A very sad and dangerous situation exists, where journalism at all levels has been compromised in the time of the Trump Presidency.
We have seen courageous, challenging journalists such as Terry Moran of ABC News and Jim Acosta of CNN forced out of their positions for the “nerve” to challenge Donald Trump and his supporters on their policies and actions.
We have seen ABC News and CBS News making financial settlements after lawsuits by Donald Trump over their coverage of news and interviews that Trump decided to sue, and the settlements leading to contributions to a future Donald Trump Presidential Library in South Florida.
We have seen major newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, making changes designed to avoid alienating Trump.
We have seen late night comedians, such as Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, along with “The View” and “Saturday Night Live” coming under attack, as well as the leadership and tone of “Sixty Minutes” being changed dramatically.
The new ownership of CBS by the billionaire Larry Ellison family is in process of destroying the long held, high level, reputation of that news network, that had such courageous journalists in the past as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Dan Rather.
The coverage of White House press conferences and other activities, including the Pentagon, has been compromised by Trump, his Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, censoring who can be present, who can ask questions, and denying freedom of speech and press at every turn.
This is all very alarming, as without a free, uncontrolled media environment, and without the ability to have comedy shows that can make fun of government leaders and policies, we are on the road to a total Fascist authoritarian government, which, once accomplished, will be hard to prevent long term damage.
From Dan Rather to — Bari Weiss? How far CBS News has fallen.
https://www.salon.com/2025/10/06/from-dan-rather-to-bari-weiss-how-far-cbs-news-has-fallen/
Reminder: if you want to be well informed, read The Guardian every day. And ditch the WaPo, pretty much…
https://www.theguardian.com/us
Rustbelt Democrat, this is rare, but I totally disagree with your statement about “ditching’ the Washington Post!
While I am dismayed at interference by Jeff Bezos with the opinion pages, and the resignation of some prominent journalists from that newspaper, it is still reality that the Washington Post covers the news better than any other American print news source other than the NY Times!
To “ditch’ the Washington Post is “putting one’s head in the sand”, so to speak, and I regard the Washington Post as the second best news source, even in tough, challenging times such as now!
But we can agree to disagree, agreeably!
As a disclaimer, the Trump Presidential Library should have sponsorship by the Barnum &Bailey Clown College.
Free Crayola Crayons to all patrons of the “library” so that they can practice staying within the lines of printed copies of Trump’s most important papers-reproductions of his all upper case tweets of his moronic policy statements.
Paul, Doyle, welcome back after a long hiatus, from commentary on this blog, hahaha! 🙂
I hope you will continue to add your insights to theprogressiveprofessor.com! 🙂