Hegseth Winger Media-Support

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Article from Media Matters by Starr, 12/5/24

Headline: Matt Gertz on right-wing media support for Pete Hegseth: “They’re trying to move someone from Fox & Friends’ weekend show to sixth in line for the presidency”

Subhead: “Gertz: “Donald Trump has repeatedly sought out people that he likes from his television, likes from Fox News, for big roles in his administration”

“I think there is. I think what we’re seeing right now is a test of the power that the right-wing media has within the MAGA movement. Some sort of flare clearly went up over the last 24 hours because after largely remaining passive and backing off from the nomination as all of these damning reports came out, people at Fox and throughout the right-wing media have started rallying to Hegseth’s defense.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/matt-gertz-right-wing-media-support-pete-hegseth-theyre-trying-move-someone-fox

Indiana Media Voudoun

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Article in Media Matters by Olivia Little, 12/5/24

Headline:  “Right-wing media launched a migrant witch hunt in rural Indiana”

Subhead:  “Hate groups, a local politician, and the Heritage Foundation tried to take advantage of the misinformation-fueled panic”

“Months after the Trump campaign’s flagrant lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, went viral, right-wing media continue to fuel fear of Haitian migration. In Indiana, a small city was the focus of a misinformation-fueled migrant witch hunt led by right-wing media that emboldened hate groups and is now being used as a case study to justify anti-immigrant policies.

“Logansport is a rural city with a population of about 18,000 residents. In mid-September, Kayla Blakeslee, a right-wing talk radio host based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, posted on Facebook screenshots of emails that claimed “20,000 plus Haitian immigrants” were “dropped off” in Logansport over the last six months. Blakeslee wrote, ‘Is Logansport, IN the new Springfield, OH???’ ”

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-launched-migrant-witch-hunt-rural-indiana

Press Freedom Jeopardy?

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 12/6/24

Headline:  “Appeals Court Upholding TikTok Ban Is a Grim Sign for Press Freedom”

“Donald Trump is just weeks away from returning to the White House, and when he gets there, it is all but assured that he will attack press freedom (FAIR.org, 11/14/24; NBC, 12/4/24).

“But the will and desire to clamp down on free speech and expression isn’t just a Trumpian phenomenon. A US District Court of Appeals panel, with two Republican-appointed judges and one picked by a Democrat, has upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok because of its alleged Chinese government control (AP, 12/6/24).

“All corners of government, joined by members of both major parties, concur that national security concerns should allow the government to scrap First Amendment principles. This means that Trump’s aggressiveness against free speech isn’t an anomaly of his Make America Great Again movement, but a general feature of American state power. The enormity of this decision, if upheld by the notoriously conservative Supreme Court, is a dire sign of what is to come.”

https://fair.org/home/appeals-court-upholding-tiktok-ban-is-a-grim-sign-for-press-freedom/

TikTok – Medium of Free Speech or Espionage?

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Update:

Article in Washington Post by Madalin Necsutu and Anthony Faiola, 11/6/24

Headline:  “Romanian court annuls presidential vote after Russian interference claims”

Subhead:  “Calin Georgescu won the first round of the election after being propelled by TikTok. Romania’s security services pointed to ‘Russian hybrid actions.’ “

“The Constitutional Court took the extraordinary step of annulling Romania’s presidential election Friday after the country’s security services assessed that the nation had been the target of ‘Russian hybrid actions’ that used TikTok to promote a candidate who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/06/romania-court-annuls-presidential-election/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Headline:  “Appeals court upholds nationwide TikTok ban-or-sale law”

Subhead:  “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit made the expedited decision ahead of the TikTok ban’s looming Jan. 19 deadline, in a high-profile case pitting national security concerns against free speech.”

“A federal appeals court has turned away a challenge to a fast-approaching nationwide ban of short-video app TikTok unless it divests from Chinese ownership, placing national security before free speech concerns and bringing the app’s 170 million U.S. users closer to losing access to the wildly popular platform.

“he U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday sided with the Justice Department, which argued that the U.S. government has the authority to ban TikTok based on the national security risk that TikTok could be pressured by the Chinese government to expose Americans’ data or influence what they see. TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, is based in China.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/06/tiktok-ban-court-ruling-justice-department-bytedance/

All the News That’s Fit to Buy

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Article in IPS by Omar Ocampo, 12/3/24

Headline:  “Twelve U.S. Billionaires Now Have a Combined $2 Trillion”

Subhead: “Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joins the oligarchic dozen, which have more influence over media and politics than ever. “

“The collective net worth of America’s top twelve billionaires has surpassed $2 trillion as of December 3.”

“. . . Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with others in the billionaire class, have unsurprisingly used the power of their wealth to expand their political and economic influence. They have both purchased large media platforms, which has granted them the ability to set the terms of public debate with the hopes of influencing public opinion in their favor. ”

https://ips-dc.org/twelve-u-s-billionaires-now-have-a-combined-2-trillion/

Surrender to the Liberal Media?

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargeant, 12/5/24

Headline:  “MAGA Rages as GOPers Deliver Trump Bad News: Pete Hegseth May Be Toast”

Subhead:  “As Republican senators signal that Trump’s pick for defense secretary may not survive, a leading observer of right-wing media explains how MAGA is turning Hegseth into a disturbing litmus test for the GOP.”

“Matt Gertz of Media Matters, who has a good new piece reporting on Fox News’s efforts to save Hegseth. Gertz explains how MAGA is turning this into a test for GOP senators: Will they surrender to the “liberal media” when it reports facts about Trump, or will they side with Trump and MAGA? If GOP senators fail now, it bodes badly for what’s coming. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/189052/maga-rages-gopers-deliver-trump-bad-news-pete-hegseth-may-toast

Media Pigeon

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Article in Raw Story by Travis Gettys, 12/6/24

Headline:  “Russian media claims Tucker Carlson acting as ‘carrier pigeon’ between Putin and Trump “

“The former Fox News host returned to Moscow this week for a second time to interview Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and pushed the Kremlin narrative that the U.S. should stay out of the war in Ukraine to avoid setting off a global nuclear crisis, but some Kremlin insiders believe Carlson had other business, reported The Daily Beast.

“While the former Fox host is positioning himself as a dove of peace, toiling to prevent a nuclear war, Putin’s acolytes say he is also acting as a carrier pigeon for the Russian president and privately delivering his messages to Trump,” wrote Julia Davis, who monitors Russian state-run media.

https://www.rawstory.com/tucker-carlson-russia-2670348682/

Biased About Media Bias?

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 12/6/24

Headline:  “Owner of Los Angeles Times says paper will employ AI-powered ‘bias meter’

Subhead:  “Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong also wants to include more conservative voices in paper’s opinion section”

“Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, has announced plans to incorporate an artificial intelligence-powered “bias meter” into the newspaper’s coverage.

“Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018, made the comments on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is soon joining the LA Times editorial board.

The proposed move is the latest controversy to rock the newspaper which has suffered a wave of resignations and layoffs under Soon-Shiong’s ownership. Most recently, Soon-Shiong blocked the paper from endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris in last month’s presidential election, sparking outrage from many staff.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/06/la-times-ai-bias-meter-owner

 

Media Workers Arrested

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Article by Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff, 12/5/25

Headline:  “Taliban detains 7 Arezo TV journalists, seals network’s offices in Kabul”

“Dozens of Taliban agents from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) raided the offices of private broadcaster Arezo TV on December 4 in the capital, Kabul, questioned staff members for four hours, and detained seven journalists and media workers. Woman journalists were expelled from the premises, and the network’s offices were sealed, according to a journalist familiar with the situation in Kabul, who spoke to CPJ anonymously, citing fear of reprisal.”

https://cpj.org/2024/12/taliban-detains-7-arezo-tv-journalists-seals-networks-offices-in-kabul/

Media Over the Falls

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Article in The Atlantic by Helen Lewis, 12/5/24

Headline:  “The ‘Mainstream Media’ Has Already Lost”

Subhead:  “The newspapers and networks of the 20th century are ceding ground. And the people taking their place aren’t playing by the same rules.”

“This October, in the closing days of the presidential election, the podcaster Joe Rogan said something extraordinary. He had just hosted Donald Trump for a three-hour conversation in his studio in Austin, Texas, and wanted to make clear that he had discussed a similar arrangement with Kamala Harris’s campaign. “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour,” he posted on X. “I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin.” And so Rogan declined to interview the vice president..

“What a diva, some people said. If you’re offered an interview with a presidential candidate, get off your ass and get on a plane! But Rogan could dictate his own terms. He is not competing in the snake pit of D.C. journalism, where sitting opposite a major candidate delivers an instant status bump. He is the most popular podcaster alive, with a dedicated audience of right-leaning men who enjoy mixed martial arts, stand-up comedy, and wild speculation about aliens”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/01/joe-rogan-political-right-media-mainstream/680755/