{"id":36290,"date":"2025-03-18T08:25:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T08:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/trump-accuses-big-media-of-illegal-reporting-virtually-abolishes-voice-of-america\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T08:25:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T08:25:48","slug":"trump-accuses-big-media-of-illegal-reporting-virtually-abolishes-voice-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/trump-accuses-big-media-of-illegal-reporting-virtually-abolishes-voice-of-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump accuses Big Media of \u2018illegal\u2019 reporting, virtually abolishes Voice of America"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump<\/a> has spent the last decade railing against fake news, a phrase that\u2019s now deeply embedded in our culture.<\/p>\n

He has accused the media of being relentlessly biased against him \u2013 which is largely true \u2013 and called out journalists by name. He has sued such outlets as ABC News (which paid him $16 million), CBS and the Des Moines Register.<\/p>\n

He has charged that Politico received payments for negatively covering him \u2013 it turned out these were routine subscriptions, and for the New York Times as well \u2013 and then canceled many of the subscriptions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

TRUMP ORDERS THE DISMANTLING OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED, ‘PROPAGANDA’-PEDDLING MEDIA OUTLET<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But in a controversial speech at the Justice Department<\/a>, Trump went further than ever before. He said the Times, the Washington Post and the major networks were engaged in “illegal” reporting.<\/p>\n

The president did not specify what was illegal about it. But perhaps there\u2019s a short distance between Trump\u2019s accusation and a future prosecution?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DOJ speech drew heavy coverage. The Times said<\/a> he “veered from his prepared remarks to lash out at lawyers and former prosecutors by name in a venue dedicated to the impartial administration of justice. He also accused the department\u2019s previous leadership of trying to destroy him and declared former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. the head of a \u2018crime\u2019 family.”<\/p>\n

The Post quoted Trump<\/a> as saying his enemies had “launched one hoax and disinformation operation after another, broke the law on a colossal scale, persecuted my family, staff and supporters, raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the President of the United States.” The paper added: “It is rare for a president to visit the Justice Department \u2014 which has kept safeguards between the White House and the law enforcement agency in the post-Watergate era to ensure that politics don\u2019t interfere with law enforcement investigations.”<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the fascinating part.<\/p>\n

The Times and the Post made no mention of Trump\u2019s “illegal” reporting charge. Didn\u2019t give it as much as a paragraph. Couldn\u2019t squeeze it in (I say in jest, since space is unlimited in the digital age).<\/p>\n

I see two possible explanations for this.<\/p>\n

One is that they are so offended by the president\u2019s accusation, which they view as false, that they don\u2019t want to give it any oxygen and share it with readers. In other words, when the president is shooting arrows at you, it\u2019s best to deflect them.<\/p>\n

The other is that they fear that there might be a prosecution down the road \u2013 given Trump\u2019s history of civil lawsuits \u2013 and don\u2019t want to cross him on this issue. In short, they are intimidated by the president.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: If two of the nation\u2019s preeminent newspapers aren\u2019t going to defend themselves on the charge of illegality, who is? How can they expect any backing when they won\u2019t stand up for themselves, by censoring Trump\u2019s remarks?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, over the weekend, the president all but abolished the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe with an executive order aimed at its parent agency \u2013 whose special adviser is former Arizona candidate Kari Lake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump ordered 1,300 journalists, executives and other staffers placed on indefinite leave. His argument is that they\u2019re part of the radical left. He\u2019s a longtime critic of VOA, having once called it the “voice of the Soviet Union.”<\/p>\n

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Carla Babb, the VOA\u2019s Pentagon correspondent, posted this: “A silencing of VOA will be celebrated by communists, autocrats and ayatollahs whose lies we shed light on.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The VOA was launched during World War II and credited with successfully countering enemy propaganda for decades. But there\u2019s a legitimate debate to been had about who the “enemy” is these days, given Trump\u2019s friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, people aren\u2019t huddled around their radios as they were in 1942.<\/p>\n

But those who were laid off indefinitely consider themselves independent journalists \u2013 and suddenly find themselves out of a job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump has spent the last decade railing against fake news, a phrase that\u2019s now deeply embedded in our culture. He has accused the media of being relentlessly biased against him \u2013 which is largely true \u2013 and called out journalists by name. He has sued such outlets as ABC News (which paid him $16 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}