Links

No Room in the Basket?

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Article in New York Times by John Koblin, 12/25/25

Headline:  “CNN, Unwanted by Netflix, Is Excluded From a Sale, for Now”

Subhead:  “The prospect of Paramount buying Warner Bros. Discovery had led CNN journalists to wonder if the channel might be combined with CBS News. Instead, CNN will remain in a separate corporate entity.”

“Netflix’s mega $83 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery has major implications for the entertainment industry, as well as the Warner Bros. film and TV studios and HBO.

“The fallout, at least for now, will be far less significant for CNN.

“The 24-hour news channel is conspicuously absent from the media entities that Netflix said on Friday it planned to acquire in its proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/business/media/cnn-netflix-warner-bros-discovery-deal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6U8.DPP4.1A8q34iR9fB9&smid=url-share

Newspaper Breaking Out of the Cage?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 12/5/25

Headline:  “The New York Times draws a line on Pentagon press limits”

Headline:  “The Times sues the Pentagon, highlighting a pivotal moment for press freedom”

“The New York Times did something Thursday we haven’t seen enough of as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to strip away press freedoms.

“They took the fight to the administration.

“In a sign that they are sick and tired and aren’t going to take it anymore, the Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, claiming that their First Amendment rights are being violated by the Pentagon’s new press restrictions. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/new-york-times-sues-pentagon-npr-underage-women/

Lack of Accurate News Bites Back?

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Article in The Washington Post by the editorial board, 12/5/25

Headline:  “Trump’s closure of Voice of America is coming back to bite him”

Subhead:  “As the president threatens Venezuela, Russia and China are filling the information vacuum.”

“President Donald Trump has said he won’t rule out anything when it comes to removing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from power. Yet he is missing an important tool from the arsenal: the Voice of America.

“Since Trump’s March executive order dismantling the news agency, most of VOA’s 1,300 staff members and contractors have been fired or placed on administrative leave, its website has been frozen and the 83-year-old broadcaster has gone dark for the first time since its founding during World War II. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/05/venezuela-voa-voice-of-america-maduro-trump/

Documenting Frivolous Press Lawsuits

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 12/4/25

Headline:  “The SLAPP Problem Is Worse Than We Thought”

Subhead:  “As Donald Trump tests the limits of anti-press litigation, a new initiative aims to document the wave of nuisance suits.”

Press freedom advocates and media lawyers in the United States have long warned about the rise of frivolous lawsuits intended to intimidate and silence journalists through expensive legal battles. But despite anecdotal evidence, the problem has remained amorphous. No one has been able to say just how bad it is because no one has closely tracked the filings, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs.

“A free speech group at New York University is trying to change that. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/slapp-lawsuit-problem-worse-trump-test-nuisance-limits-litigation.php

Students Fill Gap of Local Coverage?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty & Carolina Abbot Galvao, 12/2/25

Headline:  “How Students Are Trying to Save Local News”

Subhead:  “Across the country, university programs are filling gaps in the coverage.”

At twenty-one, just after her graduation from the University of Vermont, Holly Sullivan became the editor of the Winooski News, the sole paper in Vermont’s smallest city—spanning a mile and a half, with about eight thousand residents who speak more than thirty languages. In the course of a few months, Sullivan went from being a student to editing articles and a newsletter that serve the area at large, written entirely by university students.

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/how-students-are-trying-to-save-local-news.php

Civility Not Fashionable Anymore?

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Article in AlterNet by Robert Reich, 12/2/25

Headline:  “Oxford’s ‘word of the year’ explains all you need to know about Trump — and the media”

“The publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary has named ‘rage bait’ its phrase of the year.

“Call it the monetization of rage. Rage has become a valuable commodity. (Always follow the money.)

“A growing number of online creators are making rage bait. Their goal is to record videos, produce memes, and write posts that make other users furious: conspiracy theories, lies, combustible AI-generated video clips — whatever it takes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/oxford-word-of-the-year/

Credibility to Media Also Sinking?

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 12/3/25

Headline:   “Trump Tirades at Media Darken as MAGA Bloodlust on Bombings Boils Over”

Subhead:  “As Trump and MAGA hit new levels of depravity on his boat bombings and anti-immigrant crackdown, the writer of a piece connecting these dots discusses the centrality of sadism to Trump-MAGA politics.”

“. . .Trump just unleashed a hateful rant to the media about Somali immigrants to set the stage for a coming campaign to arrest them en masse. Meanwhile, MAGA excitement over the Caribbean Sea bombings is spiking: Pete Hegseth tweeted out a deeply sadistic cartoon celebrating these extrajudicial killings. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/203887/trump-seethes-darkly-media-maga-bloodlust-bombings-boils

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz & Rob Savillo, 12/2/25

Headline:  “Scrounging for a Hegseth defense, right-wing commentators seize on NY Times report”

Subhead:  “Hegseth’s supporters split hairs over his culpability”

“Right-wing commentators have seized upon a New York Times report on the U.S. military’s September 2 extrajudicial killing of 11 people on board a boat the Trump administration alleged was carrying drugs in the Caribbean, claiming that the article ‘DEBUNKED’ a previous Washington Post report that triggered congressional scrutiny over potential war crimes. But the Times actually confirmed, rather than undermined, the Post’s account. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/scrounging-hegseth-defense-right-wing-commentators-seize-ny-times-report

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Article in The Contrarian by Josh Levs, 12/3/25

Headline:  “The Media Helped Trump Spread a Lie After the National Guard Shooting”

Subhead:  “The job of the media is to provide truth, which equals facts plus context.”

“The shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., last week should have led to bipartisan action—specifically, an immediate commitment to shoring up protections for these men and women who volunteer to serve. Instead, it became President Donald Trump’s latest opportunity to spread a made-up number to Americans. And the legacy media, as always, helped him. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-media-helped-trump-spread-a-lie

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Article in Politico by Daniel Block, 12/2/25

Headline:  “News Organizations Are Bowing to Trump. This Small Magazine Knows How to Resist.”

Subhead:  “U.S. media outlets could learn some lessons from The Caravan.”

“. . .In India, the crackdown has been effective: the country’s mainstream media now rarely critiques Modi. In the United States, the press is also starting to pull some of its punches. But if India’s trajectory is cause for alarm, it also provides some reason for hope. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/12/01/lessons-on-surviving-autocracy-from-one-small-indian-magazine-00667380

Media in Special Court?

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 1/3/25

Headline: “USA: New White House “Hall of Shame” webpage expands Trump’s war on the press, disparaging the media”

Subhead: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” Far from encouraging trustworthy journalism, the new media bias page on the White House website is the Trump administration’s latest effort to pillory the media. Journalists and outlets critical of Trump’s measures are labelled as “offenders” with no factual breakdown of why their reporting is incorrect. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges the White House to take the page down immediately.”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-new-white-house-hall-shame-webpage-expands-trump-s-war-press-disparaging-media

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Article in Daily Kos by News Corpse, 12/3/25

Headline:  “A CALL TO ACTION: The Trump White House Launches a ‘Media Bias Offender Tipline’ – Let’s Use It!”

“The battle against biased media is a continuing and exhausting ordeal during the administration of Donald Trump, who frequently refers to the press in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” No American president has been more hostile toward the media, or more hospitable toward sycophantic toadies than, Donald Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/3/2356718/-A-CALL-TO-ACTION-The-Trump-White-House-Launches-a-Media-Bias-Offender-Tipline-Let-s-Use-It?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehman, 12/2/25

Headline:  “The White House Press Tracker Is a Parody of Media Criticism”

Subhead: “With his approval number plummeting, Trump turns to a familiar strategy: launch a culture war against journalists.”

“As President Donald Trump’s approval numbers continue to plummet—he’s now clocked his first-ever majority of male poll respondents giving a thumbs-down—he’s reached for the pet crusade of all right-wing demagogues losing public favor: a culture war against the press. Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Trump White House debuted its media bias tracker—a laundry list of alleged press outrages committed against the righteous, truth-telling MAGAfied executive branch. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/white-house-press-tracker-media-trump/

Lie to Get Viewers Back?

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 12/2/25

Headline:  “Murdochs blessed Fox News plan to air 2020 election fraud claims, Smartmatic alleges”

Subhead:  “In key hearing in defamation case, Fox counters that network simply covered allegations by Trump associates”

“Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch authorized a plan for Fox News to embrace Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 in a bid to win back viewers angry with the network, a lawyer for the voting technology company Smartmatic argued on Tuesday.

“ ‘The conservative viewers, their bread and butter, abandoned them,’ J Erik Connolly told the New York state supreme court judge David B Cohen. ‘So what do they do? They return back to what they know best: they return back to disinformation, pro-Trump propaganda and xenophobia. The election story and the election fraud claims was the perfect vehicle for them to get back onto their core messaging’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/02/rupert-lachlan-murdoch-fox-2020-election