Hegseth Burning Up About Media?

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Article in The Hill by Brett Samuals, 4/21/25

Headline:  “Hegseth blasts media, ‘disgruntled former employees’ over latest Signal controversy”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at the media and ‘disgruntled former employees’ Monday as he finds himself embroiled in fresh controversy over his sharing of sensitive information and his management of the Pentagon. . .”

“. . .’What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,’ Hegseth said, responding to new reporting from The New York Times.

“This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,’ . . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5258597-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-media-controversy/

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Article in Huffpost by Arthur Delaney, 4/21/25

Headline:  “Hegseth Lashes Out At Media After Firing His Own Aides Amid Pentagon ‘Meltdown’ “

Subhead:  “An angry Hegseth called reporters ‘hoaxsters’ who used ‘disgruntled former employees’ to ruin people.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at reporters Monday over a question about his use of a personal phone to discuss war plans in group chats with unauthorized participants.

Speaking in front of his children at the White House Easter Egg Roll, Hegseth suggested the stories had been planted by his own aides, three of whom he recently fired. . .”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-pentagon-meltdown_n_68068f65e4b0dae10a35e8ae

Journalists Targeted, Who is Next?

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Article in The Contrarian by Liam Scott, 4/18/25

Headline:  “Trump Officials Trolling Journalists is Just the Tip of the Iceberg”

Subhead:  “Behind the harassment of individual reporters is a full-scale assault on media freedom”

“When The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed last month that he had inadvertently been invited into a Signal group chat of senior U.S. national security officials, the news dominated headlines, cable broadcasts and social media for several days.

“While Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation into the incident, Trump officials set their sights elsewhere: on Goldberg himself. . . The harassment Goldberg faced was an unusually intense pile-on, but it underscores the increasingly common trend of targeting individual journalists by administration officials and even President Donald Trump.

“ ‘It’s clearly an effort to intimidate and silence journalists,’ Kathy Kiely, chair in free press studies at the Missouri School of Journalism, told me. . .”

For years, Trump has accused the mainstream media of bias and has even referred to it as “the enemy of the people,” in an increasingly contentious relationship that has also long featured journalist harassment. . .”

“And now, it’s not just Trump. Others, including Vance, Hegseth, Leavitt, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Special Envoy Richard Grenell and DOGE’s Elon Musk, have all targeted journalists online — with varied frequency and intensity — since Inauguration Day three months ago. . .”

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trump-officials-trolling-journalists

When You Jilt Your Media Fans

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Article in Politico by Michael Kruse, 4/18/25

Headline:  ” Trump’s Most Important Relationship Is Ending. And the Break-Up Isn’t Pretty.”

Subhead:  “For a half-century Trump and the mainstream media have mutually benefited from a stormy symbiosis. Why is he trying to kill the institution that made him?”

“. . .“I’m thinking seriously of running for president,” Trump said. “Why aren’t you writing about me?”

“ ‘He knew that you couldn’t be a serious presidential candidate in this country at that time unless your name showed up in every newspaper in the country,’ Fournier told me. ‘And if the AP wrote about you, that’s what would happen,’ he said.

“Trump used to court the AP. Today he’s in court with the AP — key members of Trump’s administration are defendants in a lawsuit filed by the flagship wire service after he booted its reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One for not following his order to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. . .”

Because his relationship with the media is his most important relationship. More than his three wives — more than any business partners — Trump’s symbiotic relationship with the media helped him craft an identity that has fueled every other achievement.

No longer. In the wake of his election last fall and at the outset of his second presidential term, Trump has turned his performative anti-media schtick into actual anti-media deeds. Wielding lawsuits, executive actions and the unleashing of allies and aides, he’s attempting to starve, squelch or shutter network television stations, global news agencies and reporters in Washington and beyond — a roster of targets ranging from ABC to CBS to NPR to the publication you’re reading right now. . .”

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/18/trump-media-history-ap-apprentice-00271192

Bot Journalists are Here!

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Article in Poynter by J.J. Thomson, et al, 4/17/25

Headline:  “What news audiences can teach journalists about artificial intelligence”

Subhead:  “Generative AI is changing journalism. Audiences have clear expectations for how it’s used.”

“As generative artificial intelligence shows up in more corners of public and private life, newsrooms should be talking with their staff about how they’re using it — and keeping audiences in the loop as those practices shift. Just as important: listening to how audiences experience and react to AI in journalism to help guide the industry forward. . .”

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/want-news-readers-want-ai/

 

Rt, Wing Listeners Flying Away

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffem 4/17/25

Headline:  “Callers to conservative radio shows voice their displeasure with Trump’s tariffs”

Subhead:  “Caller: ‘To me, this is just reckless, and I’m so angry. I’ll be darned if I’ll vote for another Republican again.’ ”

“Conservative radio listeners have been vocal about their displeasure as President Donald Trump’s tariffs created economic uncertainty and sent stock markets plunging.

“Though many right-wing media figures have dismissed the stock market volatility and praised Trump’s tariff policy, some listeners of right-wing radio shows were displeased, calling in to pronounce it ‘reckless,’ ‘sloppy,’ and ‘the single biggest, dumbest move in political history’. . .”

https://www.mediamatters.org/tariffs-trade/callers-conservative-radio-shows-voice-their-displeasure-trumps-tariffs

Media – Acid or Base?

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Article in Mediaite by Alex Griffing, 4/17/25

Headline:  “The Abrego Garcia Saga Is a Litmus Test For Media Figures”

“As President Donald Trump flirts with defying a Supreme Court order to help return a migrant that his administration admitted it deported and indefinitely imprisoned in El Salvador by ‘error,’ the media is faced with one of its easiest litmus tests in years: does due process and the rule of law matter in America?

“Many are failing. . .”

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-abrego-garcia-saga-is-a-litmus-test-for-media-figures/

 

 

Slanted White House Media?

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 4/17/25

Headline:  “MAGA media rules White House briefings after Trump purge”

“White House press briefings have turned into a playground for pro-MAGA outlets as the Trump administration has worked to sideline legitimate media organizations over the last four months.

“Instead of reporting that provides the public with a clear picture of the inner workings of the administration, the MAGA press corps seeks to push conservative falsehoods and bigotry while attacking the right.

“Outlets known for lying to the public like Breitbart News, The Daily Wire, and Zerohedge have been given prime access to top officials, including President Donald Trump. . .”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/17/2317022/-MAGA-media-rules-White-House-briefings-after-Trump-purge?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web

 

Protestors and the Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Lauren Watson, 4/17/25

Headline:  “Student Journalists Wrestle with Censoring Their Own Work”

Subhead:  “Navigating a surge in requests to take down previously published material.”

“In early March, Dylan Hembrough, the editor in chief of The Alestle, the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, published a story about protests on campus over federal funding cuts and censorship in science. The following day, the paper received a message from one of the protesters, who had been featured prominently in photographs and an interview, asking to have their name and image removed. At the time, Hembrough said, the paper didn’t have any policy allowing for such a post-publication takedown. ‘So, in that case, we ended up denying it’ . . .”

“In the past few weeks, eight students at SIUE have had their visas revoked by the Trump administration, Hembrough said—part of a group of more than thirteen hundred students nationwide who have been detained or lost their visas, sometimes for infractions as minor as participating in a protest.. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/student-journalists-censorship-protests-takedown-requests.php

 

Broadcasters Can’t Use Facts Now?

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Article in AlterNet by Adam Lynch, 4/17/25

Headline:  ” ‘Misleading the American public’: Trump’s FCC chair tweets veiled threat at media giant”

“Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr is threatening to revoke the licenses of broadcasters who don’t toe the current administration’s line on the wrongful deportation of a legal U.S. resident.

“ ‘Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that [Maryland father Kilmar] Abrego Garcia was merely a law-abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular “Maryland man.”  When the truth comes out, they ignore it,’ Carr posted on X Wednesday. ‘Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.’ . . .”

https://www.alternet.org/brendan-carr-fcc/

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Article in The Hill by Sarah Fortinsky, 4/14/25

Headline:  “Trump says CBS should lose license after ’60 Minutes’ segments on Ukraine, Greenland”

“President Trump railed against CBS on Sunday night, saying the network should lose its broadcast license after “60 Minutes” aired segments on Ukraine and Greenland that the president said cast him in a negative light. . . .”

“CBS News’s parent company, Paramount, has said the president’s lawsuit is an “affront to the First Amendment and is without basis in law or fact,” claiming Trump is trying to “punish a news organization for constitutionally protected editorial judgments they do not like.” . . .”

https://thehill.com/media/5247488-trump-says-cbs-should-lose-license-after-60-minutes-segments-on-ukraine-greenland/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 4/14/25

Headline:  “5 things to know about the Trump, CBS feud “

“President Trump’s feud with CBS is reaching a fever pitch as his administration turns up the heat on the national broadcast network stemming from a ‘60 Minutes’ interview it aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris before the presidential election last fall.

“Here are five things to know about the Trump and CBS fight. . . .”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5248507-five-things-to-know-about-the-trump-cbs-feud/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 4/14/25

Headline:  “Skydancing With Trump”

Subhead: “Donald Trump escalated his attacks on CBS News in a Sunday night tirade. But it’s what prospective new owner David Ellison was doing 24 hours beforehand that’s also left the newsroom on edge.”

“On Sunday night, Donald Trump launched into an unhinged tirade, this time targeting CBS News and its parent company, Paramount Global. The president, apparently incensed by the latest episode of ’60 Minutes,’ unleashed a barrage of false claims and conspiratorial rhetoric, accusing the network of having ‘illegally’ worked to elect Kamala Harris.  . .”

https://www.status.news/p/david-ellison-donald-trump-skydance-paramount

Only Tovarisch-Media Allowed!

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Article in Democracy Now by Staff, 4/16/25

Headline:  “Russian Journalists Sentenced to 5+ Years in Prison for “Extremism”

“A Russian court in Moscow has sentenced four journalists to five-and-a-half years in prison each, after convicting them of “extremism.” Two of the four worked for Sota Vision, which documents Russian protests and court proceedings; the others contributed to international news outlets including Reuters and the Associated Press. Prosecutors alleged the journalists were involved with a banned anti-corruption organization founded by Alexei Navalny, the opposition politician who died in a Russian penal colony last year following repeated assassination attempts.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/16/headlines/russian_journalists_sentenced_to_5_years_in_prison_for_extremism