Media News

News about the media.

Columnist Bows, Corrects View

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Article in Raw Story by Erik De La Garze, 12/18/24

Headline: ” ‘Incredibly craven’: Social media slams NYT columnist’s reversal on ‘Never Trump’ “

“Social media users came out swinging against a conservative New York Times columnist who this week declared he was ‘done with never Trump,’ and suggested the movement defeated itself.

“The online backlash came in response to a Tuesday opinion piece by Bret Stephens, who said he believes Trump’s second term could be ‘as bad as his most fervent critics fear,’ but still urged readers to send warm wishes to the new administration and give his cabinet selections ‘the benefit of the doubt.’

“ ‘It is incredibly craven to pretend to take a principled stand against Trump only to rescind it when it becomes clear that Trump isn’t actually going away and there is nothing to be personally gained from the ostentatious display of ‘principle,’ University of Texas at Austin professor Mike Boyla-Kolchin wrote on Bluesky.”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2670492806/

Threatening the Press Threatens Us All

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Freedom House Poster

Article in The Hill by Juliann Venture, 12/18/24

Headline:  “Ex-Post editor Martin Baron: Trump team will do ‘everything to undermine public confidence in the press’ “

Martin Baron, the former executive editor for The Washington Post, said in a new interview that President-elect Trump’s team will do ‘everything’ to undermine confidence in the press.

Baron offered the remarks as Trump won a big victory when ABC settled a lawsuit with him involving incorrect comments by anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Trump days later launched a new suit against The Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Seltzer.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5047691-marty-baron-trump-press-undermine/

Relax, Nothing to Report Here

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Article in The Guardian by Dani Anguiano, 12/18/24

Headline:  “LA Times owner asks editorial board to ‘take a break’ from writing about Trump – report”

Subhead:  “Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, who said paper is ‘echo chamber’, also blocked paper’s board from endorsing Harris”

“Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, reportedly asked the newspaper’s editorial board to “take a break” from writing about Donald Trump, in the latest report of the billionaire owner’s growing influence over the newspaper’s coverage.

“The newspaper and its owner were embroiled in controversy for weeks this fall after Soon-Shiong blocked the board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. The decision led to a wave of resignations on the editorial board and the loss of thousands of subscriptions.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/la-times-patrick-soon-shiong-trump

Will Our Free Press Burn?

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehmann. 12/17/24

Headline:  “Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Is Just Getting Started “

Subhead:  “The president-elect’s recent settlement with ABC News is an early volley in an all-out MAGA war against media independence.”

“. . .MSNBC’s erstwhile resistance mascots Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski started the ball rolling with a deferential post-election junket to Mar-a-Lago. Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong chimed in by throttling stories critical of MAGA prerogatives—and then announced an absurd AI feature that allowed readers to clock and correct alleged bias in the paper’s coverage, thereby downgrading the chronicle of current events into a choose-your-own adventure computer app for irate ideologues.”

“. . . Now, ABC News, a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation, has accelerated the quisling march of mainstream journalism into inert MAGA observance with a $15 million settlement of a defamation suit that Trump brought against the network”

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-abc-settlement/

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Article in Common Dreams by Robert Reich, 12/17/24

Headline: “ABC News Shows What It Looks Like When Corporate Media Bows to Trump”

Subhead: “We are beginning to see this all over the U.S. political-economic system — giant corporations and hugely wealthy people going out of their way to appease King Trump even in advance of his coronation.”

“ABC shouldn’t have agreed to settle the defamation case Trump brought against it — handing him $15 million for his presidential “library” (whatever monument that turns out to be) and another million for his legal fees, along with an apology.

It shouldn’t have, first, because the standard for defamation of a public figure requires that a plaintiff prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice” — that is, knew their statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

“But when on March 10, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, there’s zero evidence that Stephanopoulos knew it to be false or was acting with reckless disregard for the truth.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-attack-on-free-press

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Staff, 12/17/24

Headline:  “Questions ABC News Should Answer Following the $16 Million Trump Settlement”

Subhead:  “The decision to cave and apologize has unnerved American journalists. The network owes them an explanation.”

As someone who practiced press law for more than twenty years, and served as a senior executive of news organizations for just as long, I was shocked by the decision of ABC News last week to pay $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s libel case over George Stephanopoulos’s This Week broadcast in March. The shock came, and still lingers, because I—and every experienced press lawyer not involved in the case with whom I have discussed it—considered the case one in which ABC was likely to eventually prevail.

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/questions-abc-news-should-answer-16-million-trump- settlement.php

 

Lawyers Fight Any Bad News

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo & Brett Samuels, 12/17/24

Headline:  “ABC News settlement with Trump sends chill through media”

“ABC News’s decision to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by President-elect Trump is sending a chill through the media, with press organizations suggesting it is a major blow.

“It should not be seen as normal for powerful elected officials to wage legal campaigns against members of the press and their employers,” Caroline Hendrie, executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists, told The Hill on Monday.”

https://thehill.com/media/5042894-abc-news-settlement-with-trump-sends-chill-through-media/

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Article in The Hill by Zach Schonfeld, 12/17/24

Headline:  “Trump sues Des Moines Register, pollster”

“President-elect Trump sued The Des Moines Register and pollster J. Ann Selzer on Monday over a poll released just before Election Day indicating Vice President Harris had a sizable lead in Iowa.

The poll found Harris leading Trump in Iowa by 3 percentage points days before Trump won the Hawkeye State by 14 percentage points as voters sent him back to the White House.

Trump’s lawsuit, filed in Iowa state court in Polk County, accuses the outlet and pollster of violating Iowa’s consumer fraud laws by engaging in deception.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5043821-donald-trump-des-moines-register-ann-selzer-lawsuit/

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 12/16/24

Headline:  “ABC Settles With Trump in a Case It Could Have Won”

“ABC has agreed to pay $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library and $1 million toward Trump’s legal fees “to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll” (AP, 12/14/24).”

https://fair.org/home/abc-settles-with-trump-in-a-case-it-could-have-won/

 

 

Threats Against Media

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Article in Daily Beast by Grace Harrington, 12/16/24

Headline:  “Trump Steps Up Revenge Tour on Media With New Threats to Sue”

Subhead: “The president-elect unveiled plans for one lawsuit and boasted about more high-profile targets.”

“Donald Trump announced Monday he would sue political pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, which published a shock poll showing Trump losing Iowa by three points.

“I’m not doing this because I want to, I’m doing this because I feel I have an obligation to,” the president-elect said.

Trump’s announcement comes after he received a settlement from ABC News after he filed a defamation suit against the network. ABC News’ star anchor, George Stephanopoulos, said multiple times Trump was found “liable for rape,” when he was actually found liable for sexual abuse. As a result, ABC will contribute $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library. Trump’s win against ABC would embolden him to sue even more news organizations, critics said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-says-hell-sue-pollster-ann-selzer-for-wrong-prediction-in-the-des-moines-register-about-iowa/

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Article in The New Republic by Edith Olmsted, 12/16/24

Headline:  “Trump Unleashes Dangerous New Attack on Media After ABC Win”

Subhead:  “Donald Trump is feeling emboldened in his war on journalism.”

“Donald Trump promised Monday to launch a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register over a preelection poll that found Vice President Kamala Harris had “leapfrogged” the Republican candidate, in a state he went on to handily win.

During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, one journalist asked Trump about his ongoing defamation cases, asking, “Could you see moving that to other people with individual platforms, social media influencers, people that—”

“Or newspapers, yeah.” Trump interrupted.

https://newrepublic.com/post/189441/donald-trump-new-attack-media-lawsuit-abc

 

Selective Coverage – Vital Issues

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Article in Media Matters by Harrison Ray, 12/10/24

Headline:  “Cable news is barely covering Trump and GOP plans to slash Medicaid’

Subhead:  “CNN and Fox News almost completely ignored the Republicans’ plans”

“Cable news networks largely ignored changes the incoming Trump administration and congressional Republicans are reportedly considering to limit access to Medicaid.

The proposals have raised alarms among health care advocates, who warn of potentially devastating impacts to vulnerable populations including children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Since November 14, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC have given the Republicans’ potential plans only 40 minutes of coverage. MSNBC led networks with over 33 minutes coverage. However, both CNN and Fox News largely failed to cover the story

https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/cable-news-is-barely-covering-Trump-and-GOP-plans-to-slash-medicaid

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taffe, 12/11/24

Headline:  “Fox News is downplaying Donald Trump’s extreme agenda as moderate”

“As Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term in office, Fox News is downplaying his agenda that threatens to deport millions of people, implement destructive economic policy, roll back reproductive rights, enact “retribution” against his rivals, promote anti-vaccine figures to be in charge of public health, and radically gut federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-downplaying-donald-trumps-extreme-agenda-moderate

 

 

Media Fringe Now

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Article in Mediaite by Zachary Leeman, 12/12/24

Headline:  “CNN’s Van Jones Frets ‘Fringe’ Has Replaced ‘Mainstream’ Media: ‘We’re on Cable News Getting 1-2 Million’ While They’re ‘Getting 14 Million Streams’ ”

“CNN’s Van Jones warned on Wednesday that the entire ‘political class’ in the country is ‘way off’ when it comes to connecting to voters, as ‘fringe’ platforms and voices have replaced ‘mainstream’ outlets like his own network.

“. . .Jones fretted that streamers and podcasters are bringing in views that cable news cannot come close to touching.

“ The mainstream has become fringe and the fringe has become mainstream,’ he said. ‘There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams and we’re on cable news getting one to two million.’ ”

https://www.mediaite.com/media/cnns-van-jones-frets-fringe-has-replaced-mainstream-media-were-on-cable-news-getting-1-2-million-while-theyre-getting-14-million-streams/

Billionaire Media Owners Know Best

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Article in The Guardian by Emily Bell, 12/13/24

Headline:  “Can billionaire media moguls be trusted in Trump’s America?”

Subhead:  “The new gatekeepers use ‘trust’ to discredit the press and talk about removing bias with AI – distracting us from their own shift to the right”

“If we want to know what news organisations will look like under the second Trump administration in America, well, we are beginning to get an idea. At the Dealbook conference in New York last week, Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post and multi-billionaire founder of Amazon, gave a very favourable assessment of Donald Trump’s upcoming second term. “I am very hopeful … he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation,” beamed Bezos. It was surprising, then, that the Washington Post did not endorse Trump in its pre-election editorial. Instead the writers crafted an endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris which Bezos killed, in his first act of blatant editorial interference since he bought the title in 2013.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/13/can-billionaire-media-moguls-be-trusted-in-trumps-america

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Article in Daily Kos by Alex Samuela, 12/13/24

Headline:  “America’s largest media and tech moguls line up to kiss Trump’s ass”

“Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is reportedly planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration—mirroring a similarly large donation from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.

“The billionaires’ respective decisions to open their pocketbooks to the incoming president come as other tech leads and media moguls have similarly begun to soften their approach toward Trump—despite his promise to exact vengeance on news outlets that anger him. On Thursday, Rolling Stone reported that Trump’s lieutenants are planning more personal lawsuits and legal threats against news outlets during his second White House stint.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/13/2291744/-America-s-largest-media-and-tech-moguls-line-up-to-kiss-Trump-s-ass?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web

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Article in Mediaite by David Gilmour, 12/13/24

Headline:  ” ‘He’s Right!’ Colby Hall Says Media Has Been Tamed – And Trunp’s Person Of The Year Was A Veiled Threat”

“Mediaite’s Colby Hall agreed with President-elect Donald Trump’s take that the media had somewhat “tamed” in its coverage of him since the election but flagged Trump’s Person Of The Year speech at the New York Stock Exchange as a veiled threat.

The analysis came after Trump appeared on Wall Street Thursday to ring the bell in celebration of being named Time’s Person of the Year. Delivering a speech at the event, the president-elect mused about the more benevolent coverage he’d been receiving.

After thanking Time for the honor, he said, “The media is tamed down a little bit. They like us much better now I think. If they don’t, then we’ll just have to take them on again, and we don’t want to do that.”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/hes-right-colby-hall-says-media-has-been-tamed-and-trumps-person-of-the-year-speech-was-a-veiled-threat/

 

No News Without Tax?

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Article in Al Jezeera by Staff, 12/12/24

Headline:  “Australia plans to tax tech giants if they fail to pay news outlets”

Subhead: “Firms like Meta face tax if they don’t pay for news driving traffic to their sites, depriving media firms of revenue.”

“The Australian government has announced plans to tax Big Tech firms if they fail to share revenue with local news media organisations.

“The measure, applicable from January 1, will force firms like Meta and Google with an Australian-based revenue in excess of 250 million Australian dollars ($160m) to pay for content or face a hefty tax bill that could amount to millions.”

“. . . Announcing the move, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said on Thursday that the rapid growth of digital platforms had ‘disrupted’ the media landscape and was ‘threatening the viability of public interest journalism’ ”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/12/australia-to-force-tech-giants-to-pay-for-news