Article in the Washington Post by Eric Wemple, 3/3/25
Headline: “Erik Wemple answered your questions on the media”
Subhead: “Erik’s Q&A with readers was at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, March 3. Read the transcript.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/03/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/
Article in The Guardian by Lois Beckett, 3/3/25
Headline: “LA Times to display AI-generated political rating on opinion pieces”
Subhead: “Los Angeles paper’s ‘Insights’ tool comes after months of public debate between opinion staff and billionaire owner”
“Some Los Angeles Times opinion pieces will now be published with an artificial intelligence-generated rating of their political content, and an AI-generated list of alternative political views on that issue, the paper’s biotech billionaire owner announced on Monday.
“The new AI “Insights” feature will only be applied to a range of opinion content in the paper, not its news reporting, according to a public letter announcing the change from Patrick Soon-Shiong, the medical entrepreneur who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018.
“he AI-generated tool “operates independently” from the paper’s human journalists, and “the AI content is not reviewed by journalists before it is published”, the Los Angeles Times noted in a summary of the new feature.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/la-times-ai-opinion-rating
Article in Raw Story by Cark Gibson, 2/29/25
Headline: ” ‘Treasonous’: Trump investigates public media reporters for criticizing his administration”
“Several journalists employed by an outlet funded by the U.S. government have found themselves in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs, according to a new report.
“In a Friday article, the New York Times reported that one longtime journalist at Voice of America (VOA) — which is funded by Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (AGM) — had been put on an extended ‘excused absence’ pending a human resources investigation following a tweet flagged by Trump advisor Richard Grenell. VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman said the investigation was meant to determine whether his ‘social media activity has undermined VOA’s audiences’ perceptions of the objectivity and/or credibility of VOA and its news operations.”
“In the tweet, Herman quoted a nonprofit leader who criticized Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development as making Americans ‘less safe at home and abroad.’ Grenell called Herman’s tweet ‘treasonous.’ ”
Podcast on NPR On he Media, by staff 2/28/25
Headline: “The New ‘State Media.’ Plus, Podcasters Are Running the FBI.”
“Breaking from a century of tradition, the White House says it will seize control of the press pool covering the president. On this week’s On the Media, the new administration is prioritizing access for an array of far-right influencers and news outlets. . . ”
“Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Anna Merlan, senior reporter at Mother Jones covering disinformation, technology, and extremism, to discuss the White House’s latest move to control the press pool covering the president. Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter at NBC News covering the internet, to discuss the rise of Dan Bongino, from right wing podcaster to Donald Trump’s new pick for Deputy Director of the FBI, and his history of anti-FBI rhetoric.”
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media
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Article in Mother Jones by Anna Merlan, 2/25/25
Headline: “Meet the New State Media”
Subhead: “How the second Trump administration grants access and status to conspiracy theorists, propagandists, and far-right influencers.”
“. . . From the moment Trump returned to office, his second administration has prioritized giving access and status to an array of far-right influencers and news outlets, including figures with checkered pasts and thin or nonexistent journalistic credentials. In doing so, the administration has created a swell of flattering media coverage, a gauzy bubble around its every decision, no matter how destructive or incoherent. This new state media displays unquestioning loyalty, and its propaganda pipeline is speedier than ever, ensuring that every executive order or new move by the Department of Government Efficiency is greeted with rapturous pseudo-reporting the moment it’s announced.
As part of this new order, the White House press briefing room is now chock-full of conservative podcasters, influencers, and representatives of right-wing media outlets. Nine days after Trump reassumed office, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took to the podium for her first briefing to announce that the White House would encourage what she called ‘new media voices’ to apply for press passes, including ‘independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators.’
“ ‘Starting today,’ she added, ‘this seat in the front of the room, which is usually occupied by the press secretary staff, will be called the “new media” seat. . .’
“This new crop of people who have been given extremely good access are not journalists.
“ ‘For the most part, this new crop of people who have been given extremely good access are not journalists in the traditional sense ‘ says Margaret Sullivan, executive director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University and a former public editor for the New York Times.
“ ‘They’re closer to propagandists than journalists,’ Sullivan adds. ‘I don’t know if you could call it ‘coverage. It’s positive exposure for the Trump administration. They’ll be part of a cheering squad.’ ”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/donald-trump-press-room-conservative-media/
Article in The New Republic by Edith Olmsted, 2/28/25
Headline: “Russian State Media Almost Waltzed Into Trump’s Zelenskiy Meeting”
Subhead: “How the heck did a Russian state media reporter get access to the Oval Office?”
“As the White House cracks down on which news outlets are allowed to have access to President Donald Trump, it seems that a member of Russian state media was somehow able to make their way into the Oval Office Friday.
“While mainstream outlets the Associated Press and Reuters were kept out of a tense discussion between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a member of Tass, a Russian news agency that pushes propaganda about Russia’s ‘liberation’ of Ukraine, was briefly in the room with the two world leaders.
“A White House official told Politico that Tass was ‘not on the approved list of media’ for the day’s press pool.
“ ‘As soon as it came to the attention of press office staff that he was in the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary,’ the official said, adding that the reporter wasn’t on the list of the now-canceled press conference after, either.
“The White House did not explain how the reporter was able to gain access to the Oval Office, despite not being on the list for entry.”
https://newrepublic.com/post/192183/donald-trump-volodymyr-zelenskiy-meeting-russian-state-media
Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 2/26/25
Headline: “FCC’s Knives Are Out for First Amendment”
“Brendan Carr, newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is waging a war on the news media, perhaps the most dangerous front in de jure President Donald Trump and de facto President Elon Musk’s quest to destroy freedom of the press and the First Amendment.
“Trump’s FCC has revived right-wing requests to sanction TV stations over their election coverage—complaints that had previously been dismissed by the FCC as incompatible with the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press. . .”
https://fair.org/home/fccs-knives-are-out-for-first-amendment/
Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 2/28/25
Headline: “Ex-Washington Post editor Marty Baron rebukes Bezos: ‘betrayal of free expression’ “
Subhead: “Lauded former editor ‘appalled’ by billionaire newspaper owner’s overhaul of opinion section to narrow focus”
“Marty Baron, a highly regarded former editor of the Washington Post, has said that Jeff Bezos’s announcement that the newspaper’s opinion section would narrow its editorial focus was a “betrayal of the very idea of free expression” that had left him ‘appalled’.
“In an interview with The Guardian, Baron also said: .’I don’t think that [Bezos] wants an editorial page that’s regularly going after Donald Trump.’
“On Wednesday, the billionaire newspaper owner and Amazon founder sent an email to Post staffers announcing that the newspaper’s editorial section would shift its editorial focus and that only opinions that support and defend “personal liberties” and “free markets” would be welcome, and other viewpoints ‘will be left to be published by others’.
“Bezos’s announcement was met with criticism and resulted in the departure of the newspaper’s opinions editor, David Shipley. Baron, who was executive editor of the Washington Post from 2012 until 2021 and is one of the most esteemed figures in American journalism, blasted Bezos’s decision.
“There’s been a long tradition at the Post of having a variety of opinions on the opinion pages and that’s part of its heritage,” Baron said. ‘Bezos supported that since he acquired the paper, he advocated for that internally, but his most recent decision represents a real betrayal of the heritage of the Post and a betrayal of the very idea of free expression.’ ”
“Baron said that news organizations including the Post have traditionally honored the principle of free expression by allowing a wide variety of views on the opinion pages, but that Bezos’s decision on Wednesday ‘does exactly the opposite’ and ‘dishonors free expression, which is the most fundamental personal liberty of American citizens’ ”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/marty-baron-jeff-bezos-washington-post
Article in The Guardian by Rachel Savage, 2/27/25
Headline: “Namibian media outlets have reacted with anger and dismay after they were asked by the US embassy whether they were affiliated with western publications whose subscriptions have been cancelled by the US state department.”
“On 11 February, the state department ordered its outposts to cancel “non-mission critical” media subscriptions as part of the Trump administration’s drive to cut government costs.
“A 14 February directive then instructed prioritising the cancellation of subscriptions to the Economist, the New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, the Associated Press and Reuters, according to the Washington Post.
“Donald Trump’s second presidential term has started with a wave of initiatives to reduce the size of government and purge it of anything deemed to be liberal.”
The Namibian, an independent newspaper, was asked by a US embassy staff member on 18 February via email: “Are you or any of your services associated/affiliated with the following companies: The Economist, the New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News Feed, Associated Press, or Reuters? If so, could you please explain how? ie Do you re-run their stories or are you a subsidiary of the publication?”
Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan, 2/26/25
Headline: “Jeff Bezos is muzzling the Washington Post’s opinion section. That’s a death knell”
Subhead: ” ‘I couldn’t be more sad and disgusted,’ says former top editor Martin Baron”
“Owners and publishers of news organizations often exert their will on opinion sections. It would be naive to think otherwise.
“But a draconian announcement this week by Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post owner, goes far beyond the norm.
The billionaire declared that only opinions that support “personal liberties” and “free markets” will be welcome in the opinion pages of the Post. . .”
“The paper’s top opinion editor, David Shipley, couldn’t get on board with those restrictions. He immediately – and appropriately – resigned.
“The ‘Gulf of America’ feud is about something bigger: Trump wants to control the media
“Especially in light of the billionaire’s other blatant efforts to cozy up to Donald Trump, Bezos’s move is more than a gut punch; it’s more like a death knell for the once-great news organization he bought in 2013.
“It’s unclear what will happen to such excellent left-of-center columnists as Catherine Rampell, Eugene Robinson and EJ Dionne. And it’s unclear to what extent this ruling eventually will affect the paper’s hard-news coverage, which so far has been unbowed in covering the chaotic rollout of the new Trump administration.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/26/jeff-bezos-washington-post-opinion
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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Andrew Rosenthal, 2/27/25
Headline: “From Marty Baron to Robber Baron
Subhead: “Jeff Bezos is heel-turning the Washington Post opinion section into the realm of the far right.”
“I was as startled as most people when, in 2013, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, wrote a check for $250 million to purchase the Washington Post. Not because a rich man was buying an important newspaper, for that has always been the story of the American newspaper business. The New York Times, where I spent most of my adult life as a journalist, was bought in 1896 by a rich man who turned it into the first politically independent newspaper in the country. . . ”
I was surprised that Bezos, an investor in the Reason Foundation, whose professed libertarianism reads like an Ayn Rand treatise, said it was civic duty that compelled him. But let’s judge Bezos by his actions, I thought, and was pleasantly surprised that his first act was to declare that he would not meddle in the Post’s newsroom and that he would accept the decisions of the editorial board, whose positions, he said, reflected his own. . .”
“The descent from Bezos’s civic duty and the Post’s journalistic integrity was swift. . .
“About a week before the 2024 election, Bezos refused to allow his editorial board to endorse Kamala Harris. Bezos called this a “principled decision.”
“Leave aside for the moment how Bezos—who has about as much in common with the common voter as he does with the people who drive his delivery trucks—knows this apparent “fact.” Let’s just take him at his word. He didn’t want the Post to seem biased. . . ”
Article in Media Matters by Payton Armstrong, 2/27/25
Headline: “Right-wing media cheer Trump’s anti-Christian bias task force after years of laying the groundwork”
Subhead: “Right-wing commentators have spent years claiming that the Biden administration was ‘waging spiritual warfare against Christianity’ and that ‘the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square’ “
“A task force created by President Donald Trump to eradicate alleged ‘anti-Christian bias’ is drawing praise from right-wing media figures — some of whom have spent years baselessly claiming that Christians are a persecuted group in the United States, even though experts say there’s no such widespread bias.
“Right-wing commentators celebrated Trump’s task force as ‘a cultural resurgency’ and declared that ‘this is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020’.
“In one instance, Christian nationalist media figure Lance Wallnau joined Steve Bannon’s podcast to praise the task force as the first step in the ‘recapturing of institutions,’ . . .