Kill the Media, Hide the News


Article in Daily Kos by Thom Hartmann

Headline:  “Are Americans Being Conditioned by Our Media to Become ‘Good Germans’?”

“. . .Nazi loyalists and party-friendly oligarchs took over the press outlets that remained in a massive media consolidation project, ensuring that every headline and every radio news report served the regime much like Fox ‘News’ and rightwing hate-radio/podcasts do today for Trump. . .”

“In both 1940s Germany and today’s America, the effect is similar: the public is shielded from the human scale of state-led actions against targeted groups, making it easier for those policies to continue without mass pushback. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/15/2338560/-Are-Americans-Being-Conditioned-by-Our-Media-to-Become-Good-Germans?

D.C. & Media


Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Trump Occupying DC: WaPo Used to Be Disgusted”

“. . .With DC’s self-governance under threat, the city’s paper of record is positioned to play a critical role. Right off the bat, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher sounded the alarm about Trump’s actions, telling the New Yorker (8/11/25), ‘This is troops-in-the-streets, shades-of-authoritarian-rule bad.’

“The next day, however, Fisher sounded like a different person in Post column (8/12/25). Trump was transformed from authoritarian to ‘astute-but-flawed leader’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/trump-occupying-dc-wapo-used-to-be-disgusted/

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffee & Chloe Simon, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy National Guard to other American cities after DC”

Subhead:  “TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk: ‘We got a big military. We should be willing to use it.’ “

“After President Donald Trump announced on August 11 that he is deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and suggested he would do it in other major U.S. cities too, many in right-wing media celebrated the announcement, claiming D.C. should be a ‘test case’ and arguing that ‘we need full military occupation’ of other ‘problematic cities’ like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. . .”

Red the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-cheer-trump-deploy-national-guard-other-american-cities-after-dc

Slime the Airwaves?


Article in Media Matters by John Knefel, 8/8/25

Headline:  “This segment exemplifies how Fox feeds garbage anti-immigrant slop to its audience

Subhead:  “A recent appearance by Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin illustrates how the network pushes bad “worst of the worst” data”

Right-wing media have worked symbiotically with President Donald Trump’s administration to manufacture false media narratives of immigrant criminality and to justify subsequent crackdowns on those communities.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/segment-exemplifies-how-fox-feeds-garbage-anti-immigrant-slop-its-audience

Independent Media – Future U.S?


Article in Reporters without Borders by Parteger, 8/8/25

Headline:  “ ‘Almost all independent media were eradicated’ in Belarus: after detention and forced exile, journalist Ihar Karnei speaks out”

“Ihar Karnei, a Belarusian journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has talked to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) about his ordeal for the first time since the Belarusian authorities released him on 21 July and forced him into exile. His account illustrates the regime’s total control of the media five years after President Alexander Lukashenko’s rigged reelection in 2020 and the ensuing violent crackdown. RSF reiterates its call for the release of the 39 Belarusian journalists still held. . .”

Red the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/almost-all-independent-media-were-eradicated-belarus-after-detention-and-forced-exile-journalist

Holy Rt. Wing Media!

Article in Media Matters by John Knefel, 8/7/25

Headline:  “Inside the alliance between right-wing media and Trump ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan”

Subhead:  “As the public recoils from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and Trump’s mass deportation agenda, conservative outlets work overtime to help Homan mislead their audiences”

“When Harris Faulkner concluded a recent interview with Tom Homan — President Donald Trump’s ‘border czar’ tasked with carrying out the administration’s mass deportation operations — she did so with a benediction.

“ ‘God bless you, Tom Homan, for keeping us safe,’ the Fox News anchor said solemnly.

Fox host Jesse Watters took a different, more threatening approach when he demanded that Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who is Guatemalan American, ‘acknowledge’ that ‘no other country is as great as the United States,’ and ‘if she doesn’t, I’m calling Homan — she’s going home.’

The devotion that Faulkner and Watters show to Homan is hardly unique in right-wing media. More than any other figure in Trump’s inner circle save perhaps deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Homan is the person conservative outlets turn to when they need someone in Trump-world to champion the administration’s increasingly unpopular immigration policies. . .”

Read t he full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/inside-alliance-between-right-wing-media-and-trump-border-czar-tom-homan

When a Reporter Becomes a Mouthpiece for a Tyrant

Article in The Guardian by John Banville, 8/7/25

Headline:  Interviewing Hitler by Richard Evans review – the most unethical journalist in history”

Subhead:  “George Ward Price, the Mail’s star reporter, landed a series of scoops in the 1930s. But who was he really working for?”

“. . .His greatest triumphs came in the 1930s, when he courted the Nazis zealously, in particular Hitler, who in Linz, on the evening after the German annexation of Austria, ‘greeted him with a smile. ‘Well, Ward Price,’ he said. ‘Always there!’

“Ward Price’s reporting came in for serious criticism, including from Winston Churchill, who declared on meeting him: ‘I see that you’ve been over in Germany again, shaking the bloodstained hands of your Nazi friends.’ . . .”

Interviewing Hitler: How George Ward Price Became the World’s Most Famous Journalist by Richard Evans is published by The History Press

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/aug/07/interviewing-hitler-by-richard-evans-review-the-most-unethical-journalist-in-history

Media Friends are Enemies?


Article in Daily Dot by Anna Good, 8/6/25

Headline:   “Right-wing radio host and longtime Trump ally says MAGA is turning on him—and lists 7 reasons why”

Subhead:  “Savage isn’t alone.”

“Conservative radio host Michael Savage delivered a critique of President Donald Trump on X this week. In it, he outlined seven key reasons why he believes Trump has “alienated” some of his most loyal voters. In a post shared on X Tuesday afternoon, Savage accused Trump of abandoning core principles that helped build his MAGA base in 2016.

“Although Trump continues to lead in most Republican polls, Savage warned that a growing number of disillusioned supporters may sit out the 2026 midterms, or even the next presidential race. Additionally, he emphasized that these voters aren’t likely to switch to Democrats, but they may disengage entirely. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailydot.com/viral-politics/michael-savage-calls-out-donald-trump/

Media Consolidation Threat


News Release from Free Press by Staff, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Press Freedom Groups Tell FCC: Media Consolidation Poses Grave Threat to Independent News and Information in the United States”

Subhead:  ” ‘Allowing for even more media consolidation poses too great a risk to our democracy, and to the free press on which it depends.’ “

“WASHINGTON — On Monday, 16 leading press freedom groups, civil liberties organizations and labor unions urged the Federal Communications Commission not to move forward with plans to loosen media ownership limits before it fully assesses the negative impacts media consolidation has had and will have on local news and information in the United States.

Earlier this summer, the FCC asked for public comments on changing or eliminating a longstanding rule that limits the size and national reach of giant broadcasters — like Sinclair, Nexstar and Fox Corporation — which already own hundreds of local stations across the country.

“Our chief concern regards the impact further consolidation of media ownership will have on the independence of the nation’s press and the vitality of its local journalism,” wrote the groups, including the NewsGuild CWA, Free Press, Open Markets Institute, Reporters Without Borders-USA, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Project Censored, Writers Guild of America East and Writers Guild of America West, among others. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-freedom-groups-tell-fcc-media-consolidation-poses-grave-threat-independent-news-and

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Article in Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Press Freedom Coalition to FCC: Don’t Ditch Checks on Corporate Media Consolidation”

Subhead:  “The 16 groups urge the agency “to uphold its obligation to promote competition, localism, and diversity in the U.S. media.”

“A coalition of 16 civil liberties, press freedom, and labor groups this week urged U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to abandon any plans to loosen media ownership restrictions and warned against opening the floodgates to further corporate consolidation.

“Public comments on the National Television Multiple Ownership Rule were due to the Federal Communications Commission by Monday—which is when the coalition wrote to the FCC about the 39% national audience reach cap for U.S. broadcast media conglomerates, and how more mergers could negatively impact “the independence of the nation’s press and the vitality of its local journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fcc

Constitution Not for All – Rt. Wing Media


Article in Media Matters by Toni Lonergan, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media’s campaign against due process for immigrants”

Subhead:  “Figures on the right falsely claimed that migrants don’t — or shouldn’t — get constitutionally protected rights”

“The Constitution guarantees due process rights for everyone in the United States, regardless of citizenship status, but as part of their ongoing effort to defend President Donald Trump’s mass deportations, right-wing media have repeatedly and wrongly insisted that immigrants are excluded from this constitutional protection.

“Some right-wing media figures have alleged only ‘nut jobs’ believe undocumented immigrants deserve due process, and some have claimed that even legal immigrants ‘have no rights at all.’ Others on the right acknowledged that migrants have rights but cheered at the prospect of taking them away, lamenting that constitutionally enshrined rights like due process and habeas corpus were slowing down mass deportations. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-medias-campaign-against-due-process-immigrants