WaPo Waking up?

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Article in The Washington Post by the Editorial Board, 1/14/26

Headline:  “The Post and the First Amendment”

Subhead:  “An FBI raid won’t stop reporters from continuing their important work.”

“The Justice Department’s decision to send FBI agents to raid a Washington Post reporter’s home Wednesday was an aggressive attack on the press freedom of all journalists. Yet anyone who believes the raid will deter reporters from doing their jobs is sorely mistaken.

Federal law enforcement searched the home of The Post’s Hannah Natanson and seized several of her electronic devices. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/14/fbi-raid-press-freedom-first-amendment/

Attack a Journalist? – FAFO

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Article in the Huffington Post by David Moye, 1/15/26

Headline:  “Karoline Leavitt’s Meltdown Not Winning Her Any Fans On Social Media”

Subhead:  “People on X weren’t sympathetic to the White House press secretary’s tirade against a journalist asking a legitimate question about issues facing ICE.”

“White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt probably thought attacking a journalist who asked a legitimate question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during Thursday’s press briefing would help her win the hearts and minds of voters.

But it doesn’t appear things worked out as she might have hoped, based on the social media reaction to her meltdown at a simple question asked by The Hill’s Niall Stanage.

During the briefing, Stanage noted an earlier comment made by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that ICE agents are ‘doing everything correctly,’ before asking Leavitt how that can be when “32 people died in ICE custody last year, 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE, and Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent.”

“Leavitt didn’t like the answer and declared, ‘Oh, OK. So you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion’ before going on a tirade where she called Stanage ‘a left-wing activist” and said he was ‘posing as a journalist.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/karoline-leavitt-meltdown-ice-sparks-social-media-backlash_n_69696996e4b00edae2a41e5b?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

Can You ICE the Truth?

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Article in The New Republic by Hafiz Rashid, 1/14/26

Headline:  “DHS Picks Fight With Reporter Who Exposed ICE’s Shoddy Hiring”

Subhead:  “The Department of Homeland Security is pissed after Laura Jedeed revealed how she got a job offer from ICE in just six minutes.”

“The Department of Homeland Security attempted to discredit a journalist Wednesday and was quickly embarrassed.

“On Tuesday, Slate published a bombshell article by Laura Jedeed outlining how she had somehow slipped through ICE’s screening process to be offered a job by the agency despite failing to complete any of the required paperwork, including a background check. The next day, DHS tried to claim Jedeed’s article was ‘such a lazy lie.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/post/205300/dhs-fight-reporter-exposed-ice-job-hiring

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Article in Democracy Now by Smy Goodman, 1/14/26

Headline:   “Journalist Tests ICE Recruitment; Surprised to Find Herself Hired with No Background Check”

“ ‘They didn’t ask very many questions.’ Independent journalist and U.S. military veteran Laura Jedeed recounts how she was hired as a deportation officer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a six-minute interview at a job fair in Texas, despite never signing any paperwork, not having completed a background check, likely failing a drug test, and publicly sharing her opposition to the Trump administration and its anti-immigrant crackdown. . .”

Listen to the full story at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/14/laura_jedeed_ice

Is FCC Making Money for. . .?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Chairman Carr’s Corruption of the FCC Requires Greater Congressional Action and Oversight”

“Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr dodged accountability during a House Commerce Committee oversight hearing on Wednesday.

“Throughout the hearing, Carr refused to answer questions about his efforts to weaponize the agency in service of President Donald Trump. His record includes helping the White House silence the president’s critics in the media, install so-called “bias monitors” inside private media companies and enrich Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/chairman-carrs-corruption-fcc-requires-greater-congressional-action-and-oversight

What Legacy Media Fear?

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Article in FAIR by Raina Lipsitz, 1/14/26

Headline:  “What Scares Establishment Media Most Is Not Socialism But Democracy”

“. . .Establishment media’s obsession with portraying democratic socialism as divisive and/or fatally alienating to voters blinded it to what was truly radical about Mamdani’s campaign: It empowered ordinary people to lead, changing individual lives and history. What most scares the establishment isn’t socialism; it’s people-powered democracy. . .”

“To pundits and corporate media outlets, this is a dangerous lesson: If everyday people realize they don’t need overpaid consultants or self-declared experts to win real change, how long can the status quo be maintained by its beneficiaries?”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/what-scares-establishment-media-most-is-not-socialism-but-democracy/

Political Search of Reporter’s Home?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Maddy Crowell, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Nothing Is Secure”

Subhead:  “The home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter, was searched by the FBI. Her devices were seized. Runa Sandvik, whose life’s work is protecting journalists’ digital security, assesses the damage—and what news organizations need to know.”

“On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post published a story by Hannah Natanson, a reporter who works as part of a team covering the ways Donald Trump is upending the federal workforce. “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal,” the headline went. . .”

“. . .On Wednesday morning, the FBI searched her home and seized her phone, a Garmin watch, and two laptops—one of them issued by the Post.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/hannah-natanson-fbi-washington-post-raid-devices-seized-runa-sandvik-security-computer-phone-laptop-sources.php

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Article in Status by Natalie Korsach, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Bezos Abandons His Post“

Subhead:  “The FBI’s disturbing raid on a Washington Post reporter ignited widespread outrage across journalism, but Jeff Bezos stayed conspicuously silent—angering some inside the newsroom, Status has learned”

“On Wednesday afternoon, as shock rippled through major newsrooms after the FBI executed a search warrant on a reporter at The Washington Post, Executive Editor Matt Murray addressed the episode internally. In a memo to staff. . .”

” ‘This extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work,’ Murray wrote. . .”

Read the full article at::

https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-fbi-raid-jeff-bezos

Rt. Wing Media Doubting?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 1/13/26

Headline:  “The right-wing media backlash against the Jerome Powell probe”

“The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell drew swift pushback from across right-wing media on Monday, as pundits typically aligned with President Donald Trump savaged the move as “lawfare for dummies” that would ‘make a martyr’ of its target. The widespread criticism emphasized the lack of a constituency for strong-arming the Fed into endorsing Trump’s policy agenda with apparent pretextual legal threats. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-backlash-against-jerome-powell-probe

Cloud Over New York Media Strategy?

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Article in Poynter by Taylor Jung, 1/13/26

Headline:  ‘I’m a community journalist in New York City. Here’s why Mamdani’s “influencer presser” stung.’

Subhead:  “Mayor Mamdani’s ‘new media’ strategy prioritizes content creators while locking out the community outlets that serve New York’s neighborhoods”

“On the evening of Jan. 6, members of the press received Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s public schedule for the following day. Mamdani was slated to host his first ‘new media press conference.’ It stated that the event would be ‘invited press only.’

We journalists who work for community news outlets weren’t part of that list. We’ve had difficulty getting in touch with Mamdani’s team since before he took office.”

read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/zohran-mamdani-influencers-journalists/

Network News Down the Drain?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Amos Barshad, 1/13/26

Headline: “Unaffiliated”

Subhead: “Some TV news stations are breaking their national network affiliations, and leaning into local programming.”

“. . .Amid mass media-job losses over the past year and increases in network television licensing fees that have been mounting for a while longer, WPLG has, since last spring, made sixty new hires.

“The growth has come as a direct result of WPLG’s decision, in August, to cut ties with ABC, with which it’s been affiliated since going on the air, sixty-nine years ago. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/unaffiliated-local-tv-stations-leaving-national-affiliates.php

Broadcasting into Iran Stopped?

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Article in Mediaite by Sarah Rumpfm 1/13/26

Headline: “Kari Lake Blocks Radio Free Europe from Using U.S. Transmitter in Kuwait to Broadcast into Iran: Report”

“US Agency for Global Media senior advisor Kari Lake has blocked Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from broadcasting into Iran using a USAGM transmitter located in Kuwait, reported Oliver Darcy in his Status newsletter.

“Lake narrowly lost the 2022 Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, and since then has paired her support for former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election with her own unfounded accusations that her election was stolen from her as well. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/kari-lake-blocks-radio-free-europe-from-using-u-s-transmitter-in-kuwait-to-broadcast-into-iran-report/