Tag: media

A federal agency goes full Trumpist

Posted on by Lone Candle

“He has also abandoned the FCC’s posture as an independent regulator in favor of an openly personal embrace of Trump. Though picked by the president, FCC chairs of both parties for years have charted an independent course, launching investigations and passing rules that affect billions of dollars in corporate investment while being careful to operate at a distance from the White House.
No longer: In April, alongside officials at the Justice Department, Carr donned a golden pin featuring Donald Trump’s face. He’s become a familiar presence at Mar-a-Lago, and has flown with the president on Air Force One.

As he picks those norm-busting fights with the mainstream media, Carr is more quietly delivering on big deregulation promises to business interests. These moves are less headline-grabbing, but possibly more transformational.

Carr recently said he wants the FCC to get into the business of online speech, potentially making the commission a major enforcer against the content moderation decisions of the Big Tech platforms like Meta and Google. And despite his stepped-up scrutiny of some legacy networks and shows, he also wants to scale back government restrictions on the owners of individual radio and TV stations.

His tactics are a window into how even relatively stolid, independent Washington agencies are being transformed under the second Trump administration — expanding their remit, rewarding favored players and lending their weight to Trump’s highly personal fights.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/19/brendan-carr-fcc-cbs-media-00299588

Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan vs. Douglas Murray Debate, Religion, Deportations, & Bill Maher

Posted on by Lone Candle

Big podcasters like Joe Rogan have people who spread false and misleading information on their podcasts and don’t properly pushback.

These podcasters provide an illusion of longform journalism without the principles of journalism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26IvvpwTMZE

Joe Biden’s Handlers Definitely Knew. Did the Media?

Posted on by Lone Candle

“CNN’s Jake Tapper has released a book on this subject: Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. That’s in addition to the books by Parnes, Allen, and Whipple. One can’t help but wonder, however, why it took so long to get the real story. Maybe journalists weren’t properly clued in to Biden’s decline until after the debate? That’s a bit hard to believe, though: At the very least, Special Counsel Robert Hur’s claims some months earlier that Biden appeared to be an “elderly man with a poor memory” should have set off alarm bells.”

https://reason.com/2025/04/03/joe-bidens-handlers-definitely-knew-did-the-media/

Embattled Voice of America’s fate uncertain after brief apparent reprieve

Posted on by Lone Candle

“VOA has operated for over 80 years to report “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” news that will “present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively,” according to its charter.
The Trump administration in March ordered that federal grants through USAGM will be reviewed and “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” A D.C. Circuit panel paused orders blocking the cuts to USAGM funding for other outlets Thursday, but did not stop the order to return Voice of America staff to work.

The Saturday order changes that, with appellate Judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas — both Trump appointees — ruling together to pause the part of the lower court order requiring the government “take all necessary steps to return USAGM employees and contractors to their status prior” to Trump’s executive order.

They found that the lower court likely did not have jurisdiction to order the employees back to work.

Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, dissented Saturday, writing that the decision is tantamount to “silencing Voice of America for the foreseeable future.”

But even when employees were looking at a return to work, some question whether or not the agency will be able to return to its previous state.

“We’re going to have to bring VOA out of a deep coma,” Steve Herman, VOA’s chief national correspondent, said in an interview with POLITICO before Saturday’s ruling. “And is it possible that it’ll ever regain full consciousness? That remains to be seen, because so much of the brain of VOA was destroyed by trying to strangle us.””

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/03/voice-of-america-resume-broadcasting-00325193

Qatar’s WAR against Israel & The U.S. (Dominating the media and academia with oil money)

Posted on by Lone Candle

Qatar’s WAR against Israel & The U.S. (Dominating the media and academia with oil money)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obs_a5jW0Tk

He took the iconic Trump fist-pump photo. Now he’s fighting Trump to be allowed back in the Oval Office.

Posted on by Lone Candle

“When a would-be assassin’s bullet struck Donald Trump’s ear, Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci — dodging bullets himself — captured the iconic image of a bloodied Trump, rising to his feet and pumping his fist.

But for the past six weeks, Vucci has been barred from covering many other historic moments in the Trump White House, thanks to the president’s decision to punish the AP for its refusal to embrace his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.””

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/27/associated-press-court-hearing-trump-00253952