Trump and the media

NY Times - CBS News entered a new period of turmoil on Tuesday after the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, said he would resign from the long-running Sunday news program, citing encroachments on his journalistic independence.

In an extraordinary declaration, Mr. Owens — only the third person to run the program in its 57-year history — told his staff in a memo that “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”

 Daily Kos - White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt used Tuesday’s briefing with reporters to praise right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, who was granted the privilege of asking her the first question of the day.

Pool then proceeded to team up with the White House spokesperson to spew lies about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant who was abducted due to an “administrative error” by the Trump administration and deported to El Salvador, where he was held in a notorious maximum security prison.

Leavitt gushed in her introduction that Pool has “millions of followers, a very big platform,” and promoted the podcasts that he produces. She described Pool’s guests as having a “diverse range” of opinions but failed to note that Pool has frequently platformed white supremacists.

Pool launched into a tirade about news organizations purportedly promoting “false narratives,” citing reports that President Donald Trump called Nazis “very fine people” (which he did) and the “Maryland man hoax.” Right-wing media and the Trump administration have insisted that Abrego Garcia, who lives in Maryland with his wife and children, is not a “Maryland man.” He is, in fact, a Maryland man and union member who works as a sheet metal apprentice, as well as a father to three children.