Remember When Howard Dean Yelling Made Him Unfit to Be President?
The journalistic response to “Why Would Trump Want Greenland?” is: It’s simple, and not at all weird.
WaPo Kills Cartoon That Mocked the Boss—and Trump
“I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.”
ABC Settles With Trump in a Case It Could Have Won
ABC’s $16 million settlement is a dangerous omen for press freedom, given Trump’s threats to use his power to go after his media critics.
Appeals Court Upholding TikTok Ban Is a Grim Sign for Press Freedom
A US District Court of Appeals, with two Republican-appointed judges and one picked by a Democrat, has upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok.
Pundits Try to Make ‘Progressive’ Case for Kennedy
Many commentators have worked hard to downplay the danger Robert Kennedy Jr. would pose to the US public as health and human services secretary.
NPR’s ‘Balance’ Serves to Normalize Trump’s Highly Abnormal Cabinet Picks
NPR’s coverage of Trump’s nominees so far suggests that it has no interest in using the power of the so-far-still-free press to preserve democratic institutions.
How Trump Will Seek Revenge on the Press
Given Trump’s constant attacks on media, journalists fear that he will use the power of the state to intimidate if not destroy the press.
‘MAGA Republicans and Corporate Media Share a Strategy: Fear Sells’:
CounterSpin interview with Julie Hollar and Jim Naureckas on placing blame for Trump
“You would expect journalists in a democratic society to take as the central story here that targeting of these minority groups.”
Julie Hollar and Jim Naureckas on Placing Blame for Trump
We talk about what just happened, and corporate media’s role in it, with Julie Hollar, senior analyst at the media watch group FAIR, and FAIR’s editor Jim Naureckas.
Media Blame Left for Trump Victory—Rather Than Their Own Fear-Based Business Model
Coverage of issues in this election season dovetailed well with the Trump campaign’s lines of attack against the Biden/Harris administration.
Bezos’ Declaration of Neutrality Confirms: Billionaires Aren’t on Your Side
While media are focused on how Bezos bent the knee for Trump, it may be President Harris whom Jeff Bezos fears most.
WSJ Calls for Keeping Judiciary in Shadows
The Wall Street Journal comes out against journalism that exposes how powerful institutions function.
What Did ABC Think Voters Needed to Hear From Harris and Trump?
ABC asked some surprisingly pointed questions about perhaps the most important issue in this election—the preservation of democratic elections themselves.
Not Reporting on Trump as a Threat to Democracy Is Also a Threat to Democracy
Sulzberger heartily defends his own miserably inadequate strategy of “neutrality”—making plain his greater concern for the survival of his own newspaper than the survival of US democracy.
‘Our Most Important Democratic Document Was Intended to Make the Country Less Democratic’:
CounterSpin interview with Ari Berman on minority rule
“The problem isn’t what people believe. It’s translating majority opinion into majority rule.”
Trump’s Shooting Should Not Silence Warnings About His Threat to Democracy
Rather than denouncing the right’s hypocritical and opportunistic attacks on critical speech, the country’s top editorial boards cravenly bothsidesed their condemnations of “political violence.”
CNN’s Debate Plan Makes Democracy the Likely Loser
Of the major nonpartisan news networks (i.e., excluding Fox), CNN is perhaps the least fit to host a presidential debate.
‘The Press Has a Problem Being Forthright About Trump Where the Right Has Rallied Around Him’:
CounterSpin interview with Matt Gertz on Trump guilty verdict
“A good practice for the press would be to explain to their readers and to their viewers that what is coming from the right is totally false, that they are creating these conspiracy theories and this theory of politicized persecution for their own benefit.”
Matt Gertz on Trump Trial Verdict, Kandi Mossett on Dakota Access Struggle
It is a moment to examine the right-wing media that have fomented this scary nonsense, but also to look to reporting from the so-called “mainstream” to go beyond the “some say, others differ” pablum we often see.
New York Man Goes Down the New York Way
For journalists who looked at the Manhattan courtroom, Trump sat there like many other New York politicians and political influencers whose criminality brought them down.
