Press Freedom

Media Labor Victory

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Klaudia Zawinska, 2/6/25

Headline:  “In a Volatile Landscape for AI and Labor Rights, Journalists at ABC Secure a Win”

Subhead:  “How union contracts give workers a say in how AI shapes their industry.”

“Last week, the bargaining unit representing journalists at ABC News, which belongs to the Writers Guild of America East, “overwhelmingly” voted to ratify a three-year contract. Among other things, it includes binding protections against potential harms posed by generative artificial intelligence that the WGAE described as a “precedent setting win” for the news business. The agreement ensures that ABC News will not lay off current employees due to the use of generative AI and requires management to provide union members with advance notice before implementing AI systems into newsroom workflows.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/in-a-volatile-landscape-for-ai-and-labor-rights-journalists-at-abc-secure-a-win.php

Protecting Journalists

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Recent posts on international journalism from Committee to Project Journalists, 2/6/25

“No accountability after Ghanaian journalists attacked while covering illegal mining investigation”

“Sri Lankan top prosecutor seeks to discharge key suspects in journalist’s murder”

“Swedish public broadcaster SVT’s building vandalized”

“Taliban detains 2 media workers, suspends women-run broadcaster Radio Begum”

“Azerbaijan jails 21st journalist in 15 months amid intensifying media crackdown”

https://cpj.org/about/

Covering Musk

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/5/25

Headline:  “Opinion | The challenge of covering Elon Musk”

Subhead:  “Much of the media is still trying to get a handle on how to cover Musk and what he’s doing to the federal government”

“Here’s what you need to know about media coverage of Elon Musk.

“The New York Times published a big story on Musk on Monday with the headline: ‘Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government.’ ”

“As you surely know, Musk has had plenty of jobs on his way to becoming the richest person in the world. His main job these days, it would appear, is to be President Donald Trump’s right-hand man. So much so that there are whispers about who actually is running the country: Musk or Trump?”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/elon-musk-news-coverage/

Journalist Doing Her Job

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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

Reporting on Insanity?

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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

Monsters Against Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 2/4/25

Headline: “USAID and the Media in a ‘Time of Monsters’ ”

Sunhead: “What the aid funding freeze means for independent journalism around the world.”

“. . . In the recent past, USAID had boasted of supporting more than six thousand journalists, around seven hundred independent newsrooms, and nearly three hundred media-focused civil society groups in thirty or so countries—and yet, RSF notes, the full impact of the freeze is hard to measure, since many recipients are “hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/usaid-and-the-media-in-a-time-of-monsters.php

World News Chaos!

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 2/3/25

Headline: “USA: Trump’s foreign aid freeze throws journalism around the world into chaos”

“President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including over $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and journalists doing vital work into chaotic uncertainty. RSF calls on international public and private support to commit to the sustainability of independent media.

https://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-s-foreign-aid-freeze-throws-journalism-around-world-chaos

Media Life Support

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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/

New Assignment Editor?

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 2/2/25

Headline:  “‘He’s become America’s assignment editor’: US media owners bend to Trump”

Subhead:  “Billionaires and corporations leading TV networks and newspapers seem to have caved to the president’s pressure”

“In a tumultuous first two weeks back in power in the White House, Donald Trump has targeted many familiar enemies, including one of his most passionate obsessions: the US media, whom he has frequently dubbed “enemies of the people”.

“Trump’s new federal communications chair, Brendan Carr, is reported to have ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of taxpayer-supported NPR and PBS member stations – a media network long hated by conservatives who accuse it of a liberal slant.
‘Safe to be a white male again’: how conservative media covered Trump’s first week
Read more

“At the same time, and just as concerning for some media watchers, core segments of the US media landscape – via the wealthy billionaires and gigantic corporations that own them – have seemingly caved under Trump’s pressure or apparently sought to curry favor with the new administration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/trump-media-pressure?ref=upstract.com

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Edited content not safe?

Article in The Hill by Sterr Danielle Thomas, 2/1/25

Headline:  “CBS agrees to release Harris transcript to FCC amid Trump lawsuit “

“CBS News has agreed to release a full transcript of former Vice President Harris’s October interview with “60 Minutes” to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the outlet revealed Friday.”

The decision came after the FCC sent a letter to CBS asking for a “full, unedited transcript” of the interview, conducted ahead of Harris’s loss to President Trump in the 2024 election. The commission also requested the camera feeds from the episode.

“. . . A conservative law firm filed a complaint with the FCC last year following the interview, alleging that the outlet engaged in “significant and international news distortion.” The suit, originally dismissed under the Biden administration, was reopened by agency head Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the commission.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5120625-cbs-kamala-harris-60-minutes-transcript-fcc/

Noted Journalist Flees NYT

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Article in The Contrarian by Paul Krugman, 1/29/25

Headeline: “Departing the New York Times”

Subhea:  “I left to stay true to my byline”

“As many people reading this know, last month I retired from my position as an opinion writer at the New York Times—a job I had done for 25 years. Despite the encomiums issued by the Times, it was not a happy departure. If you check out my Substack, you will see that I have by no means run out of energy or topics to write about. But from my perspective, the nature of my relationship with the Times had degenerated to a point where I couldn’t stay.”

“. . . (I) believe that the story of why I left says something important about the current state of legacy journalism.”

“. . .I feel sorry about abandoning loyal readers who still rely on legacy media and who may not follow me to Substack. But my situation had become intolerable, and I haven’t felt a moment’s regret over the new direction and recovering my freedom.”

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times