A rare win for the press

Last fall’s restrictions had the effect of replacing major news outlets like the NYT and CNN with a handpicked group of relatively small and explicitly right-wing outlets.

Senior US District Judge Paul Friedman determined that the rules veered into unconstitutional territory and violated the First Amendment.

The press pass policy is “viewpoint discrimination,” Friedman wrote, “not based on political viewpoint but rather based on editorial viewpoint — that is, whether the individual or organization is willing to publish only stories that are favorable to or spoon-fed by department leadership.”

Friedman ordered the Defense Department to restore the press passes of seven Times reporters. The Pentagon Press Association said it believes the ruling applies to everyone else who surrendered their credentials last year, too.

When the ruling was handed down, beat reporters who had previously worked inside the Pentagon received messages from military personnel saying things like: “Does this mean we’ll see you Monday?”

“It has been a grim time for press freedom,” the NYT’s Charlie Savage wrote in this analysis piece. But “against that backdrop, the judge’s repudiation of rules that led to the exodus of credentialed Pentagon reporters from virtually every mainstream news outlet stands, at least for now, as a vigorous affirmation of constitutional press freedom.”

 >> A CNN spokesperson said of the ruling, “This is an encouraging development and we are evaluating next steps and what this means for CNN.” 

The bigger story here is about Hegseth and the Trump administration writ large trying to tighten the vise in all sorts of ways. Hegseth has been taking steps to thwart news coverage of the Pentagon ever since January 2025. With this ruling, he has finally met some resistance. I wrote more about Hegseth’s media hostility in this new CNN column.

 >> CNN’s Devan Cole noted that Friedman is “the second judge in recent weeks to conclude that Hegseth was playing fast and loose with First Amendment protections. Last month, another judge who sits in the same courthouse said the secretary had run afoul of the free speech rights” Sen. Mark Kelly.

‘The first casualty of Trump’s war in Iran was the truth’

That’s the title of David Remnick’s essay in the next issue of The New Yorker. He says “the cruellest irony is that the president who addresses the Iranian people in the language of liberation, urging them to throw off the yoke of a regime that has brutalized them for decades, is the same man who threatens American journalists with treason charges and tries to strong-arm broadcasters into subservience.”

War coverage notes & quotes

  >> CBS News is out with a new national poll this morning: “Most say Iran war not going well, but don’t want regime left in power.” (CBS)

 >> The NYT editorial board says “lying about war is uniquely corrosive,” and Trump is doing lots of lying. (NYT)

 >> “From Vietnam to Iran, war is the reason Americans don’t trust their government,” Julian E. Zelizer writes. (Foreign Policy)

 >> Morgan Meaker explores the “information void at the heart of the Iran war” that stems from Iran’s internet blackout. (Bloomberg)

We expect this. But it’s still egregious.

President Trump posted on Truth Social about Robert Mueller’s death before some news outlets had even confirmed or reported the news. As the words “good, I’m glad he’s dead” ricocheted around social media, FIRE exec VP Nico Perrino pointed out that “only a few months ago, the Trump admin was punishing people for posts like this about Charlie Kirk after his death.” 

 >> Jason “Jah” Lee to Victor Blackwell on “CNN This Morning:” “People have come to expect this kind of thing from him, but that doesn’t make it any less egregious.”

Savannah’s newest message

Savannah Guthrie posted a new message on Instagram about her mom this morning, and the Guthrie family shared a statement with Tucson’s NBC affiliate, KVOA, for a half-hour special report that aired last night. The statement was intended to keep Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance in the news and on the minds of local residents.

“We continue to believe it is Tucsonans, and the greater southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding resolution in this case. Someone knows something,” the family wrote, asking people to search their memories and hoping for a tip that will bring closure…

Local stations respond to CBS News Radio’s demise

Radio aficionados are mourning the impending loss of CBS News Radio, which will be going off the air in May, as we reported in Friday’s edition.

”CBS News Radio was a pioneer and stalwart of the mass media century, the proving ground of star journalists like Edward R. Murrow, with a distinctive five-tone chime that became synonymous with breaking news — long before the rise of 24-hour cable and the internet,” the NYT’s Michael Grynbaum and Ben Mullin wrote in this eloquent piece.

Some local radio stations are reassuring listeners that they’re not getting out of the news business: We’re “NOT going anywhere,” WWJ Newsradio 950 in Detroit said. “No matter what happens to CBS, we will always provide you with the latest information,” 1630 KCJJ in Iowa City said.

‘New questions arise over TikTok sale’

I’m late to this piece by Axios reporter Dan Primack, but it’s still worth highlighting, because the dollar figures are so shocking. “A typical M&A banker would take 1% or 2% deal fee,” he writes. “With TikTok, the Treasury Department got over 70%.”

The WSJ’s revelation about the US TikTok’s buyers paying the Trump admin a $10 billion fee has been met with stony silence from TikTok and the Treasury. Primack says his usually-chatty sources “refused to discuss the matter,” but one of the few who talked said, “You should FOIA the shit out of this.” 

Great weekend reads, part one

 >> David Bauder asks: Can Voice of America actually be put back together again? (AP)

 >> Katie Robertson sits down with WIRED’s top editor, Katie Drummond for a look at the state of the magazine. Drummond says “if you still don’t understand why WIRED covers politics, you are either willfully ignorant or a complete idiot.” (NYT)

 >> Mia Sato describes how prediction market exchanges “are now attempting to strike deals with individual reporters.” (The Verge)

 >> Drew Harwell says “thousands have swooned over this MAGA dream girl,” but she’s “made with AI.” (WaPo)

 >> Criminologists James Densley and Jillian Peterson say the mass shooters they study are increasingly plugged into the online “true crime community.” (NYT)

 >> Noor Ibrahim reports on “how a new wave of female social media personalities became the firearm industry’s most valuable weapon.” (Marie Claire)

 >> “Move over, Davos:” Nate Freeman reports that “James Murdoch is launching a king-making ideas expo, building on his Art Basel fairs.” (VF)

Does this quote explain Jeff Bezos and his Post approach?

Ex-Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi went deep on “How Will Lewis Lost the Washington Post” in this widely shared piece for the Washingtonian.

Farhi quotes a former Post editor saying that Jeff Bezos’s “goal for the Post is to lose less money and for it to be something that isn’t a huge headache for his other businesses. Losing 250,000 subscribers is the price you pay for not antagonizing Trump. Amazon is the source of his wealth, Blue Origin is his passion. The Post is neither.” Read on…

BuzzFeed’s newest stabs at relevance

The NYT’s Ben Mullin asks a big question here: “Can Jonah Peretti Save BuzzFeed From Extinction?” Many media insiders believe he can’t. But Peretti used SXSW to promote some of his new stabs at relevance, including Branch Office, which is “inspired by Nintendo” and will “use AI to build new applications, including interactive games and communities.”

 >> Mullin writes that “BuzzFeed is taking steps to shore up its balance sheet,” which could mean a sale of brands like Tasty and HuffPost…

Stellar weekend reads, part two

 >> “Shoot the messenger:” Jerusalem Demsas says “the class of people who shape public debate can’t see our own blind spots.” (The Argument)

 >> Megan Garber says ABC “promoted Taylor Frankie Paul as a new kind of heroine. Then reality got in the way.” (The Atlantic)

 >> Matt Donnelly goes “inside Meghan and Harry’s falling out with Netflix — and why the royal couple is struggling in Hollywood.” (Variety)

 >> Julia Alexander asks: “Should David Ellison buy Roku next?” (Puck)

 >> Hannah Sampson describes how and why Disney has cracked down on outside vendors. (WaPo)

 >> Daniel Parris has a fascinating look at how ABBA “turned joy, nostalgia, and musical IP into a billion-dollar enterprise.” (Stat Insignificant)

 >> Important: “Mark Robinson admits ‘I lied’ about CNN story.” (CNN)

 >> Right-wing outlets are keeping up their pressure on Apple News. (NYPost)

 >> “Concerns about the potential loss of more Hollywood jobs, and questions about newsroom independence, dominated a hearing Friday to address Los Angeles’ crisis of shrinking film and TV production jobs,” Meg James reports. (LAT)

 >> Erin Barrier “has been named senior vice president of communications for The Walt Disney Studios.” (THR)

White House blocks Bill Maher from Mark Twain Prize?

On Friday The Atlantic’s Jonathan L. Fischer and Ashley Parker reported that Bill Maher had been chosen to receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center. But they had to update the story later in the day: “After this story was published,” they wrote, “the White House called the Kennedy Center and made clear that Maher would not receive the prize.”

 >> CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty and Donald Judd have some of the backstory here: “A source close to the Kennedy Center said that Maher had previously been told he has been selected,” but he had not yet accepted, and now it’s been scrapped, seemingly due to Trump’s personal pique…

Replacing ‘The Bachelorette’ tonight…

“In the absence of a new episode of ‘The Bachelorette’ on Sunday, ABC is slotting something that is dependably benign: a rerun of ‘American Idol,’” the NYT’s Julia Jacobs and John Koblin wrote. Their story says ABC’s losses “could be in the tens of millions” as a result of the Taylor Frankie Paul scandal…

A few more Hollywood headlines 

 >> “Project Hail Mary” is breaking records for Amazon MGM Studios at the box office this weekend, Anthony D’Alessandro reports. (Deadline)

>> Warner Music Group and Netflix “have set an exclusive multi-year first-look deal that will see the streamer make documentary series and films exploring the lives, music, and legacies of WMG’s artists,” Matt Grobar writes. (Deadline)

 >> And last but not least, Bill Carter recapped last night’s premiere of “SNL UK.”

He says it was “a remarkably polished first effort.” US audiences will be able to watch it on Peacock later today. (LateNighter)