US Media Bias on Venezuela?

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 1/12/26

Headline:  “Venezuelan journalists see gaps — and risks — in coverage of Nicolás Maduro’s capture”

Subhead:  “Journalists say U.S. outlets often lack Venezuelan voices and the long-term context needed to explain what comes next”

“. . . For U.S. newsrooms, Maduro’s capture is a dramatic foreign policy story. For Venezuelan journalists, it’s far more complicated. As American outlets work to explain what comes next, many of the journalists with the deepest knowledge of Venezuela are hesitant to speak publicly, fearful of reprisal, skeptical or superficial coverage and unsure whether U.S. media can fully capture the country’s legal and political complexity. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/venezuelan-coverage-nicolas-maduro-capture/

CBS Wreck?

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 1/12/26

Headline:  “David Letterman calls CBS News a ‘wreck’ under newly installed leadership”

Subhead: “Former late-night host makes comments amid merger of CBS’s parent company Paramount with Skydance Media”

“The former CBS late-night host David Letterman has criticized his old network, calling its news division a ‘wreck’ under its newly installed leadership. . .”

“He said: ‘CBS News is a wreck – it’s just gone. CBS News, for decades, going back to [the second world war], before [it], Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London from the rooftop of buildings in London for CBS Radio, and it was that mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News, that has been trampled on, pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/12/david-letterman-cbs-news-bari-weiss

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 1/12/26

Headline:   “And That’s the Way It Is”

Subhead:  “At CBS News, the suppression of critical reporting and the promotion of appeasement reveal Bari Weiss’s true colors.”

Read the article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/cbs-news-suppression-critical-reporting-appeasement-bari-weiss-tony-dokoupil.php

Press Asks About Nobel

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Article in AlterNet by Adam Lynch, 1/9/26

Headline:   “Internet erupts after Trump’s ‘delusional’ press conference” 

Subhead:  “Critics across the internet tore into President Donald Trump’s impromptu meeting with reporters on Friday.”

“Trump took time out from a meeting to pressure oil executives to invest in the freshly decapitated nation of Venezuela. . .”

“When asked by a reporter If he would change his view on Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado running the country if she would give him her Nobel Peace Prize Trump answered: ‘Well, I’m going to have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it. I can’t think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel prize more than me’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-delusional-presser/

Media Covering-Up Venezuela?

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Article in The Nation by Jack Mirkinson, 1/9/26

Headline:  “The Media’s Coverage of the Venezuelan Coup Has Been Dreadful”

Subhead:  “War may be the health of state, but it’s death to honest journalism.”

“We live in a turbulent, unpredictable world. Few things feel certain. But there are some truths we can hold fast to. The sun will rise. We’ll grow older each day. And the media will bend over backward to celebrate US imperialism.

“For evidence of this, just review the past week’s coverage of President Donald Trump’s illegal abduction and overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Once the kidnapping operation swung into gear, our most prominent newsrooms obediently adopted their time-honored patterns: indulging war lust, sidestepping or downplaying the rule of law, and uncritically cheerleading yet another violent foreign intervention by the US military. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/media-venezuela-tony-dokoupil/

Reporting Public Information Illegal?

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Article in FAIR by Jim Naureckas, 1/9/26

Headline:  “The First Amendment Allows You to Report Things the Government Doesn’t Want Reported”

“The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed journalist Seth Harp (Washington Post, 1/8/26) over his posting on X a photo and publicly available biographical information about the US colonel who apparently leads the Army’s Delta Force unit, which played a key role in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Committee member Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R–Fla.) called for Harp’s criminal prosecution, accusing him of ‘leaking classified information’  and ‘doxing’ the colonel.

“. . .Actually, the First Amendment does give you a license to do all of those things. None of them are covered by the extremely limited exceptions to the freedom of the press recognized by the US Constitution. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/the-first-amendment-allows-you-to-report-things-the-government-doesnt-want-reported/

Did “60 Minutes” Lose Something?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 1/8/26

Headline: “The Shadow Over ‘60’ “

Subhead:  “As Sharyn Alfonsi’s ’60 Minutes’ report remains shelved, Status has learned that an Anderson Cooper piece is also caught in a prolonged editorial review process, frustrating the veteran producer attached to the story.”

“Earlier this week, on Tuesday, members of the ’60 Minutes’ team gathered for a meeting to discuss the future of Sharyn Alfonsi’s delayed piece on migrants deported by Donald Trump’s administration to a notorious El Salvadorian prison. The segment, which had been slated for broadcast on December 21, was pulled from air at the eleventh hour by the network’s new MAGA friendly editor in chief, Bari Weiss. . .”

Read the full article at:

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

Somebody’s Pants on Fire?

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Article in Mediaite by Isaac Schorr, 1/8/26

Headline: ” ‘Absolute Disgrace!’ Irate JD Vance Loses It on the Media for ‘Lying’ About ICE Shooting”

“Vice President JD Vance dressed down the media on Thursday over its coverage of the shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer on Wednesday in a monologue he delivered from the podium in the White House briefing room.

“After first discussing the administration’s response to the Somali fraud scandal playing out in Minnesota, Vance accused the press of ‘lying’ about what had transpired in Minneapolis the day before. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/absolute-disgrace-irate-jd-vance-loses-it-on-the-media-for-lying-about-ice-shooting/

Buttoning Down the Media

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Article in Poynter by Louis Jacobson, 1/8/26

Headline:  “A brief history of the media through political convention pins”

Subhead:  “Collect ‘em and trade ‘em … and watch how they trace the evolution and decline of legacy media brands”

“. . .Recently, I realized that some of my souvenirs from those conventions accidentally tell a story about the media’s evolution over the past three decades.

“The souvenirs I’m referring to are pins, mostly the size of the average thumbnail. Despite their modest size, these trinkets tell a story of the media’s proximity to power, the ebb and flow of journalistic resources and the media pecking order. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/political-convention-pins-media-history-journalism-decline/

 

Rt. Wing Media Cheering

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan, 1/8/26

Headline: “Some US media are cheerleading Trump’s Venezuela raid. That’s not their job”

Subhead: “An almost admiring feeling pervaded the early coverage – and not just among right-leaning outlets”

“If you believe the early public opinion polls, Americans are uncertain about last weekend’s raid on Venezuela and the seizure of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

But many in the media seem to be trying to move that wavering needle to approval.   That’s especially true on the right, of course, where Fox News is leading a full-on cheering squad.

Even the right-leaning podcaster Megyn Kelly, a former Fox host herself, said the cable network’s early coverage was like watching Russian propaganda.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/08/us-media-trump-venezuela-raid

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Article in Media Matters by Sophie Lawton, 1/7/26

Headline: “Greenland, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, and more: After Maduro’s capture, right-wing media encourage escalating US involvement around the globe”

“Following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, right-wing media figures are pushing for the Trump administration to next target other countries — including Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico — and even to take Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/greenland-colombia-cuba-mexico-iran-and-more-after-maduros-capture-right-wing-media

Journalists Must Report Facts

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Article in Poynter by Kelly McBride, 1/7/26

Headline:  “How journalists should cover ICE’s fatal shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis”

Subhead:  “Editors face high-stakes ethical decisions on video, transparency and protest coverage — and those choices will be closely scrutinized”

“Journalists have a critical role to play in covering a fatal use of force by any law enforcement officer. It’s the most basic form of holding power to account.

“That responsibility is especially urgent after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, an incident that was captured on multiple videos and has prompted sharply conflicting accounts from federal, state and local officials. . .””

Read the full article at:

|https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2026/covering-ice-fatal-shooting-minneapolis-journalism-ethics/