NuseReal
Media stories: May-September 2026
Blindspots in the media — from Ground News
September
Judge denies ousted Stars and Stripes journalists effort to reverse Pentagon's firings: publisher Max Lederer, editor Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte (LINK) — 7 September 2026
— In a joint statement to Fox News Digital, the three journalists expressed their disappointment with McFadden's decision but insist it's not the "final judgment." "We continue to believe that the Pentagon should not be able to fire journalists for speaking out against censorship and defending the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes."
Fox sent bombshell order to Bartiromo's staff before Trump-admired TV anchor's sudden ouster after 12 years (LINK) — 4 September 2026
— Citing a source inside Fox, Mediaite reports that executives told her staff to isolate her in the weeks leading up to her ouster. Trump wrote on Truth Social: "I can't believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business. Three different shows, always number one."
August
Masked Israeli settlers injure NBC news crew in West Bank (LINK) — 29 August 2026
U.S. Stars and Stripes journalists facing firing for speaking out about threats to editorial independence get one-week reprieve: reporter Lara Korte, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and publisher Max Lederer (LINK) — 28 August 2026
Atlantic: turning point in AI writing: The Wall Street Journal is defending an op-ed written by a chatbot (LINK) — 27 August 2026
— This week, after the billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller published an editorial in The Wall Street Journal criticizing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, his onetime protégé, readers began to notice some familiar tics of AI writing. According to Pangram, the AI-detection tool, the op-ed was 100 percent AI-generated.
Meta reaches $16.68 billion settlement with 47 states over to resolve claims that Instagram and Facebook were designed to be addictive and harmful to children (ground news LINK) — 26 August 2026
— New safety measures include default two-hour daily time limits, 'Nighttime blocks' between midnight and 6 a.m., and restricted beauty filters, with parents gaining tools to monitor teen interactions and set stricter usage rules. Independent auditors and settling states will regularly assess the implementation and efficacy of these features over 10 years, aiming to reduce social media use among users 17 and younger.
Murdoch's WSJ savages Trump for making his 'dumbest' plan even dumber by reigniting a trade war with Canada just weeks away from the midterms (LINK) — 24 August 2026
— "President Trump took exception last year when we called his tariffs against Canada and Mexico the dumbest trade war in history," the board wrote. "It got dumber this weekend as Mr. Trump escalated with another round of border taxes on Canadian imports, a mere 10 weeks before midterm elections."
U.S.: Pentagon spokesperson admits there's a secret blacklist of journalists (LINK) — 24 August 2026
Washington Post ordered by independent arbitrator to reinstate opinion writer Karen Attiah fired over Charlie Kirk posts (LINK) — 24 August 2026
— Attiah was backed by the union that represents most Post employees, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, and Democracy Defenders Fund, a legal advocacy group co-founded by Norm Eisen. The Post had argued that Attiah was fired for cause after violating the company's social media policy, which dictates that employees "must not harm the editorial integrity or journalistic reputation of The Post". Attiah wrote: "Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence."
Student journalists: AI is changing our work — and not for the better: 8.5 issues: in a few cases, teachers are using AI more than students (LINK) — 20 August 2026
New York Times loses defamation suit, ordered to pay $9.25M to former Alabama basketball player: wrongly linked him to a fatal shooting (LINK) — 20 August 2026
Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million — Supreme Court (LINK) — 17 August 2026
— Carroll received $5.6 million in the case—consisting of the $5 million award plus interest—through a court-controlled account in July, after the Supreme Court initially ruled against the president, but this will give her the freedom to spend that money and ensure it is no longer tied up amid the proceedings. The $5 million award was one of two fines Trump has been ordered to pay Carroll in two separate lawsuits. The other, which carries an $83.3 million penalty, is still being appealed.
Thousands mourn Jason Arday in London, blaming 'racist' press for his death (LINK) — 18 August 2026
Nathan Cofnas, the man at the centre of Arday plagiarism row, was dismissed for views on race (LINK) — 16 August 2026
The world's highest-earning podcasters in 2026: Joe Rogan $82m, Tucker Carlson 17th $20m (LINK) — 15 August 2026
Nieman Lab: We analyzed 6,400 New York Times stories to find out how comments change when you give readers more information: the same stories that produced sharper, more analytic conversation also produced less conversation. (LINK) — 11 August 2026
— "The more analytically a story was written, and the more statistics it contained, the fewer people commented on it. Emotional stories did the opposite, drawing bigger crowds."
UN calls for urgent action to protect children from online information risks: more than eight in 10 young people aged 15 to 24 worldwide are now online (LINK) — 10 August 2026
'98% of ads are a waste of money': former marketing chief of Mastercard Raja Rajamannar says marketing needs a reset, slams YouTube 'blackmail' & dumb money: says AI technology will eventually be creating a "sea of sameness" (LINK) — 10 August 2026
Meta fined $567m by judge in New Mexico in largest child safety ruling against social media giant (LINK) — 6 August 2026
— Thursday's ruling is in addition to $375m in fines Meta was already ordered to pay in the case, for a total of $942m. In ruling on this second phase of the trial, Judge Biedscheid found that Meta's harms reached the level of "public nuisance", or an issue of health and safety that has become so widespread it is negatively impacting a general public. Meta is currently facing thousands of lawsuits in the US over similar issues. In addition to the New Mexico rulings, Meta earlier this year lost a case in Los Angeles making similar claims.
Pakistan issues foreign media guidelines, requiring foreign journalists to obtain a No-Objection Certificate — and drawing criticism from press freedom groups (ground news LINK) — 6 August 2026
AI chatbots will happily create fake news articles, and tests show ChatGPT is the worst at it (LINK) — 4 August 2026
July
Trump, DOJ appeal $83.3 million E. Jean Carroll defamation suit verdict to Supreme Court: lower court denied the effort as well as Trump's presidential immunity defence (LINK) — 29 July 2026
Struggling media company BuzzFeed Lays off 33 percent of remaining staff (180) after bizarre pivot to AI: affecting employees at its news site HuffPost, BuzzFeed's film and TV studio, and the recipe publisher Tasty (LINK) — 28 July 2026
Judge says Trump must hand over financial records to BBC: detailed financial information in connection with his defamation lawsuit against the BBC (LINK) — 21 July 2026
Trump demands E. Jean Carroll refund $5.6M he's finally paid her (LINK) — 21 July 2026
Politico: Trump's threats to revoke TV licenses get serious (LINK) — 17 July 2026
E. Jean Carroll receives $5 million payment from Trump for civil suit (LINK) — 14 July 2026
Judge orders $5 million Trump judgment be released to E. Jean Carroll (LINK) — 8 July 2026
South Korean law targeting 'fake news' takes effect as journalists' groups raise concerns: platforms with more than 1 million daily users must remove content or suspend accounts upon reports of false information (ground news LINK) — 7 July 2026
Prince Harry's 'crushing' court loss: he and six other high-profile claimants had lost their $63 million privacy claim against the Daily Mail: could devastate his and Meghan Markle's finances (LINK) — 7 July 2026
— The judge dismissed every one of the 97 allegations of illegal news gathering made by Harry and the other claimants, including Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley. Mr. Justice Nicklin ruled that Harry and the other claimants had often relied on "inference" to prove claims of phone hacking and blagged private medical records, adding that "suspicion, even where understandable, was not enough".
Far Out: 10 directors who made a movie so bad they quit cinema for good (LINK) — 2 July 2026
U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Alan Dershowitz appeal in defamation case (LINK) — 29 June 2026
— The choice leaves intact the landmark 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan ruling, which recognized protections for news media covering public figures.
Uganda's military chief orders shutdown of two major media outlets (LINK) — 28 June 2026
UK considers requiring social media to prioritize trusted news (LINK) — 22 June 2026
Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah, 25, killed in Israeli airstrike on Bureij refugee camp in Gaza: two months after a separate Israeli attack killed his brother, fellow al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah (LINK) — 21 June 2026
"Worldwide, people in all age groups are ditching news sites and publishers' apps in favor of social media and video networks. In fact, 18-34-year-olds are abandoning content on publishers' platforms even more quickly than they're dropping TV news" — 2026 Digital News Report from Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) (LINK) — 15 June 2026
— Nieman Lab: Almost all online news growth is coming from third-party sources, and publishers' own sites and apps are being left behind. "Social media and video networks are now more popular as a source of news than owned and operated online news websites and apps in 30 of [...] 48 markets."
US Justice Department approves Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros: deal opposed by many in the entertainment industry who fear it could lead to mass layoffs, among other concerns (LINK) — 12 June 2026
Futurism: Trump moves could deeply censor the entire Internet (LINK) — 10 June 2026
Israel denies entry to French reporter Alice Froussard accused of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas.FRANCE 24 journalists' association condemnss ban, Radio France Internationale slams 'obstacle to press freedom'. (LINK) — 11 June 2026
Futurism: Trump moves could deeply censor the entire Internet (LINK) — 10 June 2026
'60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley fired after confrontation with new boss (LINK) — 3 June 2026
— Nick Bilton, the show's new top producer, said Pelley "hijacked" a staff meeting to disparage him.
Scott Pelley on CBS after '60 Minutes' firing: show has "lost its DNA" and the "new owner of our network is casting this legend aside" due to politics (LINK) — 3 June 2026
Pentagon bars journalists from its press office, saying it has become a 'classified space' (LINK) — 2 June 2026
FBI Director Kash Patel's girlfriend sues MS NOW: alleges that a report falsely asserted that she demanded, and Patel ordered, agents to escort an intoxicated friend home (LINK) — 29 May 2026
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