Gotta Pay the Right News Outlets

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Article in Reuters by Maayan Lubell, 12/10/24

Headline:  “Netanyahu assails media as he testifies for first time in his corruption trial”

“. . .The leader of the right-wing Likud party, Netanyahu assailed the Israeli media for what he called its leftist stance and accused journalists of having hounded him for years because his policies did not align with a push for a Palestinian state.

” ‘I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth, ‘ Netanyahu told the three-judge court. ‘But I am also a prime minister … I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.’ ”

“Netanyahu was indicted in three cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable news coverage. He denies any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-take-stand-his-corruption-trial-first-time-2024-12-09/

Reporter Records Seized in Past

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Article in AP by Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer, 12/10/24

Headline:  “Justice Department ignored some policies when seizing reporters’ phone records, watchdog finds”

“Federal prosecutors sidestepped some Justice Department rules when they seized the phone records of reporters as part of media leak investigations during the Trump administration, according to a new watchdog report being released as the aggressive practice of hunting for journalists’ sources could again be resurrected.”

https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-inspector-general-reporters-congress-records-d337eb87f286b9c14779adb8b4b14365

Who Checks the Media?

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Article in the Washington Post by Erik Wemple, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Will anyone hold the media to account? I answered your questions.”

Q by guest – “. . . Why don’t reporters ask real follow-up questions?
As a former newspaper reporter/editor, my heart remains in the field and with the reporters trying to cover some of the strangest times in our history.

“I am frustrated that reporters rarely ask sufficient follow–up questions when a politician, like a president-elect, lies. Kristen Welker’s interview with Donald Trump is an example.

A – : “. . . Welker then challenges Trump by saying that the figure he cited goes back 40 years; Trump then plows ahead with his narrative, which a subsequent NBC News fact check calls false. Your critique is a good one: This point is significant enough to essentially halt the flow of the interview and say something like, “Please cite your source.” Because even though NBC News later fact-checked it (as did other outlets), there’s value in standing firm on principle in real time, when possible.. . ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/09/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/

Attacking Media That Inform Us

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Article in The Verge by Adi Robertson, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Politicians already feel emboldened to use the legal system to target journalists.”

Subhead:  “404 Media is fighting a subpoena from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to seize confidential reporting material”

“In order to do our job well, journalists need to be independent from the government and from outside corporate interests. … Our sources—many of whom are particularly vulnerable—share information with us specifically because we are independent from the state.

“As we’ve said before: tell your Senator to pass the PRESS Act.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/9/24317197/politicians-already-feel-emboldened-to-use-the-legal-system-to-target-journalists

Media Pardon Prank

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Article in Huffpost by David Moye, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Media Prankster Offers Free Joe Biden Pardons For Everyone”

Subhead:  “ ‘Everyone deserves a pardon,’ conceptual artist Joey Skaggs told HuffPost.”

“A conceptual artist and media prankster has created the perfect gift for people who fear President Joe Biden played favorites when he pardoned his son Hunter: Free pardon cards for anyone who wants one.

“This past weekend, artist Joey Skaggs posted a link on his website for Free Biden Presidential Pardons.”

“. . .Would you rather be pardoned by Donald Trump than Biden? No problem. Skaggs also has a Trump pardon on his website that he created the first time Trump left office”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joey-skaggs-free-biden-pardon_n_67576431e4b02942d61cb4f7

Malicious Media?

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Article in Daily Kos by Sabrina Haake, 12/99/24

Headline:  “Media malfeasance got us here, and media malfeasance will keep us here”

“Mainstream media spent last week in a self-righteous frenzy over Joe Biden’s pardon of his son.

“Almost none of the coverage explained that Hunter Biden was pardoned for offenses rarely prosecuted in the first place.

“. . . Since the pardon was announced, Fox News has churned non-stop false narratives equating the “Biden crime family” with Trump’s long litany of felonies. Fox News ran over 80 features covering the Biden pardon over the past week alone, yet to this day has still never factually discussed J6 or Trump’s role in it.

“Fox similarly offers no criticism of Trump’s plan to install a psychopath to turn the FBI into a dragnet against American citizens.. . . ”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/9/2291063/-Media-malfeasance-got-us-here-and-media-malfeasance-will-keep-us-here?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Media Empire Trouble

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Article in The Guardian by Lauren Aratani, 12/9/24

Headline:  “Rupert Murdoch loses battle to control succession to his media empire”

Subhead:  “Media mogul’s three adult children will retain control despite attempt to give his son Lachlan complete control”

“Rupert Murdoch’s three adult children will retain control over their father’s media empire upon his death, a Nevada court has ruled after Murdoch launched a campaign to wrest away their power and give it all to his oldest son.

“The New York Times reported on Murdoch’s loss, citing a sealed court decision that was filed on Saturday. The family battle took place outside of the public’s eye, despite attempts from the media to gain access to the trial.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/09/rupert-murdochmedia-empire-children

Media Whitewashed Tyrant

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Just a regular guy – but will it happen here?

Article in The Guardian by Zoe Williams, 12/9/24

Headline:  “They ‘didn’t look the type’: how the media was fooled by Bashar and Asma al-Assad”

Subhead:  “Some journalists underestimated the threat of the brutal president, while his first lady was glamorised in a Vogue feature”

“When the Syrian spring erupted in 2011, Vogue magazine ran a profile of Asma al-Assad titled A Rose in the Desert. Her husband had already killed more than 5,000 civilians, including hundreds of children, when Asma was described as ‘the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies’. The journalist, Joan Juliet Buck, went on to note that ‘her style is not the couture-and-bling dazzle of Middle Eastern power but a deliberate lack of adornment’ ”.

“. . . Vladimir Putin was, around the same time, trying to cast himself as an action hero, releasing photos of himself on horseback, bare-chested, on a Harley, with a tiger. Who needs to have a stick up their arse about kleptocracy when it looks like so much fun? If an autocrat doesn’t look or act like one, if he looks instead like a giraffe (as people said about Bashar al-Assad), or a joker, or a clown, or a reality TV showman, maybe it won’t be such a bad life under him after all.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/09/how-media-was-fooled-bashar-asma-al-assad

News Coverage – Look Out Below!

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Article in The Hill by Filip Timotija. 12/7/24

Headline: “Jon Stewart slams media speculation of Trump presidency”

“. . . Right before interviewing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the episode, Stewart knocked news coverage of Trump’s transition and argued that the country has been through a ‘tumultuous’ year.

“ ‘We appear to be in a transitional period where we are not sure about whether the ground we are standing on is solid, although the news media seems convinced that we are the Road Runner and the Coyote, and the Coyote has run over the cliff, and we just looked down and realized there’s nothing under our feet, and now we are plunging to our deaths,’ Stewart joked in reference to the Looney Tunes animated characters.

“ ‘Because the news media is always very circumspect,’ he added.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5028055-jon-stewart-media-speculation-trump/