Media control or accountability? Court says Trump can ban AP: Bias Breakdown

Let's talk about President Trump versus the media

But all we have really over here is the fake news, huh? I think it's the fake news media that, you know, they're fakers

If the news wasn't fake like NBC, which is fake news, totally one of the worst, ABC, NBC, CBS, horrible

It's long been part of President Trump's image, even back to his first term

It's a me against them mentality. They are the fake, fake, disgusting news

Trump has taken that fight to the courtroom on several occasions. And in one case against the Associated Press, he just scored a victory

with an appeals court ruling the White House is allowed to choose what news outlets gain access to the Oval Office

after the AP sued when their privileges were revoked. Left-leaning media are largely calling this the latest attack and attempt to control the free press

Press freedoms in the United States are at risk. Just one of the many threats that Donald Trump poses to American democracy

While right-leaning media are largely in Trump's camp, agreeing the mainstream media needs a shakeup

President Trump has been telling the truth about the majority of the biased press for years now

Welcome to Bias Breakdown. I'm your host, Kara Rucker. Let's roll the open. Join straight arrow news. See the slant. Avoid the bias. When others skew

the facts, we give you the truth down the center. Welcome to Bias Breakdown

Let's take a look at the big picture media narratives. Here's some of the rhetoric from

left outlets with a theme of suggesting Trump wants obedience from the press

We start tonight with Donald Trump's growing threats against the media. Trump and his MAGA allies have made it clear what the end goal is, a more obedient and obsequious press

And he wants nothing short of complete obedience and constant adulation for everyone to say they love him and praise him and tell him he's the best president ever

It not even the typical thing with Trump calling the press the enemy of the people or whatever Stalinist thing he onto now This is what they call the Viktor Orban playbook for using the power of government to eliminate independent credible professional journalism

But on right outlets, the rhetoric is similar to Trump's, calling the legacy media unfair and dead

The media is dead. You know, put a tag on their toe, call Quincy

shove the body in a fridge because the corpse, it's starting to reek

This is what I have been telling you. The legacy media is dead. So these members of the legacy media mob claiming to be fair and balanced and journalists are anything but

Look, legacy media is dead, but no one's listening anymore. You call a guy a fascist Hitler garbage for the last nine, 10 years

And after a while, like you read to your kids, the boy who cried wolf, people stop listening

Views over the media vary. Broadly speaking, the majority of the public doesn't hold a lot of trust in the media

according to the latest Gallup polling. But depending on your own political beliefs, that trust level widely varies

According to a Pew Research study out this week, Democrats are more likely to trust the news media than Republicans

and people largely put their trust in news sources that align with their political biases

In today's media landscape, most major news outlets do have a skew of bias to the left

That includes major networks ABC, CBS, and NBC. NPR and PBS are also rated by media watchdogs

as having a left political bias. As do major publications like the New York Times

the Washington Post, and the Associated Press. The AP sits in its own type of news category

as a wire service, meaning a slew of news agencies across the U.S

pay the AP to share its content. That's why you sometimes see the same news story

printed by multiple publications. Like this story for example journalists anticipate a renewed hostility toward their work under the incoming Trump administration and then recycled by PBS and local news outlets The article at hand fits the left narrative over

the issue, suggesting journalists would face hostility from the incoming Trump administration

but those on the right may not view it as hostile actions, but rather actions of holding

news agencies accountable. That takes us to the case of the Associated Press versus the Trump

admin. The AP saw it as a hostile action when the White House revoked its press privileges to the

Oval Office and Air Force One. The White House argued it was because the Associated Press

was using incorrect terminology when referencing the Gulf of Mexico, which was changed to the Gulf

of America. The White House then reiterated it has the sole authority of choosing which press

organizations have access to certain White House grounds. The AP sued, claiming they were being

discriminated against because of its choice to call the Gulf the Gulf of Mexico, arguing it infringes

on First Amendment protections. A lower court judge ruled in the AP's favor, restoring their

access to the White House and warning the Trump administration their decision could be considered

viewpoint discrimination. But an appeals court ruled Friday, access to certain White House bases

to the press is a privilege. The three-judge panel writing, the First Amendment does not control the

president's discretion in choosing with whom to speak or to whom to provide special access

The White House therefore retains discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted

Trump celebrated the ruling on Truth Social, saying big win over AP today

They refused to state the facts or the truth on the Gulf of America

Fake news. The Trump versus media lawsuits are just heating up after ABC News settled with Trump last year in a defamation lawsuit which included paying the president million along with anchor George Stephanopoulos issuing an apology for falsely saying Trump was found liable for rape Trump is also suing Ann Seltzer and the Des Moines Register over a poll

released days before Election Day, which was missed by 16 points. Trump argues it was intentional

fraud. The paper argues otherwise. That case is currently playing out in federal court

In another media-related defamation case, Trump is suing the Pulitzer Prize Board to revoke awards given to the New York Times and the Washington Post over their 2016 coverage of alleged Russia collusion with the Trump campaign

A judge ruled last week that case can move forward and is ongoing

But the litigation goes both ways. NPR is now suing Trump after an executive order was signed

freezing federal funding to NPR and PBS. That case is also ongoing. While litigation between

Trump and media outlets is playing out, the framing of the litigation looks different

depending on a news outlet's bias. Left outlets frame it as retribution and an attack on free

press, while right outlets frame it as accountability against a press that needs reform

And that's your bias breakdown. Thanks for watching this week's episode. Remember, you can always find other stories by searching for our podcast on Spotify and

Apple Podcasts, among other platforms. If you have questions or comments about today's episode, be sure to leave those in the comment

section and I'll try to get around to answering those later this week. thanks as always for watching these episodes all the way through if you like this format of

storytelling be sure to give us a like it helps us with the algorithm so we can reach more people

and hopefully slowly but surely grow our audience here thank you to ian kennedy and ali codwell for

editing and graphic support and thank you for watching i apologize for my scratchy voice here

i had a cold over the weekend and i'm clearly still trying to get over it i'll see you next week