Trump has banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, and has threatened to ban the Washington Post and the New York Times. News outlets seem genuinely distressed about this. After all that sanewashing and normalizing — that enabled him to get elected — and he does this. Outrageous!
But will they learn any lessons from this? We’ll see.
According to Politico, Trump issued the ban Friday on Truth Social, while chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town, and white House staff were blindsided. Today reporters from the three media outlets were denied entry to the White House. I’m sure lawsuits are being prepared if not filed already.
At the Atlantic, Adam Serwer writes Speak at Your Own Risk.
This is far from the first time Trump has tried to pressure the media into giving him favorable coverage or punish those who run stories he does not like. As The New York Timeshas documented, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission has repeatedly tried to intimidate networks over their airing of material that Trump finds offensive, including criticism of Trump and interviews with Democratic politicians, by threatening to revoke their broadcast license. Three journalists fired from Stars and Stripes, an independent media outlet that is federally funded, are suing the Pentagon, accusing it of silencing them because of their factual coverage of deplorable conditions for U.S. service members. The Pentagon also sought to force media organizations to sign a self-censorship pledge in exchange for press credentials. His Federal Trade Commission is investigating the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, whose work consists mostly of just publishing the things conservatives say, and NewsGuard, a nonpartisan outlet that provides “scores for news and information websites based on nine journalistic criteria.” Trump sought to ban the AP for refusing to identify the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” as Trump had ordered. This is not even close to an exhaustive list.
Trump’s campaign of censorship is not limited to journalists, however, and the First Amendment does not belong only to the media. Trump’s Justice Department has sought to pressure American colleges and universities over what they are allowed to teach, whom they are allowed to hire, and whom they are allowed to admit. It has used federal funding to censor technological, medical, and scientific research. The administration has singled out left-wing organizations for scrutiny and used federal resources to investigate them for opposing the president. It has sought to deport immigrants because of their pro-Palestinian views.
Some of that isn’t just Trump. A lot of specimens in the Republican party have wanted to put speech controls on universities for a while.
But while of course I side with the press on freedom of speech issues, the media really did bring this on themselves.
See, for example, my post from 2022, How Jeff Zucker Made Trump. Jeff Zucker is a guy with a long and ignoble record in television. When he was head of NBC Entertainment Zucker helped create “The Apprentice” as a vehicle for Trump. And then as head of CNN Zucker helped make Donald Trump president. Zucker. was president of CNN worldwide from 2013 and until his resignation in 2022. In 2017 Warren Olney wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Trump owed his election victory to Zucker.
During the election season, I saw entire Trump rallies carried live by CNN, interrupted only for mandatory commercials. Not only was there no critical fact-checking, there was no serious effort to provide context for viewers. Never raised, let alone answered, was the question: Why should a developer with a shaky reputation and no relevant experience be seriously considered for the most powerful job in the world?
See also one of my other earlier rants, from 2017, Are Our News Media Learning?
CNN to me may have been the most egregious of the cable news networks in covering presidential elections. In 2024 I remember a particularly bad interview of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz by Dana Bash of CNN. It was all “gotcha” type questions. This interview was not about helping viewers learn about the candidates; it was just entertainment. I remember turning it off after about fifteen minutes.
But the other networks weren’t that much better. Trump could issue statements that were barely more than word salad, and news media would somehow glean meaningful sentences out of them and report them seriously. His mental deterioration — which got called out on the former MS NBC at least — would be not noticed, and his obvious confusion about policy — like believing foreign countries and not importers paid tariffs — was carefully ignored.
And I know the media were pulling punches because if they were as aggressive with Trump as they were with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, Trump would have had a tantrum, and right-wing media and Trump’s supporters would have screamed to the rafters about media bias.
But I say to you, news media, are you learning now?
In other news: A couple of days ago WaPo ran a news story headlined Gas prices are about to take a big jump, analysts say, with the worst still to come. The economy is thoroughly screwed. Just abvout everything is going to get more expensive now. And it’s certainly not going to get better before the midterms. But at least we can hope that this will push midterm voters toward the Democrats. It’s our only hope.
Update: I just saw a report at TPM by Josh Kovensky headlined A Far-Right Meltdown that’s a must read. It involves a men’s only, Christians only group that is about a hard right as one can imagine that is working to get members into influential positions in government and business. Just read it.
I think you mean "News Media" not " New Media" in your title – but it provides a starting point for this comment. I divide the news world into legacy media and everything else. Legacy media for me is hopelessly stupid, a few great talents and a whole lot of compromised people. Will they learn anything? Doubtful as long as they need to earn money. The thousands of civilians writing blogs, making YouTube videos etc are the New Media. This is where I spend my free time. Legacy media can fall over and die, and I doubt if I'd miss it.
Fixed it, thanks. I disagree that legacy media are worthless. They still do nearly all of the real news reporting, you know. There are a few new media sources that are starting to step up, but that’s a recent development.
I read the TPM link. Kovensky mentions in passing that Erickson used Claude to write his column?
I don't know if you remember Erick Erickson. During the Bush II years he was a major voice of the right-wing blogosphere. He's still pretty right wing as near as I can tell, but he somehow became a Never Trumper. He was never that compelling a writer, as I remember, so maybe he needs an AI tool like Claude.
From his Wikipedia page, Erick Woods Erickson is a part of the ridiculous right, way right of Trump if one can imagine something like that exists. I was making sure it was not the famous psychologist with the well published developmental theory with the same last name and similar first name. Let's just say the same surname and the first name similarity are about all the resemblance I can find they share. Otherwise, it is hard to think the one with Woods as a middle name is from the same planet.
I got to talk with and personally listen to our state's candidate to represent voters in D.C. next year just last week. No media today can replace that information or even come close. When we had a local paper with reporters who were at least semi-literate, you did not need to do that. These poor souls had to sit through local meetings of school boards, city council meetings, and county commission meetings. Then they had to sift a news report from what information they could get while the governmental unit used every loophole in the sunshine law to hide most of the truth from them. You knew them and their writing. Now we have much less fourth estate news than that. Now the agencies write and release biased information that might see reprinting or a mention on local newscasts. All operate without even the staff to cover all but the most popular local sporting news. Lesser sporting information coverage exists only on poorly written, edited (maybe) and ill maintained web sites if at all.
Like it or not that is rural America today. The other party's candidate does not appear in public at all. He avoids all but highly controlled situations. You find out only though press release they control. No chance the few press people who might ask difficult questions or relate problems readers are having dealing with federal agencies even get any access at all. He stays in a bubble. All communication is one way. Is it any wonder most of us think we have no federal level control at all? We generally don't.
Everything is fundamentally consciousness and we are all dissociated alters (or localized expressions) of that one consciousness, but I'd still like to hear these candidates answer some questions for a change.
It seems to me Trump did this once before and the courts slapped him down. Deja' Vu all over again. Maddow suggested Trump is just trying to revive the golden oldies that Trumpsters love for Trump's ego and in the hopes of turning out the vote.
Gas here had dropped to 3.75 and it's up to 4.20. It costs $40 to fill the tank of a small hatchback. I am in less-than-desparate financial shape, and I wince. People who are paycheck-to-paycheck must be scrambling to rearrange payments if their job requires a commute. The overall economics situation is only getting worse with no change before the midterms. Trump has started couching his lies in "after the midterms." IE Please don't judge me on actual performance. Judge me on my new lies for future prosperity.
Trump is proposing that the arch will be a military instllation with snipers and drones. IMO, Trump wants to murder disodents on the Capitol Mall with the same imputinty he is dispatching boaters in the Caribean. I really think he wants that kind of power, like in N. Korea.
There's video of McConnel in a Senate hearing, having the Senators on his left and right correct him when he voted the wrong way on, I think, an Agiculture bill. I don't celebrate his mental decay but WTF is with the rest of the Senate propping him up like a zombie? It's not that he's not all there – I think he's almost completely gone.
BOTH parties have got to stop with politicians whose performance resembles extras in "Night of the Living Dead." I'm 72. This is not ageism, the counterpart of racism but based on years. I'm realistic about the toll time takes. It's one thing for a boxer to deny that time has robbed him of the reflexes he had, resulting in one drubbing after another. The lack of mental acuity takes a toll on your effectiveness as a statesman. It's your constituants who pay. The most important contribution anyone in any profession can make is often training the professionals of the next generation. Refusing to leave the stage is a crime against them.
Huff Post Headline:
TV Networks To Skip White House Video Coverage In Solidarity With CNN
The announcment that the rotating TV coverage will be cancelled was made by the current Pool Chair – from FOX news.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tv-networks-protest-white-house-cnn-ban_n_6ab13a35e4b09ae53890d1dd
What will Aaron Rupar copy and paste into twitter and bluesky if the networks stop providing footage??
Happy Equinox, right on time again. The one thing Trump hasn't screwed up. Never before have days of less sunshine brought such joy.
Sure, the news from climate week is bad, but we have six months of cooler weather ahead. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Opinion | Climate Catastrophe Is Still on the Table – The New York Times
The race to end the human race is on. AI vs. Climate Catastrophe. Then always the dreaded unknown unknowns Dick Cheaney used to mention. Just in case you are naive enough to actually believe our denier in chief.
Sorry for not posting anything new. My old laptop got slammed with some kind of malware, and I had to take it into a shop. I should get it back tomorrow or more likely Thursday. In the.meantime just keep commenting!
MSNOW chyron: "TRUMP TOUTS BEING A PEACEMAKER WHILE ASKING IF HE SHOULD ANNIHILATE IRAN"
I paid $5 for gas today (about $1.50 over 2025 prices), while overhearing another customer loudly cursing. This made me smile.
Saw on Facebook: "Democratic Victory signs are popping up all over the country!!" – next to a photo of prices at a gas station.
I feel like I'm coasting – 41 days to the election.