Media News

News about the media.

Using Disaster for Media

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Article in Media Matters by Allison Fisher, 1/10/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media push Trump’s false claim that California water policies are hurting efforts to suppress LA fires”

Subhead:  “Casting blame on environmental policies in an attempt to distract from increasingly deadly climate impacts is core to right-wing media’s extreme weather playboo”

“Right-wing media are falsely blaming the reports of low water pressure or dry hydrants in Los Angeles on state and local mismanagement – including suggesting that local authorities refused to fill the reservoirs – and conflating the hydrant issue with the false claim that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water policies are to blame.

“On January 8, the Los Angeles Times reported that “as wildfires raged across Los Angeles on Tuesday, crews battling the Palisades blaze faced an additional burden: Scores of fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades had little to no water flowing out.” Later that day, President-elect Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social falsely claimed that Newsom had deprived Southern California of water in order to protect the smelt fish.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-push-trumps-false-claim-california-water-policies-are-hurting-

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Article in Huff Post by Lee Moran, 1/10/25

Headline:  “Donald Trump’s Disaster-Hijacking Playbook Exposed By Expert On Right-Wing Media”

Subhead:  “Nicole Hemmer also explored the potent cocktail — involving the president-elect — that means ‘everything just feels worse all the time.’ “

“Nicole Hemmer — an expert on conservative and right-wing media, and the effect they have had on American politics — this week explained Donald Trump’s penchant for whipping up anger and causing division amid tragedies and disasters.

“ ‘It definitely is the case that this is something Trump does, right?’ Hemmer, an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University, asked The New Republic’s Greg Sargent in the latest episode of his podcast, ‘The Daily Blast,’ which was released Thursday.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nicole-hemmer-donald-trump-talent_n_6780e6cde4b01ffef2482ddd

Get the Paddles!

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Article in NPR On the Media by Staff, 10/10/25

Headline:   “Public Broadcasting Is In Danger (Again)”

“NPR and PBS stations are bracing for war with the incoming Trump administration. On this week’s On the Media, the long history of efforts to save—and snuff out—public broadcasting. Plus, the role of public radio across the country, from keeping local governments in check to providing life-saving information during times of crisis. [01:00] Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger explore the history of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and break down the funding with Karen Everhart, managing editor of Current. [06:59] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband, which oversees the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, on his decades-long fight with Republican lawmakers to keep NPR and PBS alive.”

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

Fact Checking? Blame Liberal Media

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Article in Mediaite by Phillip Nieto, 10/1//25

Headline:  ” ‘I Was Ill-Prepared’: Zuckerberg Blames Anti-Trump Media For Facebook Fact-Checking Measures in Marathon Joe Rogan Interview”

“Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed he was “ill-prepared” to face anti-Trump media pressuring him to fact-check misinformation on social media.

“During a nearly three-hour-long podcast interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg said he received pressure over the last decade to start censoring material on Facebook based on political ideology. He cited Trump’s 2016 victory and BREXIT for the increase in political censorship.”

https://www.mediaite.com/podcasts/i-was-ill-prepared-zuckerberg-blames-anti-trump-media-for-facebook-fact-checking-measures-in-marathon-joe-rogan-interview/

Diversity – It’s Just Not for Meta Anymore

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Article in UPI by Don Jacobson, 1/10/25

Headline:  “Company memo reveals social media giant Meta rolling back DEI program”

“Jan. 10 (UPI) — Citing a changing “legal and policy landscape,” social media giant Meta is ending its corporate diversity, equity and inclusion program, according to a leaked internal company memo published on Friday.

“In the memo, first obtained by Axios, Meta vice president of human resources Janelle Gale tells employees the platform is ending its DEI program in the face of shifting political realities.

“The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,” Gale writes. “The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. It reaffirms longstanding principles that discrimination should not be tolerated or promoted on the basis of inherent characteristics.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/01/10/memo-social-media-giant-Meta-rolling-back-DEI-program/9981736542754/

Tracking the Right-Wing Press

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Howard Polskin, 1/9/25

Headline:  “Will Progressive and Mainstream Audiences Keep Switching off the News?”

Subhead:  “Post-election, my newsletter saw a big dip. It is not alone.”

“For the past seven years, I’ve been publishing TheRighting, a free newsletter for mainstreamers and progressives that informs them about thinking from the right. A daily collection of headlines from right-wing sources forms the beating heart of my enterprise. My modest subscription list has grown over the years from a handful of friends and family in year one to thousands of faithful readers scattered around the country. The growth trajectory has almost always pointed north.

“Readers subscribe because they want to know what the right is saying by scanning the seventeen headlines I aggregate every morning. For them, it’s like a polar-bear swim in the chilly waters of right-wing media. A quick dip—two minutes to scan the headlines and absorb a sentence or two, and then it’s back to the warm welcome of MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, or wherever they get the news that affirms their political beliefs.”

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/progressive-mainstream-righting-news-deserters-avoidance-trump-bump.php

 

So Media – No Reporting Illegal Activities?

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Article in Reuters by Staff, 1/8/25

Headline:  “Israeli military tightens media rules over war crimes prosecution concern”

“The Israeli military placed new restrictions on media coverage of soldiers on active combat duty amid growing concern at the risk of legal action against reservists travelling abroad over allegations of involvement in war crimes in Gaza.

The move came after an Israeli reservist vacationing in Brazil left the country abruptly when a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to open an investigation following allegations from a pro-Palestinian group that he had committed war crimes while serving in Gaza.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-tightens-media-rules-over-war-crimes-prosecution-concern-2025-01-08/

Social Media “Free Expression” or Outright lies?

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Article in The Washington Post by Heather Kelley 1/8/25

Headline:  “Meta ends fact-checking. Here’s how to find the truth on social media.”

“Facebook, Instagram and Threads will no longer have fact-checking in the United States. Here’s what that means for your feeds and how you can avoid falling for misinformation.”

“A massive reversal on fact-checking could soon change what you see on social media. Meta on Tuesday announced that it is discontinuing its fact-checking program in the United States to allow for more “free expression.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/01/08/meta-fact-checking-facebook-instagram-users/

Millionaires and Press Freedom

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Norman Pearlstine, 1/6/25

Headline:  “Trump, the Public, and the Press”

Subhead:  “The billionaire class has proved itself a poor steward of media. Journalists must redouble their efforts to expose the threat to democracy.”

“. . .Even before taking office, the prospect of Trump’s controlling the White House, Congress, and Supreme Court frightened owners of once-proud news organizations. Some seem willing to undermine editorial independence to curry favor with the incoming president.

“Billionaires, once thought to be the saviors of journalism, are proving themselves poor stewards of media companies. It is always dangerous to generalize, but several billionaires who have purchased media companies treat their acquisitions as sidelines they can run without much hands-on attention. They believe that running a media company must be easier than whatever business made them rich and that their talent and training are easily transferable from their primary business to media. They also trust their instincts more than others’ experience.”

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/trump-public-press-bezos-soon-shiong-billionaire-owners-endorsements-scandal-los-angeles-times-washington-post.php

“Conservative” Media Rebrand January 6

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Article in Mediaite by Sarah Rumpf, 1/6/25

Headline: ” ‘Destroying His Legacy’: Remembering Trump’s Media Boosters Who Condemned Him Over Jan. 6″

“. . .On Jan. 6 and the days that followed, numerous conservative media personalities were clear and unflinching in condemning the violence, placing blame directly on Trump for inciting the rioters, and calling for the rioters to be criminally prosecuted. Their unvarnished critiques were issued while the adrenaline was still pumping through their veins and before they had the chance to conduct the cynical calculus of how speaking the truth might impede their career ambitions. As Trump spent the past four years both evading criminal accountability for his actions and mounting a stunning political comeback, many of these erstwhile critics have engaged in an aggressive retconning of their own words.”

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/destroying-his-legacy-remembering-trumps-media-boosters-who-condemned-him-over-jan-6/

On Cartoonist Resignation by WAPO Media Critic

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Article from The Washington Post by Eric Wemple, media critic, 1/6/25

Question answered:  Resignation of WAPO Cartoonist

“Okay, let’s dig into the facts first: Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, a staple of this section, announced her resignation from The Post in a Substack piece on Friday. Her resignation followed the spiking of a cartoon depicting Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, alongside other billionaires, genuflecting before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump. “As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job,” Telnaes wrote in a post that prompted much critical commentary of The Post. David Shipley, who leads The Post’s Opinions section, issued a statement saying, “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force. My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column — this one a satire — for publication. The only bias was against repetition.” Without context, Shipley’s explanation sounds as if it comes from left field. But actually: Reducing the duplication of opinions in column after column, video after video, cartoon after cartoon *has* been a steady emphasis of Shipley’s since he took over Post Opinions in September 2022. The section that he inherited was more of a freewheeling place where columnists often wrote off the news, with the frequent result being a number of pieces pegged to a single event and often expressing similar sentiments. He set out to fashion a more curated assortment of opinions with greater topical breadth. Also: Shipley told me last night that he made the decision on the Telnaes cartoon without consulting Bezos or Post Publisher Will Lewis. All that said, I find the explanation for killing the cartoon unconvincing and the decision demoralizing.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/06/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/