Press Freedom

Media Swirling Around The Anger

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Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 3/30/25

Headline:  “Revenge is his number one motivation’: how Trump is waging war on the media”

Subhead:  “The president – who believes he has been treated unfairly by the press – is squeezing the media in different ways than his first term”

“On Tuesday 4 March, Donald Trump stood in the House of Representatives to issue a speech to a joint session of Congress, the first of his second term.

“Near the beginning of what was to be a marathon address, the president declared: ‘I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It’s back.’

What Trump did not mention was that less than three weeks earlier he had barred Associated Press journalists from the Oval Office, because the news agency refused to use his preferred nomenclature for the Gulf of Mexico. He did not mention that he was waging lawsuits against ABC and CBS, nor that the man he appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission had ordered a flurry of investigations into NBC News, NPR and PBS.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/30/trump-media-attacks

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Article in Poynter by Anela Fu, 3/31/25

Headline: “As Trump attacks the press, many Americans aren’t hearing about it”

Subhead:  “Just 36% of Americans say they’ve heard ‘a lot’ about the Trump administration’s relationship with the media, down from 72% in 2017”

“From suing outlets to banning The Associated Press, President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought an unprecedented flurry of attacks on the media. But news about these events doesn’t appear to be reaching many Americans, according to a Pew Research Center study released Monday.

“The study, based on a survey of 5,123 adults between Feb. 24 and March 2, found that just 36% of Americans reported hearing “a lot” about the Trump administration’s relationship with the news media. Nearly a fifth said they’ve heard “nothing at all,” and 44% said they’ve heard “a little” about it.

Though national news consumption has generally been on the decline, those changes are slight and wouldn’t explain the dramatic decrease that Pew found, Shearer said.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans described the relationship between the Trump administration and the press as “very” or “somewhat bad.” Just 11% described it as “very” or “somewhat good,” and 22% said it is “neutral.”

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/president-donald-trump-relationship-attacks-journalists/

Journalists in Danger

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Article in Bellingcat by Staff. 3/27/25

Headline:  “Shot From Above: The Dangerous Work of Drone Journalists in Gaza”

“According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 165 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023. In fact, according to CPJ, last year was the deadliest year for journalists worldwide since they began documenting deaths in 1992.

Gathering aerial footage of Gaza is a dangerous task, and Bellingcat along with our partners at Forbidden Stories, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Der Standard, Paper Trail Media, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and RFI identified several cases where drone journalists were killed or injured shortly after capturing aerial images.

The Gaza Project is a collaborative investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories, involving more than 40 journalists representing 12 media outlets (Forbidden Stories, Paper Trail Media, RFI, Bellingcat, Die Zeit, Le Monde, France 24, ARIJ, The Seventh Eye/Shakuf +972 Magazine, ZDF and Der Standard) who continued the work of Gazan journalists and investigated about the threats and difficulties they are facing.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/03/27/gaza-israel-palestine-shot-killed-injured-destroyed-dangerous-drone-journalists-in-gaza/

Progressive Media Activist Dies

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Article in Free Press by Timothy Karr, 3/27/25

Headline:  “Free Press Mourns the Death of Co-Founder and Scholar Robert W. McChesney”

“McChesney was the author or editor of 27 books, including Rich Media, Poor Democracy; The Problem of the Media; and Digital Disconnect. He co-authored several books with his frequent co-author and close friend John Nichols, including The Death and Life of American Journalism and Dollarocracy. McChesney was the president of Free Press in its early years and served on its board of directors afterward. . .”

“While McChesney spent much of his career charting the problems of the media and the critical junctures that created our current crises, he believed fundamentally in the public’s ability to solve those problems and build a media system that serves people’s needs and sustains democracy. . .”

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/free-press-mourns-death-co-founder-and-scholar-robert-w-mcchesney

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Article in The Nation by John Nichols, 3/27/25

Headline:  “Robert McChesney, the Great Champion of Journalism and Democracy, Has Died”

“The academic and activist inspired generations of people to challenge corporate power and support a media reform movement that lives on.

“Bob McChesney, who died on Tuesday at the age of 72, first introduced himself to me almost 30 years ago, on the set of a public television news program in Madison, Wisconsin. Bob was a distinguished University of Wisconsin professor who was gaining an international reputation for his groundbreaking analysis of the threat to democracy posed by corporate control of media. Raising his arguments in books, speeches, and frequent C-Span appearances, he was well on his way to becoming one of the great public intellectuals of his time. . .”

“The program was framed as a debate about the future of journalism. Bob was positioned as the doomsayer, warning about how media consolidation was killing journalism. . .”

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/robert-mcchesney-obituary/

PBS Indoctrinating Our Kids?

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Article in New York Times by Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum, 3/26/25

Headline:  “Elmo and Elon Musk Are Cited as G.O.P. Lawmakers Grill PBS and NPR“

Subhead:  “Dark pronouncements by Republicans about a ‘communist agenda’ espoused by public media were intercut with lighter references to “Sesame Street” and ‘Curious George.’ “

“Congressional Republicans laced into PBS and NPR on Wednesday, accusing the country’s biggest public media networks of institutional bias in a fiery hearing that represented the latest salvo against the American press by close allies of the Trump administration.

“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who organized the hearing — which she called ‘Anti-American Airwaves’ — opened her remarks by deriding PBS and NPR as ‘radical left-wing echo chambers’ that published skewed news reports and indoctrinated children with L.G.B.T.Q. programming.

“The leaders of both PBS and NPR testified that those claims were untrue, arguing that their stations served as a crucial source of accurate information and educational programming for millions of Americans, even as the NPR chief executive acknowledged regrets for posting critical remarks about President Trump before she joined the broadcaster. . .”

“Representative Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, said that Republican lawmakers would rather go after Big Bird than President Trump. “If shame was still a thing, this hearing would be shameful,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/business/media/pbs-npr-congress-hearing-republicans.html

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 3/26/25

Headline:  “NPR and PBS Leaders Face Grilling Before House DOGE Subcommittee”

Subhead:  “We are essential, especially in remote and rural places,” the head of Alaska Public Media testified.”

“It was standing room only at Wednesday’s House subcommittee hearing on the public broadcasters NPR and PBS.

“Titled ‘Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,’ the hearing, held by the DOGE subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, comes as various Republican lawmakers have spent the past few weeks making a rallying cry out of their calls to pull federal funding from the broadcasters over perceived liberal bias. . .”

“Press freedom groups, meanwhile, say the hearing is taking place in the context of a broader campaign against the media in the United States in the form of lawsuits, government investigations, and hostile rhetoric from officials.

“This fits into the broader pattern that we’ve been observing since Trump became president of using the government as a tool to harm the media in any way,” said Clayton Weimers, the head of the US office of Reporters Without Borders.

“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and the subcommittee’s chair, began the hearing by recounting how she—and her three children—grew up watching PBS. Her tone quickly shifted.

“ ‘NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical, left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America,’ Greene said in her opening statement, claiming that the broadcasters are ‘brainwashing and trans-ing’ children. . .”

“Maher (NPR CEO) and Kerger (PBS CEO) defended the broadcasters. ‘I do not believe we are politically biased,’ Maher said at one point. ‘We are a nonpartisan organization.’

“Kerger highlighted PBS’s educational programming for kids, which she said especially benefits children whose families cannot afford pre-kindergarten. ‘I strongly believe that the programming we offer to prepare children for the future is the most essential work that we do today,’ she said.

“Public media has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades. A 2017 national survey from Rasmussen Reports found that just 21 percent of Americans—including less than a third of Republicans—supported cutting federal support of public broadcasting”.

https://www.cjr.org/news/npr-and-pbs-leaders-face-grilling-before-house-doge-subcommittee.php

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/

Beastly News

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Article in The Guardian by Joesph Gedeon, 3/25/25

Headline:  “Trump campaign chief sues Daily Beast over defamation claims”

Subhead:  “The news website calls the lawsuit ‘meritless and a transparent attempt to … silence the independent press’ “

“A top campaign manager for Donald Trump’s victorious 2024 presidential bid has filed a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Beast, alleging the news outlet fabricated claims about his campaign compensation and deliberately damaged his professional reputation.

“Chis LaCivita’s lawsuit, filed on Monday in the US district court for the eastern district of Virginia, centers on a series of articles published in October 2024 claiming that he received up to $22m from the campaign and associated political action committees.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/daily-beast-trump-campaign-chief-chis-lacivita-lawsuit

For Media – His Word is Law

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Article in The Washington Post by Kara Voght, 3/24/25

Headline:  “In Karoline Leavitt’s world, Trump’s word is enough”

Subhead:  “The White House press secretary is shaming some members of the Washington media and fielding softballs from others — all with a self-assured smile.”

“. . . Since February, the White House has been exercising tighter control over the “pool,” a rotating group of journalists covering the president’s public activities when space is limited, serving as the eyes and ears of the entire press corps. .. .”

“On Feb. 25, S.V. Dáte, a reporter for HuffPost, was gearing up for his turn on pool duty the next day when he heard from the White House. ‘We actually can’t fit you in the pool tomorrow,’ a press aide texted.

“During Dáte’s previous turn in the pool rotation, he had asked Trump about a post JD Vance made on X, in which the vice president said that ‘judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.’  . . .”

“ ‘The vice president suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way that you don’t like, they could just enforce it by themselves,’ Dáte said. ‘Do you agree with that?’

“ ‘I don’t know even what you’re talking about,’ Trump replied. ‘Neither do you. Who are you with?’

“ ‘HuffPost, sir.’  ‘Who?’  ‘HuffPost.’

“ ‘Oh, no wonder,’ Trump said. ‘I thought they — I thought they died.’

On Feb. 26, the day Dáte had been scheduled for pool duty, was the first day the White House had taken over the pool. An Axios reporter got his slot. That afternoon, Dáte spotted Leavitt in the White House press workspace and asked her why he’d been singled out. She told him he should be ‘grateful’ that HuffPost was still allowed in the pool, according to two witnesses to the exchange.

For the full story, read:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2025/03/24/karoline-leavitt-trump-press-secretary/

VOA Burners Being Sued?

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Updates:

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump gutted Voice of America. Six staff members are fighting back.”

Subhead:  “Kari Lake and the Trump administration cut hundreds of journalists at the global news outlet. A lawsuit says that’s not just wrong — it’s illegal.”

“Even before Donald Trump returned to the White House, he set his sights on dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media — the agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and Radio Free Asia.

He hand-picked two-time election loser Kari Lake, the Arizona Republican, to be his hatchet, most notably taking a whack at the Voice of America, the longstanding and well-respected media outlet that has promoted democracy and transparency across the globe since World War II. . . ”

“Behind these cuts at the federally-funded VOA are real journalists, real people. More than 900 full-time employees were placed on indefinite leave. Another 500 contractors were fired.

“But here’s another number: six. That’s how many VOA staff members are suing the Trump administration, arguing that shutting down the outlet is unlawful and unconstitutional. . . ”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/voice-of-america-lawsuit-unlawful-unconstitutional/

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Article in The Guardian by Michael Sinato, 3/24/25

Headline:  “Trump’s shuttering of global media agency endangers reporters, staff say”

Subhead:  “Employees who may have to return home risk death or imprisonment at hands of authoritarian governments”

“Foreign workers at US government-backed media outlets being cut by the Trump administration say they face deportation to their home countries, where some risk imprisonment or death at the hands of authoritarian governments. . . .”

“. . . We have many coworkers in different services, several of whom came here and sought asylum visas. If their own government knew they worked for RFA [Radio Free Asia] and they went back to their own country, their lives would be at risk,” Jaewoo Park, a journalist for RFA, who was placed on administrative leave along with all of his coworkers, told the Guardian. . .”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/24/trump-shuttering-global-media-agency-endangers-reporters

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Podcast Article in NPR by Staff, 3/21/25

Headline:  “Voice of America Goes Quiet. And, Apocalypse Now?”

“The Trump administration has cut funding for Voice of America, the 80-year-old state media network. On this week’s On the Media, how pulling federal funds from VOA’s parent organization will imperil press freedom abroad. Plus, a Radio Free Europe journalist describes being detained for nine months in Russia until she was released alongside Evan Gershkovich.  . . Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Nicole Hemmer, political historian and co-host of the podcast “This Day.” They discuss the complicated history of Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda. . .”

“Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Alsu Kurmasheva, press freedom advocate and veteran journalist of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, on what the network provides in countries lacking a free press and her own nine month detention in Russia. Plus, Bay Fang, president of Radio Free Asia, or RFA, on why authoritarians are celebrating Trump’s shutdown and how RFA’s closure will further diminish press freedom in Asia. . . ”

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

Media Diversity Not Politically Correct?

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Article in Washington Post by Taylor Tilfordm 3/21/25

Headline:  “FCC chair threatens to block mergers of media companies engaged in DEI”

Subhead:  “The agency is already investigating Comcast and NBCUniversal over their diversity, equity and inclusion policies.”

“The Federal Communications Commission is prepared to block mergers and acquisitions involving companies that continue promoting diversity, equity and inclusion policies, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday.

“President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies such as the Justice Department to draw up lists of companies, nonprofits and other organizations to target over ‘illegal DEI efforts,’ which the administration has defined broadly. Now Carr is signaling that persisting with DEI could negatively affect media and communications companies’ dealmaking prospects.

“Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. . .”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/21/fcc-dei-diversity-mergers-acquisitions-ma/

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Article in Free Press by Timothy Karr, 3/21/25

Headline:  “FCC Chairman Carr’s Egregious Attacks on Diversity Reach New Low With Merger Threats”

“FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s racist attacks on U.S. businesses ramped up on Friday, when he announced, according to Bloomberg, that he would block mergers from companies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Carr’s latest tirade follows earlier threats against Comcast and Verizon.

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said, “There are many good reasons to block a media merger: for example, preserving competition, or preventing higher prices and job cuts. A company’s programs designed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion obviously don’t make that list. Carr’s crusade against so-called DEI programs is a blatant attempt to legitimize discrimination against people of color, women, people with disabilities, religious minorities and LGBTQIA+ people. It’s shameful and wrong.

“Corporate America needs to stand up against Carr’s bigotry and reject his offensive claims that programs designed to address discrimination are themselves discriminatory. . .”

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/fcc-chairman-carr-attacks-dei-mergers

 

Protecting the Sources

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Meghnad Bose, 3/20/25

Headline:  “How News Publications Are Changing to Protect Immigrant Sources”

Subhead:  “Several outlets say they’ve loosened anonymity policies in recent weeks.”

“A few days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Heather Tirado Gilligan, the managing editor of El Tímpano (The Eardrum), a small local newsroom in California known for covering the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan communities, launched an updated guide to protecting immigrant sources. The new policy called for identifying any individuals who were not public figures or experts by their first name and last initial—and, in certain circumstances, using a pseudonym. . .”

“El Tímpano is one of a large number of publications, especially those that write about or for immigrant communities, wrestling with what sorts of additional measures they should take to protect the people they cover. Many of these outlets are simply doubling down on extensive policies they’ve had for years; others are taking novel steps, including going out of their way to help potential subjects understand the implications of talking to the press.

“At the Miami Herald, senior editor Jay Ducassi recently sought—and received—approval to liberalize the paper’s policy on anonymous sourcing for immigrants, inspired by a request from Syra Ortiz-Blanes, the paper’s immigration reporter. Ducassi, who has been at the paper—including a brief stint with its Spanish-language sister publication El Nuevo Herald—since 1999, is characteristically skeptical about using unnamed sources, but he believes the times merit a new approach. ‘It’s not our job to make Immigration [and Customs Enforcement]’s job easier by identifying targets,’ he said. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/immigrant-sources-anonymous.php