Category Archives: Media

‘Safe to be a white male again’: how conservative media covered Trump’s first week

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The right is ecstatic about the end of the Biden era – but remains polarized about some of Trump’s decisions

Americans really do inhabit two worlds: some shed tears of sadness at the advent of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Others cried, too – with joy.

Across the conservative, “post-liberal” and alternative media spheres, journalists, pundits and some social media circles celebrated the end of the Biden era with the enthusiasm of rebels toppling the relics of a collapsing dictatorship. As Trump swore his presidential oath, the writer Walter Kirn, a pro-Trump, anti-establishment agitator on X, grandiloquently declared: “This is a revolution against a corrupt ancien regime.”

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Prince Harry settles legal claim against Sun publisher

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NGN apologises to royal ‘for phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators’

The Duke of Sussex has settled his high court legal action at the eleventh hour against the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN).

NGN offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to Prince Harry “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them” at the News of the World.

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Why is TikTok working again in the US as Trump takes office?

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App has resumed operations after saying it received assurance over de facto ban, but its future remains uncertain

TikTok is restoring its service in the US after Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order when president to allow the app to continue operating.

It had shut itself down late on Saturday in advance of a Sunday deadline to divest its Chinese shareholders or face a ban, but resumed operations on Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration, saying it had received the appropriate assurances from the president-elect.

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Shares in Daily Mirror owner Reach rise as it says it will beat profit forecasts

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Publisher was helped by strong digital advertising performance towards end of year, say analysts

Shares in the owner of the Daily Mirror rose more than a quarter after the publisher said it expects to beat annual profit expectations, after a strong end to the year and the benefit of deep cost-cutting in recent years.

Reach, which owns national papers including the Mirror and Express and scores of local titles including the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo, said the profit upgrade was because of a strong final quarter last year.

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CNN defamation case foreshadows Trump media crackdown, experts say

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Contractor Zachary Young wins damages over Afghanistan story in trial notable for prosecution’s aggressive stance

A combative defamation trial in Florida, involving CNN and a former US security contractor in Afghanistan, is providing a roadmap for a crackdown on media independence during the second Trump administration, experts believe.

The case was already unusual because CNN chose to defend itself and risk millions in damages, while other media giants such as ABC News and the Washington Post have opted to back down in the face of threats of persecution from the incoming president. Ultimately, after 18 hours of deliberation, the jury found that CNN defamed the contractor and awarded Zachary Young $4m in lost business and $1m in personal damages.

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Lebedev’s London Live TV channel closes after decade of mounting losses

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Station was crown jewel of Jeremy Hunt’s strategy to populate the UK with dozens of local TV stations

At midnight on Sunday, London Live, the capital’s dedicated TV channel and crown jewel of Jeremy Hunt’s strategy to populate the UK with dozens of local TV stations, will cease broadcasting after a little over a decade.

Back in 2010, the then Conservative culture secretary’s local TV plan was criticised as financially unviable by much of the media industry, but London was the exception.

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UK’s TV workers exposed to ‘illegal or barely legal’ conditions and traumatic content

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Report cites low pay and overwork, and employees complain of receiving no warning before working on disturbing scenes

“Illegal or barely legal” working practices are rife in the UK’s TV industry, new research has revealed.

Workers in post-production roles, including editors, designers and special effects artists, are regularly being paid below the minimum wage and experiencing “unacceptable” conditions, such as hours spent in dark, unventilated rooms and exposure to traumatic content with no warning.

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Apple suspends AI-generated news alert service after BBC complaint

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Inaccurate notices branded with broadcaster’s logo sent to iPhone users but tech firm works on improvements

Apple is suspending an artificial intelligence feature that made inaccurate summaries of news headlines.

The tech company received a complaint from the BBC after the AI-generated service issued a news alert branded with the corporation’s logo falsely telling some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

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Outgoing FCC chair rejects TV bias complaints that ‘curtail press freedom’

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Complaints accuse TV stations and networks of promotion of 2020 election falsehoods, bias and ‘news distortion’

The outgoing chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ordered it to reject four complaints and petitions against television stations, saying she believes the complaints “seek to curtail freedom of the press and undermine the First Amendment”.

In a statement on Thursday, just days before she is set to step down, Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said all four complaints were essentially political in nature. She described them as attempts to “weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC”.

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Killer of teenager Jimmy Mizen is now rapper promoted by BBC, reports say

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Parents of murdered schoolboy say prison rehabilitation does not seem to have made any difference to Jake Fahri

The parents of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen have said prison does not “seem to have made a blind bit of difference” to their son’s killer, who is reportedly now a rapper whose songs have been promoted by the BBC.

Jake Fahri, then 19, was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years for killing Mizen by throwing an oven dish at him. The glass dish shattered and severed blood vessels in the 16-year-old’s neck in a south London bakery.

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Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman to host Match of the Day

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Trio will present football highlights show after Gary Lineker steps down, BBC says

The new hosts of Match of the Day have promised to “evolve” the TV institution when they take the reins this summer, after the BBC confirmed that three people will replace Gary Lineker at the end of the current season.

Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman are to share presenting duties on the football highlights show, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year. The trio have all previously worked together on the BBC and are each established broadcasters with decades of experience between them.

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Ban on naming Sara Sharif care case judges would have ‘corrosive impact’, court told

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Media organisations are challenging ruling that they cannot name three judges involved in proceedings relating to 10-year-old who was later murdered

A unprecedented ban on naming judges who oversaw proceedings related to the care of Sara Sharif before she was murdered is likely to have a “corrosive impact” on public confidence in the justice system, the court of appeal has been told.

Mr Justice Williams ruled in December that the media could not name three judges who oversaw three sets of family court proceedings relating to the 10-year-old schoolgirl over concerns they would be subject to a “virtual lynch mob”. He also said he did not believe the media could be trusted to report matters in a fair, accurate and responsible way.

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Oliviero Toscani, photographer behind provocative Benetton ads, dies aged 82

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Tributes paid to Italian known for images that drew attention to social themes including HIV/Aids and racism

Tributes have been paid to Oliviero Toscani, the Italian fashion photographer renowned for the provocative images used in Benetton’s advertising campaigns, who has died aged 82.

Toscani, who for two decades was the art director of the global clothing chain, died on Monday after being hospitalised close to his home in the Tuscan town of Cecina.

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Fears for UK boomer radicalisation on Facebook after Meta drops factcheckers

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For middle-aged users, it will be ‘even harder to discern the truth’ among extremist content, expert says

Experts fear the decision by Meta to drop professional factcheckers from Facebook will exacerbate so-called boomer radicalisation in the UK.

Even before what Keir Starmer described as “far-right riots” in England last summer, alarm bells were ringing amid fears older people were even more susceptible to misinformation and radicalisation than younger “digital natives”.

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Why will the Washington Post be different during Trump’s second term?

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As Trump’s inauguration looms, the paper, owned by Jeff Bezos, is in shambles – largely of its own making

As Donald Trump prepares to take office on 20 January, the ascension of a man who has repeatedly said he will persecute the media surely calls for the journalistic muscle of a newspaper that broke the Watergate scandal and has for decades been a mainstay of American political reporting.

But as Trump’s second term looms, the Washington Post, owned by the billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, is in shambles – mired in chaos and disarray largely of its own making.

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UK government to crack down on MPs earning extra cash from media firms

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Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage are among those who have earned large sums from broadcasters, but a tightening of rules on MPs’ outside interests is being considered

MPs would no longer be able to rake in huge sums that can see them more than double their ­parliamentary ­salaries by signing contracts with media outlets, under plans being ­considered by ministers.

The Observer has been told that ­talks on further ­tightening rules on MPs’ ­outside interests, ­including media contracts, will be started by leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, at a hearing of the all-party standards committee on Tuesday.

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UK can be ‘AI sweet spot’: Starmer’s tech minister on regulation, Musk, and free speech

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Technology secretary Peter Kyle has the task of making Britain a leading player in the AI revolution, but says economic growth will not come at the cost of online safety

With the NHS still struggling, a prisons crisis still teetering and Britain’s borrowing costs soaring, there are few easy jobs going in Keir Starmer’s cabinet at present.

But even in such difficult times, the task of convincing Silicon Valley’s finest to help make Britain a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution – all while one leading tech boss uses the Labour government as a regular punching bag and others ostentatiously move closer to Donald Trump – is among the most challenging.

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Lego links up with TV hit Bluey for toy sets to be launched this year

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Partnership ‘a long time coming’ and is latest expansion of Australian-made animated series

The global hit children’s TV show Bluey is to make its Lego debut with the first sets due to hit shelves later this year.

The world of Bluey, which has proved such a small-screen hit a film is to be made for global release in 2027, is to be brought to life in plastic brick form with six sets to be revealed this spring before going on sale later this year.

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Quaker group pulls NYT ad over paper’s refusal to let it call Israel’s Gaza bombing ‘genocide’

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Organization said paper’s refusal ‘outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth’, choosing ‘silence over accountability’

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization that advocates for peace, said on Monday the group cancelled a planned advertisement in the New York Times in response to the paper refusing to allow it to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

“The refusal of The New York Times to run paid digital ads that call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary for the AFSC, in a press release. “Palestinians and allies have been silenced and marginalized in the media for decades as these institutions choose silence over accountability. It is only by challenging this reality that we can hope to forge a path toward a more just and equitable world.”

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Italian journalist Cecilia Sala returns home after release from prison in Iran

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Sala, who had been held since 19 December, greeted by family members and Italian PM at Rome airport

Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who was held in solitary confinement for almost three weeks in Iran, has returned home after being freed from prison.

A plane carrying the 29-year-old landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Wednesday afternoon, where she was greeted by family members and politicians including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

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