Press Freedom

Media Court Failure Again

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 5/4/26

Headline: “Media Matters secures complete and total victory against Federal Trade Commission”

Subhead: “FTC agrees to forgo future investigations of MMFA to secure withdrawal ahead of judgment”

“Media Matters has secured a complete and total victory in its case against the Federal Trade Commission (Media Matters v. FTC).

“In an effort to avoid another damaging decision from a federal court of appeals, the FTC sought to withdraw its appeal of the preliminary injunction awarded to Media Matters to halt the FTC’s retaliatory actions. Media Matters made clear that it would oppose that gamesmanship. Facing the prospect of a loss from what’s often considered the nation’s second highest court, the FTC ultimately submitted to a legally binding settlement agreement with Media Matters

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/media-matters-secures-complete-and-total-victory-against-federal-trade-commission

Press Confidence Low

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 5/1/26

Headline:  “Opinion | U.S. falls to its lowest ever World Press Freedom Index ranking”

Subhead:  “The declines in press freedom in the U.S. are part of a broader global trend, Reporters Without Borders found.”

“Last weekend, the White House Correspondents Association dinner — already a topic of awkward conversations because of various ethical concerns — was scrapped because a gunman tried to enter the event.

“Then on Monday, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania both called for ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired because they didn’t like a joke he told. And now the Federal Communications Commission, seemingly spurred on by the Trumps’ social media complaints, is reviewing ABC’s licenses.

“Thursday produced even more depressing news about press freedoms in the U.S. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/us-lowest-press-freedome-ranking-ever/

Journalists vs. AI

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty

Headline:  “Fighting the Machine”

Subhead:  “Journalists across the United States are fighting for contracts that address AI use: ‘We don’t want it to be done in our name, literally.’ “

“On a chilly day in early April, outside the ProPublica offices in Lower Manhattan, dozens of union members staged a daylong strike—the first of its kind authorized at a major news organization to address, among other concerns, how AI would be used with its work. . .”

” ‘Now is the time to fight this fight,’ Hilke Schellmann, an AI expert and journalism professor at New York University, told me. ‘Because once it becomes standard in a union bargaining agreement across the journalism industry that journalists or employees have no say over AI tools, that quickly becomes a standard.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/fighting-the-machine-contracts-artificial-intelligence-ai-use-bylines.php

“60 Minutes” Censorship?

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 4/30/26

“The veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi expressed concern about “the spread of corporate meddling and editorial fear” at CBS News and her uncertainty about whether she will keep her job after she pushed back on a directive to change her December segment on Venezuelans who were sent to the Cecot prison in El Salvador.

Alfonsi spoke about the incident for the first time on Thursday evening after receiving the Ridenhour prize for courage at the National Press Club in Washington. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/apr/30/60-minutes-sharyn-alfonsi-cbs-news

No Access, No News

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Article in AP by Deepti Hajela, 4/30/26|

Headline:  “Media organizations call on Israel to allow foreign reporters independent access to Gaza”

The leaders of major media companies around the world, including The Associated Press, are calling on Israel’s government to lift a ban keeping foreign journalists from being able to independently enter and report from Gaza, a barrier that’s been in place since the war’s start in 2023 and continues even as a ceasefire has been in place for more than six months. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-journalists-coverage-access-war-zone-0b3e72a7d73e211944fb5ff1c9d5d645

Many ABC TV Stations Have Licenses

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 4/28/26

Headline:  “FCC orders review of ABC licenses after Jimmy Kimmel’s Melania Trump joke”

Subhead:  “Eight local broadcasting licenses under review after White House launched attack on late-night host over comment”

“The US’s top media watchdog announced on Tuesday that it is accelerating the review of eight local broadcasting licenses used by ABC, in a move critics see as a clear example of political and regulatory retribution against a disfavored broadcaster.

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) announcement comes after the White House launched a full-on attack against the ABC’s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, over a joke he made last week about Melania Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/fcc-abc-jimmy-kimmel

More CBS Angst

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Article in Daily Beast by Annabella Rosciglione, 4/23/26

Headline:  “CBS Staffers Revolt After MAGA-Coded Anchor’s Wild Lecture”

“CBS News staffers have been fuming over the network’s top talent ever since he released a video complaining about the ‘legacy media.’

Before CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil took over the anchor chair, he posted a video in January accusing the ‘legacy media’ of having ‘missed the story’ by putting ‘too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cbs-staffers-revolt-after-maga-coded-anchor-tony-dokoupils-wild-lecture-on-legacy-media/

Investigate Journalist for Reporting?

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 4/23/26

Headline: “Kash Patel’s FBI is mad as hell that this reporter did her job”

“FBI agents investigated a New York Times reporter who uncovered that FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend was being ferried around on taxpayer-funded flights.

“The New York Times reported Thursday that agents probed reporter Elizabeth Williamson in March, following the article about Patel that she wrote in February. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/23/800026413/media-and-culture/kash-patel-fbi-reporter/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 4/23/26

Headline:  “New York Times alleges FBI investigated journalist after report about Patel girlfriend ”

Read the article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5844807-fbi-investigates-new-york-times-journalist-patel-girlfriend-security/

State Media Propaganda Gone?

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Article in Reuters by Krisztina Than, 4/13/26

Headline: “Hungary’s election winner Magyar says to suspend state media news broadcast”

” Hungary’s ​election winner ‌Peter Magyar ​said ​on Monday that ⁠his ​government will ​suspend the news broadcast ​of ​public state media ‌until ⁠unbiased news coverage ​can ​be ⁠ensured.

“Magyar’s Tisza ​party ​scored ⁠a landslide victory ⁠in ​Sunday’s ​elections. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/hungarys-election-winner-magyar-says-suspend-state-media-news-broadcast-2026-04-13/

Democracy Needs Journalism

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 4/10/26

Headline:  ” ‘Local News Is a Genuine Public Good We Need for Our Democracy’ “

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Alex Frandsen on Local News Day”

“Janine Jackson: News media can be like the old joke about the weather: Everybody complains, but nobody does anything. But as we’ve seen billionaire owners turning news into yet another profit-driven enterprise—not, to be clear, entities that need to sustain themselves, but that need to generate ever-higher quarterly profits for shareholders—the truth is there has been plenty of, not just protest and criticism, but ground-level organizing to find other ways to support the work we need from journalism in the public interest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/local-news-is-a-genuine-public-good-we-need-for-our-democracy/