Press Freedom

Who Gets to Censor News?

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Article in The Contrarian by Nina Jankowicz, 1/23/25

Headline:  “Making Censorship Real Again”

Subhead:  “The Trump administration is capitalizing on a false conspiracy of censorship to usher in the real kind”

“On Inauguration Day, amidst a flurry of executive orders adorned with loopy Sharpie signatures, Donald Trump restored free speech in America. Or so he claimed.

“If you hadn’t noticed free speech had been abolished, don’t beat yourself up. Like several other executive actions, the order that aspires to ‘end federal censorship’ is based on a conspiracy theory. Despite its flimsy pretext, it could usher in an era of real censorship the likes of which the United States has never seen.

Fox News mainstreamed the narrative that conservatives were being unfairly censored by social media companies in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss. The lies gained steam across right-wing media and on the same social media sites apparently doing all this censoring—and by 2022, with Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the conspiracy-minded inmates were running the asylum.

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/making-censorship-real-again

Dark Clouds Over FCC

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Headline in Slashdot by Mishmash, 1/21/25

Headline:  “Brenden Carr is Officially in Charge of the FCC?”

“Brendan Carr is now formally the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, giving him the power to set the agency’s agenda and usher through a host of regulations with major implications for the tech and media industries as soon as he has a Republican majority.  . .”

“Carr’s priorities might also be gleaned from a document you might have already heard about: Project 2025. That’s because he authored the FCC chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s wishlist for a Donald Trump presidency. In that chapter, Carr proposes actions including: limiting immunity for tech companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, requiring disclosures about how platforms prioritize content, requiring tech companies to pay into a program that funds broadband access in rural areas, and more, quickly approving applications to launch satellites from companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink.”

https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/01/21/1424225/brendan-carr-is-officially-in-charge-of-the-fcc

Reporter Climate Change

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 1/20/25

Headline: “The Big Chill”

Subhead:  “The press anticipates Trump’s imminent return to office.”

“. . .Trump announced, in a social media post on Friday, that his inauguration will be moved indoors. It will now take place in the Capitol Rotunda instead. ‘This will be a very beautiful experience for all,’ Trump pledged, “especially for the large TV audience!” Nonetheless, Politico’s DC Playbook newsletter declared ‘the media’ a ‘loser’ of the switch. ‘No formal plans have yet been announced, but it’s hard to see anything more than a small portion of the credentialed media being allowed in the room to personally witness the oath of office,’ the outlet wrote on Saturday; plus, ‘freezing your butt off at a presidential inauguration is a rite of passage for many junior Washington reporters.’ (We will, at least, be spared the tedious litigation of how many people showed up. Not that we’re necessarily being spared Sean Spicer.)

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

Stomping Out the News

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Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe, 1/20/25

Headline:  “CNN defamation case foreshadows Trump media crackdown, experts say”

Subhead:  “Contractor Zachary Young wins damages over Afghanistan story in trial notable for prosecution’s aggressive stance”

“A combative defamation trial in Florida, involving CNN and a former US security contractor in Afghanistan, is providing a roadmap for a crackdown on media independence during the second Trump administration, experts believe.

The case was already unusual because CNN chose to defend itself and risk millions in damages, while other media giants such as ABC News and the Washington Post have opted to back down in the face of threats of persecution from the incoming president. Ultimately, after 18 hours of deliberation, the jury found that CNN defamed the contractor and awarded Zachary Young $4m in lost business and $1m in personal damages.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jan/20/cnn-defamation-trial

Duck, But Cover

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Partager, 1/17/25

Headline:  “USA: Trump inauguration set to trigger period of unprecedented uncertainty for press freedom”

“On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration into his second term as US president on January 20, American journalism is set to enter a period of unprecedented uncertainty. US journalists — who already face worsening economic conditions, a growing chasm in trust between the public and the media, and a digital information ecosystem that is rigged against journalism — may now need to contend with direct threats from the White House. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is more convinced than ever of journalism’s vital role in maintaining democracy and will continue to defend the safety, independence, and plurality of journalism in the United States.”

https://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-inauguration-set-trigger-period-unprecedented-uncertainty-press-freedom

Article in Mother Jones by Julianne Mcshane, 1/16/25

Headline:  “How Trump’s Return Is Pushing the Media to Self-Censor”

Subhead:  “ ‘A lot of the guardrails are down,’ says veteran journalist Margaret Sullivan.”

“Two days before Donald Trump was re-elected president, he told rallygoers that he wouldn’t mind if somebody shot through a crowd of journalists. Some of his supporters laughed a bit, some cheered. It was typical fare.

“The same weekend, Trump called journalists ‘monsters’ and ‘horrible, horrible, dishonest people.’ In the past, he has cheered a journalist shot with a rubber bullet as a ‘beautiful sight;’ he heaped adoration on a candidate who body-slammed a reporter. In 2018, he declared the ‘fake news’ media to be the ‘enemy of the people.’ ”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/margaret-sullivan-trump-free-press-interview-abc-defamation/

Tigers or Toothless Bulldogs?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by James C. Goodale, 1/17/25

Headline:  “Will the Press Fight Like Tigers Against Trump?”

Subhead:  “From criminal subpoenas to the Espionage Act, the next administration is likely to crack down on journalists. How we respond depends on the courage of media owners.”

“The last time an administration declared war against the press was when Richard M. Nixon was president. The press won that war because it fought like tigers. Will it do it again this time against President-elect Donald J. Trump?

The phrase “fighting like tigers” comes from a speech that Judge Harold R. Medina of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit gave in 1975 at a meeting in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria that I organized. That was some time ago, but history has a way of repeating itself.

It was an easy sell to those lawyers then. In a short period of time, the New York Times had won landmark cases on libel and prior restraint and carved out a reporter’s privilege of sorts. Now Trump has indicated a desire to overturn some or all of these cases. Does the will to resist exist?”

https://www.cjr.org/political_press/press-fight-tigers-trump-goodale-espionage-act-journalism-crackdown-courage.php

Some Media Destroying Democracy?

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Article in Common Dreams by Thom Hartman, 1/15/25

Headlline: “Right-Wing Control of Media Has Crushed the Promise of US Democracy”

Subhead:  “If progressives want to slow this speeding train heading toward single-party rule of America, they must get with the program and begin to support existing and build out new and powerful policy think tanks and media operations.”

“Republicans are using their massive structural media and social media advantage to try to destroy Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass, and the California Democratic Party.

It follows an old script, that’s recently been played out in Russia and Hungary, among other nations: Want to seize control of a nation and turn it into a neofascist state with the consent of the people? Just take control of the channels of public information and news, and then turn lies about your opponents and their supporters into a perceived reality. ”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/right-wing-control-of-media

When You Pubish Articles “Against the State…”

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Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff, 1/15/25

Hedaline:  “Yemeni journalist appears in Houthi court after 3-month disappearance”

“Yemen’s Houthi forces must release journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi and the group’s non-state judicial system must drop its case against him, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday.

“After more than three months of arbitrary detention, including one month of enforced disappearance, Al-Miyahi appeared before the Houthi’s Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sana’a on January 13, where he was accused of “publishing articles against the state and its political regime.’ ”

https://cpj.org/2025/01/yemeni-journalist-appears-in-houthi-court-after-3-month-disappearance/

Don’t Like Reporting? Call it Terrorism

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Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff. 1/14/25

Headline:  “Russia labels news outlets ‘terrorist organizations’ for the first time”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to stop persecuting the regional news site Komi Daily and the independent media outlet Asians of Russia, which the Federal Security Service (FSB) added to its list of “terrorist organizations.” This marks the first time media publications have been labeled as such in Russia, according to news reports.

“Labeling Komi Daily and Asians of Russia terrorist organizations is a serious attack on press freedom and the public’s right to information about the culture and current affairs of Russia’s Komi Republic and Asian peoples of Russia. . .”

https://cpj.org/2025/01/russia-labels-news-outlets-terrorist-organizations-for-the-first-time/

 

Grieving for the Media

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Article in Common Dreams by David Helvarg, 1/13/25

Headline:  “Dying in Broad Daylight: Media Outlets That Self-Censor for Trump”

Subhead: “What we are witnessing is not simply right-wing ascendency in national politics but a long-term decline and corporate consolidation of American journalism.”

“Two billionaire publishers, the Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos and the LA Times Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked their editorial page editors from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election (a Washington Post editorial cartoonist than quit when her cartoon depicting Jeff Bezos, Son-Shiong and other billionaires abasing themselves in front of Trump was killed). If you believe the Washington Post’s slogan that ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’ their owner was the first to switch off the light.”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/media-outlets-pandering-trump