Media News

News about the media.

Media Missing Numbers?

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Article in Common Dreams by Ralph Nader, 2/24/25

Headline:  “An Indifferent Media Is Failing to Report the 400,000 Dead in Gaza”

Subhead:  “Only the Palestinians, who are not allowed to live, don’t get the respect of having their deaths accurately estimated”

“Enough already of the media’s lazy indifference to the vast undercount of the Palestinian death toll from Netanyahu’s genocidal daily bombing and shelling of Gaza’s defenseless civilian population. I’m referring to all the media – the corporate media, the public media, and the independent media. They all stick with the Hamas Ministry of Health’s (MOH) count of named victims whose corpses have been identified by hospitals and mortuaries. For months there have been no operating hospitals and mortuaries to send their grisly data to the Health Ministry.

“The official Hamas count that all sides like to cite is now over 48,000 deaths. As American doctors back from Gaza before the Rafah closing last year said—just about everybody surviving in Gaza is sick, injured, or dying. They put the death estimate almost a year ago at a minimum of 95,000, not counting tens of thousands of families buried under the rubble when Israeli F-16s blew up entire apartment buildings. . . ”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/real-death-toll-gaza

Online Media Un-American?

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Article in yahoo!news by Emily Birnbaum, 2/20/25

Headline:  ” ‘Big Tech Censorship’ of Users Targeted by Trump’s FTC Chief”

“The new leader of the US Federal Trade Commission is opening an inquiry into whether a wide range of online services from social media giants such as Meta Platforms Inc. to ride-sharing companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. ‘censor’ users.

“FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said the agency is looking for the public to comment on ‘Big Tech censorship,’ which he described as ‘un-American’ and ‘potentially illegal'”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/big-tech-censorship-users-targeted-183130487.html?guccounter=1

Media Music to His Ears

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 2/20/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media are divided after Trump pushed Russian propaganda to attack Ukraine”

“On February 18, President Donald Trump pushed multiple false claims about the war in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s involvement in it, falsely suggesting that Ukraine started the war and that Zelensky is a “dictator without elections.” Both claims echo Russian propaganda about the war.

“Many right-wing media figures praised Trump’s comments, with some commentators even following in his footsteps to target Zelensky. Others denounced Trump’s remarks as ‘music to the ears of Vladimir Putin.’ ”

https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/right-wing-media-are-divided-after-trump-pushed-russian-propaganda-attack

Send the Smelling Salts to the Post!

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Yona TR Golding, 2/24/25

Headline: “Spiking and Swooning at the Washington Post“

Subhead:  “What the paper’s killing of endorsements, ads, and cartoons has inadvertently revealed about our fragile Fourth Estate.”

“Earlier this month, Common Cause, a DC-based watchdog, submitted a proof copy of a “wraparound” advertisement meant to run on a Tuesday on the front and back pages of the Washington Post. The ad, later published on the organization’s X account, featured an image of Elon Musk against a red backdrop, eyes closed and grinning in apparent mirth, with an image of the White House aslant in the foreground. The main text of the ad read, ‘Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?’ Below, in a smaller font, it continued: ‘Since day one, Elon Musk has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself.’ The ad ended with a tagline, ‘No One Elected Elon Musk,’ and a link: FireMusk.org.

“Common Cause, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, which collaborated on the campaign, had a vision: that staffers in the White House, Pentagon, and congressional offices would receive a striking message along with their morning copy of the Post. Together with a full-page ad scheduled to run inside the paper on the same day, the wraparound was set to cost the organizations $115,000.

“It wasn’t to be. Three days after it submitted the proof, Common Cause received notice that the main ad would not be allowed to run, though a sales representative had previously indicated that the copy should not present a problem. In the end, though, ‘they said, ‘You can have something inside the paper but you can’t do the wrap,’ Virginia Kase Solomón, president of Common Cause, told The Hill. ‘We said ‘Thanks, no thanks,’ . . .”

“The Post has so far declined to clarify why the Common Cause ad wasn’t allowed to run, leading to widespread speculation that the decision may have had something to do with the will of Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of both Amazon and the Post, and his desire to make nice with Trump’s new administration. ‘Is Jeff Bezos more worried about an angry phone call from the White House than his paper’s journalistic duty?’  Common Cause asked . . . ”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/spiking-swooning-washington-post-wapo-bezos-endorsement-ad-cartoon-kill.php

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Article in Common Cause by Staff, 2/24/25

Headline: “NEW: The Washington Post Censored Our #FireMusk Ad”

Subhead:  “The Washington Post – which has a responsibility to hold a magnifying glass up to powerful people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump – refused to run our ad calling them out.​”

https://www.commoncause.org/

Burning the Broadcasters

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Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbattm 2/24/25

Headline: ” ‘A true free-speech emergency’: alarm over Trump’s ‘chilling’ attacks on media”

Subhead:  “Warning comes as FCC, chaired by Trump ally and Project 2025 author, orders investigations into US media groups”

“The Trump administration is waging a “disturbing” attack on the freedom of the press that amounts to a “true free-speech emergency”, media experts have warned, as the Federal Communications Commission recently launched an investigation into a series of media organizations, including the owner of NBC News.

The FCC, led by Donald Trump appointee and Project 2025 author Brendan Carr, has ordered investigations into NPR and PBS in the first month since Trump took office, while also scrutinizing a CBS News interview and a San Francisco radio station.

In a letter to Comcast, which owns NBC News, Carr said he had asked the FCC’s enforcement bureau to “open an investigation” into the corporation, stating: “I am concerned that Comcast and NBCUniversal may be promoting invidious forms of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations.”

It came after Carr, who was appointed as FCC chair by Trump, said he did not “see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars” to PBS and NPR, publicly funded organizations Trump has threatened to defund.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/trump-free-speech-media-attack

 

How do Media Cover Nazis?

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Article in Raw Story bu Thom Hartman, 2/23/25

Headline: “Why is the media ignoring Trumpworld’s latest shout-outs to hardcore racists”

“One of the enduring mysteries in today’s American political life is why so many Republican politicians and their friends are adopting or promoting openly Nazi symbols, iconography, and slogans.

“Is it a shout-out to the hardcore racists and haters that make up the GOP’s base, or just a performance to get enough votes to win elections? Or a proclamation that the end-goal of Republican governance is the destruction of American democracy, perhaps in deference to Vladimir Putin? How about it’s being a bizarre attempt at trolling people old or well-educated enough to remember or know what Nazism inevitably leads to?

“And why are America’s mainstream media so unwilling to even report on, much less discuss, all the Nazi and neo-Nazi references surrounding Trump and today’s captive Republicans?

“Elon Musk, Trump’s #1 campaign donor and co-president, threw two Nazi “Sieg Heil” salutes following Trump’s inauguration, causing the media to fall all over itself trying to make excuses for his behavior. Actual, declared Nazis and white supremacists were thrown into an ecstatic tizzy, however, with the Ohio Proud Boys posting the clip with the words, ‘Heil Trump!’ ”

https://article.wn.com/view/2025/02/23/Why_is_the_media_ignoring_Trumpworlds_latest_shoutouts_to_ha/

 

 

 

Attack The Press, Control The Nation

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Article in Daily Kos by Morgan Stephens, 2/21/25

Headline:  “Oh look, the White House is using social media to smear reporters”

“Donald Trump’s White House is using its state-run ‘Rapid Response 47’ account to push lies, attack reporters, and hype fake poll numbers—blurring the line between official governance and a MAGA propaganda machine.

In a post on X Friday, the ‘Rapid Response 47’ account posted a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt answering a question by NBC News Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander on the White House north lawn.

“ ‘MUST WATCH: @PressSec smacks down Fake News loser @PeterAlexander as he tries to run cover for the WASTE, FRAUD, and ABUSE in the federal government,’ the account posted to its more than 723,00 followers.

“But Alexander asked a reasonable question, and it was far from the ‘smackdown’ the page claimed it was.

“ ‘We’re now hearing from constituents in some traditionally red districts complaining about what they say is the chainsaw approach, saying that it’s being done very sloppily, the cuts to jobs and spending. How do you respond to that criticism?’ asked Alexander.

“ ‘I love how the media takes a few critics when the overwhelming response from the American people is support for what this administration is doing,’ replied Leavitt.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/21/2305338/-Oh-look-the-White-House-is-using-social-media-to-smear-reporters?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_8&pm_medium=web

Polygraphing Stops Media Leaks?

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Article in Medite by Akex Griffing, 2/21/25

Headline:  “Kristi Noem Reportedly Warned DHS Employees She’s Going to Start Polygraphing Them Over Leaking to the Media”

“Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told employees under her leadership they will be soon subject to polygraph tests asking about whether or not they have leaked to the media, reported Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

“Bloomberg’s Homeland Security reporter Ellen Gilmer scooped the news and reported that “Noem last week issued an internal directive that all polygraphs the Department of Homeland Security administers must include a question about unauthorized communications with media and nonprofit organizations, according to a memo described to Bloomberg Government by two people without authorization to speak publicly.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/kristi-noem-reportedly-warned-dhs-employees-shes-going-to-start-polygraphing-them-over-leaking-to-the-media/

Some Media Spread Lies

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Article in Mediaite by Isaac Schorr, 2/20/24

Headline:  “Conservative Media Should Tell the Unvarnished Truth About Donald Trump’s Ghastly Attacks on Ukraine”

Subhead:  “Nefarious forces are at work in the shadows.”

According to Mark Levin, there are ‘a handful of pseudo-intellectuals funded by the likes of George Soros and Charles Koch’ who are ‘adopting policies that in many ways are un-American’ and would have once made others wonder if they were working for a foreign government. . .

“On Wednesday’s edition of his radio show, Levin ably debunked a series of misleading and outright false claims about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. . .

“Stating the obvious, Levin observed that ‘Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine. What were they supposed to do? Roll over and play dead?’ he asked incredulously.

“Who are these Soros-funded pseudo-intellectuals? Who are these un-American, pro-Putin knaves?

Over the last few days, Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Elon Musk have taken turns assassinating the character of Ukrainian leadership and parroting the propaganda of Russian leadership..”

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/conservative-media-should-tell-the-unvarnished-truth-about-donald-trumps-ghastly-attacks-on-ukraine/

 

Trump – Golf or Gulf?

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Article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Yona TR Golding, 2/21/24

Headline: “The Gulf Between Trump and the Press”

Subhead: “Trying to make the ‘Gulf of America’ happen.”

When President Trump signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” back in January, I couldn’t stop thinking about a scene from the 2004 teen classic Mean Girls, in which queen bee Regina George snaps at Gretchen Weiner, her underling, for trying to make the word fetch a synonym for cool. (“Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen!” Regina says. “It’s not going to happen!”) . . . The Associated Press, it seems, was on the same page as me: two days after the order was signed, the agency issued an update to its stylebook—which is widely followed throughout the news business—recommending the continued use of the original name, though it would acknowledge the new name as well. “Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change,” the AP reasoned in an announcement about the decision. ‘As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.’

“But Trump, it turned out, was determined to make “Gulf of America” happen. Last week, an AP reporter was blocked from attending the signing of an executive order in the Oval Office; later in the day, Julie Pace, its executive editor, wrote in a statement that she had been informed that the decision was the White House’s response to the new stylebook guidance. “It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” she wrote. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/trump_associated_press_ban_gulf_of_mexico.php