Media Matters for America

Campaigns

• Tell NBC: Dump Trump

  Variety reported on December 8 that Donald Trump will remain as executive producer of The Celebrity Apprentice when the show returns in 2017. This will mean that NBC will have a fiduciary relationship with the president of the United States, creating an unprecedented conflict of interest for the network. Having Trump as an executive producer is intolerable. NBC is now financially invested in Trump's reputation. The network will have an incentive to weigh aggressively reporting about Trump against what they may lose in revenue if Trump's reputation is damaged. Further, imagine the choices they will face if NBC has a blockbuster story about Trump. This is not inconceivable. Remember, NBC is the network that had the hot mic tape of Trump bragging about sexual assault -- but it was The Washington Post, not NBC News, that broke the story. There is simply no way that citizens can trust the reporting of NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC. Executives have put hard working reporters at these outlets in a completely untenable spot: No amount of disclosure is sufficient when the network is financially invested in the president. NBC has already demonstrated that we cannot rely on their assurances. Trump's involvement flies in the face of previous statements from the network. In a June 2015 statement, NBC said they were ending their business relationship with Trump because his attacks on immigrants violated the network's belief that "respect and dignity for all people are the cornerstones of our values." At the time, the network reported this, saying "Trump ceased his involvement with the reality show during his presidential bid." The solution is simple: NBC needs to dump Trump. As long as they have a fiduciary relationship with Trump, this is going to be an insurmountable problem.

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  Created by Angelo Carusone, Media Matters
• Tell 21st Century Fox : Release The Findings Of Your Investigation of Sexual Harassment at Fox News

  I’ve seen first-hand the impact of workplace sexism and sexual harassment. No one deserves to work in a place where he or she is objectified, belittled, and harassed with no recourse and no support. This case is so visible—and the alleged harassment is so extensive and alarming—it’s imperative that the investigation and its results don’t get swept under the rug. 21st Century Fox is already giving Ailes a massive payout just to walk away—reportedly in excess of $40 million! If 21st Century Fox is truly taking these allegations seriously, they’ll release the findings of their investigation to the public. Since former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against the network’s chief executive Roger Ailes, dozens of other women have come forward with stories of Ailes’ sexism, harassment, and worse. Disturbingly, many of the allegations include details of how other Fox executives knew about and enabled his harassment of women at the network over his decades-long career. Getting rid of Ailes was a long overdue start. But we've long passed the point where Fox News can be trusted to run their own internal review, considering the toxic message of misogyny and sexism the network has cultivated over the years.

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  Created by Rachel Tardiff, Media Matters for America
• Tell Congress: Save Public Broadcasting

  The White House just released a budget proposal that would eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). We can’t let this happen. For 50 years, Americans have turned to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for local news, quality educational programming, and independent journalism without corporate or political influence, no matter where they live. In rural communities with few or no free broadcasting options, the CPB is a critical lifeline for information. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting relies almost entirely on the federal government for its funding. It’s one of the last remaining U.S. media groups that is insulated from commercial or political pressure -- and in today’s fragmented news landscape, the independent voices it supports are more valuable than ever. The threat is real: We’ve seen profit-driven outlets cozy up to Donald Trump to boost ratings and ad revenues. Last year, the president of CBS defended wall-to-wall coverage of Trump, saying that “it may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS” -- because “the money’s rolling in.” NBC refused to part ways with Trump as executive producer of its reality show The Celebrity Apprentice. And CNN continues to try to appeal to Trump by hiring his former campaign officials. Over the next six weeks, Congress will consider Trump’s request to cut the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and legislators will release their own budget proposal. We can’t afford to lose the unique voices and perspectives that PBS, NPR, and hundreds of local stations across the country contribute to our public debate -- and it’s time to make sure our representatives know it. Take action now: Don’t let Trump wipe out public broadcasting!

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  Created by Cynthia Padera, Media Matters
• Tell Facebook: The Weekly Standard Is Not Fit To Fact-Check

  Facebook has a checkered history of addressing fake news and misinformation: Last year, after the social media giant fired its human editors following a conservative hissy fit, fake news stories immediately made their way into the “trending topics” section of the website. Then, after the scope of Facebook’s fake news problem became more evident, Mark Zuckerberg dismissed and downplayed the problem. And now, Facebook is under fire for allowing Russian trolls to hijack the network’s advertising platform during the 2016 election without consequence. Because of all this and pressure from people like you, the social media giant last winter announced a partnership with independent, nonpartisan news outlets -- like The Associated Press, PolitiFact, Snopes, and FactCheck.org -- to analyze and fact-check news stories. But now, The Weekly Standard, a right-wing publication with a history of partisan lies, is reportedly in talks with Facebook to become a fact-checking partner in the platform’s fight against fake news. The Weekly Standard is different from Facebook’s current fact-checking partners. Over the past two decades, the outlet has routinely pushed right-wing talking points and misinformation, including by serving as the foremost media booster for the Iraq War. Most recently, the Standard published a piece headlined “Death Panels: Sarah Palin Was Right,” referring to a GOP lie fabricated in 2009 regarding nonexistent health care rationing by malevolent bureaucrats. The false claim was so notorious that PolitiFact, which is already a partner on Facebook’s fake news initiative, deemed it its 2009 “Lie of the Year.” And The Weekly Standard has no experience fact-checking. Instead, it’s now looking to hire for its first ever fact-checker in order to look legitimate and gain access to special capabilities on the back end of Facebook. But lack of fact-checking experience aside, the Standard -- which bills itself as “A Weekly Conservative Magazine & Blog” -- has a clear agenda and partisan history that should disqualify it from being designated a nonpartisan fact-checker. The potential collaboration is allegedly “part of Facebook’s attempt to ‘appease all sides’” -- but what the site is really doing is caving yet again to conservative pressure, this time by treating nonpartisan fact-checkers that have to routinely call out right-wing lies as “liberal.” We’ve seen Facebook try to play this game before, and it ended disastrously. This isn’t about excluding or censoring conservatives from the fight against fake news; indeed, researchers and experts have called on conservatives to help fight the problem, and the social media giant could certainly use the help. But given The Weekly Standard’s history, Facebook has no place partnering with the outlet to provide neutral and independent analysis.

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  Created by Angelo Carusone, Media Matters
• Public Health Info Should Be Free: Remove Paywalls from Coronavirus Articles

  Preventing transmission of the novel coronavirus is an urgent public health issue. Access to information on this rapidly evolving situation is essential to individual and community safety. Keeping vital information behind a paywall prevents nonsubscribers from accessing important information, and it disproportionately affects people with fewer financial resources. The Seattle Times recently announced that it would allow unlimited public access to stories about the virus. Other major newspapers should follow their lead for the safety of the public. [1] To give a sense of the scope of information being held back, Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding analyzed reporting about coronavirus from major papers between January 1, 2020, and February 20, 2020, and found thousands of coronavirus-related articles behind paywalls at seven large papers [2]: The New York Times: 1,012 The Washington Post: 981 The Wall Street Journal: 749 Los Angeles Times: 490 The Miami Herald: 463 The Boston Globe: 340 Chicago Tribune: 292 The novel coronavirus has the potential to touch the lives of billions of people. The public must be empowered with reliable and up-to-date information in order to take practical safety measures and prevent transmission of the virus. Sharing accurate information also guards against the spread of unnecessary panic. Access to these resources is also an issue of equity -- lower income populations that are not able to afford newspaper subscriptions are excluded when paywalls lock them out. With the decline of local newspapers, information increasingly flows from national outlets. [3] Public health and awareness are at stake -- all people have a right to protect themselves, their families, and their livelihood and deserve access to high-quality reporting and insight from scientific experts.

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  Created by Angelo Carusone, Media Matters