News about the media.
Article in Daily Kos by Egberto Willies, 5/112/25
Headline: “Trump controlling the media with Qatar 747 not reconciliation. We can change our economic system”
“The Qatar plane Trump scandal is a distraction, the MSM is falling for as Medicaid is cut. We cannot do anything about Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine, but we can change our economic system.”
Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Laura Preston, 5/13/25
Headline: “Study Guide Supremacy”
Subhead: “Getting my news from ChatGPT”
“If you spend any time among people in the AI space, you’ll hear a common refrain. Large language models (LLMs) like Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are handy tools for searching the internet, separating facts from the chaff, and delivering information objectively. Of course, we’ve already invented a system for dispatching neutral information, and that system is called journalism. Herein lies a serious irony. Many LLMs are trained on content produced by journalistic institutions, but do not adhere to journalistic standards when rehashing the material. . .”
https://www.cjr.org/feature-2/getting-my-news-from-chatgpt-ai.php
Article in UPI by Paul Godfrey, 4/112/25
Headline: “Pope Leo XIV tells media to help promote global peace by ‘disarming’ words”
“Pope Leo XIV on Monday called for a kinder, gentler media, one that speaks up for those with no voice and in defense of free speech, and expressed solidarity with reporters imprisoned around the world for doing their job.
“In his first meeting with the more than 1,000 journalists who make up the Vatican press corps, Leo thanked them their work covering the papal transition and urged them to use their platform to foster peace by taking care over ‘how people and events are presented’. . .”
Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe, 5/5/25
Headline: “Maga media mob: meet the new rightwing faces in the White House briefing room”
Subhead: “A banjo player and a Black Maga influencer, among others, now attend Trump administration press briefings”
“A disgraced ultra-conservative banjo player ousted from his Grammy-winning band; a far-right conspiracy theorist with alleged ties to Russia; a TikTok creator known as ‘Maga Malfoy’ for his resemblance to the Harry Potter character; and an extremist social media ‘influencer’ once banned from Twitter for posting a video depicting sexual abuse of a child.”
“These are just some of the ‘new media’ personalities courted by the White House to take part in a series of alternative briefings championed by Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. . .”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/05/white-house-briefing-rightwing-media
Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/2/25
Headline: “Opinion | Trump threatens The New York Times as his press attacks continue”
Subhead: “He lashed out after a Times report said Paramount may settle his baseless lawsuit — a move tied to its pending sale”
“President Donald Trump unleashed more unhinged attacks on the press Wednesday, going after both CBS’s “60 Minutes” and The New York Times — even going so far as to threaten legal action against the Times.
“His “60 Minutes” attacks are nothing new. He already is suing CBS’s owner, Paramount, claiming the network deceptively edited an interview last October with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to, in effect, help her win the election. . .”
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-nyt-liable-tortious-interference/
Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 4/29/25
Headline: “Opinion | After 100 days of chaos, Donald Trump is hitting the media trail”
Subhead: “You can’t help but wonder if his sudden desire to talk to traditional news outlets is due to his dreadful approval ratings”
“. . .What will the press in this country look like on Jan. 20, 2029, when Trump’s second term comes to an end?. . .”
“He and the administration have kicked the always-neutral Associated Press out of the press pool. Trump is suing CBS. He had already sued ABC. He is trying to end Voice of America. He is threatening the funding of NPR and PBS. He constantly attacks the media — including MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, the major networks and even, on occasion, Fox News. His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, consistently demeans the media during her White House briefings. . .”
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-interviews-abc-news-newsnation-atlantic/
Article in The New Republic bu Michael Tomasky, 4/25/25
Headline: “Trump Just Did the Most Corrupt Thing Any President Has Ever Done”
Subhead: “He’s using the White House to get rich from anonymous investors—and it’s hardly even a news story.”
“Imagine that Joe Biden, just as he was assuming office, had started a new company with Hunter Biden and used his main social media account to recruit financial backers, then promised that the most generous among them would earn an invitation to a private dinner with him. . . .”
“Take a minute, close your eyes. Let yourself see Jim Jordan’s face go purple in apoplexy, hear the moral thunder spewing out of Jesse Watters’s mouth, feel the shock (which would be wholly justified) of the New York Times editorial board as it expressed disbelief that the man representing the purported values and standards of the United States of America before the world would begin to think it was remotely OK to do such a thing. The media would be able to speak of nothing else for days. Maybe weeks. . .”
https://newrepublic.com/post/194420/trump-memecoin-dinner-corrupt-president
Article in Raw Story by Andrew Chapman, 4/23/26
Headline: ” ‘Wow’: Chuck Todd floored as MAGA allies ‘air dirty laundry’ to media”
“President Donald Trump has vehemently denied any plans to get rid of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — but that resolve already appears to be cracking, former NBC anchor Chuck Todd told a CNN panel on Wednesday evening, as the scandals continue to mount and his position becomes less and less tenable. . .”
” ‘Is there ever a more straightforward sign in Trumpworld that you are on your way out the door than the president suddenly starting to ask the people around him about you?’ anchor Kasie Hunt asked Todd.
“Todd agreed. ‘By the way, for some of us in the press who have had an on-again, off-again relationship with the president, I’ve been on the receiving end of that myself,’ said Todd.”
Article in Mediate by Micheal Luciano, 4/23/25
Headline: ” ‘Totally Fake Story’: Pete Hegseth Denies Having Pentagon ‘Makeup Studio’ “
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth denied a report by CBS News claiming he ordered a room near the Pentagon press briefing room to be equipped with a makeup studio to be used for TV hits.
“The modifications were reportedly set to cost around $40,000, but were scaled back. CBS News reported . . .”
” ‘Totally fake story. No ‘orders’ and no ‘makeup’ — but whatever,’ he tweeted. ‘ We should have installed tampon machines in every men’s bathroom at DoD instead — the leftist “news” media would have loved that.’ ”
– – – – –
Article in Huffpost by David Moye, 4/23/25
Headline: “Social Media Brutally Mocks Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon Makeup Studio”
Subhead: ” ‘Nothing screams warrior culture more than a makeup studio,’ Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu cracked.”
“Social media gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a dressing-down on Wednesday after it was revealed he’d ordered that a room next to the Pentagon press briefing room he turned into a makeup studio/
“Retrofitting the room cost several thousand dollars, according to CBS News which noted the expenditure came at a time when Donald Trump’s administration is engaging in massive funding cuts. . .”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peth-hegseths-pentagon-makeup-studio-mocked_n_68095354e4b0337d48c3bbab
Article in The New Republic by Virginaia Hefferman, 4/23/25
Headline: “Liberal Media in Crisis? Not The MeidasTouch. It’s Bigger than Rogan.”
Subhead: “For real. The podcast by Ben Meiselas and his brothers regularly outdraws Joe Rogan’s. Their secret weapon? Reason. Imagine!”
“For years, progressives have fantasized finding a Joe Rogan of their own: someone butch and sonically seductive to beguile America’s acne class with sports jabber and pronoun jokes before turning the screws and making them vote his way.
“But Blue Joe Rogan will never materialize. And that’s for the best. Blood-sport propaganda by a UFC hype man doesn’t work in defense of liberal democracy. Liberalism, after all, rejects demagoguery as coercive, infantilizing, and anathema to critical thinking. While Rogan reliably slams the id with porny language, simian posturing, and primal sounds—and of course the Goebbels combo of repetition and cartoonish lies—progressive gab needs something closer to reason.
“When Ben Meiselas, a mild-mannered lawyer who sees himself as Mr. Rogers, entered the podcast-and-video octagon with the MeidasTouch Network (pronounced Midas, like the king), he seemed plenty reasonable. But no one saw a Rogan-slayer in him. Meiselas didn’t get drunk. He didn’t drone on about kettlebells or yuk it up with Alex Jones. Instead, he sat alone in his living room and, in short intervals, registered measured anger at Trump’s malignancy.. . .”
https://newrepublic.com/article/194187/meidastouch-ben-meiselas-liberal-media-bigger-rogan