Press Freedom

Can’t Restrict Press

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Article in The New Republic by Hafiz Rashid, 6/30/26

Headline:  “Judge Cites Hegseth’s Own Words as He Blocks Pentagon’s Media Limits”

Subhead:  “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s words came back to haunt him, as a federal judge blocked his restrictions on reporters covering the Pentagon.”

“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s complaints about media coverage came back to bite him Tuesday.

“A federal judge ordered a preliminary injunction against the Defense Department’s restrictions on press access to the Pentagon, based in part on ‘a consistent stream of derisive comments beginning shortly after the confirmation of Secretary Hegseth and continuing through the present.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/post/212574/judge-cites-hegseth-blocks-pentagon-media-limits

Court Protects Journalists

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Article in USA Today by Maureen Groppe, 6/29/26

Headline:  “Supreme Court lets landmark journalist protection stand”

“. . .The Supreme Court on June 29 declined to revisit a landmark decision about press freedom that limited when a public figure can sue for libel or defamation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/06/29/supreme-court-press-freedom-dershowitz-cnn/90298532007/

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Article in CBS News by Melissa Quin, 6/29/26

Headline:  “Supreme Court turns away Alan Dershowitz’s defamation case against CNN”

“The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz’s case alleging CNN defamed him with its coverage of remarks made during President Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial.

“The dispute presented the high court with the chance to revisit its landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, which set a high bar for public figures to win defamation lawsuits against media companies. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-alan-dershowitz-cnn-defamation-case/

CBS in the Crystal Ball

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/29/26

Headline:  “Opinion | What’s next for CBS News, CNN and ‘60 Minutes?’ “

Subhead: “Wall Street Journal reporter Isabella Simonetti breaks down the upheaval at CBS News and what the Paramount merger could mean for CNN”

“Has there been a bigger media story in 2026 than the upheaval at CBS News?

“CBS has a new owner who has a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump. The news division is being run by someone who had no meaningful TV news experience before she was hired. The evening news has a new anchor whose tenure is off to an uneven start. And even the network’s most dependable and respected product — the venerable ’60 Minutes’ — has been besieged by controversy, massive changes and unpopular firings. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/whats-next-cbs-news-cnn-60-minutes-paramount-bari-weiss/

Not Bari Happy!

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Article updated in Daily Beast by Julia Ornedo, 6/28/26

Headline: “CNN Star Issues Bombshell Warning to MAGA-Curious Boss”

“Anderson Cooper has made it clear how he feels about working with Bari Weiss.

“The star anchor, 59, has told colleagues at CNN that he does not want to work for the beleaguered CBS News chief, two sources told The New York Times. His comments came amid reports that Weiss is being considered for a top role at the network, which is slated to soon come under the control of Trump-friendly CEO David Ellison. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://archive.ph/XEmxZ#selection-1641.0-1649.178

Transporting Zines = Jail?

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Article in The Intercept by Seth Stern and Jeremy Busby, 6/26/26

Headline:  “30-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech”

Subhead: “The harsh sentence for a defendant who wasn’t even at the Prairieland protest is likely only the start of the Trump administration’s efforts to outlaw free speech.”

“The Trump administration attacking the right to publish or report information is a given at this point. The president has threatened journalists for everything from questioning the wisdom of his failed war with Iran to touching the peeled lining of his renovated reflecting pool.

“Tantrums like those may now feel routine, but this week marked a new front in Trump’s war on information: Daniel ‘Des’ Sanchez Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for transporting a box of zines he didn’t even write. He’s one of eight defendants sentenced on Tuesday to a combined 450 years — the first prison sentences against so-called “antifa” handed down under the framework of NSPM-7, President Donald Trump’s sweeping ‘counterterrorism’ memorandum to clamp down on dissent from the left. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2026/06/26/daniel-sanchez-estrada-zines-prairieland-free-speech/

No Source Reveal – Get Fined

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 6/26/26

Headline: “US reporter urges supreme court to halt ruling forcing her to reveal sources or pay $800-a-day fine”

Subhead:  “Catherine Herrridge makes final bid to stave off penalty related to series of stories she wrote in 2017 for Fox News“

“More than two years ago, a US district court judge took the extraordinary step of holding the veteran investigative journalist Catherine Herridge in civil contempt, ordering her to pay a steep daily fine of $800 per day unless she reveals her sources for a series of stories she wrote in 2017 for Fox News.

“Since then, the case has slowly moved through the appeals process, with Herridge dealt a series of defeats. On Tuesday, the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit issued a one-sentence ruling denying Herridge’s plea to stay the February 2024 ruling holding her in contempt, an order made by district court judge Christopher R Cooper. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/26/us-reporter-supreme-court-sources-fine

Better Media in the Past?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Alex Wright, 6/25/26

Headline:  “What 19th-Century Media Can Teach Us About the Future”

Subhead:  “In an era of change and fragmentation, the history of the early American press shows that media is shaped not only by technology, but by infrastructure, law, and society.”

“Stories about the crisis of journalism almost always begin with a now-familiar tale of technological disruption. First the internet shattered the traditional newspaper ‘bundle.’ Then social media came along and further balkanized the audience. Now artificial intelligence threatens yet more upheaval. Yet we are hardly the first generation of journalists to confront this degree of change.

“Before the rise of modern mass media, around the turn of the twentieth century, the United States supported a sprawling and wildly prolific newspaper culture. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/what-19th-century-media-can-teach-us-about-the-future.php

Politically Targeting ABC?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 6/23/26

Headline:  “Free Press Calls on the Carr FCC to End Its Corrupt Crusade Against ABC Programs and Stations”

On Monday, Free Press urged the Federal Communications Commission to stop Chairman Brendan Carr’s capricious and corrupt efforts to bully ABC into complying with President Trump’s political agenda.  . .”

“In a filing about whether the ABC program The View still qualifies for an exemption from the FCC’s Equal Opportunities Rule for political-candidate interviews, Free Press wrote: “The FCC is explicitly prohibited from dictating the editorial decisions of national news networks. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-calls-carr-fcc-end-its-corrupt-crusade-against-abc-programs-and-stations

AI Stealing the Media

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Article in The Nation by Mark Hertsgaard, 6/18/26

Headline:  “Why Aren’t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech?”

Subhead:  “A.G. Sulzberger urges the media to unite and fight back.”

The publisher of The New York Times recently made an extraordinary speech about AI, journalism, and the public square that’s received surprisingly little public reaction. . .”

“Sulzberger’s core argument when addressing the annual WAN-IFRA World News Media Conference on June 1 was that Big Tech is stealing the news media’s property and undermining democracy, and that the only solution is for news organizations to work together to resist them. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/why-arnt-newsrooms-covering-this-ai-speech/

Radio Active Magazine 6/23/26

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Tune in to Radio Active Magazine on Tuesday, 6/23/26 at 6:30 PM on KKFI Community Radio 90.1 FM – streaming at kkfi.org.

FCM’s Spencer Graves will Speak with Dimi Zagorski who describes Wikimedia concerns with European copyright rules including AI and scientific research and the impact of the 2019 European ‘Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market’ “.

More from Wikiversity at: