Doppelganger Reporting

by


Article in The Intercept by Katherine Krueger, 4/7/26

Headline: “The Media Just Can’t Help Turning Iran Fighter Jet Rescue Into ‘Black Hawk Down’ “

Subhead: “Everyone reported the exact same story at the exact same time — and they all relied on the same liars who got us into this mess.”

“Neither Josh Hartnett nor Ewan McGregor were there, but the way the mainstream media is telling it, they might as well have been. The Sunday morning rescue of a U.S. airman shot down over Iran launched a thousand breathless tick-tock retellings from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and many, many more — helpful water-carrying for an administration prosecuting a deeply unpopular war without a clear end in sight. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2026/04/06/iran-fighter-jet-rescue-media-coverage/

Media and “Shields”

by

Article in Common Dreams by Stephen Prager, 4/7/26

Headline:  “Western Media Called Out for ‘Misleading’ Portrayal of Iranians Defending Infrastructure as ‘Human Shields’ “

“ ‘The real legal and moral question is why civilian infrastructure is being targeted at all,’ said one expert.

“After US President Donald Trump made his genocidal declaration on Tuesday that the ‘whole civilization’ of Iran ‘will die tonight,’ reports began to roll in of people across the country standing outside the power plants, bridges, and other civilian infrastructure the president promised to bomb. . .”

“The government has encouraged Iranians, including children and young students, to take to the streets to form human chains around infrastructure that may come under threat, leading some Western media outlets to raise the fear that people were being used as ‘human shields.’

“Sina Toossi, a fellow at the Center for International Policy, however, said this “is a deeply misleading framing. . .”

“ ‘This is about people trying to safeguard electricity, water, and basic civilization under open threat,’ Toossi said. ‘The real legal and moral question is why civilian infrastructure is being targeted at all.’ ”

Read the whole article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/iranians-defend-infrastructure-trump

Fox News More of a Gamble Now?

by


Article in The Hill by Ashleigh Fields, 4/7/26

Headline:  “Fox integrating Kalshi prediction markets data across news platforms “

“The Fox Corporation on Tuesday said it would integrate data from Kalshi prediction markets across multiple platforms to enhance the audience experience.

“Insight from the prediction market will be shared on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather and the Fox One platform, according to a press release announcing the integration sponsored by Kalshi. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5820864-fox-corporation-integrates-kalshi-markets/

 

Voice of Who?

by


Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty, 4/6/25

Headline:  “VOA’s Legal Fight for Independence”

Subhead:  “Journalists at Voice of America have been to court in the hope of getting back to their jobs. Now they are suing to protect against censorship.”

“For the embattled journalists of Voice of America (VOA), first came the fight to return to the newsroom they’d been unceremoniously booted from by the Trump administration. Now comes another daunting challenge: clawing back their editorial independence.

Late last month, four employees joined with Pen America and Reporters Without Borders to sue the administration over allegations that President Trump and his political appointees at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, had censored their coverage, transforming the newsroom into a “partisan mouthpiece of the administration” and breaching a congressionally created editorial firewall. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/voas-legal-fight-for-independence.php

Christian Media Missiles?

by

Article in Media Matters by Staff, 4/6/26

Headline:  “On The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses how the Iran war is seen in the Christian nationalist media space: ‘They’re getting impassioned because he’s making these very explicit calls to their religion’ “

“. . .And the undercurrent that’s taking place that this is in fact a Holy War, that it is Biblical. And the rhetoric that you pointed to is the most mild examples of that. I mean, Trump has posted a video, tapping into a notion that he is the prophecy come to life, that part of what he is doing now was prophesized in the Bible. And that lit up Christian nationalist communities. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/weeknight-angelo-carusone-discusses-how-iran-war-seen-christian-nationalist-media

How to Flatter Yourself in the Media

by

Article in The Nation by David Futrelle, 3/6/26

Headline:  “The AI Sector’s Crass Bid for Media Domination”

Subhead:  “When you’re a galactically rich tech mogul upset with adverse press coverage, you just buy yourself more flattering media outlets.”

” ‘Freedom of the press,’ A.J. Liebling famously wrote, ‘is guaranteed only to those who own one.’ This pithy observation from one of Liebling’s 1960 ‘Wayward Press’ columns in The New Yorker sums up a great deal about how journalism is transacted under the pressures of American capitalism. But the gist of it has to hit different if you have several hundred million dollars sitting around and a reputation that could use a bit of burnishing. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ai-techonology-business-and-programming-network-podcasts/

If it Bleeds – it Doesn’t Lead Anymore

by

Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rozsa, 4/6/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media empire hemorrhaging subscribers as Trump’s coalition crumbles”

“President Donald Trump’s media ecosystem for a long time depended on major online brands like The Daily Wire and Blaze Media, but as one of their fellow conservative publications pointed out, Trump’s coalition is dissolving — and with it, the base of support upon which many of these media outlets once stood firm.

“Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire is in trouble on YouTube, losing significant numbers of subscribers—with Shapiro himself down a whopping 80,000 in the first quarter of the year, according to a new survey of political channels by researcher Kyle Tharp,” wrote The Bulwark’s Will Sommer on Monday. It’s more proof that dissident and increasingly anti-Trump voices like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have the energy in right-wing media. Shapiro, by contrast, is stuck defending an unpopular war with Iran.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing-media-fail/

 

Reporters Ask For Facts!?

by


Article in Mediaite by Sarah Rumpf, 4/6/26

Headline: “NYT Fires Back After Trump Berates Reporter: ‘Pattern of Answering Fair Questions with Inaccurate Attacks’ “

“The New York Times fired back at President Donald Trump after he berated one of their reporters during a press conference on Monday, calling it part of a “pattern of answering fair questions with inaccurate attacks.”

The incident in question occurred during a press briefing the president held to discuss the latest developments in Iran. Times Zolan Kanno-Youngs asked Trump about a Truth Social post he wrote early on Easter Sunday morning with a profanity-laced demand for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants if the strait stayed closed. . .”

Read the full article:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/nyt-fires-back-after-trump-berates-reporter-pattern-of-answering-fair-questions-with-inaccurate-attacks/

Fox on the Run?

by

 

Article in Media Matters by Ed McMaster & Isabella Sherk

Headline:  “Right-wing media figures castigate Fox News for pushing ‘blatant propaganda” on the war in Iran’ “

Subhead:  “Former Fox hosts and other right-wing media figures have called out the network for ‘cheerleading’ Trump’s war”

“Right-wing media figures including former hosts for Fox News are calling out the network for its sycophantic coverage of the Iran war.

Ex-Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly are attacking their former employer over its role in promoting President Donald Trump’s Iran war, with Kelly accusing Fox of ‘cheerleading’ the conflict and Carlson claiming the network is advocating for escalating to a ground invasion. Other right-wing media figures have similarly accused the outlet of ‘endless cheerleading’ for the war and spreading ‘blatant propaganda.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-figures-castigate-fox-news-pushing-blatant-propaganda-war-iran

Coming for the Journalists?

by

Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 4/6/26

Headline:  “Trump threatens to jail journalist to find source of second missing airman report”

Subhead:  “Trump targets media to find ‘leaker’ who revealed that a US airman was missing after being shot down by Iranian forces”

“Donald Trump threatened to jail a journalist – or journalists – who reported that a second US airman was missing after being shot down by Iran on Friday in an effort to identify their source. . .”

“During a press conference at the White House on Monday afternoon, Trump told reporters that his government was aggressively pursuing the “leaker” who revealed information about the missing airman to the media. He claimed that the news report put Iran on notice and put the airman in danger. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/trump-threats-journalist-missing-airman-iran