended on major online brands like The Daily Wire and Blaze Media, but as one of their fellow conservative publications pointed out, Trump’s coalition is dissolving — and with it, the base of support upon which many of these media outlets once stood firm.

“Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire is in trouble on YouTube, losing significant numbers of subscribers—with Shapiro himself down a whopping 80,000 in the first quarter of the year, according to a new survey of political channels by researcher Kyle Tharp,” wrote The Bulwark’s Will Sommer on Monday. It’s more proof that dissident and increasingly anti-Trump voices like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have the energy in right-wing media. Shapiro, by contrast, is stuck defending an unpopular war with Iran.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing-media-fail/

 

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

Coming for the Journalists?

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 4/6/26

Headline:  “Trump threatens to jail journalist to find source of second missing airman report”

Subhead:  “Trump targets media to find ‘leaker’ who revealed that a US airman was missing after being shot down by Iranian forces”

“Donald Trump threatened to jail a journalist – or journalists – who reported that a second US airman was missing after being shot down by Iran on Friday in an effort to identify their source. . .”

“During a press conference at the White House on Monday afternoon, Trump told reporters that his government was aggressively pursuing the “leaker” who revealed information about the missing airman to the media. He claimed that the news report put Iran on notice and put the airman in danger. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/trump-threats-journalist-missing-airman-iran

MAGA Mega Media Merger?

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 4/2/26

Headline:  “Trouble for Nexstar Merger That Would Create Mega-Network for MAGA”

“It’s not exactly breaking news that President Donald Trump endlessly attacks the media, or that his administration lapdogs quickly echo his gripes. But there’s one official who has stood apart, and he’s done so by not only mimicking Trump, but by remaking the US media in his boss’s image, most recently by rushing through local TV broadcast giant Nexstar’s takeover of Tegna.

“ ‘Unlike his predecessors, Carr isn’t just another corporate lawyer,’ Rolling Stone’s Matt Bai (3/17/26) wrote about Brendan Carr, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair:

” ‘He is a cultural claims adjuster, a pasty-faced, soft-spoken agent of Trump’s retribution. If you were going to single out the most dangerous functionary in Trump’s little circle of Hell, you’d have plenty of candidates…. But don’t sleep on Brendan Carr. His legacy of awfulness may yet prove more durable’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/trouble-for-nexstar-merger-that-would-create-mega-network-for-maga/

“60 Minutes” Chaos?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 3/31/26

Headline:  “Bari’s ‘60’ Blow Up Plan”

Subhead:  “Earlier this year, Bari Weiss was talked out of making changes to ’60 Minutes’ midseason, Status has learned—but with the summer break approaching, her eyes are now trained squarely on the famed newsmagazine. . .”

“With Bari Weiss now at the helm of CBS News and taking an unusually hands-on approach to ’60 Minutes,’ a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the show’s future. “No one knows what to expect,” one staffer on the show told Status about the mood internally. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/bari-weiss-cbs-news-60-minutes-changes

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