Journalism

Fox News chief news anchor Shepard Smith pushed back on escalating tensions between the news media and the Trump White House, declaring that "journalists are not the enemies of the people." "For those of you at home, if I may, journalists are not the enemies of the people. It's quite the opposite," Smith said. "Our profession is enshrined in the Constitution and the fourth estate holds the essential job of being your eyes and often ears and, when appropriate, your voice.

The White House barred CNN Journalist Kaitlan Collins from attending a public appearance by President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden, an apparent act of retaliation that drew immediate rebuke from news organizations and signaled the latest escalation of Trump’s hostilities toward the news media. Collins said she was called into the West Wing and chastised by administration officials for what they deemed “inappropriate” questions that she had asked of President Trump during an Oval Office photo opportunity. The officials — Bill Shine, the newly appointed deputy chief of staff, and Sarah Huc

Michael Cohen and the publisher of the National Enquirer forged an alliance over the years, looking out for the interests of Donald Trump and each other. Now, federal investigators are examining those ties as part of a wide-ranging probe into Cohen’s personal business dealings and his self-described role as Trump’s fixer. Cohen mediated a dispute between Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who had been a star onTrump’s “Apprentice” reality TV show, and the Enquirer over a story about her brother’s murder.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University finds that most Americans disapprove of how the media cover President Donald Trump, a function of a majority of independents disapproving of that coverage. Among Republicans, though, nearly 9 in 10 disapprove of the media coverage. Most Americans also disapprove of how President Trump talks about the media.

In a speech to veterans, President Donald Trump said, “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” What President Trump is doing is asking listeners to join him in his carefully-crafted bubble, a space where information that conflicts with what President Trump asserts or with what President Trump believes is untrustworthy, intentionally false or simply doesn’t exist.

Recent research from Gallup and Knight Foundation investigated how the use of opinion- or behavior-based metrics influenced study participants’ level of trust in the media.  Each participant was randomly assigned to an experimental group that viewed a news article and certain average historical trust ratings of the news source.

[Commentary] Mitt Romney wasn’t unfairly maligned in 2012. But he was victim of a toxic media and political culture. American politics has always been brutish. But changes in the media over the last half-century, along with an intense focus on every word candidates say and every mistake they make has resulted in saturation coverage of peccadillos and blunders rather than policies. This may be a good business model for the media, and effective politically, but it has undermined attempts by both parties to overcome polarization and govern.

President Donald Trump said that what people are seeing and reading in the media about America's economy is "not what's happening." "This country is doing better than it's ever done before, economically," President Trump said at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention. "But it's all working out.

[Commentary] PolitiFact was among the first news sites dedicated to fact-checking, along with Snopes and FactCheck.org. The meter was innovative because it summarized our conclusions in handy ratings. But I’ve evolved. It’s been 11 years since we launched PolitiFact, and I think it’s time to move beyond my beloved meter. I am heading a project at Duke University that is developing ways to automate fact-checking—including new ways to present the conclusions. I think the Truth-O-Meter’s ratings (which now range from True to Pants on Fire) are still effective for many readers.

Facebook’s prioritization of openness and accessibility has made it a target of critics who say it isn't doing enough to stomp out fake news and misinformation. Experts argue Facebook could do a number of things to reduce fake news. But almost every option could hit its bottom line or would challenge CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term vision for the company. The most drastic changes Facebook could make to its policies include removing news from the platform altogether, pre-approving content before letting users post it, and removing all monetization efforts around news.