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The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Pro-MAGA reporter fired after questioning why Pete Hegseth hides from the media
Gabrielle Cuccia, a self-described 'MAGA girl' who served as One America News' chief Pentagon correspondent, says the far-right network fired her after she criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's war against the free press. In a blistering Substack post on Tuesday, Cuccia – who served in the first Trump administration – tore into the Pentagon for limiting media access and blasted Hegseth for not holding one press briefing since taking over as the head of the Defense Department. Specifically, she took issue with the agency closing off portions of the Pentagon that had previously always been open to reporters. 'He claims it's to 'reduce the opportunity for in-person inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures.' But let's be honest — since January, the real leaks from the Pentagon haven't come from the press. They've come from Hegseth's own team and other senior officials,' she wrote. 'I personally know reporters who've sent formal emails to Hegseth's office requesting clarification on specific topics — and received radio silence in return,' Cuccia added. 'Let's call this what it is: limiting freedom of movement in the name of 'national security.'' Making sure to burnish her pro-Trump bona fides, Cuccia noted that it is 'pretty obvious how I feel about fake news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC,' adding that she thinks 'their obsession with advocating for transgender inclusion in the military is a complete waste of time and taxpayer resources.' At the same time, though, she noted that while their 'coverage may not be my cup of tea,' it 'doesn't mean I stand behind Hegseth's decision' to limit reporters' movements through the Pentagon. 'It also raises a fair question: why has the Department prioritized limiting press access, while the Secretary of Defense himself has yet to hold a briefing in the press room during his first 100 days?' Cuccia also asked. Two days after she published her fateful Substack post, Cuccia told CNN that her bureau chief asked her to turn in her Pentagon badge. The following days, she said, she was fitted by the network. Asked to comment on the circumstances surrounding Cuccia's termination, OAN president Charles Herring told The Independent that 'we don't comment on employee related issues.' 'On Thursday, my Pentagon badge was revoked. By Friday, I was out of a job,' Cuccia told The Independent. 'The timing came just days after I published a personal Substack article raising legitimate concerns about new restrictions placed on journalists inside the Pentagon — an article my employer later confirmed had been 'put on their radar.'' She continued: 'When a reporter asks inconvenient questions about government overreach, the response should be accountability — not silence, and certainly not separation. You can love your country and still challenge those who govern it. I've never been afraid to speak the truth, even when it costs me. My loyalty is — and always will be — to my country above all else. And for those reasons, this isn't the end.' The Independent also asked Cuccia if she was aware if OAN had tapped anyone else to replace her yet as the network's top Pentagon reporter. 'I can confirm I have been contacted by potential new hires to fill my role asking how to do the job, what are the expectations, what qualifies as conflicts of interest within the role, and what my experience was like with OAN,' she said. 'I was told that OAN is seeking to fill this role as soon as today, Monday, June 2nd.' Cuccia, who had briefly worked for OAN as a White House correspondent towards the end of the first Trump administration, was re-hired by OAN in February to lead its defense coverage after Hegseth took away NBC's longtime workspace and handed it to the MAGA channel. This was, of course, part of the administration's larger effort to push out mainstream media outlets and elevate sympathetic right-wing coverage. Initially elated with the opportunity, Cuccia would take to her social media accounts to document how she personally renovated the old NBC office into what she deemed 'Liberty Lounge.' Still, her joy soon grew into skepticism and disillusionment over the way Hegseth handled the Signalgate scandal. 'Our SecDef told us that it was Fake News. That it was another Russia Hoax,' she noted. 'As a MAGA girl myself, I cannot stand when we take something super serious and legitimate - such as the Russia Hoax - and conflate everything and anything that is an inconvenient truth, throw in the towel and say, 'Yep its just a Russia Hoax,' and then proceed to call people losers and liars for reporting something that was unfortunately… true.' Cuccia insisted that following Signalgate, 'the Pentagon stopped all press briefings moving forward and simultaneously decided to lock one of the doors that connects journalists to the DoD's Public Affairs Officials, a door that has always been wide open.' She also took Hegseth to task for the 'cheap PR move' of using the Memorial Day weekend to 'conveniently' announce that reporters are no longer allowed access to the offices of the Secretary of Defense or the Joint Chiefs without an official escort. 'This Administration, to my surprise, also locked the doors to the Pentagon Briefing room, a protocol that was never in place in prior Administrations, and a door that is never locked for press at the White House,' she wrote. 'The Commander-in-Chief welcomes the hard questions… and yes, even the dumb ones. Why won't the Secretary of Defense do the same?' Cuccia rhetorically asked. Since telling CNN on Friday that she was fired by OAN, Cuccia has since changed her X profile to read 'Fmr Chief Pentagon Correspondent' and posted a story on her Instagram that included a screenshot of her Substack article. 'You know… I was once told that a former peer feared I was too MAGA for this job,' she captioned the story. 'I guess I was. I guess I am.' Throughout her Substack post, she asserted that her intention in sounding off against the DoD press policy was to 'tear down' Hegseth, but due to her 'wanting to keep MAGA alive.' She also repeatedly used the phrase 'love your country, not your government,' which is a slogan she's emblazoned on tank tops that she began selling on Etsy last year. Prior to returning to OAN this year, Cuccia had drawn attention to herself by posing with firearms on her social media accounts, hawking her MAGA-branded merchandise, and once causing a Newsmax host to cut off her mic after she began peddling Trump's baseless 2020 election fraud claims on the air. Newsmax, like One America News, has been sued multiple times for defamation for amplifying election denialism and voting machine conspiracy theories. If she was indeed fired for criticizing Hegseth and the administration, this wouldn't be the first time that OAN has terminated an employee for speaking out publicly. Back in 2021, the right-wing cable channel fired producer Marty Golingan after he told the New York Times on the record that many network staffers don't think many of OAN stories are factual. One America News, which had been facing an existential crisis after losing nearly all of its cable and satellite contracts in recent years over its conspiratorial coverage, appears to be on the upswing since Trump's return to the White House. Besides taking over NBC's office space in the Pentagon, the network hired former GOP congressman (and one-time attorney general nominee) Matt Gaetz as a primetime host, and White House senior adviser Kari Lake announced last month that she struck a deal with the channel to blast out its content on Voice of America's airwaves. Cuccia isn't the only conservative media figure who has scrutinized the Pentagon press crackdown. After CNN first reported on her firing, Fox News media host Howie Kurtz highlighted the criticism over Hegseth's actions against the media and brought on former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to blast the defense secretary (and former Fox News host) for restricting press access.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The flimsy arguments Trump used to attack public media that serves Kansas
Public broadcasting in Kansas and across the United States faces threats from the Trump administration. (Eric Thomas illustration for Kansas Reflector) In one way, this is the easiest column I've written. It's simple to celebrate public media in Kansas: public radio, educational television, veteran journalists, original reporting, local focus, innovative podcasts and more. For all that, I'm a long-time sustaining member of my local public radio station. And I have written many glowing columns about NPR journalism. Public media in Kansas is awesome. In another way, this column is tricky. Defending anyone, let alone an institution, from fraudulent attacks is challenging. It's proving a negative, when the negative is certifiably bonkers. And coming from the White House. Here goes. On Tuesday, National Public Radio and three public radio stations sued the Trump administration in response to the May 1 executive order that sought to strip public media of its funding in the United States. The NPR lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia, asserts that Trump's executive order 'violates the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment's bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, and also threatens the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.' The 43-page filing pokes holes in Trump's executive order: a brazen attempt to extinguish public media throughout the country — and harm its audience in Kansas — based on a partisan grudge. Under even brief inspection, Trump's May 1 executive order and the press statements that accompanied it look inept. They read like the half-baked political flailing of the first Trump administration when the rationale for his decisions was foolish and risible. Just like many of the actions of the first Trump administration, there is a more principled and legal argument to be made here: Persuade Congress to defund public broadcasting because taxpayer money simply doesn't belong in the media. The executive order only fleetingly expresses that viewpoint: 'Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.' More often, the White House falsely accuses public radio. It dishes out fake news about the real news. If not opposed by a lawsuit like the one filed Tuesday, Trump's executive order would wreck two valuable American institutions for petty and deceptive reasons: hot-button word choices, political innuendo and pet peeves. What's Trump's best response for NPR's regret at labeling someone as 'illegal' in their reporting? Defund NPR. What's Trump's best response to PBS's documentary about a transgender teen? Defund PBS. Forever a predatory real estate developer, Trump wants to tear down public media rather than putting money into improvements. This week's NPR lawsuit points us to documents that reveal Trump's pettiness toward public media. First, consider 'President Trump Finally Ends the Madness of NPR, PBS,' a press release published by the White House in conjunction with the executive order. We find 24 bullet point examples of 'trash that has passed for 'news' at NPR and PBS.' Many of the bullet points, stripped of context, completely misrepresent each instance of public media reporting. One bullet point links to an NPR audio chat from 2022, headlined: 'Which skin color emoji should you use? The answer can be more complex than you think.' During the discussion, the NPR host says, 'These are not particularly easy questions for people to wrestle with.' The guest replies, 'I completely agree with you that there is no clear-cut answer.' How did the White House boil down this nuanced discussion of race? The press release says, 'NPR assigned three reporters to investigate how the thumbs-up emoji is racist.' NPR never used the word racist. Summarizing the coverage in that way isn't a political distortion. It's a lie. Here's another White House claim from the same press release: 'NPR routinely promotes the chemical and surgical mutilation of children as so-called 'gender-affirming care' without mentioning the irreversible damage caused by these procedures.' This bullet point links to a 2023 story from Florida by Melissa Block. It's a mind-bending stretch to see NPR as 'promoting' medical care for trans kids in this journalism. The writer quotes experts — medical groups, plus an endocrinologist and a psychologist — as they each endorse the medical care. Dear White House media critics, covering an issue is not to promote one side. When the administration isn't misrepresenting the work of public media, it nitpicks political language. In the press release's final bullet point, the White House writes about the 'PBS show Sesame Street partnered with CNN on a one-sided narrative to 'address racism' amid the Black Lives Matter riots.' One-sided narrative? I wondered. Clicking the link takes you to a cheerful image of Sesame Street characters with the title, 'Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism.' What is the other side of racism that the White House wants represented here? Pro-racism? The White House should be pressured to explain the 'other side' of the debate that it is imagining, not Big Bird and PBS. (The most likely true objection to this program? Sesame Street partnered with CNN, a network Trump would defund if he could.) Taken as a whole, the list reads like a vendetta seeking a motive: Let's destroy public media, but first we need a reason. Given the White House's complaints about news coverage in their press release, it seems that the executive order is in fact retaliation. Or, consider how the NPR lawyers metaphorically put it: 'It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. 'But this wolf comes as a wolf.' … The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President's view, their news and other content is not 'fair, accurate, or unbiased.' ' And yet, there's more. Multiplying the unfairness of the lawsuit and executive order is the fundamental fairness of NPR's news coverage. As a journalism instructor at the University of Kansas, I use NPR resources in my classroom precisely because they are among the most trustworthy and unbiased. It's not just me who sees it this way. Say what you will of the charts that organize media organizations in terms of bias; NPR is one of the most centrist sources, regardless of which media critics you trust. 'Our people report straight down the line,' said NPR CEO Katherine Maher during an appearance on CBS. 'I think that not only do they do that, they do that with a mission that very few other broadcast organizations have, which is a requirement to serve the entire public. That is the point of public broadcasting. We bring people together in those conversations.' During the past few weeks, as public media has defended itself against these garbage attacks, Trump's order has been characterized as a disproportionate attack on people who live in rural areas, including large swaths of Kansas. The faces of this defense have been the CEOs of NPR and the Public Broadcasting System. Each has stressed how rural audiences will suffer. On Tuesday, Maher released a statement that repeatedly stressed the NPR's nationwide virtue of 'serving all 50 states and territories' as a source for 'tens of millions of Americans.' 'Without public dollars, NPR's investment in rural reporting initiatives, collaborative regional newsrooms, and award-winning international coverage would all be at risk,' Maher wrote. Lisa Rodriguez, interim director of content for KCUR, an affiliate station in Kansas City, appeared on the station's 'Up To Date' show to explain how small rural member stations rely on NPR. 'For KCUR, you depend on it for what you hear every day,' Rodriguez said. 'But also at these smaller stations, you don't have as rich a local journalism ecosystem. It is sometimes the only news that is reaching small communities.' To call the White House's arguments weak should not minimize their gravity. The consequences of the executive order would be catastrophic, especially to Kansans, if they hold up in court. Through the rhetoric of this executive order and its press release, Trump relishes in playing the schoolyard bully once again. This time he is not so much name calling or picking on the vulnerable. With public media, he threatens to take his ball, go home and leave Kansans stranded. Why? The bully doesn't like the way the game is being played. However, as the lawsuit makes clear, it is not his ball. And he has no right to take it. NPR and its fellow plaintiffs seek their continuing independence in their lawsuit. They quote a legal precedent that interpreted NPR's founding legislation as creating an 'elaborate structure … to insulate (broadcasters) from government interference.' Later, the suit continues, that while 'Congress is not obligated to support independent public radio with federal funds,' the government cannot remove funding in a way that unconstitutionally infringes on free speech. Unfortunately, our current Congress does not appear willing to reassert itself against Trump's hallucinatory rhetoric and orders. This week's lawsuit and its path through the courts may be the only remedy to save public broadcasting in Kansas. Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Reuters
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Pope urges media to end divisiveness, calls for release of jailed reporters
VATICAN CITY, May 12 (Reuters) - Pope Leo, in his first address to the media, called on Monday for an end to a polarizing 'war of words' made of partisan and ideological attacks and not give space to fanaticism and hatred. Speaking to thousands of members of the media from around the world who covered his election and the death of his predecessor, Leo also called for the release of reporters jailed for doing their jobs. He added artificial intelligence had to be used with 'responsibility and discernment'.
Washington Post
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
AP and others challenge an Indiana law barring reporters from witnessing executions
The Associated Press and four other media companies argue in a federal lawsuit that Indiana's ban on reporters attending state-sanctioned executions violates the public's constitutional right to an independent and unsanitized description of a sensitive and contentious government action.
Washington Post
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Documenting the courage of Katharine Graham
Imagine this scenario: A dangerously unhinged president, enraged that a prominent newspaper is about to reveal secrets he wants to keep, leverages the vast power of the White House to threaten the paper's owner with utter financial ruin if the information is published. In-house lawyers strongly advise the owner to back down, warning that the newspaper's survival is at stake. But it is clear that the public has the right to know what the president is trying to hide. What should the owner do? What would you do?
