Press Freedom

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Sacha Biazzo, 2/5/25

Headline: “Q&A: Marisa Kabas on Scooping the World on the Federal Funding Freeze”

Subhead:  “If your job isn’t to inform people in a way that will help them, then I don’t really understand what your job is.”

“Marisa Kabas, an independent journalist based in New York, has recently emerged as a leading voice in holding power to account: since Trump took office, she has broken two major stories that sent ripples across the media landscape. Two days into the new administration, she exposed a directive from the Trump administration suspending all travel for staff at the National Institutes of Health. Then, last week, she was the first to report on the Office of Management and Budget memo freezing all government grants and loans.”

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

Article in The New Republic by Alex Shephard, 2/5/25

Headline:  “This Is So Much Worse Than Last Time”

Subhead:  “Why Democrats and the media are struggling to capture the insanity—and danger—of the new Trump administration.”

“There is practically no way to describe what is currently happening in the United States without sounding hysterical, or like some sort of crank—or, maybe, insane. . .”

“Media coverage has somehow been even less inspiring than the Democratic response. During Trump’s first term, the press struggled to find a way to deal with Trump’s admittedly difficult to describe mix of extremism and incoherence. The speed of all of this and the enormity of it is, to be fair, difficult to capture. But there are bigger problems emerging in the ongoing coverage. One is simply that Trump and his cronies are taking direct action against the press, threatening to shut down via lawsuits (or, in the case of National Public Radio, defunding) any outlet that they deem as being critical, and appear to be serious about it. ABC has already settled one lawsuit, while CBS seems ready to settle another—settling both would essentially amount to paying Trump protection money.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/191153/trump-musk-treasure-government-breach

Article in Mediaite by Kahryn Wilkens, 2/3/25

Headline: “The Media Industry Is in Crisis. Axios CEO Jim VandeHei Sees a Massive Opportunity”

“Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Politico and later Axios, has spent decades at the forefront of political journalism. In all that time, he’s witnessed seismic changes to the industry but no one, he says, has been a catalyst for disruption and change more than President Donald Trump.

“For the first time in our lifetimes, I would argue that the media ecosystem favors the right more than the left,” VandeHei told Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin on this week’s episode of Press Club.”

https://www.mediaite.com/podcasts/the-media-industry-is-in-crisis-axios-ceo-jim-vandehei-sees-a-massive-opportunity/

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 1/22/25

Headline:  “On Free Speech and Speaking Freely”

“Yesterday, Karoline Leavitt, the new White House press secretary, appeared on Fox & Friends. She was asked whether, at her first press briefing, she would have to painstakingly consult a binder before answering reporters’ questions—a snarky reference to her Biden-era predecessor Karine Jean-Pierre. Leavitt replied that she might bring in some notes, but that ‘my binder is in my brain, because I know President Trump’s policies, and we have truth on our side’—but she then revealed that there wouldn’t actually be a briefing later on; instead, the press would be hearing directly from Trump, who would be making a ‘big infrastructure announcement.’ Online, liberal pundits quipped that it must be ‘infrastructure week’ again.”

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