Donald Trump

President Trump on Wednesday repeated a pledge to change the nation’s libel laws in a way that would make it easier for people to sue news organizations and publishers for defamation, another salvo from a president who has expressed hostility toward longstanding press freedoms.

The thin fourth wall between the President and his TV.

No doubt anticipating more blow-back in his general direction at Sundays sure-to-be-highly-charged Golden Globe Awards, President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday evening that, the day after the awards ceremony, he will announce winners of his new “MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR.” All-caps are his. Trump’s ceremony is set for 5 PM, he tweeted, presumably meaning Eastern Time.

In an unscheduled, unstaffed interview with The New York Times on Thursday, President Trump said the media would be in trouble without him and needs him to win re-election in 2020. “Another reason that we’re going to win another four years is because newspapers, television — all forms of media — will tank if I’m not there, because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes,” he said. “Without me, The New York Times will indeed be, not the failing New York Times, but the failed New York Times.”

Donald Trump’s unconventional presidency has roiled the media landscape, creating new dynamics that will play a major role in shaping his second year in office.

Setting the stage, and the tone, for Wednesday’s promised White House presser after the House passes — again — the tax overhaul it previously passed Tuesday night, President Donald Trump trashed media outlets who will be attending. “Tax Cuts are so large and so meaningful, and yet the Fake News is working overtime to follow the lead of their friends, the defeated Dems, and only demean.”

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN’s Jim Acosta says he was warned by the White House press secretary Sarah Sanders not to ask a question during President Donald Trump’s bill signing […]

The president tweeted six attacks on what he calls “fake news” over the weekend, saying the “out of control” media puts out purposely false and defamatory stories. That led to a contentious exchange at Monday’s White House press briefing between press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and CNN’s Jim Acosta.

As the country grapples with a national reckoning over sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men, three women who accused the most high-profile man in America again questioned Monday — on Megyn Kelly Today — why their claims did nothing to stop him from winning the presidency.

In a tweet Sunday, President Trump blasted the lack of attention over what he described as “false and defamatory stories” by the “Fake News Media.” “They are out of control — correct reporting means nothing to them. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed…a stain on America!” Trump wrote.

Leaders or state media in at least 15 countries use the president’s favorite denunciation to quell dissent, question human rights violations.

ABC News says it has reprimanded Chris Vlasto, its top producer for investigative reporting, for giving Donald Trump’s presidential campaign proprietary exit polling data on election night 2016.

Sexual harassment allegations against President Donald Trump dating back to his days hosting the reality TV show The Apprentice will be raised in a New York courtroom this afternoon, where a judge will hear arguments on a motion to dismiss a suit brought by a former contestant who says Trump groped her a decade ago.

Stephen Colbert didn’t let Bush, in his first televised interview since the infamous Access Hollywood tape became public, get away with an easy self-exoneration.

In attacking the media, the president has in many ways strengthened it. This year, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other independent, professional enterprises have reminded the country why the Founders enshrined a free press as a defense against abusive power.

Seven months after the infamous “grab them by the pussy” recording got Bush fired (and nearly toppled Trump’s White House run), the former Today host goes public with what happened on that bus, the people who knew about the tape, how he broke the “awful” news to his daughters and his bold comeback move: “I plan to return to the job that I love.”

In the wake of CNN’s decision to boycott the White House Christmas party, other journalists express mixed feelings.

Access Hollywood is responding to reports that President Trump doesn’t believe that the infamous tape of him on the program — bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent — is real. “We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape,” host Natalie Morales said during a Monday broadcast. “Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real,” she said. “Remember his excuse at the time was ‘locker-room talk.’ He said every one of those words.”

President Trump took a shot at the news media on Monday ahead of a busy week that could help determine the fate of his agenda. “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me),” Trump tweeted. “They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”

President Trump praised Fox News and ripped CNN on Saturday, saying on Twitter that the conservative-leaning news network is more important than the cable network. “Fox News is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” the president said in a tweet.

A day after his Justice Department sued to stop AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner, President Trump weighed in on the potential impact of the deal on the country. He said he’s not going to get involved in active litigation, but then added: “Personally, I’ve always felt that that was a deal that’s not good for the country. I think your pricing is going to go up. I don’t think it’s a good deal for the country. But I’m not going to get involved. It’s litigation.”

Whatever side you’re on in the debate over journalism these days, you’re not going to like some of what I have to say. Let’s start with a basic fact. President Trump is engaged in the most direct, sustained assault on the free press in our history. Since early in the campaign, he has done everything he could to delegitimize the media — attacking us institutionally and individually. And I think his purpose is clear: a concerted campaign to raise doubts over whether we can be trusted when we report critically about his administration.

After almost a year of review,  everybody seems suddenly gobsmacked that the Justice Department had serious reservations about  the $85 billion Time Warner merger.

The president’s steady stream of anti-media rants puts government officials like FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and DOJ’s Makan Delrahim in a tough spot. Every time they take an action that negatively affects a news organization that Trump has targeted, they will be accused of acting as an agent for Trump. So, why is Pai making excuses for him?

The president styles himself a fighter, but when it comes to television, he prefers allies who help mold his image like The Apprentice once did. Above, Trump is interviewed by Mike Huckabee.

The network that sparred with him as a candidate now rarely questions him as president. It signals that Fox fears increasing competition on its right flank.

Lessons from nine months in the press briefing room. Trump and his team understand that for the political press, the only thing that matters is what’s happening right now, not yesterday. And whether through his tweets or his surrogates in the briefing room, the president has been largely able to bait reporters into playing his game, because he knows what makes them tick.

In the year since Donald Trump was elected president, the national news media has congratulated itself on a new golden age of accountability journalism. And it’s true in many ways. The scoops have been relentless, the digging intense, the results important. But in another crucial way, the reality-based press has failed. Too often, it has succumbed to the chaos of covering Trump, who lies and blusters and distracts at every turn.

In the space of six weeks, this seemingly apolitical 49-year-old comedian, who, since his show debuted in 2003, has done exceptionally well by coming across as latenight’s unexceptional guy, had transformed himself into a riveting teller of truths — with the ratings bump to match. “I never wanted to come on too strong politically,” Kimmel says. “I never wanted to preach to the choir.” Yet here he is, talking about not just his politicization and whether the Trump era has changed latenight TV forever but other, crucial things.

Trump’s appetite for shutting down the free press is a reminder of his open admiration for strong men dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Erdogan and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte. Those strongmen limit the freedom of the press and, in some cases, kill and jail journalists.

Republicans and conservatives have grumbled about unfair coverage from the “mainstream media” for decades. But the Trump era has brought us to a new plateau, one where the media has moved from adversarial to oppositional. Many observers, on both right and left, have come to see the media as the leader of the resistance. If you care about journalism, it’s a disturbing trend.

Under questioning by New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone at a House hearing, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai would not be drawn into criticizing the president for suggesting that the FCC ought to revoke the licenses of media companies for news stories Trump felt were untrue. However, Pai did say that he would not use the power of the FCC for retribution against any media company because of its reporting.

Democrats will get the chance to grill the chairman of the FCC over President Trump’s tweets attacking media outlets during a hearing Wednesday. The House Commerce subcommittee on technology will hold its first FCC oversight hearing since the agency added two commissioners over the summer. And a new controversy involving the president will take center stage.

I can almost understand Republican Chairman Ajit Pai’s muted response to Trump’s tweeted threats against NBC’s TV station licenses, but not those of Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn. If what they’ve said so far reflects their passion for protecting media from Trump at the FCC, the networks and their licensed stations may be in a little trouble.