Media News

News about the media.

Texting the Media

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 3/27/25

Headline: “Fox defense for negligent texting of war plans: Top Trump national security officials are incompetent”

“Fox News personalities’ new argument in support of their former colleagues who discussed pending military strikes on an unsecured text chain is that those former colleagues — now America’s top military, national security, and intelligence officials — are easy to deceive. . .”

“But on Tuesday, they came up with a new excuse — one which amounts to arguing that the nation’s top national security officials are morons.

“When Fox host Laura Ingraham asked Waltz to explain Goldberg’s presence on the Signal chat, Waltz dissembled.

“ ‘I’m not a conspiracy theorist,’ Waltz began, before offering a conspiracy theory in which ‘somehow’ Goldberg ‘gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into the group.’

The national security adviser added that Goldberg may have somehow ‘deliberately’ ensured that his contact information was attached to a Trump official’s contact name, adding that the administration has ‘the best technical minds’ trying to ascertain how such a thing happened. . .”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-defense-negligent-texting-war-plans-top-trump-national-security-officials-are

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 3/26/25

Headline:  “Media downplays Trump team’s massive leak fiasco as mere ‘blunder'”

“Many mainstream media outlets are minimizing or trivializing the Trump administration’s leak of highly sensitive war plans, and in doing so, they are echoing President Donald Trump’s spin on the scandal.

“After The Atlantic reported on Monday that top Trump officials had mistakenly included the outlet’s top editor in an unsecured group chat, Trump told reporters that the breach was merely a ‘glitch.’ And Trump’s allies struck the same tone in appearances in right-wing media.

On Tuesday, USA Today described the incident as a ‘relatable fail.’ In the story, reporters Jessica Guynn and Bailey Schulz likened the leak of war plans to ill-timed responses in family group texts.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/26/2312682/-Media-downplays-Trump-team-s-massive-leak-fiasco-as-mere-blunder?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web

Checkmate, Media!

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Article in The Bukwark by Andrew Egger, 3/27/25

Headline:  “The Only Strategy They Know”

“When the Signalgate story broke, we thought to ourselves: Okay, that’s the most politically self-destructive thing the White House will do for a while. But we were wrong. Somehow, the White House’s political response to the story has been even dumber.

“Yesterday, JVL (Joanathan V. Last) took stock of the administration’s clown car of flailing responses: the inexplicable attempt to paint the release of authentic internal screenshots as a ‘hoax,’ the bizarre assertions that the information in the chat wouldn’t have been classified, the attempts to turn the whole thing into a ‘Jeffrey Goldberg sucks and can’t be trusted’ media story.

“Since then, things have gotten sillier still. On Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt scolded the White House press corps for prioritizing the story over news of U.S. business investment or Trump’s latest ‘election integrity’ executive order. JD Vance jeered at Goldberg for declining to publish the name of a CIA officer involved—an action Goldberg took at the request of Trump’s CIA. Donald Trump himself complained that the story was a ‘witch hunt’ and suggested that ‘I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you.’ (All the more reason not to share attack plans on it, then!) . . .”

https://www.thebulwark.com/

Wrong Signal Sent to Media

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Article in Mediaite by Colby Hall, 3/25/25

Headline: “Trump Just Handed His Biggest Enemy in Media a Slam Dunk”

“President Donald Trump insisted that information leaked to Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was not classified multiple times during a White House press availability Tuesday afternoon. But his defiant tone may have just backed his administration into a corner of litigious federal investigations, potentially giving one of his most prominent and influential critics a major win.

“On Monday, Goldberg dropped a bombshell report about Trump National Security Adviser Mike Waltz accidentally adding him to a group chat in which the principals committee – the heads of the top American national security agencies — discussed plans to strike Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month.”

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/trump-just-handed-his-biggest-enemy-in-media-a-slam-dunk/

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Article in Daily Mail by Laura Parnaby, 3/25/25

Headline:  “Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg threatens to release MORE war plans texts after being included in group chat”

“Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, told Tim Miller on the Bulwark Podcast his team is mulling over releasing the full trove of Signal app messages.

” ‘My colleagues and I and the people who are giving us advice on this have some interesting conversations to have about this,’ Goldberg told the podcast.

” ‘But just because they’re irresponsible with material, doesn’t mean that I’m going to be irresponsible.’

“Goldberg made the jaw-dropping revelation on Monday that Trump’s national security team had added him to a top secret chat about military strikes in Yemen.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14536191/atlantic-editor-jeffrey-goldberg-threatens-release-war-plans-group-chat.html

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Article in Raw Story by Damoel Hampton, 3/24/25

Headline: ” ‘Disaster’: Hegseth’s rant attacking reporter who got his war plan lights up social media”

“Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth found himself under fire on social media as he lashed out at a journalist who appeared to be inadvertently included in a private group chat on the app Signal — and was privy to top-secret war plans.

“On March 15, just hours before the U.S. launched a series of strikes, Hegseth shared operational details in a Signal group chat that mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Goldberg wrote Monday. The leaked information contained operational details of upcoming strikes on Yemen, specifics on targets, weapons to be deployed and the sequence of attacks. . .”

“. . .Predictably, social media critics lit up at Hegseth’s comments. . .”

https://www.rawstory.com/pete-hegseth-2671396988/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 3/25/25

Headline: “Atlantic editor suggests he’s open to sharing Hegseth’s full war plans texts publicly “

“Jeffery Goldberg, the top editor of The Atlantic, said he could be open to sharing more details from a Signal group chat he was mistakenly added to by top U.S. officials that contained secret war plans. . .”

“. . .Goldberg reported he saw in a message, sent to the group by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, specific weapons systems, human targets and other top secret information before he left the chat. He did not publish the specific information as part of his report, citing national security concerns.

“. . .During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe contended that the Signal chat in question did not include classified information.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5212821-atlantic-editor-suggests-hes-open-to-sharing-hegseths-full-war-plans-texts-publicly/

Media Stop China War-Plans Briefing

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Article on Democracy Now by Staff, 3/24/25

Headline:  “Pentagon Hosts Elon Musk But Skips Briefing on China After Media Reports”

“Elon Musk visited the Pentagon Friday for a high-level meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others. The New York Times had reported Musk was scheduled to receive a briefing on top-secret U.S. plans for a potential war with China, but the briefing was canceled after it was reported in the press. Musk threatened to go after whoever leaked what he called “maliciously false information” to the Times. Musk has close business ties with China, which is Tesla’s second-largest market. China is also the home of Tesla’s largest factory.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/headlines/pentagon_hosts_elon_musk_but_skips_briefing_on_china_after_media_reports

Changing Face of Local Journalism

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Sarah Stonbely, 3/20/23

Headline:  “The changing face of local journalism”

Subhead:  “Rethinking what counts as local news”

“One of the major journalism themes of 2025 is emerging: the role, and importance, of nontraditional, or journalism-adjacent information providers. From influencer/creator/independent news producers, to AI-generated content, to civic media, defining who qualifies as a journalist is as difficult as it has ever been.This idea was front and center at the recent Knight Media Forum, where several discussions showed clearly that the idea of what qualifies as journalism is expanding – largely out of necessity, but also as an overdue acknowledgement of the fact that sometimes the most vital local journalism comes not from a newspaper but from a newsletter or Facebook group.

“There is now a broader willingness to consider – or perhaps, more accurately, to see – the myriad other ways that people share and receive important local information and news. The further we get into the local journalism crisis, the more we’re forced to confront the fact that sustainable local journalism cannot, and will not, look as it did in the past. The rise of the newsfluencer is the latest iteration of this message. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/the-changing-face-of-local-journalism.php

More Shrinking Media

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Article in Poynter by Tom Hones, et al, 3/20/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Buyouts at the Sun-Times shrink the newsroom — and the dream”

Subhead:  “Big-name journalists are out as Chicago Public Media tightens its belt. The high-profile merger was supposed to be different.”

“. . . The financially troubled Chicago Sun-Times announced Tuesday that it is shedding 23 newsroom employees through buyouts, more than 20% of staff.  . .”

“Chicago Public Media, which also operates the city’s NPR station, acquired the Sun-Times (it was donated for free) in January 2022. It was hailed as an exciting venture that could be a model elsewhere. But even merging the two operations took longer than expected, and it undershot business targets.

“In a commendably candid and detailed story, Sun-Times reporter David Roeder explained the seriousness of the problem and the consequences of the reductions. . . ”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/chicago-sun-times-richard-roeper-rick-telander-buyouts/

Media Deja Vu

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 3/19/25

Headline:  “MAGA Media’s Musk-querade”

Subhead:  “Right-wing media stars once raged against ‘unelected elites’ wielding government power—now, they’re fawning as Donald Trump hands Elon Musk the keys to federal agencies, despite glaring conflicts of interest.”

” It’s prime time on cable news, and beneath the glow of the studio lights, a monologue erupts. The anchor excoriates the president for having ‘skirted the Senate confirmation process’ and ’empowered’ unelected individuals ‘to oversee major offices within the federal government,’ railing against a system where they ‘operate only under the supervision of the White House.’ The words are dripping with indignation, warning of a government where power is handed to unvetted individuals, accountability is nonexistent, and a radical reshaping of the U.S. government is underway.

“ ‘In essence, a select group of unconfirmed, unvetted individuals are now at the helm of a shadow government right here in the U.S.,’ the anchor warns.”

“. . . But the clip isn’t from 2025. It’s from Sean Hannity on Fox News in the summer of 2009, raging against Barack Obama’s appointment of so-called ‘czars.’. . .”

https://www.status.news/p/right-wing-media-elon-musk-hypocrisy

Historic U.S. Broadcaster Gagged

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AP – Andrew Harnik photo

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 3/18/25

Headline:  “The Last Days at Voice of America“

Subhead:  “Covering the press freedom beat at VOA, I got a front-row seat to its demise.”

“On Saturday, about thirteen hundred Voice of America staffers, myself included, were placed on administrative leave. VOA’s final broadcast went out; its website was updated one last time. For the first time since its creation, in 1942, to combat Nazi propaganda, VOA went silent.

As a press freedom reporter, I’ve spent the past few years constantly interacting with groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. But this time, it was my editor, Jessica Jerreat, and I who reached out to sound the alarm. I wasn’t acting in an official capacity—in fact, I had been ordered not to work—but I felt I had to do something.

Dozens of VOA staffers in Washington are on J-1 visas, and if they lose them, they may have to return to countries whose governments have a record of jailing critics. Two VOA contributors are imprisoned in Myanmar and Vietnam, and I didn’t want them to be forgotten. . . .”

https://www.cjr.org/first_person/last-days-voice-of-america-voa-trump-kari-lake.php

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 3/18/25

Headline:  “Trump’s silencing of Voice of America sparks shock, outrage”

“President Trump’s decision to gut the government agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA) has shocked staffers, who have been ordered to stop working, and fueled concern about the U.S. retreating as a champion of press freedom worldwide. . .”

“Employees who spoke with The Hill this week described a chaotic span of 48 hours after employees received an email Saturday telling them to cease all reporting until further notice. . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5201754-voa-shut-down-trump/

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Article in Al Jezeera by Staff, 3/17/25

“United States President Donald Trump’s administration has begun laying off staff at Voice of America after signing an executive order placing nearly all employees at the government-funded media network on leave.

“VOA employees working on a contractual basis on Sunday received an email informing them that they were being terminated effective March 31.

“In the email, which was seen by Al Jazeera, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) said contractors must ‘cease all work immediately’ and were ‘not permitted to access any agency buildings or systems’ . . “.

“Trump’s directive is the latest in a series of moves to draw condemnation from media freedom advocacy groups, including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, which branded the latest order ‘dystopian’. . . ”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/17/trumpadministration-starts-mass-layoffs-at-media-outlet-voice-of-america

Journalists Changing Horses Midstream?

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 3/13/25

Headline:  “Did Left Journalists Buy Into Right-Wing Ideology–or Were They Bought?”

“Matt Taibbi, once a populist writer who criticized big banks (Rolling Stone, 4/5/10; NPR, 11/6/10), has aligned himself with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the kind of slimy protector of the ruling economic order Taibbi once despised. Putting his Occupy Wall Street days behind him, Taibbi has fallen into the embrace of the reactionary Young America’s Foundation. . .”

“Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald, who helped expose National Security Agency surveillance (Guardian, 6/11/13; New York Times, 10/23/14), has buddied up with extreme right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, notorious for falsely claiming that the parents of murdered children at Sandy Hook Elementary were crisis actors. That’s in addition to Greenwald’s closeness to Tucker Carlson . . .”

Some wonder if their political conversion is related to their departure from traditional journalism to new, high-tech platforms for self-publishing and self-production. In Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices of the Left (2025), Eoin Higgins focuses on the machinations of the reactionary tech industry barons, who live by a Randian philosophy where they are the hard-working doers of society, while the nattering nabobs of negativism speak only for the ungrateful and undeserving masses. . .”

https://fair.org/slider/did-left-journalists-buy-into-right-wing-ideology-or-were-they-bought/

Right Wing Eating the Media

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Article in Mother Jones by David Corn, 3/11/25

Headline:  “Why the Right Is to Blame for Distrust in the Media”

Subhead:  “For decades, conservatives have crusaded to discredit the press.”

“Recently, I attended a conference in Washington, DC, on the all-important topic of ‘Innovating to Restore Trust in News.’ The Semafor-sponsored event featured one-on-one interviews with such media bigshots as Joe Kahn, the executive editor of the New York Times; Emma Tucker, the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal; Mark Thompson, the CEO of CNN; Katherine Maher . . . ”

“The prompt for the conversation was a Gallup poll that shows that only 31 percent of Americans have some degree of trust in newsies, a drop from about 70 percent in 1972. Yet there was not much talk of specific innovations that could restore this trust. And it wasn’t until the reception afterward. . . that I realized what had been absent from the hours-long discussion: any consideration of why polls record a decline in trust of the media. . .”

“. . . What also went unmentioned was that Trump, the GOP, and right-wing media (most notably Fox) have done much through the decades to degrade the national discourse with lies and disinformation, while simultaneously and purposefully encouraging profound distrust and hatred of media outlets that don’t buy their bunk.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/media-distrust-trump-republicans-fox-news-maga-megyn-kelly/