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World News Chaos!

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 2/3/25

Headline: “USA: Trump’s foreign aid freeze throws journalism around the world into chaos”

“President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including over $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and journalists doing vital work into chaotic uncertainty. RSF calls on international public and private support to commit to the sustainability of independent media.

https://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-s-foreign-aid-freeze-throws-journalism-around-world-chaos

Media Life Support

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Article in Mediaite by Kahryn Wilkens, 2/3/25

Headline: “The Media Industry Is in Crisis. Axios CEO Jim VandeHei Sees a Massive Opportunity”

“Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Politico and later Axios, has spent decades at the forefront of political journalism. In all that time, he’s witnessed seismic changes to the industry but no one, he says, has been a catalyst for disruption and change more than President Donald Trump.

“For the first time in our lifetimes, I would argue that the media ecosystem favors the right more than the left,” VandeHei told Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin on this week’s episode of Press Club.”

https://www.mediaite.com/podcasts/the-media-industry-is-in-crisis-axios-ceo-jim-vandehei-sees-a-massive-opportunity/

MTG – “No Foreign Media!”

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Article in Mediaite by Alex Griffing, 1/31/25

Headline: ” ‘American Media First!’ Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Reporter’s Accent, Calls ‘To Throw Out All The Foreign Press’ “

“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) offered her take on White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Friday briefing and wildly called for the foreign press to be removed from the briefing room after a reporter with a French accent caught her attention.

“Greene shared a post from the briefing from a MAGA influence with over a million followers who praised Leavitt, ‘Dear Lord these reporters haven’t got the memo yet. Karoline Leavitt is not here to play around. She was pressed about DEI in the aviation field and her answer was PERFECT!’ ”

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/american-media-first-marjorie-taylor-greene-rips-reporters-accent-calls-to-throw-out-all-the-foreign-press/

New Assignment Editor?

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 2/2/25

Headline:  “‘He’s become America’s assignment editor’: US media owners bend to Trump”

Subhead:  “Billionaires and corporations leading TV networks and newspapers seem to have caved to the president’s pressure”

“In a tumultuous first two weeks back in power in the White House, Donald Trump has targeted many familiar enemies, including one of his most passionate obsessions: the US media, whom he has frequently dubbed “enemies of the people”.

“Trump’s new federal communications chair, Brendan Carr, is reported to have ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of taxpayer-supported NPR and PBS member stations – a media network long hated by conservatives who accuse it of a liberal slant.
‘Safe to be a white male again’: how conservative media covered Trump’s first week
Read more

“At the same time, and just as concerning for some media watchers, core segments of the US media landscape – via the wealthy billionaires and gigantic corporations that own them – have seemingly caved under Trump’s pressure or apparently sought to curry favor with the new administration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/trump-media-pressure?ref=upstract.com

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Edited content not safe?

Article in The Hill by Sterr Danielle Thomas, 2/1/25

Headline:  “CBS agrees to release Harris transcript to FCC amid Trump lawsuit “

“CBS News has agreed to release a full transcript of former Vice President Harris’s October interview with “60 Minutes” to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the outlet revealed Friday.”

The decision came after the FCC sent a letter to CBS asking for a “full, unedited transcript” of the interview, conducted ahead of Harris’s loss to President Trump in the 2024 election. The commission also requested the camera feeds from the episode.

“. . . A conservative law firm filed a complaint with the FCC last year following the interview, alleging that the outlet engaged in “significant and international news distortion.” The suit, originally dismissed under the Biden administration, was reopened by agency head Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the commission.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5120625-cbs-kamala-harris-60-minutes-transcript-fcc/

NPR / PBS, CPB Investigated?

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Update

Article in Washington Post by Anne Branigin, 1/31/25

Headline:  “Trump’s FCC chief orders investigation into NPR and PBS sponsorships”

Subhead: “FCC’s Brendan Carr also suggests an investigation could be relevant to conservative congressional efforts to defund the public broadcasters.”

“President Donald Trump’s newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS over their alleged “airing of commercials,” and suggested that the public broadcasters could be at risk of losing their federal funding.

““I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Brendan Carr wrote to the heads of both organizations Wednesday. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/01/31/trump-fcc-npr-pbs-investigation/

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Article in Freepress by Timothy Karr, 1/20/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Censorship Czar Orders NPR and PBS Investigation”

“On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS. In a letter to the chief executives of both publicly funded networks, Carr used the investigation as a pretext to suggest that Congress end federal funding for NPR and PBS.

“To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars,” Carr wrote.”

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/fcc-chairman-carr-npr-pbs-investigation

Losing the Battle for Media

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Article in Raw Story by Thom Hartmann, 1/30/24

Headline:  “Fatal flaw: Democrats keep losing the media war — here’s why “

“Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump held a rally in Las Vegas. It was streamed and mentioned on social media millions of times within an hour of his repeating his “No tax on tips” mantra. By the time Facebook, Meta, X, TikTok, and Instagram were done with the weekend, using their now-heavily-tilted-to-Republicans algorithms, it’s safe to bet Trump’s rally got hundreds of millions of impressions.

“Senator Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, read the most boring speech ever on the floor of the Senate condemning Trump, evoking the Democratic version of the old “tree falls in the forest” question. I listened to it online (couldn’t find it on social media), but, frankly, it was so deadly tedious that I can’t remember a word he said.

“Being media savvy — and exploiting the hottest new media — isn’t a new thing. You’d think Democrats would have figured this out by now; they sure did in past generations.”

https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/fatal-flaw-democrats-keep-losing-the-media-war-here-s-why/

Another Medium Pays Homage

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Article in UPI by Mike Heuer, 1/29/25

Headline:  “Meta to pay $25M to settle Trump censorship lawsuit”

“Social media giant Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle censorship accusations made by President Donald Trump after Meta suspended his Facebook and Instagram accounts in 2021.

“About $22 million of the settlement will help fund the Trump Presidential Library, which so far is a website operated by the National Archives but likely will have a physical site in the future, NBC News, CNN and Variety reported.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/01/29/trump-zuckerberg-meta-25M-settlement/2931738199020/

Playing 3-Card Monte With Press Corps

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Article in The Daily Beast by William Vaillancourt, 2/1/25

Headline:  “Hegseth Replaces Mainstream Media With MAGA Sites at Pentagon”

“Four members of the Pentagon Press Corps will no longer have office space in that building in order to make room for outlets that haven’t had that opportunity, according to a Defense Department memo Friday obtained by CNN. “Each year, one outlet from each press medium—print, online, television, and radio—that has enjoyed working from a physical office in the Pentagon will rotate out of the building,” the memo states. On February 14, The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, and Politico will vacate their office space. They will be replaced by the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network, and The Huffington Post.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/four-media-outlets-stripped-of-office-space-in-pentagon/

Noted Journalist Flees NYT

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Article in The Contrarian by Paul Krugman, 1/29/25

Headeline: “Departing the New York Times”

Subhea:  “I left to stay true to my byline”

“As many people reading this know, last month I retired from my position as an opinion writer at the New York Times—a job I had done for 25 years. Despite the encomiums issued by the Times, it was not a happy departure. If you check out my Substack, you will see that I have by no means run out of energy or topics to write about. But from my perspective, the nature of my relationship with the Times had degenerated to a point where I couldn’t stay.”

“. . . (I) believe that the story of why I left says something important about the current state of legacy journalism.”

“. . .I feel sorry about abandoning loyal readers who still rely on legacy media and who may not follow me to Substack. But my situation had become intolerable, and I haven’t felt a moment’s regret over the new direction and recovering my freedom.”

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times

 

Graduate With Journalism Degree?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Stephen J. Adler, 1/30/25

Headline:  “Does It Still Make Sense to Be a Journalist?”

Subhead:  “An antidote to perpetual despondency.”

“This is the question I hear most from students and early-career reporters. It is usually posed something like this: ‘Journalism jobs are disappearing. Where they do exist, the pay is low. Even if I work ethically, lots of people won’t trust my reporting—and some may threaten my well-being, online and even in the real world. I worry all this will get worse in Trump’s second term. Have I made a mistake in committing to be a journalist? Should I switch fields now?’ ”

“This is such a painful and difficult question, especially for a journalism professor who has spent his adult life in the news business. . . ”

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/does-it-still-make-sense-to-be-journalist-adler-finances-turmoil-industry-trust-career.php