Media News

News about the media.

Reporting on Insanity?

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Article in The New Republic by Alex Shephard, 2/5/25

Headline:  “This Is So Much Worse Than Last Time”

Subhead:  “Why Democrats and the media are struggling to capture the insanity—and danger—of the new Trump administration.”

“There is practically no way to describe what is currently happening in the United States without sounding hysterical, or like some sort of crank—or, maybe, insane. . .”

“Media coverage has somehow been even less inspiring than the Democratic response. During Trump’s first term, the press struggled to find a way to deal with Trump’s admittedly difficult to describe mix of extremism and incoherence. The speed of all of this and the enormity of it is, to be fair, difficult to capture. But there are bigger problems emerging in the ongoing coverage. One is simply that Trump and his cronies are taking direct action against the press, threatening to shut down via lawsuits (or, in the case of National Public Radio, defunding) any outlet that they deem as being critical, and appear to be serious about it. ABC has already settled one lawsuit, while CBS seems ready to settle another—settling both would essentially amount to paying Trump protection money.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/191153/trump-musk-treasure-government-breach

Media Pay-Off List?

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Article in The Verge by Nilay Patel, 2/4/25

Headline: “Meta just wanted to pay off Mr. Trump.”

“Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute — and previous Decoder guest — runs down the list of major media companies capitulating to frivolous Trump lawsuits and investigations, with particular scorn for Meta, which agreed to donate $25m to Trump’s presidential library instead of fighting a case it would have won handily. . . ”

https://www.theverge.com/policy/606015/meta-just-wanted-to-pay-off-mr-trump

Report Good or Bad?

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Article in Media Matters by Chloe Simon, 2/4/25

Headline: “Murdoch media are split in their coverage of Trump’s tariffs”

Subhead:  “While the Wall Street Journal calls his tariffs ‘the dumbest trade war,’ Fox News is celebrating Trump as a ‘master negotiator’ “

“Right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s U.S. outlets have been split in their coverage of President Donald Trump’s tariff wars with Mexico, Canada, and China, with The Wall Street Journal calling the tariffs Trump’s ‘dumbest trade war’ and Fox News praising Trump as a ‘master negotiator.’ The New York Post has fallen somewhere in between, with some news-side stories relaying the economic consequences of the tariffs while its editorial board is praising Trump’s “high risk” move.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/murdoch-media-are-split-their-coverage-trumps-tariffs

Monsters Against Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 2/4/25

Headline: “USAID and the Media in a ‘Time of Monsters’ ”

Sunhead: “What the aid funding freeze means for independent journalism around the world.”

“. . . In the recent past, USAID had boasted of supporting more than six thousand journalists, around seven hundred independent newsrooms, and nearly three hundred media-focused civil society groups in thirty or so countries—and yet, RSF notes, the full impact of the freeze is hard to measure, since many recipients are “hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/usaid-and-the-media-in-a-time-of-monsters.php

World News Chaos!

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 2/3/25

Headline: “USA: Trump’s foreign aid freeze throws journalism around the world into chaos”

“President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including over $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and journalists doing vital work into chaotic uncertainty. RSF calls on international public and private support to commit to the sustainability of independent media.

https://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-s-foreign-aid-freeze-throws-journalism-around-world-chaos

Media Life Support

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Article in Mediaite by Kahryn Wilkens, 2/3/25

Headline: “The Media Industry Is in Crisis. Axios CEO Jim VandeHei Sees a Massive Opportunity”

“Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Politico and later Axios, has spent decades at the forefront of political journalism. In all that time, he’s witnessed seismic changes to the industry but no one, he says, has been a catalyst for disruption and change more than President Donald Trump.

“For the first time in our lifetimes, I would argue that the media ecosystem favors the right more than the left,” VandeHei told Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin on this week’s episode of Press Club.”

https://www.mediaite.com/podcasts/the-media-industry-is-in-crisis-axios-ceo-jim-vandehei-sees-a-massive-opportunity/

MTG – “No Foreign Media!”

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Article in Mediaite by Alex Griffing, 1/31/25

Headline: ” ‘American Media First!’ Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Reporter’s Accent, Calls ‘To Throw Out All The Foreign Press’ “

“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) offered her take on White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Friday briefing and wildly called for the foreign press to be removed from the briefing room after a reporter with a French accent caught her attention.

“Greene shared a post from the briefing from a MAGA influence with over a million followers who praised Leavitt, ‘Dear Lord these reporters haven’t got the memo yet. Karoline Leavitt is not here to play around. She was pressed about DEI in the aviation field and her answer was PERFECT!’ ”

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/american-media-first-marjorie-taylor-greene-rips-reporters-accent-calls-to-throw-out-all-the-foreign-press/

New Assignment Editor?

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 2/2/25

Headline:  “‘He’s become America’s assignment editor’: US media owners bend to Trump”

Subhead:  “Billionaires and corporations leading TV networks and newspapers seem to have caved to the president’s pressure”

“In a tumultuous first two weeks back in power in the White House, Donald Trump has targeted many familiar enemies, including one of his most passionate obsessions: the US media, whom he has frequently dubbed “enemies of the people”.

“Trump’s new federal communications chair, Brendan Carr, is reported to have ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of taxpayer-supported NPR and PBS member stations – a media network long hated by conservatives who accuse it of a liberal slant.
‘Safe to be a white male again’: how conservative media covered Trump’s first week
Read more

“At the same time, and just as concerning for some media watchers, core segments of the US media landscape – via the wealthy billionaires and gigantic corporations that own them – have seemingly caved under Trump’s pressure or apparently sought to curry favor with the new administration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/trump-media-pressure?ref=upstract.com

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Edited content not safe?

Article in The Hill by Sterr Danielle Thomas, 2/1/25

Headline:  “CBS agrees to release Harris transcript to FCC amid Trump lawsuit “

“CBS News has agreed to release a full transcript of former Vice President Harris’s October interview with “60 Minutes” to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the outlet revealed Friday.”

The decision came after the FCC sent a letter to CBS asking for a “full, unedited transcript” of the interview, conducted ahead of Harris’s loss to President Trump in the 2024 election. The commission also requested the camera feeds from the episode.

“. . . A conservative law firm filed a complaint with the FCC last year following the interview, alleging that the outlet engaged in “significant and international news distortion.” The suit, originally dismissed under the Biden administration, was reopened by agency head Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the commission.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5120625-cbs-kamala-harris-60-minutes-transcript-fcc/

NPR / PBS, CPB Investigated?

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Update

Article in Washington Post by Anne Branigin, 1/31/25

Headline:  “Trump’s FCC chief orders investigation into NPR and PBS sponsorships”

Subhead: “FCC’s Brendan Carr also suggests an investigation could be relevant to conservative congressional efforts to defund the public broadcasters.”

“President Donald Trump’s newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS over their alleged “airing of commercials,” and suggested that the public broadcasters could be at risk of losing their federal funding.

““I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Brendan Carr wrote to the heads of both organizations Wednesday. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/01/31/trump-fcc-npr-pbs-investigation/

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Article in Freepress by Timothy Karr, 1/20/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Censorship Czar Orders NPR and PBS Investigation”

“On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS. In a letter to the chief executives of both publicly funded networks, Carr used the investigation as a pretext to suggest that Congress end federal funding for NPR and PBS.

“To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars,” Carr wrote.”

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/fcc-chairman-carr-npr-pbs-investigation

Losing the Battle for Media

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Article in Raw Story by Thom Hartmann, 1/30/24

Headline:  “Fatal flaw: Democrats keep losing the media war — here’s why “

“Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump held a rally in Las Vegas. It was streamed and mentioned on social media millions of times within an hour of his repeating his “No tax on tips” mantra. By the time Facebook, Meta, X, TikTok, and Instagram were done with the weekend, using their now-heavily-tilted-to-Republicans algorithms, it’s safe to bet Trump’s rally got hundreds of millions of impressions.

“Senator Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, read the most boring speech ever on the floor of the Senate condemning Trump, evoking the Democratic version of the old “tree falls in the forest” question. I listened to it online (couldn’t find it on social media), but, frankly, it was so deadly tedious that I can’t remember a word he said.

“Being media savvy — and exploiting the hottest new media — isn’t a new thing. You’d think Democrats would have figured this out by now; they sure did in past generations.”

https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/fatal-flaw-democrats-keep-losing-the-media-war-here-s-why/