3 Years Divorced From Americans
How to justify killing or arresting journalists:
2 years ago we ran a series about what happened 12 months earlier after Americans had done illegal things in our IRC network. Today or this week marks 3 years since the move to the UK [1, 2], where these Americans attempted to bring abusive litigation. One of them intentionally lied to a tribunal, insisting that my wife and I live in Canada. Maybe another arrest in Canada is overdue for this person.
We'll write about this next week. The time seems right because American wars on media (worldwide) intensify further*.
Next year we plan to pursue the UK's Court of Appeal. There are intricate matters of national security at stake. █
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* From yesterday's Daily Links:
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El País ☛ Major television networks pull out of presidential press pool following lawsuit filed against Trump by CNN, MS NOW, and ‘Politico’
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the three outlets said in a joint statement. They said the decision was made “without notice or process” and that Trump’s stated motivation, expressed by him on Truth, is that he does not like their coverage. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawsuit, which can be read here, says.
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New York Times ☛ What Is the White House Press Pool, and Why Did It Suspend TV Coverage of Trump?
In response, four other major television networks agreed to suspend their pooled coverage of Mr. Trump. Five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — have long shared the responsibility of providing television coverage of presidential events, splitting the financial costs and distributing footage that is carried by news organizations worldwide. The networks perform their duties on a rotation, and CNN had been slated to provide coverage of Mr. Trump’s travel on Monday to the United Nations General Assembly.
The rare collective step raises questions about exactly how the president’s daily activities will be covered, and by whom. He is scheduled to meet with Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York and President Emmanuel Macron of France.
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Salon ☛ Paramount takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery fueled by foreign cash: report
The Block the Merger Coalition released a statement saying “This is a bad deal for the future of film, entertainment, independent journalism and a strong democracy in this country. We are disappointed and angry that the interests of average Americans have been trampled to benefit oligarch billionaires.”
[...]
Additionally, CNN reported, it will be “financed with the help of sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi that will indirectly own just under a 50-percent equity stake in the merged Paramount–WBD.”
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Salon ☛ Trump didn't break the press. They did that to themselves
But that synchronized propaganda blitz flopped.
Whatever the assignment was supposed to accomplish, it did not appease the man it was designed to flatter. By the end of the week, the president who had just been handed hours of favorable spin by the most watched cable network in the nation let out a tantrum so large it swallowed three unrelated newsrooms. Facing a failing presidency, crashing poll numbers, the prospect of a Democratic wave in November’s midterms and zero sense of a second-term agenda, Trump just up and banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House for seemingly no reason. On Monday, they announced they were suing to reinstate their access.
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New Republic ☛ Trump’s Ban on White House Press Backfires Immediately
Instead, the White House’s official feed was unable to pick up any noise apart from the blaring drone of a stationary Marine One helicopter parked yards away. Trump’s audio was completely garbled.
Even Newsmax—one of the few networks to air the event—recognized that it was “one example” of the president’s censorship scheme “backfiring just a little bit.”
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New Republic ☛ How Many Republicans Are Brave Enough to Denounce Trump’s Media Ban?
Spoiler alert: It’s not a lot.
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CPJ ☛ Leading news outlets issue statement in defense of a US free press
No news organization should be punished by the government for exercising its right to report, as successive court rulings have established over decades.
The decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House sets a dangerous precedent, one in which the President decides what the American people can know and from whom they can know it.
We stand together as news organizations in our firm defense of a free press and in condemning any attempts to restrict their ability to report on the government.”
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CPJ ☛ Statement by news organizations in defense of press freedom [PDF]
Freedom of the Press is a cornerstone of the US Constitution. The First Amendment protects the right of the press to report without fear of censorship or retaliation by those in power. It upholds the rights of the American people to be informed.
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Robert Reich ☛ The Media Did Something Important Today
On Friday, he announced he was banning CNN, Politico, and MSNOW from the White House because he objected to their coverage of him and his regime. Over the weekend, reporters from the organizations were denied entry to the complex and had their credentials confiscated.
In a commendable show of media solidarity, Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News then suspended their television coverage of Trump today — coverage that also entails distributing their footage to news organizations worldwide. They said in a joint statement: “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
The next batch of Daily Links will have more on that.