Press Freedom

US International Media Coming Back?

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Article in The Washington Post by SDcott Nover, 3/9/26

Headline:  “Judge rules Kari Lake unlawfully ran U.S. media agency, voiding layoffs”

Subhead:  “Kari Lake, the Trump appointee in charge of Voice of America and other international broadcasters, has used dubious authority in her effort to dismantle the agency.”

“A federal judge in Washington ruled Saturday that Kari Lake has unlawfully served as chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees Voice of America, and nullified many actions she has taken in the role, including mass layoffs of staff. . .”

“The decision is the latest in a string of legal defeats to the Trump administration’s year-long effort to dismantle USAGM, the federal agency that in addition to Voice of America oversees other U.S.-funded international broadcasters including Radio Free Asia. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/07/kari-lake-unlawful-voice-of-america-ruling/

Crackdown on Media

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Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 3/6/26

Headline:  “Retaliation? Nashville Journalist Detained by ICE After Reporting on Trump Crackdown

Subhead:  “ICE abductions of noncitizen journalists take the reporters best equipped to cover immigration Subhead: enforcement”

“Press freedom groups on Friday were calling for the immediate release of Estefany Rodríguez, a journalist with Nashville Noticias and Univision 42 Nashville, after she was detained by federal immigration agents while traveling in her marked press vehicle. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/nashville-ice-arrests

Ice & Media Databases

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 3/5/26

Headline:  “Journalists push back against parent companies’ contracts with ICE”

Subhead:  “Some reporters at Law360 and Reuters are raising concerns about ICE’s use of their companies’ databases in immigration raids”

“More than 200 journalists at Law360, a legal news outlet, and its sister publications have signed a letter demanding that their parent company RELX drop its contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

“The letter, which was signed by more than 80% of the union representing editorial staff at Law360 and regulation news site MLex, states that the $22.1 million contract “raises imminent human rights concerns” given recent actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within DHS. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/law360-reuters-newsrooms-letter-against-ice-dhs/

Media Control Under the Rock

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Article in by Saurav Sarkar, 3/5/26

Headline:  “Three Massive Funds Control a Chunk of Most Media:”
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Subhead:  “Maybe that’s why you might not have heard of them”

“Recently, FAIR (2/3/26) took a look at the owners of the biggest online media outlets. It focused on the controlling owners of those outlets, which are mostly publicly traded corporations. But a lot of the money—about $2 trillion dollars—invested in the top 50 online media outlets in the US is not the controlling owners’. Rather, it is possessed by minority institutional investors that manage assets for others.

“Take BlackRock, Inc., for instance. Innovation & Tech Today (7/8/22) called it ‘the biggest company you’ve probably never heard of.’ The multinational’s influence comes from the $13.5 trillion it manages on behalf of retirement funds, governments, other corporations and individual investors. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/three-massive-funds-control-a-chunk-of-most-media/

Newspaper Gets it Right

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 3/4/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Inside The Star Tribune’s coverage of the Minneapolis immigration raids”

Subhead:  “Publisher and CEO Steve Grove shares how the paper balanced aggressive reporting with care for journalists covering a deeply personal story”

“One of the biggest news stories of 2026 has been the immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, and the protests that have gone along with those operations. Some 4,000 federal agents descended on the Twin Cities back in January, sparking a story that gathered massive national attention.

“The story tragically gained even more attention on Jan. 7 when Renee Good, a poet and mother of three, was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Two weeks later, an ICU nurse named Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent.

“As I said, this was a huge national story. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/minnesota-star-tribune-coverage-ice-raids/

Sketchy War? – Attack Media!

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Article in Mediaite by Isaac Schorr, 3/2/26

Headline: ” ‘I Don’t Understand the Confusion’: Marco Rubio Slams Media for Questioning Reason for Iran Operation”

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio tsk-tsked the media while articulating the reason for the Trump administration’s ongoing military operation in Iran on Monday.

“Amid continued debate over the purpose and efficacy of that operation, Rubio tried to the set record straight during a gaggle with reporters on Capitol Hill.

“So look, the US conducted this operation with a clear goal in mind. I haven’t got a chance to see a lot of reporting. I don’t understand what the confusion is. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/i-dont-understand-the-confusion-marco-rubio-slams-media-for-questioning-reason-for-iran-operation/

Will New Owner Melt CNN?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 3/2/26

Headline:  “Opinion | CNN’s coverage of Iran is a reminder of its power — and what could be lost in the wrong hands”

Subhead:  “The network’s all-hands coverage of the strikes shows exactly what’s at stake as a potential sale to Paramount raises fears inside the newsroom”

“At some point overnight Friday into Saturday, while battling insomnia, I was catching up on some programs I had recently recorded. When I was done and about to head to bed, I went back to cable and came across a startling overnight breaking news alert: The United States and Israel had launched coordinated attacks on Iran. . .”

“As someone who writes about the media and has a special interest in it, I couldn’t help but wonder what CNN will look and sound like when, eventually, it will come under the control of Paramount, with CEO David Ellison, and, perhaps, CBS News, with editor-in-chief Bari Weiss?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/what-will-happen-cnn-sale-paramount/

Wagging the News-Dog?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew and Ivan L. Nagy, 3/2/26

Headline:  “Blackout Iran”

Subhead:  “When the Trump administration launched a major attack on Iran, news organizations had to navigate a shaky environment for communications—and moral clarity.”

“. . .Sunday front pages of the [New York] Times and [Washington] Post did not mention the question of legality, and other outlets, such as CBS News and Fox News, uncritically accepted the administration’s framing of the attack as a ‘preemptive strike.’ Though news organizations did vital reporting before the US assaults in both Venezuela and Iran, exposing the brutality of those regimes, Kourosh Ziabari, an Iranian freelance journalist based in New York who writes for outlets including New Lines Magazine and Foreign Policy, told CJR that the attack must ‘be framed as what it is: an unlawful and illegal military strike.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/iran-war-trump-epstein-hegseth-tehran-casualties.php

Whither Goest CNN?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones 2/27/26

Headline:  “Opinion | CNN future in question after Thursday’s stunning Warner Bros. Discovery sale news”

Subhead:  “Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery puts CNN’s future and its editorial independence in question”

“What does the future hold for CNN?

“That’s one of the big media questions following the stunning news that broke Thursday evening. Netflix has decided to withdraw its pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery. That now paves the way for David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance to take over WBD, including cable news network CNN . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/netflix-pulls-out-warner-bros-discovery-paramount-deal/

Court Intervenes on Illegal Search

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Article in The Hill by Tara Suter, 2/24/26

Headline:  “Judge says Justice Department may not search Washington Post reporter’s seized devices “

“A judge told the Justice Department in a Tuesday filing that it cannot search a Washington Post reporter’s seized devices.

“In the filing, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter said the U.S. government could not “open, access, review, or otherwise examine any of” Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s “seized data.”

“The government seized all of Ms. Natanson’s work product, documentary material, and devices, terminating her access to the confidential sources she developed and to all the tools she needs as a working journalist,” Porter said in the filing. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5753794-justice-dept-reporter-devices/