NuseReal

Is Jeff Bezos going to destroy the Washington Post? It sure looks like it, with Amazon contributing to the Trump inauguration and putting a ridiculous $40m behind a regrettable Melania Trump documentary that is leaving seats empty — 2 February 2026 (LINK)

— As a major round of newsroom layoffs is threatened — losses that would further weaken an already decimated staff — Bezos is doing what should be unthinkable.

Melania film earns $8m in US, strongest documentary debut in over a decade. However 'Melania' fell substantially short of turning a profit because it cost $40m to make and $35m to promote — 1 February 2026 (LINK)

— The Hollywood Reporter said that the Brett Ratner-directed documentary defied predictions that it would bomb "based on empty, or nearly empty, seat maps in cinemas across the country". The film, which follows Melania Trump as she prepared to re-enter the White House in early 2025, was beaten at the box office by two horror films: Iron Lung and Rachel McAdams's Send Help. But it managed to beat out action film Shelter. The Hollywood Reporter described it as an "expensive propaganda doc" and "a film that fawns so lavishly over its subject that you feel downright unpatriotic not gushing over it". In trailing credits, it added, the first lady's achievements are rolled "in such laudatory fashion that North Korea would blush".

'It's not too late to fix it': web inventor Tim Berners-Lee says he is in a 'battle for the soul' of the internet: "commercialization means the net has been 'optimised for nastiness', but collaboration and compassion can prevail" — 29 January 2026 (LINK)

4.6 billion people were affected by internet censorship in 2025 — with Asia continuing to lead the way: 81 new restrictions were introduced, says Surfshark — 21 January 2026 (LINK)

US Friends of Press Freedom: Rümeysa Öztürk has been facing deportation for 304 days solely for co-writing an op-ed the government didn't like, despite officials being fully aware that she has no known ties to antisemitism or terrorism. Meanwhile, journalist Ya'akub Vijandre remains locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over social media posts about issues he reported on — 23 January 2026 (LINK)

Fox pretends Trump and his tariffs have revived manufacturing, but reports show the US has lost 72,000 manufacturing jobs since April — 22 January 2026 (LINK)

White House journalist Andrew Feinberg on reporting the Trump administration (LINK) 19 January 2026

— Those of us who covered Trump's first administration thought we knew what to expect. Boy, were we wrong.

Google search traffic to news sites plunges by one-third globally and 38% in the US (LINK) 18 January 2026

— Google responded by questioning the findings. Its own numbers do not match the sharp declines described in the report. Google also pointed out that the study left out traffic numbers from Google News. Social media platforms are also sending fewer readers to news websites. Since May 2023, traffic from Facebook has dropped 43% worldwide and 35% in America. Traffic from X fell even faster, declining 46% globally and 45% in the United States.

ProPublica's Most-Read Stories of 2025 (LINK) 30 Deccember 2025

• The Militia and the Mole
• Sick in a Hospital Town
• Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is "Only a Matter of Time"
• The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security
• Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal

Australia's world-first social media ban for under-16s comes into effect: deactivating more than 1 million accounts across 10 platforms including Facebook and TikTok (LINK) — ground.news: 470 media reports (LINK) 10 December 2025

— Others are following suit, whether by enacting or pledging a similar ban (like in Malaysia, Denmark and France) or legislating tougher standards for social platforms (as in the U.K.)

Israel named by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as leading killer of journalists in 2025 for third straight year (LINK) 9 December 2025

Heather Cox Richardson: Cable news, AI and manipulating voters (LINK) 9 December 2025

How ProPublica reports the truth in an era of false claims: each drug smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela could cause 25,000 deaths, and people arressted in immigration raids face only brief inconvenience (LINK) 6 December 2025

— Claim 1: not remotely accurate; the annual estimated death toll from all overdoses last year totaled 80,391. Claim 2: Our separate reporting identified more than 170 citizens who had been detained at raids and protests. More than 20 of these people reported being detained by immigration agents for at least a day during which they were not allowed to call their loved ones or a lawyer. We found about 130 people who were arrested for allegedly assaulting or impeding the work of agents, many of whom were ultimately not charged with any crime or whose cases were quickly dismissed.

Netflix announces deal to buy Warner Bros. and HBO (LINK) 5 December 2025

The New York Times sues Perplexity, alleging copyright infringement (LINK) 5 December 2025

— The Chicago Tribune filed a similar copyright lawsuit against Perplexity on Thursday. Founded in 2022, Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions. The startup has raised more than $1.5 billion in funding from investors including IVP, New Enterprise Associates and Nvidia, according to PitchBook.

NPR battles Trump executive order in court (LINK) 4 December 2025

— NPR's lawyers accused President Trump of acting illegally on May 1 when he issued an executive order demanding an end to all federal subsidies for NPR and PBS. The president's order and materials that accompany it accuse the public broadcasters of ideological bias, in NPR's case due to its news coverage. The networks deny this. Under the US Constitution, the government cannot discriminate against people on the basis of the views they express; for news outlets, this extends to news coverage.

New York Times sues Pentagon over Trump team’s limits on press reporting (LINK) 4 December 2025

Global Press shuts down: "What 20 years with local reporters taught us about impact in international journalism" (LINK) 4 December 2025

1. Hire local journalists
2. Prioritize publishing in local languages
3. Create media partnerships where your news is reported
4. Create avenues for local feedback

Daily Kos: 29 times Fox News made us cringe in disgust this year (LINK) 30 November 2025

CNN fact check: 78 times Zelensky has expressed gratitude to the US (LINK) 24 November 2025

Claims of systemic problems with BBC news coverage disputed by former adviser (LINK) 24 November 2025

UK: Daily Mail takes over Telegraph: strengthens UK media’s rightwing tilt (LINK) 22 November 2025

Trump judges throw out his "meritless" lawsuit against CNN (LINK) 18 November 2025

Trump threatens ABC's broadcast license again after reporter questions Saudi Crown Prince about Khashoggi murder (LINK) 18 November 2025— "I think the [broadcast] licence should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake, and it's so wrong," he said. "And we have a great commissioner... who should look at that."

---

Nieman Lab news roundup: Fox, Bari Weiss, local newsrooms (LINK) 12 November 2025

Trump threatens BBC with $1bn lawsuit over edited January 6 speech: US president demands 'full and fair' retraction of BBC documentary that prompted resignation of two top executives (LINK) 10 November 2025

— Despite his legal threat, Trump would find it difficult to prove defamation in the US, where the 1st Amendment provides expansive protections of speech: "The broadcast seems to be factually truthful."

BBC leaders quit after backlash over edit of Trump's Jan. 6 speech in documentary: Trump and Leavitt both welcomed Sunday's resignations (LINK) 10 November 2025

Guardian: how a week of hostile headlines from rightwing media led to resignations — (LINK)

DW: Videos of crying Ukrainian soldiers are fake (LINK) 10 November 2025

Journalists are souring on social media platforms, an analysis of 11 years of Nieman Lab predictions suggests: X and Facebook don’t send big audiences to news anymore while TikTok never has (LINK) 5 November 2025

May - October 2025 media headlines

January-April 2025 media headlines