Press Freedom

Get Those Reporters Out of the Pool!

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Article in The New York Times by Michael M. Grynbaym, 2/25/25

Headline:  “White House Moves to Pick the Pool Reporters Who Cover Trump”

Subhead:  “In announcing plans to handpick the reporters who can ask the president questions, the White House is breaking decades of precedent.”

“The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday that the Trump administration would start handpicking which media outlets were allowed to participate in the presidential pool, the small, rotating group of journalists who relay the president’s day-to-day activities to the public.

The change announced by Ms. Leavitt breaks decades of precedent. The White House Correspondents’ Association, a group representing journalists who cover the administration, has long determined on its own which reporters would participate in the daily pool.

“Because presidents often hold events in smaller settings like the Oval Office, where not every reporter who covers the president can fit, the pool format has long been used to ensure that journalists accurately record a president’s comments. The reporters who witness the events distribute a series of ‘pool reports’ to a wider group of journalists, including hundreds of news outlets that cover his daily activities and remarks.

  • The pool is most often made up of journalists from organizations like CNN, Reuters, The Associated Press, ABC News, Fox News and The New York Times.

Ms. Leavitt said that the new policy was intended to allow “new media” outlets — such as digital sites, streaming services and podcasts — “to share in this awesome responsibility.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association rebuked the move in a blistering statement.

“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States,” Eugene Daniels, the president of the association, wrote. “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps. . . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5163291-white-house-press-pool-ap/

Send the Smelling Salts to the Post!

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Yona TR Golding, 2/24/25

Headline: “Spiking and Swooning at the Washington Post“

Subhead:  “What the paper’s killing of endorsements, ads, and cartoons has inadvertently revealed about our fragile Fourth Estate.”

“Earlier this month, Common Cause, a DC-based watchdog, submitted a proof copy of a “wraparound” advertisement meant to run on a Tuesday on the front and back pages of the Washington Post. The ad, later published on the organization’s X account, featured an image of Elon Musk against a red backdrop, eyes closed and grinning in apparent mirth, with an image of the White House aslant in the foreground. The main text of the ad read, ‘Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?’ Below, in a smaller font, it continued: ‘Since day one, Elon Musk has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself.’ The ad ended with a tagline, ‘No One Elected Elon Musk,’ and a link: FireMusk.org.

“Common Cause, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, which collaborated on the campaign, had a vision: that staffers in the White House, Pentagon, and congressional offices would receive a striking message along with their morning copy of the Post. Together with a full-page ad scheduled to run inside the paper on the same day, the wraparound was set to cost the organizations $115,000.

“It wasn’t to be. Three days after it submitted the proof, Common Cause received notice that the main ad would not be allowed to run, though a sales representative had previously indicated that the copy should not present a problem. In the end, though, ‘they said, ‘You can have something inside the paper but you can’t do the wrap,’ Virginia Kase Solomón, president of Common Cause, told The Hill. ‘We said ‘Thanks, no thanks,’ . . .”

“The Post has so far declined to clarify why the Common Cause ad wasn’t allowed to run, leading to widespread speculation that the decision may have had something to do with the will of Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of both Amazon and the Post, and his desire to make nice with Trump’s new administration. ‘Is Jeff Bezos more worried about an angry phone call from the White House than his paper’s journalistic duty?’  Common Cause asked . . . ”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/spiking-swooning-washington-post-wapo-bezos-endorsement-ad-cartoon-kill.php

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Article in Common Cause by Staff, 2/24/25

Headline: “NEW: The Washington Post Censored Our #FireMusk Ad”

Subhead:  “The Washington Post – which has a responsibility to hold a magnifying glass up to powerful people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump – refused to run our ad calling them out.​”

https://www.commoncause.org/

Burning the Broadcasters

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Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbattm 2/24/25

Headline: ” ‘A true free-speech emergency’: alarm over Trump’s ‘chilling’ attacks on media”

Subhead:  “Warning comes as FCC, chaired by Trump ally and Project 2025 author, orders investigations into US media groups”

“The Trump administration is waging a “disturbing” attack on the freedom of the press that amounts to a “true free-speech emergency”, media experts have warned, as the Federal Communications Commission recently launched an investigation into a series of media organizations, including the owner of NBC News.

The FCC, led by Donald Trump appointee and Project 2025 author Brendan Carr, has ordered investigations into NPR and PBS in the first month since Trump took office, while also scrutinizing a CBS News interview and a San Francisco radio station.

In a letter to Comcast, which owns NBC News, Carr said he had asked the FCC’s enforcement bureau to “open an investigation” into the corporation, stating: “I am concerned that Comcast and NBCUniversal may be promoting invidious forms of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations.”

It came after Carr, who was appointed as FCC chair by Trump, said he did not “see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars” to PBS and NPR, publicly funded organizations Trump has threatened to defund.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/trump-free-speech-media-attack

 

Attack The Press, Control The Nation

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Article in Daily Kos by Morgan Stephens, 2/21/25

Headline:  “Oh look, the White House is using social media to smear reporters”

“Donald Trump’s White House is using its state-run ‘Rapid Response 47’ account to push lies, attack reporters, and hype fake poll numbers—blurring the line between official governance and a MAGA propaganda machine.

In a post on X Friday, the ‘Rapid Response 47’ account posted a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt answering a question by NBC News Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander on the White House north lawn.

“ ‘MUST WATCH: @PressSec smacks down Fake News loser @PeterAlexander as he tries to run cover for the WASTE, FRAUD, and ABUSE in the federal government,’ the account posted to its more than 723,00 followers.

“But Alexander asked a reasonable question, and it was far from the ‘smackdown’ the page claimed it was.

“ ‘We’re now hearing from constituents in some traditionally red districts complaining about what they say is the chainsaw approach, saying that it’s being done very sloppily, the cuts to jobs and spending. How do you respond to that criticism?’ asked Alexander.

“ ‘I love how the media takes a few critics when the overwhelming response from the American people is support for what this administration is doing,’ replied Leavitt.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/21/2305338/-Oh-look-the-White-House-is-using-social-media-to-smear-reporters?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_8&pm_medium=web

Some Media Spread Lies

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Article in Mediaite by Isaac Schorr, 2/20/24

Headline:  “Conservative Media Should Tell the Unvarnished Truth About Donald Trump’s Ghastly Attacks on Ukraine”

Subhead:  “Nefarious forces are at work in the shadows.”

According to Mark Levin, there are ‘a handful of pseudo-intellectuals funded by the likes of George Soros and Charles Koch’ who are ‘adopting policies that in many ways are un-American’ and would have once made others wonder if they were working for a foreign government. . .

“On Wednesday’s edition of his radio show, Levin ably debunked a series of misleading and outright false claims about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. . .

“Stating the obvious, Levin observed that ‘Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine. What were they supposed to do? Roll over and play dead?’ he asked incredulously.

“Who are these Soros-funded pseudo-intellectuals? Who are these un-American, pro-Putin knaves?

Over the last few days, Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Elon Musk have taken turns assassinating the character of Ukrainian leadership and parroting the propaganda of Russian leadership..”

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/conservative-media-should-tell-the-unvarnished-truth-about-donald-trumps-ghastly-attacks-on-ukraine/

 

Trump – Golf or Gulf?

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Article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Yona TR Golding, 2/21/24

Headline: “The Gulf Between Trump and the Press”

Subhead: “Trying to make the ‘Gulf of America’ happen.”

When President Trump signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” back in January, I couldn’t stop thinking about a scene from the 2004 teen classic Mean Girls, in which queen bee Regina George snaps at Gretchen Weiner, her underling, for trying to make the word fetch a synonym for cool. (“Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen!” Regina says. “It’s not going to happen!”) . . . The Associated Press, it seems, was on the same page as me: two days after the order was signed, the agency issued an update to its stylebook—which is widely followed throughout the news business—recommending the continued use of the original name, though it would acknowledge the new name as well. “Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change,” the AP reasoned in an announcement about the decision. ‘As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.’

“But Trump, it turned out, was determined to make “Gulf of America” happen. Last week, an AP reporter was blocked from attending the signing of an executive order in the Oval Office; later in the day, Julie Pace, its executive editor, wrote in a statement that she had been informed that the decision was the White House’s response to the new stylebook guidance. “It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” she wrote. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

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

 

No Ranting by Miller on CNN?

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Article in Raw Story bu Jennifer Bowers Bahney, 2/20/25

Headline:  “CNN cuts off Stephen Miller as he uses ‘softball’ question to launch into anti-media rant”

“CNN’s Boris Sanchez cut away from a White House press briefing Thursday after a reporter lobbed a “softball question” to Trump aide Stephen Miller that set him up perfectly to begin bashing the ‘liberal’ media and former President Joe Biden.

“The reporter began, ‘So, you spoke about DOGE; you said roughly $50 billion is set to be cut in a year of waste, fraud and abuse by unelected bureaucrats. We’re hearing this ironic narrative from the president’s critics and the left-wing media that Elon Musk is an unelected bureaucrat, and he’s doing all this terrible stuff. Isn’t one of DOGE’s objectives to get rid of the federal bureaucracy, the deep state?’ . . .”

 

Rt. Wing Media Attack/Defend AP?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 2/20/25

Headline:  “After Fox stars defend Trump’s restrictions on the AP, the network signs a letter calling them a 1st Amendment violation”

Subhead:  “Newmax also signed onto the letter, even as its on-air programming attacked the “Fake News AP” as ‘Associated Propaganda’ “

“The stars of Fox News have used their shows to defend President Donald Trump’s banning of Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One because the wire service refuses to adopt the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America.’ They’ve characterized the AP’s actions as ‘deadnaming’ the Gulf and said that ‘the White House is right’ to restrict its access in response.

“But Fox has also reportedly signed on to a letter calling on the Trump White House to restore the AP’s access and characterizing the ban as ‘serious breach’ of the First Amendment’s protections for the press. So has Newsmax, whose on-air talent praised the White House response while attacking the “Fake News AP” as “Associated Propaganda.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/after-fox-stars-defend-trumps-restrictions-ap-network-signs-letter-calling-them-1st

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/18/25

Headline:  “AP’s Back-Channel Press”

Subhead:  “News outlets across the political spectrum have united behind the AP, signing a WHCA-backed letter urging the White House to reverse its press ban, a copy of which Status has obtained.”

“On Wednesday, Julie Pace boarded a plane to Florida for a high-stakes meeting. The executive editor of the Associated Press had secured an audience with Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, to discuss the administration’s unprecedented decision to bar AP journalists from official events. . .

“One week prior, the White House blocked the AP over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America,’ a manufactured controversy that Trump has used to test his ability to control the media. Since then, all efforts to reverse the White House’s decision have been to no avail, leaving the global wire service in a precarious position. . .”

https://www.status.news/p/associated-press-donald-trump-white-house

 

Some Media Got it Right on Ukraine

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/20/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Good on the media for calling out President Trump’s falsehoods on Ukraine”

“Just when you thought our politics couldn’t get any more bizarre and divisive and distressing, something else transpired.

“As happens far too often these days, it was something said by President Donald Trump.

“In a truly stunning post on Truth Social, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘A Dictator without Elections.’ He also called Zelenskyy a ‘modestly successful comedian’ and, just as he did a day earlier, seemingly blamed Zelenskyy for starting the war with Russia even though it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. Trump wrote that Zelenskyy ‘talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle.’ ”

“In a positive sign, the media appropriately and responsibly covered Trump’s comments. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-truth-social-statements-ukraine-zelenskyy-elected-media/

Abnormal Media Are Propaganda

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Article in The Guardian by Bernie Sanders, 2/19/25

Headline:  “Can Trumpism be defeated? Absolutely. Here’s how”

Subhead:  “What we are fighting for is not ‘utopian’ or unachievable. Trumpism can and must be defeated”

“. . . Trumpism has significant control over large parts of the media from which millions of Americans get their information. Fox and Musk’s platform X, among others, are not normal media outlets. Their basic function is not to cover the ‘news’ but to spread rightwing extremist ideology.

“Trumpism is utilizing the concept of the ‘big lie’ in a way that has never, in this country, been seen. Day after day, blatantly dishonest statements and conspiracy theories are propagated – and repeated over and over and over again.

“While Trump now ‘floods the zone’ and occupies most of the political oxygen, it is imperative that we never lose sight of the progressive vision – a nation and world based on human cooperation and compassion, not greed and a ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/19/trumpism-bernie-sanders