Press Freedom

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

L.A. Times Anxiety

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/11/25

Headline:  “Soon-Shiong’s La-La Land”

Subhead:  “Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is building out a new media venture that has had conversations about partnering with right-wing extremist Candace Owens, Status has learned.”

“Inside the Los Angeles Times, anxiety is running high as demoralized staffers worry about buyouts and the looming threat of layoffs — all while cringing as red-pilled owner Patrick Soon-Shiong embodies the personality of a MAGA clown on social media. But while Soon-Shiong’s attention in the immediate wake of the election was focused on remaking the Times, lately it has been somewhere else entirely. While forcing cost cuts at the newspaper he once promised to breathe new life into, the pharmaceutical billionaire, I’m told, has been directing his focus — and his resources — toward a new media venture.

“Indeed, I’m told that Soon-Shiong has been working over the last few weeks in concert with Republican consultant Eric Beach on building out a new entity that will prominently feature digital-first personalities, many of whom will appeal to the MAGA base”

https://www.status.news/p/patrick-soon-shiong-lat-next

 

Anti-Musk Ads Not Allowed?

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Article in The Hill by Alexaner Bolton, 2/17/25

Headline:  “Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order”

“The Washington Post this week backed out of a ‘Fire Elon Musk’ advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.

“The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with the Post to run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper, as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.”

https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/

AP on Burning Bridge

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Article in Committee to Project Journalists by Staff, 2/14/25

Headline:  “CPJ denounces Trump administration’s actions against AP, other retaliation against media”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the White House decision to block The Associated Press (AP) from covering official events after AP’s decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally known name, calling the action the latest in an alarming pattern of retaliation against a free press in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s administration.

“The White House barred an AP reporter from covering two official events at the White House following AP’s issuing of widely used style guidelines saying that Trump’s order changing the name to Gulf of America only carried authority in the U.S. and that as a global news agency it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its 400-year-old name “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”

https://cpj.org/2025/02/cpj-denounces-trump-administrations-actions-against-ap-other-retaliation-against-media/

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/13/25

Headline:  “Opinion | From absurd to disturbing as Trump White House bans AP from important media events”

Subhead:  “Reporters are barred from Oval Office news events after The Associated Press refuses to change its style to Gulf of America.”

“It was a story that started off completely laughable and so absurd that no one actually took it seriously. But it has quickly gone from ridiculous to alarming. Very alarming.

“President Donald Trump had this goofy idea of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Why? Because it’s Trump and he does goofy stuff like that. He signed an executive order announcing the change.

“Recognizing just how ludicrous this all was, and wanting to continue calling things by their official, worldwide-recognized name, The Associated Press announced it would continue to call the body of water the Gulf of Mexico. . . ”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/from-absurd-to-disturbing-as-trump-white-house-bans-ap-from-important-media-events/

All News is Fake! Delete it!

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review in The Media Today by Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen, 2/13/25

Headline:  “Fighting the Great Federal Website Purge”

Subhead:  “Journalists, judges, and archivists are keeping government data online.”

“Two weeks ago, when the new administration instructed agencies to scrub content related to ‘gender ideology’ from government websites, federal workers scrambled to comply, temporarily, and in some cases permanently, taking pages offline so that they might be monitored for language related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As reported by Popular Information this week, the National Security Agency is reportedly now executing a purge of pages that contain terms including ‘privilege’ and ‘bias’ — a dragnet that is also affecting ‘mission-related’ work, according to a source and documents. The discussion around so-called ‘banned words,’ as well as the deletion of datasets inconsistent with the administration’s ideology, has left data archivists concerned.

The news media has been busy keeping track of many of the webpages that have gone dark. At the beginning of this month, the New York Times put the number of removed pages at eight thousand; Wired is periodically scanning more than a thousand government domains for their accessibility. Such projects may prove especially useful down the line, not just to the public, but to the media industry itself . . . ”

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

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