Selective Coverage

30 Years for Box of Magazines

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Article in FAIR by Dorothee Benz, 7/22/25

Headline:  “Prairieland Was a Test, and Corporate Media Failed”

” ‘Thirty-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech,’ an Intercept headline (6/26/26) shouted days after a federal court sentenced eight anti-ICE protesters to a combined 450 years in prison. . .”

“One of the defendants, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was not even at the protest. He was, as the Intercept’s headline correctly reported, sentenced to 30 years because he moved a box of zines. . .”

“Yet the extremely harsh sentences for Sanchez Estrada and the others did not set off any alarm bells among corporate media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/prairieland-was-a-test-and-corporate-media-failed/

Real Fake News!

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Article in Mediaite by Kathryn Wilkens

Headline: “Ex-60 Minutes Journo Says She Was Asked to Cover Nonexistent Events Under Weiss”

Subhead: “While Vega did not directly name Weiss as having personally made the requests, she pointed to changes under the network’s ‘new administration at CBS News’ “

According to an audio recording obtained by Oliver Darcy’s Status, former 60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega accused CBS News chief Bari Weiss of leading a push to include claims in stories that her reporting team could not verify, alleging she was asked to report on incidents that ‘never happened.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/ousted-60-minutes-reporter-says-she-was-asked-to-report-on-things-that-didnt-happen-under-bari-weiss/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy 7/23/26

Headline: “Vega Breaks Her Silence”

Subhead:  “The fired ’60 Minutes’ correspondent revealed stunning new details about how CBS News management tried to meddle in her reporting, according to an audio recording obtained by Status.“

Read the article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cecilia-vega-cbs-60-minutes-bari-weiss

To Cover Crazy or Not?

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Article in The Hill by Sophie Brams, 7/17/26

Headline:  “Carville criticizes CNN, ABC, NBC for not airing Trump speech”

“Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville on Friday criticized major television networks for not airing President Trump’s speech on election security the previous night, saying that it was a mistake for CNN, NBC and ABC not to provide ‘blanket coverage’ of what he sees as the president’s deteriorating mental state.

“ ‘I think the president of the United States acting loonier than a tune is newsworthy,’ Carville told CNN host Wolf Blitzer during an appearance on the network. ‘I don’t think we should have hidden that from the American people.”. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5975040-carville-trump-speech-network-coverage/

Broadcast Me – Or Else!

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Article in Deadline by Ted Johnson, 7/16/26

Headline:  “Donald Trump Says ABC And NBC Should Lose Broadcast Licenses Because They Didn’t Carry His Primetime Address On Election Claims”

“Donald Trump lashed out at ABC and NBC, the two networks that chose not to carry his speech live on their broadcast platforms, as he delivered a 25-minute long speech full of claims that included China obtaining voter registration data and the “deep state” withholding that intelligence from him.

Without evidence, Trump claimed that ABC and NBC and others in the media were part of a ‘plot’ and ‘want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://deadline.com/2026/07/trump-threatens-abc-nbc-licenses-election-speech-1236988065/

To Air or Not to air? That is the question

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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 7/14/26

Headline:  “AOC Says News Stations Have ‘Ethical Obligation’ Not To Air Trump’s Speech About Election ‘Lies’”

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said it is incumbent upon television news stations not to air a speech by President Donald Trump set for Thursday.

On Monday, Trump announced in vague fashion on Truth Social that he will deliver an address at 9 p.m. on Thursday, and did not elaborate as to its contents. Reporting indicates that the president will rehash his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/aoc-says-news-stations-have-ethical-obligation-not-to-air-trumps-speech-about-election-lies/

Media Trying to Catch-Up?

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan, 7/13/26

Headline:  “Did the media fall short in its reporting on Graham Platner?”

“After the New York Times published an article in early June about the Senate candidate Graham Platner’s treatment of the women he dated, the story’s main source reacted with disappointment and anger.

It was a “gift to the Platner campaign”, charged Lyndsey Fifield, who had dated the Democratic combat veteran years ago and who spoke candidly to the Times about that experience.

The story’s headline called his behavior “unsettling”. That adjective seemed particularly careful and quite mild if you read deeper into the story. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/13/graham-platner-media

WaPo Tipping the Scale?

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 7/9/26

Headline:  “One Year Into Clampdown, WaPo Opinion Cheers for MAGA, Billionaires and AI”

“It’s been an eventful year since Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos tapped Adam O’Neal for the prestigious job of Post Opinions editor. O’Neal was an unusual hire, a 33-year-old with little by way of managerial experience. But O’Neal had a redeeming quality: He was ready to shill for Bezos, and the man Bezos has been desperately wooing, President Donald Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/one-year-into-the-clampdown-wapo-opinion-cheers-for-maga-billionaires-and-ai/

Examining a Newsroom

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Article in Columbia Journalism Revue by C.J Robinson, 7/9/26

Headline: “Inside Restoration News, a Political Nonprofit’s ‘Newsroom’ “

Subhead:  “How a media outlet funded by conservative donors is ‘waging a permanent campaign to defeat the radical left.’ “

“Restoration News, which covers topics ranging from abortion to diversity in the military to local school policies, calls itself the news source for the ‘America First movement.’ It is also a line item in a political operation. The site is directly funded by Restoration of America, a right-wing nonprofit . . .”

“Unlike other ‘pink slime’ sites that use AI or automation to produce stories, Restoration News employs human writers who make use of traditional journalistic methods. . .

“But they often fail to meet established journalistic standards.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/inside-restoration-news-political-nonprofits-newsroom-conservative-donors-pink-slime-restore-military-pac-manning-bouferrache-honeybadgermom-truax.php

No Truthiness for Media?

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Article in Daily Kos by Karandreas, 7/6/26

Headline: “Media Countenance Trump Lies”

“Jim Scuitto, the otherwise estimable CNN reporter, slipped into the lazy mainstream media cubbyhole of allowing Trump sycophants to lie about the economy without any pushback.

“To wit, Stephen Moore, the far right commentator and former Trump advisor was doing a dance to avoid answering questions about Trump’s latest and perhaps largest grift, the billions he made on crypto. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/6/800065965/community/media-countenance-trump-lies/

 

 

Media Maintaining Illusions?

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Article in The Bulwark by Tim Miller and John Dickerson, 6/29/26

Headline:  “John Dickerson: When the Media Helps Rewrite Reality”

“The most powerful person in the world repeatedly creates his own narrative about a news event despite what we can see and hear with our own eyes and our own ears. Media organizations that don’t fight like hell in response are failing at doing their most basic job—and they’re failing the country and our democracy as well. That’s what CBS News did when it settled Donald Trump’s frivolous 60 Minutes lawsuit and when it tried to change the story of the Minneapolis protests to benefit Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/john-dickerson-when-the-media-helps