Media News

News about the media.

Sudan Journalists at Risk

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Photo: AFP/Amaury Falt-Brown

Article by Staff in Citizens to Protect Journalists, 12/12/24

Headline:  “Rapid Support Forces kill Sudanese journalist Hanan Adam and brother”

“On Monday, December 8, soldiers with the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed journalist Hanan Adam, a correspondent for local Sudan Communist Party-affiliated newspaper al-Midan, and her brother, Youssef Adam, at their home in the village of Wad Al-Asha in the east-central al-Gezira state, according to statements by the Sudanese Journalists’ Union and the Sudan Communist Party.

“We are deeply shocked and outraged by Rapid Support Forces’ brutal killing of journalist Hanan Adam and her brother in al-Gezira state, which further illustrates the extreme conditions journalists and their families currently face in Sudan,” said CPJ Interim MENA Program Coordinator Yeganeh Rezaian, from Washington, D.C

https://cpj.org/2024/12/rapid-support-forces-kill-sudanese-journalist-hanan-adam-and-brother/

New Voice for VOA

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Article in Common Dreams by Jake Johonson, 12/12/24

Headline:  ” ‘Stuff of Parody’: Trump Taps Election-Denying Ally Kari Lake to Run Voice of America”

Subhead:  ” ‘Authoritarians love to control and instrumentalize media organizations, especially state-funded ones,’ journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote in response to the news.”

“President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Kari Lake, a far-right election denier and failed U.S. Senate candidate, to lead the federally funded international broadcast network Voice of America, a move that critics said underscores Trump’s effort to transform government entities into vehicles to advance his own interests.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that as director of VOA, Lake would “ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/kari-lake-voice-of-america

Will the Regulators be Truthful?

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Article in ProPublica by Justin Elliot, Robert Faturechi, and Alex Mierjeski, 12/10/24

Headline:  “Donald Trump Controls a Publicly Traded Company. Now He Will Pick Its Regulator.”

Subhead:  ” There have been internal concerns that Trump Media could be misleading investors, a source said. But with its largest shareholder about to be president, experts doubt the SEC is up to the job of investigating Truth Social’s parent company.”

“. . .When Trump takes office in January, a president will for the first time be the majority owner of a publicly traded company, Trump Media, which runs Truth Social. Former SEC officials are concerned about how Trump could try to use the agency to go after the foes of his company, which accounts for more than half his fortune. They also worry that the agency isn’t up for the job of taking on Trump Media should it run afoul of securities laws. . .”

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-media-truth-social-sec-securities-exchange-commission

Who Checks the Media?

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Article in the Washington Post by Erik Wemple, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Will anyone hold the media to account? I answered your questions.”

Q by guest – “. . . Why don’t reporters ask real follow-up questions?
As a former newspaper reporter/editor, my heart remains in the field and with the reporters trying to cover some of the strangest times in our history.

“I am frustrated that reporters rarely ask sufficient follow–up questions when a politician, like a president-elect, lies. Kristen Welker’s interview with Donald Trump is an example.

A – : “. . . Welker then challenges Trump by saying that the figure he cited goes back 40 years; Trump then plows ahead with his narrative, which a subsequent NBC News fact check calls false. Your critique is a good one: This point is significant enough to essentially halt the flow of the interview and say something like, “Please cite your source.” Because even though NBC News later fact-checked it (as did other outlets), there’s value in standing firm on principle in real time, when possible.. . ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/09/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/

Attacking Media That Inform Us

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Article in The Verge by Adi Robertson, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Politicians already feel emboldened to use the legal system to target journalists.”

Subhead:  “404 Media is fighting a subpoena from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to seize confidential reporting material”

“In order to do our job well, journalists need to be independent from the government and from outside corporate interests. … Our sources—many of whom are particularly vulnerable—share information with us specifically because we are independent from the state.

“As we’ve said before: tell your Senator to pass the PRESS Act.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/9/24317197/politicians-already-feel-emboldened-to-use-the-legal-system-to-target-journalists

Malicious Media?

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Article in Daily Kos by Sabrina Haake, 12/99/24

Headline:  “Media malfeasance got us here, and media malfeasance will keep us here”

“Mainstream media spent last week in a self-righteous frenzy over Joe Biden’s pardon of his son.

“Almost none of the coverage explained that Hunter Biden was pardoned for offenses rarely prosecuted in the first place.

“. . . Since the pardon was announced, Fox News has churned non-stop false narratives equating the “Biden crime family” with Trump’s long litany of felonies. Fox News ran over 80 features covering the Biden pardon over the past week alone, yet to this day has still never factually discussed J6 or Trump’s role in it.

“Fox similarly offers no criticism of Trump’s plan to install a psychopath to turn the FBI into a dragnet against American citizens.. . . ”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/9/2291063/-Media-malfeasance-got-us-here-and-media-malfeasance-will-keep-us-here?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Media Empire Trouble

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Article in The Guardian by Lauren Aratani, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Rupert Murdoch loses battle to control succession to his media empire”

Subhead:  “Media mogul’s three adult children will retain control despite attempt to give his son Lachlan complete control”

“Rupert Murdoch’s three adult children will retain control over their father’s media empire upon his death, a Nevada court has ruled after Murdoch launched a campaign to wrest away their power and give it all to his oldest son.

“The New York Times reported on Murdoch’s loss, citing a sealed court decision that was filed on Saturday. The family battle took place outside of the public’s eye, despite attempts from the media to gain access to the trial.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/09/rupert-murdochmedia-empire-children

Media Whitewashed Tyrant

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Just a regular guy – but will it happen here?

Article in The Guardian by Zoe Williams, 12/9/24

Headline:  “They ‘didn’t look the type’: how the media was fooled by Bashar and Asma al-Assad”

Subhead:  “Some journalists underestimated the threat of the brutal president, while his first lady was glamorised in a Vogue feature”

“When the Syrian spring erupted in 2011, Vogue magazine ran a profile of Asma al-Assad titled A Rose in the Desert. Her husband had already killed more than 5,000 civilians, including hundreds of children, when Asma was described as ‘the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies’. The journalist, Joan Juliet Buck, went on to note that ‘her style is not the couture-and-bling dazzle of Middle Eastern power but a deliberate lack of adornment’ ”.

“. . . Vladimir Putin was, around the same time, trying to cast himself as an action hero, releasing photos of himself on horseback, bare-chested, on a Harley, with a tiger. Who needs to have a stick up their arse about kleptocracy when it looks like so much fun? If an autocrat doesn’t look or act like one, if he looks instead like a giraffe (as people said about Bashar al-Assad), or a joker, or a clown, or a reality TV showman, maybe it won’t be such a bad life under him after all.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/09/how-media-was-fooled-bashar-asma-al-assad

News Coverage – Look Out Below!

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Article in The Hill by Filip Timotija. 12/7/24

Headline: “Jon Stewart slams media speculation of Trump presidency”

“. . . Right before interviewing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the episode, Stewart knocked news coverage of Trump’s transition and argued that the country has been through a ‘tumultuous’ year.

“ ‘We appear to be in a transitional period where we are not sure about whether the ground we are standing on is solid, although the news media seems convinced that we are the Road Runner and the Coyote, and the Coyote has run over the cliff, and we just looked down and realized there’s nothing under our feet, and now we are plunging to our deaths,’ Stewart joked in reference to the Looney Tunes animated characters.

“ ‘Because the news media is always very circumspect,’ he added.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5028055-jon-stewart-media-speculation-trump/

Hegseth Winger Media-Support

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Article from Media Matters by Starr, 12/5/24

Headline: Matt Gertz on right-wing media support for Pete Hegseth: “They’re trying to move someone from Fox & Friends’ weekend show to sixth in line for the presidency”

Subhead: “Gertz: “Donald Trump has repeatedly sought out people that he likes from his television, likes from Fox News, for big roles in his administration”

“I think there is. I think what we’re seeing right now is a test of the power that the right-wing media has within the MAGA movement. Some sort of flare clearly went up over the last 24 hours because after largely remaining passive and backing off from the nomination as all of these damning reports came out, people at Fox and throughout the right-wing media have started rallying to Hegseth’s defense.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/matt-gertz-right-wing-media-support-pete-hegseth-theyre-trying-move-someone-fox