assault on the media Archives

Out of Focus

March 11, 2026March 22, 2026 Buck Banks

At the Pentagon, the Fourth Estate is taking a battering,
With the top-tier media outlets reduced to woolgathering.
And as if to add insult to injury,
Pete Hegseth, in a narcissistic fury,
Banned photographers for taking photos he said were “unflattering.”

ABC’s Capitulation to Trump Is Bad for Journalism

December 19, 2024 Buck Banks

“This is how press freedom erodes—not through dramatic crackdowns, but through corporate calculation. When news organizations are owned by massive conglomerates, journalism becomes just another business interest to be traded away when convenient.”

— Parker Molloy

Trump’s Threat to the First Amendment

November 20, 2024 Buck Banks

“To be as clear as I can be, the second Trump administration with Elon Musk embedded within it represents the most direct and sustained threat to the First Amendment and the freedom of the press any of us will ever experience.”

— Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, in an interview with Status.

Trump: ‘Nobody Called from Google’

August 4, 2024 Buck Banks

“Google, nobody called from Google. One of the things like doing a show like yours, your show, you know, you see it on Fox, but when you really see it is all over the place, they take clips of your show that you’re doing right now with me and if I do a good job, they’re gonna vote for me, they’re gonna vote for me because it’s not just on Fox, it’s on Fox is a smaller part of it. You’re on all over this, those little beautiful cell phones you’re on, you’re all over the place. You have a product, you have a great product. You have a great brand. So you have to get out, you have to get out, you have to do things like your show and other shows and Google has been very bad. They’ve been very irresponsible and I have a feeling that Google is gonna be close to shut down.”

— Donald Trump, on Fox Business.

Trump-0, WSJ-1

March 5, 2021 Buck Banks

Sore loser Donald Trump is a nuisance infernal,
His assaults on the media are as stupid as they are futile.
And Trump’s public relations flack
Must be having a heart attack,
Because you can’t win a war of words with the Wall Street Journal.

Another Authoritarian Jokes About Killing Journalists

October 29, 2018 Buck Banks

“I love journalists, that’s why I may organize a special banquet for them this evening at the Saudi embassy.”

— Czech president Miloš Zeman, quoted by Euro News, apparently alluding to Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Most Republicans See the News Media as the Enemy of Democracy

April 27, 2018 Buck Banks

51%

A new Quinnipiac poll finds a majority of Republicans — 51% — see the news media as the enemy of the people, compared with 37% of them who view the media as an important part of democracy. By contrast, 91% of Democrats and 70% of independents see the media as an important part of democracy.

Nearly Half Think Media Fabricates News

October 18, 2017 Buck Banks

46%

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that 46% of Americans believe the news media fabricate news stories about President Trump and his administration. Just 37% of voters think the media do not fabricate stories, the poll shows, while the remaining 17% are undecided. Among Republicans, 76% think the news media invent stories about Trump and his administration.

Trump Hasn’t Attacked the Media in a Week

March 6, 2017 Buck Banks

7

Number of days since Donald attacked the media, CNN reports. “Trump last tweeted negatively about the media Feb. 26, when he slammed a new ad campaign from the ‘failing’ New York Times.”

Bush Says Media Is ‘Indispensable’ to Democracy

February 27, 2017 Buck Banks

I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. We needed the media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.

Tag: assault on the media

Out of Focus

ABC’s Capitulation to Trump Is Bad for Journalism

“This is how press freedom erodes—not through dramatic crackdowns, but through corporate calculation. When news organizations are owned by massive conglomerates, journalism becomes just another business interest to be traded away when convenient.”

— Parker Molloy

Trump’s Threat to the First Amendment

“To be as clear as I can be, the second Trump administration with Elon Musk embedded within it represents the most direct and sustained threat to the First Amendment and the freedom of the press any of us will ever experience.”

— Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, in an interview with Status.

Trump: ‘Nobody Called from Google’

— Donald Trump, on Fox Business.

Trump-0, WSJ-1

Another Authoritarian Jokes About Killing Journalists

“I love journalists, that’s why I may organize a special banquet for them this evening at the Saudi embassy.”

— Czech president Miloš Zeman, quoted by Euro News, apparently alluding to Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Most Republicans See the News Media as the Enemy of Democracy

51%

A new Quinnipiac poll finds a majority of Republicans — 51% — see the news media as the enemy of the people, compared with 37% of them who view the media as an important part of democracy. By contrast, 91% of Democrats and 70% of independents see the media as an important part of democracy.

Nearly Half Think Media Fabricates News

46%

Trump Hasn’t Attacked the Media in a Week

7

Number of days since Donald attacked the media, CNN reports. “Trump last tweeted negatively about the media Feb. 26, when he slammed a new ad campaign from the ‘failing’ New York Times.”

Bush Says Media Is ‘Indispensable’ to Democracy

I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. We needed the media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.

— Former President George W. Bush, in an interview on the Today Show.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no air defenses. Their leadership is fractured. They have hyperinflation, their currency is worthless, and they’re having trouble making payroll… I guess other than that, they’re doing well.”

— Secretary of State Marco Rubio, quoted by the New York Post, on Iran.

— Sebastian Smee

“This is a gem sitting there. I think the Democrats … have been episodic in touching it, rather than front and center. Corruption as part of the affordability narrative is more chess, where affordability alone is more checkers.”

— Rahm Emanuel told Semafor that Democrats “should sharpen their arguments about President Donald Trump’s self-dealing while in office — by hitching them to affordability-focused messaging.”

Numerati

61%

54%

59%

A new Pew Research survey finds 59% of Americans say the country’s best years are behind us, while 40% say its best years are ahead.

3.8%

56%