Press Freedom

Attack on Media Sources?

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“Ve haf vays to make you talk!”

Article in Rolling Stone by Peter Wade, 6/29/25

Headline:  “Trump Threatens to Force Journalists to Reveal Sources Who Leaked Iran Intel Report”

Subhead:  ” ‘We can find out. You go up and tell the reporter, “National security, who gave it [to you]?” You have to do that, and I suspect we’ll be doing things like that,’ the president said”

“Donald Trump threatened to force journalists to reveal sources who leaked a Pentagon intelligence assessment that concluded the U.S. air strikes on Iran only set the nation’s nuclear program back ‘months,’ contradicting administration claims that the facilities were ‘obliterated.’

“ ‘You tweeted the Democrats leaked an intelligence [report],’ Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo said to Trump in an interview.

“ ‘They should be prosecuted,’ the president responded.

“When Bartiromo asked ‘who, specifically’ should be prosecuted, Trump did not name any names but said his administration would demand reporters reveal the sources of their reporting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-journalists-reveal-sources-iran-intel-report-1235375074/

Ask a Question – Get Yelled-At

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“The List” photo

Update:

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/27/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth targeted a Fox reporter. The journalism community had her back”

Subhead:  “In defending Jennifer Griffin, journalists signal that truth-telling still matters — no matter the network.”

“The Trump administration continues its signature bashing of the media. This time, it was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insulting Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin. . .”

“What was noticeable, however, was just how many journalists came to Griffin’s defense, including those from rival news outlets.

Say what you will about Fox News and how many of the network’s hosts fawn over Trump and conservatives. Griffin is a top-notch, plugged-in and unbiased reporter.

During a press conference with Hegseth on Thursday, Griffin posed a completely legitimate question. . .”

“She suggested that satellite imagery showed there might have been movement from the facility leading up the attack.

“Hegseth snapped, ‘Of course we’re watching it. Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.’

“Griffin wasn’t having it. She pushed back . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/pete-hegseth-attacks-fox-reporter-journalists-respond/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 6/26/25

Headline:  “Hegseth slams Fox reporter at press conference: ‘You’ve been about the worst’ ”

Subhead:  “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked Jennifer Griffin, his former colleague at Fox News and a longtime member of the Pentagon press corps, amid a broader push to discredit media outlets reporting on intelligence laying out the extent of damages done by U.S. strikes to Iranian nuclear sites.”

“ ‘Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain?’ Griffin asked Hegseth during a contentious press conference early Thursday morning. . .”

“ ‘Of course we’re watching it,’ Hegseth said before attacking the reporter. ‘Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst. The one who misrepresents the most intentionally.’  ”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5370774-hegseth-briefing-jennifer-griffin-fox/

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Article in Huffpost by Ron Dicker, 6/26/25

Headline:  “Pete Hegseth Calls Former Fox News Colleague ‘The Worst’ In Tense Iran Presser”

Subhead:  “The defense secretary zeroed in on Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin as he continued to rail against the lack of media fawning over the Iran strikes”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called former Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin ‘the worst’ as he faced more questions about the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites on Thursday.

“The Pentagon press conference turned downright hostile as Hegseth, who once occupied the curvy couch of ‘Fox & Friends’ before he got his Cabinet gig, slammed Griffin, the network’s chief national security correspondent. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-jennifer-griffin-the-worst_n_685d4e2ae4b0f78c57383fb2

 

NYT Not Caving?

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Article in Mediaite by Alex Griffing, 6/26/25

Headline: “Trump Threatens to Sue The NY Times and CNN Over ‘Unpatriotic’ Reporting”

Subhead:  “No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.”

“The New York Times struck a defiant tone in a Thursday letter in response to a personal lawyer for President Donald Trump demanding the paper ‘retract and apologize’ or be sued over a report on the state of Iranian nuclear sites following Trump’s bombings.

“The Times reported on the letter sent by Alejandro Brito, which threatened to sue the paper and CNN for publishing reports on a leaked Pentagon assessment that said Trump’s bombings only set Iran’s nuclear program back a few months. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-threatens-to-sue-the-ny-times-and-cnn-over-unpatriotic-reporting-on-u-s-military-intel/

Impact of no VOA on N. Korea

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 6/26/25

Headline:  “A Secret Program Allowed VOA to Broadcast Television into North Korea. Now It’s Gone.”

Subhead:  “How the Trump administration undermined its own strategic position.”

“The mission of Voice of America, to “tell America’s story to the world,” is hard to fulfill when you’re broadcasting into the void of North Korea. For decades, VOA’s Korean service struggled to meet its mandate . . .”

“Then, in January of 2023, after a decade of difficult negotiations, VOA reached an agreement with the South Korean government to use state-controlled broadcast towers along the border to send a TV signal deep into the North. . . .”

“But the demise of VOA’s Korean service—along with the USAGM-funded Radio Free Asia, whose programming also targeted North Koreans—means that information-starved North Koreans now have less access to independent news about what is happening in their country and around the world. . .’

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/trump-lake-secret-program-voice-of-america-north-korea-tv-broadcast-gone.php

Old Media Blowing in the Wind?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop 6/24/25

Headline:  “Old Media Meets New on Primary Day in New York”

Subhead:  “Is the race between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani a proxy for changes in our media environment?”

“. . . If old media is now irrelevant in shaping voter perceptions, someone seemingly forgot to tell the Mamdani supporters (and others) who have criticized coverage of the candidate in major outlets, particularly when it comes to his positions on Israel. (Writing for In These Times earlier this month, Adam Johnson accused the Times of trying to manufacture tension between Mamdani and Jewish voters when he was not polling notably badly with that group; Lach, of The New Yorker, wrote yesterday that ‘outlets like the New York Post and the Free Press have tried to make him a bogeyman,’ though Lach allowed that ‘part of the reason that reporters have kept asking Mamdani about Israel is because his answer isn’t very convincing.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/old-new-media-new-york-primary-cuomo-mamdani-brad-lander.php

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 6/24/25

Headline:  “Life on the other side: Refugees from ‘old media’ flock to the promise of working for themselves”

“Six months ago, Jennifer Rubin had no idea whether she’d make it in a new media world. She just knew it was time to leave The Washington Post, where she’d been a political columnist for 15 years.

“The Contrarian, the democracy-focused website that Rubin founded with partner Norm Eisen in January, now has 10 employees and contributors like humorist Andy Borowitz and White House reporter April Ryan. Its 558,000 subscribers also get recipes and culture dispatches.

“In the blink of an eye, Rubin became a independent news entrepreneur. ‘I think we hit a moment, just after inauguration, when people were looking for something different and it has captured people’s imaginations,’ she says. ‘We’ve been having a ball with it.’

“YouTube, Substack, TikTok and others are spearheading a full-scale democratization of media and a generation of new voices and influencers . . .”

read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/new-media-mainstream-substack-youtube-influencers-076dfb132475aa42c3e4ebe81f63eb9a

“Media Matters” Sues FTC

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 6/23/25

Headline:  “Media Matters files suit in federal court to block retaliatory FTC investigation and protect its First Amendment rights”

Subhead:  “Investigation into Media Matters is the latest example of Trump administration abusing power to target perceived political opponents”

“Media Matters for America filed suit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block an investigation launched by the Federal Trade Commission. The investigation is the latest effort by Elon Musk and his allies in the Trump administration to retaliate against Media Matters for its reporting on X, the social media site Musk controls, and it’s another example of the Trump administration weaponizing government authorities to target political opponents. The suit alleges that the FTC has violated Media Matters’ First Amendment rights by retaliating against the organization for its reporting on Elon Musk and X. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/justice-civil-liberties/media-matters-files-suit-federal-court-block-retaliatory-ftc-investigation

Media Rabbit Hole?

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Article in The Washington Post by Eric Wemple, 6/23/25

Headline:  “Does the media need to take a closer look at Trump’s acuity? I answered your questions.”

Q:  “To what extent should mainstream media explain ways to resist this administration?

Is it OK to write about tactics people use to avoid cooperating with ICE? Is it OK to remind people of protest dates and locations? Is it OK for media to call out hatred, as Terry Cowan did recently?

What can media do to help Americans challenge the unconstitutional acts of the Trump administration? . . .”

A: “. . .Yes, in my opinion, it’s fine to report on how people are avoiding cooperation with ICE; that’s a newsworthy trend with implications for everyone. The protests that have occurred in American cities and towns in recent months are also quite newsworthy, and so it’s appropriate that news organizations would write about plans for, say, the next wave of “No Kings” demonstrations or whatever. But providing how-to advice about joining such protests, in my opinion, is a loser’s undertaking, simply because fairness would require doing so for all kinds of other causes as well — and that would send editors and reporters down a rabbithole. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/23/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/

Censoring War Coverage

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Article in Al Jazerra by Simon Speakman Cordall, 6/19/25

Headline:  “How does Israel restrict its media from reporting on the Iran conflict?”

Subhead:  “The military censor has introduced a slew of new restrictions on journalists covering the unfolding war.”

“The Israeli government has issued new directives restricting how its media covers its current war with Iran.

“On Wednesday, a circular from Israel’s military censor, Brigadier General Kobi Mandelblit, announced new rules on what Israeli media organisations and journalists within the country can – and cannot – publish about the effect of Iranian strikes. . .”

“According to figures from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Israel has killed at least 164 journalists in Gaza since October 7, 2023. More have been killed in Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and, now, Iran. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/19/how-does-israel-restrict-its-media-from-reporting-on-the-iran-conflict

Run or Collaborate?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/18/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Should journalism embrace AI? Or run from it?”

Subhead:  “In the latest episode of ‘The Poynter Report Podcast,’ Alex Mahadevan explores what AI means for journalism and why reporters may not need to panic”

“. . .Should journalism run from AI? Or embrace it? Why are we scared of it? How can we put AI to good use? And how can we avoid the dangers of AI?

“And, what I wanted to know most of all: Are journalists someday going to become obsolete b . . .”cause some AI tool is going to produce its own newspaper? (And, gulp, newsletter?). . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/should-journalism-embrace-ai-or-run-from-it/

Report and . . . Off You Go

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Article in Common Dreams by Brett Wilkens, 6/18/25

Headline:  “Journalist Who Decried Trump’s ‘Deportation of Dissent’ Says He Was Deported for Dissent”

Subhead:  ” ‘Alistair Kitchen’s deportation is a clear case of retaliation in connection with his reporting, and such action sends a chilling message to journalists,’ said one press freedom defender.”

“A leading press freedom advocate on Tuesday condemned the United States’ ‘disturbing pattern’ of screening and expelling international visitors for their political viewpoints following the detention and removal of an Australian journalist who criticized the Trump administration’s targeting of Palestine defenders on college campuses.

“Alistair Kitchen said he was detained for 12 hours and interrogated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Los Angeles International Airport while en route from Melbourne, Australia to New York last week. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alistair-kitchen