Media News

News about the media.

Kansas Newspaper Raid Update

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Article by Sherman Smith in the Kansas Reflector, 8/4/24:

Headline:  “Judge who authorized Kansas newspaper raid escapes discipline with secret conflicting explanation”

About a year ago in August, 2023, a national news article article by Joseph O’Connell in the Washington Post, reported that the police raided a Kansas newspaper.  The Marion County Record was exposing alleged corruption in the city government.

Now reported in an article on 8/4/24 by Sherman Smith in the Kansas Reflector you may follow this link to read the story:

https://kansasreflector.com/2024/08/04/judge-who-authorized-kansas-newspaper-raid-escapes-discipline-with-secret-conflicting-explanation/

(The original article may be found on this website’s August, 2023 archive):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/08/26/marion-county-newspaper-police-raid-what-really-happened/

New Outlets Disappear, Replaced by Pink Slime

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From an article in The Guardian 2/30/24 By Eric Berger:

Headline: “Deluge of ‘pink slime’ websites threaten to drown out truth with fake news in US election”

Sub-head: “News sites pushing misinformation are proliferating, aiming to look like reliable sources as local newspapers close down”


“Political groups on the right and left are using fake news websites designed to look like reliable sources of information to fill the void left by the demise of local newspapers, raising fears of the impact that they might have during the United States’ bitterly fought 2024 election.

“Some media experts are concerned that the so-called pink slime websites, often funded domestically, could prove at least as harmful to political discourse and voters’ faith in media and democracy as foreign disinformation efforts in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20240716221159/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/20/fake-news-websites-us-election

Fossil Fuel Industry Buys Ads, Denies Climate Change

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Drought monitor from US.Gov

From The Guardian 6/7/24 by Dharna Noor  – Beware of “advertorials” disguised as “news”.

http://web.archive.org/web/20240610215520/https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/07/united-nations-fossil-fuel-ads-news-tech-media

Headline: “News and tech media mostly quiet after UN chief calls for ban on ads for oil and gas”

For example, “‘Geoffrey Supran, an associate professor and scholar of fossil-fuel industry messaging at the University of Miami, said ‘there is also potentially a concern about the outlet’s editorial staff being exposed to the ads’ claims’. In a 1980s internal public relations assessment, ‘oil giant Mobil indicated that it believed its advertorials in the New York Times had shifted the outlet’s position in its favor,’ he said.

“‘The fossil-fuel industry’s advertising campaigns are state-of-the-art propaganda developed in partnership with public relations experts, executed via media outlets, and based on almost a century of collaborative experience,’ said Supran.”

According to The Nation quoted in The Guardian article, “Many outlets are not only accepting fossil-fuel advertisements, but also have arms that are producing them. Reuters, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico, and The Washington Post all count oil majors as clients of their in-house production studios, events businesses and other branded content . . .”

 

 

Want to be A Journalist? Don’t go to Afghanistan

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From The Guardian article by Sakhidad Hatif on 5/1/24

Headline: “The Taliban targeted us, beat us and chased us out. This is how we run our Afghan newspaper from exile”

http://web.archive.org/web/20240507203617/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/may/01/taliban-afghanistan-newspaper-exile-us-reporters

“In the two decades before the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had vibrant media sector. There were newspapers, television channels, periodicals, magazines and more, invigorating the public discourse by allowing citizens to express their views on national and local issues. That is completely gone”

 

Missouri Sues Media Matters, Demands Names

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Headline: “Missouri AG sues Media Matters over its X research, demands donor names – Media watchdog clams ‘meritless, expensive, and harassing investigations.'”

From Ars Technca, Article by Jon Brodkin 4/26/24

http://web.archive.org/web/20240416212423/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/missouri-ag-sues-media-matters-in-lawsuit-echoing-elon-musks-complaints/

 

“Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey yesterday in an attempt to protect Elon Musk and X from the nonprofit watchdog group’s investigations into hate speech on the social network. Bailey’s claims that “Media Matters has used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into removing their advertisements from X, formerly Twitter, one of the last platforms
dedicated to free speech in America.”

Innocent Journalist Was Tortured at Abu Ghraib

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An image obtained by The Associated Press shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. – from NPR.

Headline: “Correct a black mark in US history’: former prisoners of Abu Ghraib get day in court”

Article by Alice Speri in The Guardian 4/14/24.

//www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/apr/14/abu-ghraib-iraq-torture-abuse

Right Wing Media Puzzled on Trump’s Selling Bibles!

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Picture from the 1973 Paramount movie “Paper Moon”.

Update Headline:  “Trump Made $300,000 for Endorsing Bible, Financial Disclosure Shows”

Article in the New York Times by Shane Goldmacher, Russ Buettner, and Maggie Haberman, 8/15/24

“The Bible is on sale online for $60 with a copy signed by Mr. Trump selling for $1,000. ‘Yes, this is the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!’ the site advertises.”

Headline 3/29/24: “Right-wing media are split over Trump selling $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible”

From a Media Matters article by Justin Horowitz 3/29/24:

http://web.archive.org/web/20240416212423/https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/right-wing-media-are-split-over-trump-selling-60-god-bless-usa-bibles