Press Freedom

A Media Template for the U.S.

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Andras Petho – Viktor Orban Documentary

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Josh Hersh, 2/14/25

Headline: “A Warning from a Hungarian Journalist: ‘Brace Yourself for the Worst’”

Subhead: “András Pethő has watched American media head down a familiar path.”

“András Pethő is a Hungarian journalist and a cofounder of Direkt36, an independent investigative news outlet.

“Over the past decade, he’s watched as the government of Viktor Orbán—the world leader whom Steve Bannon once praised as Trump before Trump’—has systematically eroded the freedom of the press in his country, in ways that may feel familiar to Americans watching corporate news leaders succumb to pressure from the administration.

“András’s 2022 essay on the lessons he learned from experiencing Hungary’s crackdown on a free press ‘Direkt36’s latest investigation: a documentary about the secret wealth of Orbán and his allies . . . ‘ ”

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/hungary-viktor-orban-direkt36-andras-petho.php

FCC Carr Crash

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/12/25

Headline: “A Runaway Carr”

Subhead: “Pressed by Status over text message, FCC boss Brendan Carr defended his actions—including his decision not to go after Rupert Murdoch’s Fox.”

” On Tuesday evening, as I was putting the finishing touches on the previous edition of this newsletter, news broke that Brendan Carr, Donald Trump’s handpicked Federal Communications Commission chairman, had launched yet another investigation into a media company. Carr had already revived petitions filed by pro-MAGA forces against ABC, NBC, and CBS. He had also announced a string of investigations targeting NPR, PBS, and the Soros-backed Audacy. Now, he had written to Comcast boss Brian Roberts, informing him that the FCC would be investigating whether the company—which owns NBC—had violated the law because of its D.E.I. initiatives.

Carr has been aggressive in pursuing media companies with news divisions that have scrutinized Trump, but, as we have pointed out, he has conspicuously given Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation a pass. . .”

https://www.status.news/p/brendan-carr-fcc-fox-interview

A Widening Gulf in the Media

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Article in Common Dreams by Brett Wilkins, 2/14/25

Headline: “As Trump Targets AP, Media Urged to Resist Moves Like ‘Gulf of America’ Renaming”

Subhead:  “It’s at times like these that journalists need to put down their pens and advocate for accountable leadership,” asserted one campaigner.”

“First Amendment defenders are calling on media organizations and journalists to stand up to bullying and intimidation by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration on Friday confirmed the indefinite exclusion of one of the world’s largest news agencies from White House press briefings and Air Force One flights over its refusal to adopt the Republican leader’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico.

“White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said that because The Associated Press “continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change” of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, it will be indefinitely banned from White House news conferences and the president’s official airplane.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-gulf-of-america

Information Source in Danger?

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Article in The Verge by Chris Welch, 2/13/25

Headline: “Wikipedia looks to shield its editors from “an increase in threats.”

“Wikimedia Foundation will likely soon have to contend with ‘the rising noise of criticism from Elon Musk and others,’ as founder Jimmy Wales recently put it. It’s already taking measures to safeguard the identity of those who edit pages on Wikipedia. One of those is a temporary accounts program that, as 404 Media describes it, will ‘give editors who are not logged in a temporary username rather than showing an IP address. . .

” ‘Some of these tools have previously been implemented to protect users in authoritarian countries. Now they’ll be used more widely as Wikipedia faces an unfavorable political climate in the US.. . .’ ”

https://www.theverge.com/web/612713/wikipedia-looks-to-protect-its-editors-from

Dropping Shoe or Booting Media?

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Article in yahoo!news by Sean Burch, 2/12/25

Headline:  “Meet the ‘New Media’ Press at Trump’s White House”

“Natalie Winters is young, opinionated and unabashedly pro-Trump — and she is now one of the fresh “new media” faces who will occupy space in the White House Press Briefing Room as the new administration makes way for Trump-friendly outlets while diminishing the access of traditional news sources.

“The latest shoe to drop on this front came Tuesday, as the White House press team blocked the Associated Press from entering the Oval Office because the outlet had not begun referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, as Trump ordered Jan. 20. AP executive editor Julie Pace called it “alarming” that the Trump White House would punish the AP for upholding the Gulf of Mexico’s title, saying it ‘not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.’ ”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/meet-media-press-trump-white-140000333.html

 

Criticism Not Allowed Now?

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Article in The Intercept by Sam Biddle, 2/11/25

Headline:  “ICE Wants to Know If You’re Posting Negative Things About It Online”

Subhead:  “ICE wants to hire contractors to monitor social media for threats. Those who criticize the agency could be pulled into the dragnet.”

“Amid anger and protest over the Trump administration’s plan to deport millions of immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to monitor and locate ‘negative’ social media discussion about the agency and its top officials, according to contract documents reviewed by The Intercept.

Citing an increase in threats to ICE agents and leadership, the agency is soliciting pitches from private companies to monitor threats across the internet — with a special focus on social media. People who simply criticize ICE online could pulled into the dragnet.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/02/11/ice-immigration-social-media-surveillance/

PBS DEI Pink Slip

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Article in Mediaite by Kipp Jones, 2/10/25

Headline:  “PBS Caves To Trump, Ousts Staffers: ‘We Have Closed Our DEI Office’”

“The Public Broadcasting Service announced Monday evening it had closed its diversity, equity, and inclusion office in order to comply with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

“PBS also said the staffers in that office had left the company, but that it would continue to serve Americans of all backgrounds.

“A spokesperson with the non-profit distributor of educational programming – which receives some government funding – told The Hollywood Reporter the office had been shuttered. . .”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/pbs-caves-to-trump-ousts-staffers-we-have-closed-our-dei-office/

 

Media Stenographers

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Article in Mediaite by Ahmad Austin Jr., 2/10/25

Headline:  “Fox News’s Emily Compagno said that ‘legacy media’ should simply repost President Donald Trump’s press releases when covering his presidency.”

“On Monday’s episode of Outnumbered, the panel discussed the way Trump has been criticized — by both the media and the Democratic Party — for his rapid-fire Executive Orders and other legislative decisions. Within Trump’s first two weeks, he signed 54 Executive Orders. It was the highest number of Executive Orders signed within a president’s first 100 days since Harry Truman signed 57.”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-news-host-says-all-legacy-media-has-to-do-is-repost-press-releases-from-trump-white-house/

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Article in Daily Kos by News Corpse, 2/10/25

Headline:  “WTF? Fox News Tells the ‘Legacy Media’ to Just ‘Repeat and Repost’ Whatever Dear Leader Trump Says”

“Is there anyone left in America who is not convinced that Fox News is a shameless disseminator of disinformation in the service of Donald Trump and his ultra right-wing MAGA cult? If so, the network itself has helpfully provided an argument that ought to seal the deal.”

“Trump himself has provided the best evidence that Fox News is his Ministry of Propaganda. . .”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/10/2302846/-FOX-NEWS-HOST-The-Media-Should-Just-Repeat-Retweet-and-Repost-Whatever-Dear-Leader-Trump-Says?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Virtual Musk Media

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Article in Common Dreams by Tom Valovic, 2/10/25

Headline:  “What Is the Mainstream Media Missing About Elon Musk? He Is Instituting Technocracy”

Subhead:  “What Musk is doing is tantamount to hacking the inner core of the federal government and the public trust—a blatant coup and power grab for technocratic ends.”

“It’s hard to see articles about the “move fast and break things” approach of the Trump administration without also hearing about the hovering presence the world’s richest man, technocrat extraordinaire Elon Musk. The mainstream media likes to describe Musk primarily as an oligarch. His involvement—which now includes having a desk in the White House—is a rather alarming event and something hardly anyone expected. Unfortunately, most media reports are lacking an important perspective about this unexpected bestowal of political power to him and other technocratic oligarchs. Is this a deliberate omission or do many media outlets simply have blinders on because, in their perception, Big Tech is now fundamental to Wall Street’s economy and national security?”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/elon-musk-technocrat

No Clothes in the Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 2/10/25

Headline:  “Covering the ‘Mad King’ “

Subhead:  “Is the press underplaying or overplaying Trump’s early moves?”

“It’s become a truism (including in this newsletter) that Trump has metaphorically flooded the zone since returning to office last month, overwhelming the news media and his political opponents with an apparently strategic torrent of radical actions and statements. . . ”

“As I wrote recently, it’s legitimately difficult for the news media to keep up with all the zone flooding, both metaphorical and real. Various critics, however, have argued in recent days that major mainstream outlets aren’t doing a sharp enough job with the journalistic and attentional resources that they do have at their disposal—that they’ve soft-pedaled Trump’s stated plan to turn Gaza into a beach resort by failing to describe it as ‘ethnic cleansing,’ for instance, or failed to communicate the gravity of Elon Musk’s meddling with the machinery of government by failing to call it a ‘coup.’ ”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/mad_king_trump_flood_zone_media_criticism.php