Trump's War on the Media’s Independence: A Video Roundup
Our early-May collection of clips on the White House's efforts to punish press criticism and reward praise
Dear Readers:
A healthy democracy requires a robustly free and independent press. But rather than protect that all-important institution, the Trump administration is increasingly attempting to marginalize, harass, and even suppress media entities that do not fall in line with the MAGA program. It is deploying never-used levers of the state to demand loyalty and punish dissent.
In this video roundup, we shine a light on three instances of this worrying trend, showing how the administration is targeting diverse media entities that stick to their guns and refuse to go along.
Give these three videos a watch. Then follow/subscribe to our YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram pages to get our latest clips as soon as they’re released.
Landry Ayres
Senior Producer
Trump’s Executive Order Threatens Public Broadcasting for its Alleged Woke Bias
May 9, 2025
Earlier this month, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to defund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The CPB, which is a private, nonprofit corporation, is legally shielded from such political interference by design—but Trump doesn’t care.
The right has long maintained a strong objection to government-funded media. In press releases from the White House, however, this move appears to be driven more by the prospect of sticking it to public broadcasters that it alleges are guilty of spreading “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
Watch it below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
Trump's FCC Uses its Regulatory Authority to Shut Down Negative Coverage
May 8, 2025
The Trump administration illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia and indefinitely condemned him to a terrorism confinement center in El Salvador. Instead of rectifying this grievous error, the White House decided to conduct a smear campaign against him. But when MSNBC and NBC refused to air a briefing from the White House Press Room, rightly judging it to be propaganda intended to spin its actions against Abrego Garcia as justified, FCC Chair Brendan Carr implied he may leverage a rarely used policy to pressure networks into compliance—not with the “public interest,” as he suggests—but with the president’s wishes.
This has already created a chilling effect within newsrooms, which significantly erodes our ability to maintain a free and independent press that can hold those in power accountable.
Watch it below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
Trump is Crushing the Independence of the White House Press Corps
April 16, 2025
When Associated Press reporters were banned from the White House Press Pool for choosing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its proper and widely accepted name rather than Trump’s jingoistic alternative, it was only the beginning. The White House has begun systematically replacing independent journalists in the press corps with loyalists and pointedly assigning seats in the White House Briefing Room to blatantly friendly outlets and “new media” voices. While not illegal, it is far from transparent and violates longstanding norms by turning the briefing room into a “curated fan club,” hindering the public’s access to truth.
Watch it below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
© The UnPopulist, 2025
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Many have recognized the left wing ideological bent of the MSM and particularly PBS and NPR for a long time. The demand for eyeballs and clicks made the distortion and Democratic bias even more blatant. The deliberate concealment of Biden's mental infirmities and so what attitude to his open border are but two huge examples of the corruptive journalism that has led to the destruction of trust across all the media. Trump was elected at least in part to change this tilted world view. Do you have some suggestion as to how the media can be corrected? Maybe it needs to be burned to ashes before it can resurrect itself as a purveyor of truth, and a sharp questioner of societal percepts and conditions.
John Dickerson makes a great point in the comments section...but it's not only PBS and NPR, but frankly, almost the ENTIRE legacy media IN CONCERT has been one large propaganda machine for the far Left, supporting them disingenuously. They lie, speak half truths and lies of omission.
They lied with purpose, in concert about the Russian Collusion hoax, Hunter Biden laptop affecting the outcome of the 2020 election, they lied about the cause of the pandemic, the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, of Biden's mental decline, Harris' popularity. They have literally lied about everything important over the last 10 years.
And these lies have been funded and perpetrated not only for the benefit of the Left but BY the Left as the public is becoming increasingly aware of all of this through independent media.
Which is why they refuse to answer to any independent media or interviews on podcasts with millions of followers...but this is where the information machine is headed. In 2020, there was some question as to whether independent media has usurped Legacy media. There is no more question. It's unequivocal.
Until the Left takes accountability for these things they are done, and everyone knows it.