Press Freedom

Attack a Journalist? – FAFO

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Article in the Huffington Post by David Moye, 1/15/26

Headline:  “Karoline Leavitt’s Meltdown Not Winning Her Any Fans On Social Media”

Subhead:  “People on X weren’t sympathetic to the White House press secretary’s tirade against a journalist asking a legitimate question about issues facing ICE.”

“White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt probably thought attacking a journalist who asked a legitimate question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during Thursday’s press briefing would help her win the hearts and minds of voters.

But it doesn’t appear things worked out as she might have hoped, based on the social media reaction to her meltdown at a simple question asked by The Hill’s Niall Stanage.

During the briefing, Stanage noted an earlier comment made by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that ICE agents are ‘doing everything correctly,’ before asking Leavitt how that can be when “32 people died in ICE custody last year, 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE, and Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent.”

“Leavitt didn’t like the answer and declared, ‘Oh, OK. So you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion’ before going on a tirade where she called Stanage ‘a left-wing activist” and said he was ‘posing as a journalist.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/karoline-leavitt-meltdown-ice-sparks-social-media-backlash_n_69696996e4b00edae2a41e5b?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

Can You ICE the Truth?

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Article in The New Republic by Hafiz Rashid, 1/14/26

Headline:  “DHS Picks Fight With Reporter Who Exposed ICE’s Shoddy Hiring”

Subhead:  “The Department of Homeland Security is pissed after Laura Jedeed revealed how she got a job offer from ICE in just six minutes.”

“The Department of Homeland Security attempted to discredit a journalist Wednesday and was quickly embarrassed.

“On Tuesday, Slate published a bombshell article by Laura Jedeed outlining how she had somehow slipped through ICE’s screening process to be offered a job by the agency despite failing to complete any of the required paperwork, including a background check. The next day, DHS tried to claim Jedeed’s article was ‘such a lazy lie.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/post/205300/dhs-fight-reporter-exposed-ice-job-hiring

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Article in Democracy Now by Smy Goodman, 1/14/26

Headline:   “Journalist Tests ICE Recruitment; Surprised to Find Herself Hired with No Background Check”

“ ‘They didn’t ask very many questions.’ Independent journalist and U.S. military veteran Laura Jedeed recounts how she was hired as a deportation officer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a six-minute interview at a job fair in Texas, despite never signing any paperwork, not having completed a background check, likely failing a drug test, and publicly sharing her opposition to the Trump administration and its anti-immigrant crackdown. . .”

Listen to the full story at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/14/laura_jedeed_ice

Political Search of Reporter’s Home?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Maddy Crowell, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Nothing Is Secure”

Subhead:  “The home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter, was searched by the FBI. Her devices were seized. Runa Sandvik, whose life’s work is protecting journalists’ digital security, assesses the damage—and what news organizations need to know.”

“On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post published a story by Hannah Natanson, a reporter who works as part of a team covering the ways Donald Trump is upending the federal workforce. “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal,” the headline went. . .”

“. . .On Wednesday morning, the FBI searched her home and seized her phone, a Garmin watch, and two laptops—one of them issued by the Post.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/hannah-natanson-fbi-washington-post-raid-devices-seized-runa-sandvik-security-computer-phone-laptop-sources.php

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Article in Status by Natalie Korsach, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Bezos Abandons His Post“

Subhead:  “The FBI’s disturbing raid on a Washington Post reporter ignited widespread outrage across journalism, but Jeff Bezos stayed conspicuously silent—angering some inside the newsroom, Status has learned”

“On Wednesday afternoon, as shock rippled through major newsrooms after the FBI executed a search warrant on a reporter at The Washington Post, Executive Editor Matt Murray addressed the episode internally. In a memo to staff. . .”

” ‘This extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work,’ Murray wrote. . .”

Read the full article at::

https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-fbi-raid-jeff-bezos

Broadcasting into Iran Stopped?

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Article in Mediaite by Sarah Rumpfm 1/13/26

Headline: “Kari Lake Blocks Radio Free Europe from Using U.S. Transmitter in Kuwait to Broadcast into Iran: Report”

“US Agency for Global Media senior advisor Kari Lake has blocked Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from broadcasting into Iran using a USAGM transmitter located in Kuwait, reported Oliver Darcy in his Status newsletter.

“Lake narrowly lost the 2022 Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, and since then has paired her support for former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election with her own unfounded accusations that her election was stolen from her as well. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/kari-lake-blocks-radio-free-europe-from-using-u-s-transmitter-in-kuwait-to-broadcast-into-iran-report/

Did “60 Minutes” Lose Something?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 1/8/26

Headline: “The Shadow Over ‘60’ “

Subhead:  “As Sharyn Alfonsi’s ’60 Minutes’ report remains shelved, Status has learned that an Anderson Cooper piece is also caught in a prolonged editorial review process, frustrating the veteran producer attached to the story.”

“Earlier this week, on Tuesday, members of the ’60 Minutes’ team gathered for a meeting to discuss the future of Sharyn Alfonsi’s delayed piece on migrants deported by Donald Trump’s administration to a notorious El Salvadorian prison. The segment, which had been slated for broadcast on December 21, was pulled from air at the eleventh hour by the network’s new MAGA friendly editor in chief, Bari Weiss. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/60-minutes-bari-weiss-cbs-news-cecot

Journalists Must Report Facts

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Article in Poynter by Kelly McBride, 1/7/26

Headline:  “How journalists should cover ICE’s fatal shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis”

Subhead:  “Editors face high-stakes ethical decisions on video, transparency and protest coverage — and those choices will be closely scrutinized”

“Journalists have a critical role to play in covering a fatal use of force by any law enforcement officer. It’s the most basic form of holding power to account.

“That responsibility is especially urgent after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, an incident that was captured on multiple videos and has prompted sharply conflicting accounts from federal, state and local officials. . .””

Read the full article at:

|https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2026/covering-ice-fatal-shooting-minneapolis-journalism-ethics/

Passing of Great Public Broadcaster

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Article in Democracy Now by Amy Goodman, 12/25/25

Headline:  “Remembering Bill Moyers: PBS Icon on Corruption of Corporate Media and Power of Public Broadcasting”

“The legendary journalist Bill Moyers died in June at the age of 91. Moyers, whose long career included helping found the Peace Corps and serving as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, was an award-winning champion of public television and independent media. We feature one of his numerous interviews on Democracy Now!, where we discussed the history of public broadcasting in the United States and the powerful role of money in corporate media. .”

Read / Listen to the full article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/26/remembering_bill_moyers_pbs_icon_on

Not All Media Crashed and Burned

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Article in The Guardian by Moira Donegan, 12/29/25

Headline:   “As the US media floundered this year, I couldn’t help but think: ‘Thank God I’m at the Guardian”

Subhead:  “Other outlets have asked their writers to compromise, but the Guardian has never – and would never – ask me to pull a punch”

“. . .On the other hand, US media organizations are also facing tremendous pressure from the Trump administration – and from Donald Trump personally, who has used a combination of frivolous defamation suits and weaponized regulatory agencies to extract vast sums from outlets that publish coverage he does not like and threaten the licenses of broadcasters who host voices critical of his movement. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/29/us-media-trump-era-guardian

 

Trump, the Knife?

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 12/22/25

Headline:  “The numbers that defined the Trump administration’s attacks against the press in 2025”

Subhead:  “Nine hours into his term, Trump took his first action against the media. The attacks only escalated from there.”

“After waiting four years to return to the White House, President Donald Trump did not hesitate.

“Congratulations from foreign leaders were still pouring in on Inauguration Day when Trump signed his first directive. That day, he issued a raft of executive orders, proclamations and pardons that remade vast swaths of public policy and upended lives around the globe. Among those affected by his actions were journalists. Just nine hours into his term, Trump suspended hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign aid meant to support press freedom overseas. . .:

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/united-states-press-freedom-donald-trump/

Media Imploding or Exploding?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Betsy Morais, 12/20/25

Headline: “A Year Under Pressure”

Subhead:  “Assaults on press freedom, at home and abroad—which CJR is uniquely positioned to cover.”

“This week, Jem Bartholomew writes about a new report shared with CJR by the US Press Freedom Tracker, led by the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), which documented thirty-two instances of journalists being arrested or charged for doing their jobs in America in 2025. The report also recorded a hundred and seventy assaults against journalists in the past year: ‘nearly as many as across the previous three years combined,” Bartholomew notes.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/editors-note/year-pressure-press-freedom-attack-journalism.php