Trump vs. the media

 The Guardian - Donald Trump expanded on his threats to the media on Friday, suggesting actions of the press should be deemed illegal and subject to investigation.

“I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat [sic] party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what do they do is illegal,” the president said during a contentious speech at the Department of Justice.

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative,” Trump continued, claiming that CNN and MSNBC are corrupt.

“And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other,” he added.

On Saturday, government-employed journalists at Voice of America (VoA) were put on administrative leave, a day after Trump signed an order eliminating the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), VoA’s parent company, along with six other federal agencies.

Reporters at VoA, which broadcasts news, information and cultural programming in nearly 50 languages to a global audience, were placed on “administrative leave with full pay and benefits until otherwise notified”, according to an internal memo obtained by the Hill, adding that it is “not being done for any disciplinary purpose”.

The decision to place VoA employees on administrative leave came a day after its parent moved to terminate contracts with the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, and told its journalists on Friday to stop using material from the wire services.

BBC - Donald Trump has signed an order to strip back the federally funded news organisation Voice of America, accusing it of being "anti-Trump" and "radical". A White House statement said the order would "ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda", and included quotes from politicians and right-wing media railing against the "leftist", "partisan" VOA. VOA, still primarily a radio service, was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda. It is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Mike Abramowitz, the VOA's director, said he and virtually his entire staff of 1,300 people had been put on paid leave. Abramowitz said that the order left VOA unable to carry out its "vital mission... especially critical today, when America's adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States".