Latest news with #pressfreedom
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
NPR lawsuit aims to strike a blow for press freedom against Trump's attacks
In the Trump administration's unprecedented war on the American media, a lawsuit brought by public broadcasters could mark a much-needed strike back for press freedom. The lawsuit, brought by NPR and three Colorado-based public radio stations, challenges an executive order that cut federal funding to what Donald Trump described as 'biased media', with lawyers arguing that the order violated the first amendment right to free speech. The decision by NPR, KSUT, Roaring Fork and Colorado Public Radio to take on Donald Trump comes as the president has targeted multiple news organizations through lawsuits and investigations – and as experts warn some outlets are acquiescing to Trump's war on the media. NPR's lawsuit could be a prominent pushback against that. The lawsuit argues that Trump's executive order, signed on 1 May, violates the first amendment by targeting NPR for news coverage the president considers 'biased'. NPR and its partners are aiming to have the order, which would strip direct and indirect funding from NPR and PBS, permanently blocked and declared unconstitutional. Experts believe NPR has a strong case, and that it could be Trump's attacks on public media that could hand NPR a win. The president and the White House have described NPR and PBS as being 'leftwing propaganda', and has criticized the network for discussing LGBTQ themes. 'Trump's honesty about why he wants to eviscerate federal funding for NPR and PBS could be his legal downfall,' Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and host of the Passing Judgment podcast, wrote in an op-ed for MSNBC. 'NPR has thus argued that Trump admitted that he's using his power as head of the executive branch of our government to target NPR and PBS because he disagrees with the content of their speech.' Levinson wrote: 'The Trump administration isn't targeting NPR because it covers political news. To the contrary; the administration appears to have explicitly admitted that it's targeting NPR because of what Trump considers to be its bias as it covers political news. NPR's lawsuit argues that, therefore, Trump's executive order is 'textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination.'' Trump's pursuit of NPR follows a pattern of the president's second term, with Trump keen to target media organizations he believes have reported on him negatively. The Associated Press, one of the world's premier news agencies which is relied upon by thousands of news outlets, was banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One after it refused to use Trump's preferred term of 'Gulf of America' to refer to the Gulf of Mexico. Trump is suing the owner of CBS News for $10bn, alleging the channel selectively edited an interview with Kamala Harris, which the network denies, and the Des Moines Register newspaper, which he accuses of 'election interference' over a poll from before the election that showed Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa. NPR has been vocal in its opposition to the lawsuit. 'It is evident from the president's executive order, as well as statements released by the White House and prior statements by the president that we are being punished for our editorial choices,' Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, said in an interview with the station this week. Maher added: 'We are not choosing to do this out of politics. We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the first amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.' The funding cut, NPR said, 'would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation', adding: 'Locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.' 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting [which distributes funds NPR and other public media] is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime,' Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. 'Therefore, the president is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The president was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
MAGA Reporter Fired for ‘Telling Truth' About Pete Hegseth
A proud MAGA reporter says she was fired after she dared to criticize Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Gabrielle Cuccia, the chief Pentagon correspondent for the far-right network One America News (OAN), was axed after she wrote a scathing Substack post tearing into the Pentagon for limiting journalists' access. 'The Commander-in-Chief welcomes the hard questions… and yes, even the dumb ones,' Cuccia wrote. 'Why won't the Secretary of Defense do the same?' The article was headlined 'The Secretary of Defense-sive.' Cuccia, 30, said that the Pentagon began to shut out reporters in March after Signalgate, the headline-grabbing scandal that saw Hegseth accidentally reveal details of a military operation in a group chat with a prominent journalist. '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,' Cuccia wrote. She observed that the Pentagon has only held one press briefing during Hegseth's tenure—and none since the scandal. Cuccia said that the breaking point was a new Pentagon policy, announced last week, that reporters could only access Hegseth's office if accompanied by public affairs staff. She disclosed the official explanation for the change, noting that it would '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. In April, Hegseth fired three top aides whom he claimed had spilled information to the media. Leaks have seemed to weigh heavily on the secretary's mind—so much so that he has threatened to have his colleagues submit to polygraphs. One of the aides who was ousted, Colin Carroll, said that Hegseth would spend '50 percent' of his time investigating leaks. As she offered the criticism, Cuccia repeatedly pointed to her impeccable MAGA credentials. As an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania—the president's alma mater—she faced being called 'a racist, a fascist, a bigot' because she refused to march in Black Lives Matter protests, she wrote. Later, she landed an administrative role in Trump's first White House administration. 'Some call it loyalty. I call it conviction,' she said. But she nevertheless declared the Pentagon situation emblematic of 'the death of the MAGA movement.' 'Somewhere along the way, we as a collective decided—if anyone ever questioned a policy or person within the MAGA movement—that they weren't MAGA enough," Cuccia wrote. Her intention, she emphasized, was not to 'tear down' Trump's defense secretary. 'This is me wanting to keep MAGA alive,' she wrote, urging the movement's members to 'love your country, not your government.' It didn't matter. Cuccia published the post on Monday. On Thursday, she was asked to turn her Pentagon badge in to her boss, she told CNN. And on Friday, she was fired. The Daily Beast has reached out to Cuccia via her social media. The Pentagon and OAN did not return requests for comment. Previously a White House correspondent for OAN, Cuccia took on the Pentagon role in February after Trump's administration gave OAN a coveted press corps workspace spot, demoting NBC News. The move was part of a broader push to bring more pro-Trump outlets into the fold. Since her firing, Cuccia has continued to stand by her words. On Saturday, she posted the Substack post to her Instagram. 'I was once told that a former peer feared I was too MAGA for the job,' she wrote alongside it. 'I guess I was. I guess I am.'
CNN
2 days ago
- Business
- CNN
MAGA outlet's Pentagon correspondent criticized Hegseth. And then she was fired, she says
Gabrielle Cuccia criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's crackdown on press access at the Pentagon. And then, she said, she was fired. Cuccia was briefly the chief Pentagon correspondent for the small and staunchly pro-Trump TV channel One America News, OAN for short. A self-proclaimed 'MAGA girl,' Cuccia positioned herself as a proudly conservative voice among the normally nonpartisan Pentagon press corps. But she grew perturbed by Hegseth's actions against the press. In a post on her personal Substack account on Tuesday, she wrote that the Defense Department's recent move to make vast parts of the Pentagon off-limits to journalists was a 'troubling shift.' She heaped doubt on the Defense Department's rationale for the restrictions. And she questioned why Hegseth hasn't held any formal press briefings since being sworn in. Get Reliable Sources newsletter Sign up here to receive Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter in your inbox. 'This article isn't to serve as a tearing down' of Hegseth, she wrote. 'This is me wanting to keep MAGA alive.' Evidently, someone disagreed. On Thursday, 'I was asked to turn in my Pentagon badge to my bureau chief,' Cuccia said in response to CNN's inquiry about her status there. On Friday, she said, she was fired. Cuccia declined to answer followup questions. OAN president Charles Herring did not respond to CNN's request for comment, including about whether any Pentagon officials complained to OAN about Cuccia's Substack post. Cuccia served in the Trump White House in 2017 and 2018 and later reported from the White House for OAN, then spent several years as a contractor, according to her LinkedIn page. One of her right-wing TV appearances went viral last year when she repeated Trump's claims of 2020 election fraud on Newsmax. The anchor cut her off, most likely due to allegations being made during the segment. Whether through fiery TV segments or Instagram posts posing with firearms, Cuccia was public about her MAGA bonafides. So she was a natural fit to return to OAN earlier this year. In February, the Defense Department took away NBC's longtime workspace at the Pentagon and gave the office to OAN — part of a broader push by the Pentagon to seek out pro-Trump coverage and sideline traditional news outlets. OAN suddenly needed to staff the Pentagon, so Cuccia was brought aboard as chief Pentagon correspondent. She personally renovated the office space into what she called a 'Liberty Lounge' and chronicled the process on social media. According to her Substack post, she soon grew skeptical of the Defense Department's dealings with the press corps. Echoing the concerns of the Pentagon Press Association — which Cuccia said she is not officially a part of, since 'again hello I am MAGA' — she pointed out that the Pentagon's top spokesman has only held one briefing since January. '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?' Her nuanced assessment of the Pentagon's press crackdown totaled 3,000 words. It aligned with the slogan that she printed on tank tops and sold on Etsy last year: 'Love your country, not your government.' The primary trigger for her post seemed to be the Defense Department's May 23 memo restricting journalists from key parts of the Pentagon without an official escort. 'For decades — across both Republican and Democratic administrations — reporters have operated in these spaces responsibly, including in the wake of 9/11, without raising red flags from leadership over operational security,' she wrote. The memo indicated that further restrictions are likely in the coming weeks, including a pledge to protect military secrets and tougher scrutiny of press credentialing. 'Without press, we by default have to assume that our government relaying information to us, is true,' Cuccia wrote, calling that attitude 'the antithesis of what we believe in.' On Friday she changed her X bio to 'former chief Pentagon correspondent.'
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
The CNN reporter whose tweets annoyed Pete Hegseth so much he 'tried to ban her from overseas trip'
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attempted to kick a CNN reporter off his upcoming overseas trip after she criticized him in tweets, Status News reports. Haley Britzky, one of CNN's national security reporters, was initially chosen to serve as the designated television pooler on Hegseth's May 30 trip to Singapore, where he'll give a speech at a defense summit. However she was almost removed, after Pentagon officials became enraged over posts she shared which criticized Hegseth for clamping down on press freedom, Status reports. The majority of Britzky's feed on X has been focused on the May 23 decision by the Defense Department to no longer allow credentialed reporters to freely walk through the Pentagon's unclassified hallways. To get through much of the building, reporters now need to be escorted by authorized Pentagon staff. In a memo, Hegseth explained that this move was 'needed to reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures.' Britzky reposted many journalists who openly slammed the new policy as an attempt to stop them from doing their jobs. Oliver Darcy, the former CNN reporter who runs Status News, said he recently learned that Britzky's tweets 'irked' certain Pentagon officials who later tried to get her kicked off the trip. Britzky was tapped as the designated TV pool reporter as space on the trip was limited, meaning she would shared her work with the wider press. Following a 'brief standoff', per Status, she was allowed back on the junket. Her critical posts also included re-sharing one from a journalist who said the memo is ironic in light of Signalgate, in reference to the scandal where Hegseth accidentally shared details of a military strike with a journalist on the group messaging app Signal. In one of her posts, Britzky took an excerpt from the Pentagon Press Association's blistering rebuke of Hegseth. She focused on the part where the association said it would be glad to discuss maintaining operations security [OPSEC] with the Pentagon. The association claimed no such conversation has been offered by Hegseth or his team. 'Today's memo by Secretary Hegseth appears to be a direct attack on the freedom of the press and America's right to know what its military is doing,' the association said in an open letter. 'The Pentagon Press Corps has had access to non-secured, unclassified spaces in the Pentagon for decades, under Republican and Democratic administrations, including in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, without any concern about OP-SEC from DoD leadership. 'This decision eliminates the media's freedom to freely access press officers for the military services who are specifically hired to respond to press queries.' Pictured: Haley Britzky's tweets over the last week that allegedly endangered her spot on the Singapore trip According to Status News, Britzky merely expressing support for these messages was enough for Pentagon officials to consider axing her from the Asia trip. This then prompted other reporters who were also traveling with Hegseth to threaten not going, depriving him of media coverage, Status News reported. That threat is reportedly what got the Pentagon to relent and allow Britzky on the trip after all. approached the Pentagon, CNN and Britzky for comment. Hegseth's desire to restrict press access to the Pentagon comes more than two months after he shared the details of a US military strike on Signal, an unsecured group messaging app. Unbeknownst to Hegseth, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, had been inadvertently added to the chat and could see top national security officials openly discussing upcoming airstrikes in Yemen against the Houthis. After the strikes went ahead on March 15 as planned, Goldberg penned a bombshell article on March 24 claiming he knew two hours before. On March 26, he published a follow up piece that included all the screenshots of the chat, whose participants included former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Hegseth. On April 20, it emerged that Hegseth shared military attack details in a second Signal group chat with his wife, brother and personal lawyer. And on April 30, it was reported that Hegseth had a third chat discussing sensitive foreign policy matters that included his wife, Pentagon Chief Spokesman Sean Parnell and fellow former Fox producer Tami Radabaugh. Hegseth faced calls to resign, but those demands have gradually waned over time. President Donald Trump has also stood by embattled defense secretary, telling reporters shortly after Easter that 'Pete's doing a great job.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
NPR sues Trump administration over funding cuts it says violate first amendment
National Public Radio, the US public broadcaster that provides news and cultural programming to more than 1,000 local stations, has filed a federal lawsuit against Donald Trump's administration, challenging an executive order that cuts federal funding to the public broadcaster as an unconstitutional attack on press freedom. The lawsuit, which landed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, argues that Trump's 1 May executive order violates the first amendment by targeting NPR for news coverage the president considers 'biased'. 'The intent could not be more clear – the executive order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the president dislikes,' NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a Tuesday statement. 'This is retaliatory, viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the first amendment.' NPR, which Maher describes as non-partisan news, was joined by three Colorado public radio stations in seeking to have the order permanently blocked and declared unconstitutional. The executive order instructs federal agencies to 'cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS' and eliminate indirect sources of public financing. The White House defended the move, claiming NPR and PBS 'have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars'. The White House cited a few examples it said demonstrated bias, including editorial decisions around coverage of transgender issues, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and Covid-19's origins. Trump's criticism of public broadcasting notably intensified after a former longtime NPR editor wrote a viral article in the Free Press detailing how the organization had become too progressive and left-leaning, with some of the article's subject matter making it into the executive order as well. Maher herself has also been caught in the crossfire, with past posts about 'white silence' in the wake of the George Floyd murder getting spotted on social media, before she was in journalism and ran NPR. The lawsuit describes the order as 'textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination' that threatens 'the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information'. NPR says its funding structure has evolved since its 1970 founding. Today, member station fees comprise 30% of its funding, corporate sponsorship provides 36%, while just 1% comes directly from federal sources. The nonprofit media organization now employs hundreds of journalists whose work is broadcast by local stations across the United States – and vice-versa puts a national spotlight on local news stories with on-the-ground context and reporting – and is part of the White House press corps. 'NPR has a first amendment right to be free from government attempts to control private speech as well as from retaliation aimed at punishing and chilling protected speech,' Maher said in the statement. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion
