Another Jailed Journalist

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Article in the New York Times by Emma Bubola, 12/27/24

Headline:  “Italian Journalist Is Detained While Reporting in Iran”

Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, but news of her detention only became public on Friday. The reason for the arrest of Ms. Sala, a well-known reporter, has not been made public.

“A prominent Italian journalist was arrested in Iran and jailed in the country’s infamous Evin prison after spending days reporting in Tehran, Italian officials said.

Italy’s foreign ministry said Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, but news of her arrest and detention only became public on Friday. The reason for the arrest of Ms. Sala, one of Italy’s most renowned foreign correspondents, has not yet been made public.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/world/middleeast/cecilia-sala-italian-journalist-arrested-iran.html

Writers Debate Intelligence

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R. Crumb

Article in the Daily Beast by Janna Brancolini, 12/27/24

Headline:  “Right-Wing Media’s Hilarious Self-Own Over Tulsi Gabbard”

Subhead:  “Writers for the National Review are duking it out in print over Trump’s pick for head of national intelligence.”

“A writer for the right-wing National Review has eviscerated his own magazine for two editorials it ran in support of Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for head of national intelligence.

“The conservative-media stalwart had previously published pieces by former CIA counterterrorism director Bernard Hudson and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) arguing that decades of instability in the Middle East have eroded Americans’ faith in the intelligence community.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/national-review-right-wing-media-descends-into-hilarious-self-own-over-tulsi-gabbard/

Only Private Broadcasting in the Future?

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Article in The Giardian by Cecelia Nowell, 12/28/24

Headline:  “Trump’s threat to defund all US public media has NPR and PBS on the back foot”

Subhead:  “President-elect’s agenda and Project 2025 playbook align in stripping Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s license”

“On the campaign trail this year, Donald Trump routinely criticized US media. The president-elect called for CBS to be stripped of its broadcast license after it aired an interview with Kamala Harris, refused to participate in an interview with 60 Minutes and routinely called journalists the “enemy of the people”.

“But perhaps no American media has attracted as much ire from the president-elect as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – a non-profit corporation created by federal law in 1967 to distribute funding to public media organizations like PBS and NPR. . . ”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/28/trump-npr-pbs-funding-cut

Robot Media Accounts

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Article in Slashdot, 12/27/24

Headline:  “Meta Envisages Social Media Filled with AI-generated Users”

“Meta is betting that characters generated by AI will fill its social media platforms in the next few years as it looks to the fast-developing technology to drive engagement with its 3 billion users.”

“. . .” ‘We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,’ said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. ‘They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform … that’s where we see all of this going,’ ”

http://”https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/27/1810222/meta-envisages-social-media-filled-with-ai-generated-users

Voice of Trump or America?

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 12/27/24

Headline:  “Kari Lake sparks concerns at Voice of America”

“President-elect Trump has nominated GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake to lead Voice of America (VOA), a decision that is renewing worries of partisan meddling at the government-funded global news agency.

“Lake, who ran for governor and senator in Arizona and previously was a local news anchor, is one of a number of loyalists Trump has called on to serve in his Cabinet and administration.

“. . .But Lake’s attacks on the media and history of floating unfounded theories about voter fraud are sparking widespread concern that the outlet could be used by the federal government as a megaphone to push pro-Trump propaganda around the world.”

https://thehill.com/media/5048504-trump-nominates-lake-voa-concerns/

Defund Public Media?

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Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin and Kate Conger, 12/27/24

Headline:  “NPR and PBS Stations Brace for Funding Battle Under Trump”

Subhead:  “Republicans in Congress have tried to defund public media for decades. With the help of Elon Musk, could they finally make good on their threat?”

“Elon Musk is gunning for public media.

“In his new role advising President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk has floated sweeping cuts to the federal government, including the elimination of entire departments and the firing of agency leaders. One of the most concrete proposals on his list is eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding that the government funnels to PBS and NPR stations, home to cultural touchstones like Elmo, Big Bird and “Fresh Air.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/business/media/npr-pbs-funding-trump-musk.html

Too Much News

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ARticle in The Hill by Ashleigh Fields, 12/26/24

Headline:  “Most Americans want to reduce political news consumption due to fatigue: Survey”

“Americans feel like they should increasingly avoid political news content, according to a study published Thursday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.

Their research found 65 percent of adults have felt the need to limit their media consumption about the government and politics due to information overload, fatigue, or similar reasons, and half feel the same for overseas conflicts.

Democrats were the demographic most likely to say they feel the need to avoid media referencing the government and politics, with 72 percent of party participants saying they avoid the topic in the survey.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5056424-americans-political-news-consumption-poll/

Journalist Car Blown Up

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Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by STaff, 12/26/24

Headline: “Israeli strike kills 5 Al-Quds Al-Youm TV journalists in central Gaza”

“Beirut, December 26, 2024—Israeli forces killed five journalists and media workers with Al-Quds Al-Youm TV, a channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group, in a Thursday strike on their vehicle outside Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. The Associated Press reported that footage showed the van had visible press markings.

“CPJ denounces Israel’s killing of five journalists working for Al-Quds Al-Youm TV,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director in New York. “The Israeli strike on their vehicle, which was clearly marked ‘Press,’ means that at least nine Gazan journalists have been killed in less than two weeks. The international community must act now to protect Palestinian journalists in Gaza and end Israel’s impunity for these killings.”

https://cpj.org/2024/12/israeli-strike-kills-5-al-quds-al-youm-tv-journalists-in-central-gaza/

Legacy Media Clickbait

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Article in Daily Kos by DrLou 12/24/24

Headline:  “A complicit corporate mainstream media ‘sustained, resurrected’ and enabled Trump – because he sells”

Suhbhead:  ” ‘Never Trump:’ a sorry tale”

” ‘Trump was created by the media. He was sustained and resurrected by the media’ and is the ‘best hope of a dying cable TV business.’ I’ve been arguing these very points for years. The media, with special attention going to the New York Times, was directly complicit in helping Trump slither into the White House in 2016. The corporate media then did it again in 2024.

“The corporate Right mainstream media has enabled and continued to use Trump to create the stories THEY want to present. To generate clickbait rather than reporting honestly on the stories that are happening. False equivalent and ‘both sideism’ journalism have ruled. If Thomas Paine or Alexander Hamilton were still alive, the collusion and outright cowardice of American corporate media would kill them all over again.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/24/2293563/-A-complicit-corporate-mainstream-media-sustained-and-resurrected-Trump-because-he-sells?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

News Mis-informer Award

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Steve Mesler photo

Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 12/23/24

Headline:  “Misinformer of the year: Anti-media intimidation”

“The role of the free press, enshrined by the Constitution’s First Amendment, is an essential element of our democracy. The public cannot become informed about the problems facing our country and the efforts to improve or worsen them without robust protections for journalism.

“But powerful people hate the light journalism shines on them and the dissent it can spur. A coalition of right-wing billionaires, Republican law enforcement officials, and an authoritarian once and future president are using wealth, lawfare, and government power to silence the press and carry out their political agenda unimpeded. And they are perilously close to succeeding.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/misinformer-year/misinformer-year-anti-media-intimidation