Press Freedom

Arm And A Leg Coverage?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Ivan L. Nagy, 11/20/25

Headline:  “Adding Insult to Injury”

Subhead:  “As Washington braced for the release of the Epstein files, Trump’s red-carpet welcome of Mohammed bin Salman and threats directed at an ABC News reporter made his hostility to journalists chillingly clear.”

“. . .This was Mohammed bin Salman’s first visit to the White House since 2018, when Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, was brutally assassinated at the age of fifty-nine. . .”

“. . .’US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist,’ Mary Bruce, the chief White House correspondent for ABC, said, facing MBS. ‘Nine-eleven families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr. President.’. . .”

read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/adding-insult-to-injury-trump-mbs-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-jamal-khashoggi-saudi-mary-bruce-abc-fake-news.php

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Article in The Hill by Tara Sutter, 11/20/25

Headline:  “Jon Stewart rips Trump, tech leaders over Saudi crown prince visit”

“. . . ‘Jon, what do you think about all of the CEOs attending the White House dinner for MBS [Mohammed bin Salman]?” Brittany Mehmedovic, Stewart’s producer, asked on his “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” podcast.

” ‘What did we think they were? Honestly? Like, I — are people surprised by it? Are people — ‘I cannot believe that the head of Apple, the head of Meta … all the different — would sit at a state dinner with the guy who is funneling billions and billions of dollars into their businesses,’ Stewart replied in the Thursday episode highlighted by Mediaite. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5616043-stewart-trump-tech-ceos-saudi-ties/

Media – Going, Going, Gone

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 11/18/25

Headline:  “USA: 8 ways Trump is shrinking the space for press freedom – literally”

“The attacks against the press carried out by President Donald Trump since the start of his second term have increasingly stretched beyond rhetoric and policy and turned into physical limitations for journalists. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is highlighting eight ways the US administration is physically restricting journalists’ access to areas where they were previously free to report. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-8-ways-trump-shrinking-space-press-freedom-literally

More Media Judgements?

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Article in Mediaite by Sean James, 11/19/25

Headline:  ” ‘They Will Win!’ Dan Abrams Urges Media Orgs To Fight Trump on ‘Meritless’ Lawsuits After CNN’s Court Victory”

“Dan Abrams urged media companies on Wednesday to punch back against President Donald Trump whenever he files a “ridiculous” lawsuit against them, because, as CNN just showed in court, “they will win!”

Abrams made his plea to outlets one day after a U.S. appeals court upheld the dismissal of a Trump lawsuit against CNN. The president sued the cable channel in 2022 for $475 million after several of its reporters referred to his claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged as ‘The Big Lie.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/they-will-win-dan-abrams-urges-media-orgs-to-fight-trump-on-meritless-lawsuits-after-cnns-court-victory/

Is There a Campus Right-to-Report?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvão and Riddhi Setty

Headline:  “One Battle After Another”

Subhead:  “On university campuses, student papers are fighting their own administrations—and sometimes the government—for the right to report.”

“. . .The Mercury [University of Texas] published several stories criticizing the university for calling in state troopers to student encampments and ran interviews with protesters who were arrested; soon after, administrators accused Olivares Gutierrez of committing “journalism malpractice” and replaced The Mercury’s adviser. . .”

“In September of 2024, the school’s administration fired Olivares Gutierrez. The Mercury’s entire staff subsequently went on strike, and members of its management team were fired as well. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/one-battle-after-another-student-newspapers-censorship-crisis.php

Kansas Newspaper Police-raid Update

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Article in AP by John D. Hanna and Heatber Hollingsworth, 11/11/25

Headline:  “Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million over law enforcement raid on a small-town newspaper”

“TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom, the paper’s editor said Tuesday.

Marion County was among multiple defendants in five federal lawsuits filed by the company that publishes the Marion County Record, its publisher, the estate of his late mother Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner, employees of the paper and a former Marion City Council member whose home also was raided. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c18f46a215908198335ca6f608c3360b

 

Yelling at the Media Cloud?

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 11/10/25

Headline:  “Angry Trump Snaps at Media as Brutal New Data Shows Size of GOP Losses”

Subhead:  “As Trump seethes at journalists amid the release of striking new analyses of the election, a reporter who covers Congress details how Republicans are barred from acknowledging Trump’s unpopularity—a dangerous place to be.     Donald Trump vehemently talks to media”

“Under questioning from reporters about last week’s GOP losses, President Trump seethed that worsening inflation on his watch—a driver of the outcome—is nothing but a Democratic ‘con.’ . . Then, when a reporter raised facts contradicting him, he snapped in anger, because only the despot says what reality is. . . .”

Read the full article at:

http://Read the full article at: https://newrepublic.com/article/202914/angry-trump-snaps-media-brutal-new-data-shows-size-gop-losses

Local Reporters Are Vulnerable

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Article in Poynter by Michelle Zenarosa, 11/6/25

Headline:  “When your local reporter needs the same protection as a war correspondent”

Subhead:  “Five months of covering ICE raids taught our small LA newsroom hard lessons — and we’re still figuring out how to sustain it”

“When federal immigration operations began sweeping across Los Angeles in June, our newsroom worked around the clock. I didn’t have to tell them to. No one wanted to stop.

“One reporter’s family members were being followed. Another staffer’s family went into hiding — despite having legal status. Sources we’d cultivated for years suddenly wouldn’t answer calls. At LA Public Press, a 14-person nonprofit newsroom led by and largely staffed by people of color who grew up in the neighborhoods we cover, everyone on staff was personally touched by the raids in some way. We weren’t covering some abstract story happening to other people. We were covering home. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/la-public-press-journalists-covering-ice-raids-safety/

Loony-Bin Reporting?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Aida Alami, 11/3/25

Headline:  “Twin Assaults on Press Freedom”

Subhead:  “The ICE detention of Sami Hamdi closely follows the deportation of Mario Guevara.”

“Hamdi’s arrest was first announced by Laura Loomer, the far-right anti-Muslim troll with close ties to the Trump administration, via a triumphant post on X with the word ‘SCOOP’ and a siren emoji: ‘As a direct result of Amy [Mekelburg]’s report and my relentless pressure on the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, US officials have now moved to take action against Hamdi’s visa status and his continued presence in this country’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/twin-assaults-press-freedom-sami-hamdi-ice-abduction-loomer-amy-mek-dhs.php

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Article in The Washington Post by By Scott Nover and Drew Harwell, 11/3/25

Headline:  “Laura Loomer is now credentialed to cover the Pentagon”

Subhead:  “The far-right activist and former congressional candidate has repeatedly criticized defense officials on her website and social media accounts while boasting of her close ties to President Donald Trump.”

“Laura Loomer, the far-right political activist and former congressional candidate in Florida, has been credentialed to cover the Defense Department, according to one person familiar with the matter, joining a new cohort of right-wing media that have agreed to the Pentagon’s new press policy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/03/laura-loomer-pentagon-credentials/

CBS News – “Lotta Money”

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 11/3/25

Headline:  “CBS News heavily edits Trump 60 Minutes interview, cutting boast network ‘paid me a lotta money’ “

Subhead:  “Trump said Paramount’s sale to David and Larry Ellison was ‘greatest thing that’s happened in a long time’ for free press”

“. . .The edits are notable because, exactly one year before Trump was interviewed by O’Donnell at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday he had sued CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to help her chances in the presidential election.

While many legal experts widely dismissed the lawsuit as ‘meritless’ and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, CBS settled with Trump for $16m in July. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/03/trump-cbs-60-minutes-interview-edited

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Article in Mediaite by Sean James, 11/2/25

Headline:  ” ‘Paid Me a Lotta Money!’ Trump Takes Victory Lap Over ’60 Minutes’ — In Part of Interview That Didn’t Air Live On ’60 Minutes’ “

“One part of President Donald Trump’s 60 Minutes interview on Sunday that did not air live: The president gloating that CBS paid him millions of dollars to settle his lawsuit against the program for its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris last year. . .”

He also complimented Bari Weiss, the new head of CBS News, and said he believed she will do a good job leading the news operation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/paid-me-a-lotta-money-trump-takes-victory-lap-over-60-minutes-in-part-of-interview-that-didnt-air-live-on-60-minutes/

This Week – The West Wing!

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Article in the Washington Post by By Scott Nover and Andrew Jeong, 11/1/25

Headline:  “White House restricts media access in key area of the West Wing”

Subhead:  “The move limiting free press access to Room 140, which houses the offices of the press secretary and other staff, was said to be based on national security.”

“The White House said Friday that reporters could no longer access an area in the West Wing known as ‘Upper Press’ that houses the offices of key communications staff members, triggering pushback from White House correspondents, who said the move would hurt the press’s ability to cover the president. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/31/white-house-media-access-west-wing/