Americans skipped the rally-around-the-president stage this time. JFK gained 13 points after Cuban Missile Crisis, LBJ 8 after bombing Hanoi, GHW Bush 18 during Gulf War, GW Bush 8 after Saddam captured, Obama 11 after OBL killed. Trump gained 0 since Iran. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/u...
Have posted this before but thought I'd repost the article by @sulliview.bsky.social, as there's more going on than the illegal war in Iran - though some would prefer you don't focus on too much else.
margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/when-the-m...
"Every news organization, for days, has been leading with Trump’s...impetuous (and illegal) strike on Iran ....[This] means that you’re seeing far less about some of the things Trump wants to blot out from existence, [like] his appearance in the Epstein files."
- The great @sulliview.bsky.social
Thank you
"On Fox News, some [Iran] coverage amounted to straight-up warmongering and cheerleading. . . .
"Fox News guest Julian Epstein bizarrely speculated that the strike could bring Trump a Nobel Peace Prize, which is 'very, very long overdue.'"
-- Margaret Sullivan (@sulliview.bsky.social)
'Subjects that were dominating the news last week are brushed aside. Instead, it’s all war, all the time.'
@sulliview.bsky.social reminds readers not to lose sight of the (many, many) topics that Trump doesn't want you to pay attention to
margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/when-the-m...
If you've been around long enough, you remember the shameful flag waving during the early days of the Iraq War.
Read @sulliview.bsky.social--->
open.substack.com/pub/margaret...
@sulliview.bsky.social
Thank you Margaret. This needs to be highlighted. Keep your focus on the margins of what is not reported!
#proudblue #pinks
margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/when-the-m...
Iran “coverage has blotted out almost everything else,” media industry commentator Margaret Sullivan (@sulliview.bsky.social) posts.
"It's hard not to think of the movie 'Wag the Dog,' in which a manufactured war was dreamed up to distract from encroaching political disaster."
You can be sure that this drastic change of subject (in the media) is all part of Trump’s plan.
So as citizens and news consumers, we need to be hyper-aware of what’s missing."
A critical warning from the brilliant @sulliview.bsky.social:
open.substack.com/pub/margaret...
@sulliview.bsky.social "When the media covers war, every other topic fades." bit.ly/3OVOwzE
She's not wrong....
Wondering what would be on the home pages of national media if we had not bombed Iran. Here are today's landing pages...
@sulliview.bsky.social's analysis brings into focus the media politics of covering war:
@sulliview.bsky.social spoke with @courtneyr.bsky.social for @theguardian.com piece examining Trump's role in Paramount's move to acquire Warner Bros. -- and CNN.
We've already called on state AGs to investigate. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Craig Aaron of @freepress.bsky.social: ‘Trump wants to control the news and his justice department has been largely purged of anyone who might ask too many questions of a deal like this’
Via @sulliview.bsky.social @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
There you go. An overt technofascist Trump ally will now own CBS, CNN, HBO, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Discovery, and a big chunk of TikTok
Just a reminder that this happened two days ago.
David Ellison is the nepo baby who runs Paramount/Skydance and brought on Bari Weiss to destroy CBS News. He will now run Warner Bros and CNN after the likely merger.
... The Times tends to cover Trump as it's covered any other president. That's not good enough, writes @sulliview.bsky.social.
"Given the stakes & the severity of the situation, I find it maddening," she wrote yesterday, calling for a better coverage approach that meets this dangerous moment...
NEW from @julialurie.bsky.social: Immigrants in Minnesota are being released from ICE detention without the work permits, Social Security cards, licenses, and other documents that prove their status
@sulliview.bsky.social may be the most important piece of writing you will read today.
open.substack.com/pub/margaret...
❤️
‘What *could* the American press do that’s beyond merely documenting developments as they occur, normalizing all the way? And, maybe more to the point, what *should* it have been doing for a long time now?’
Via @sulliview.bsky.social
margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/what-a-mis...
"Is it asking too much of journalism to rise up and meet this moment?" asls @sulliview.bsky.social. "It surely shouldn’t be."
The problem isn't so much the journalists, in my view, but their corporate owners who are too beholden to state power to challenge it.
“‘…the United States has moved swiftly from democracy to a form of authoritarianism.’ I believe that millions of Americans don’t fully understand what’s happening, and yes, I blame the press whose job it is to clearly inform the public.” - @sulliview.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/margaret...
From @sulliview.bsky.social:
“What a mission-driven press must do in this time of crisis
We need the opposite of media capitulation. Here are some concrete ideas.”
margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/what-a-mis...
"So much of what’s happened at CBS – the back-of-the-hand treatment of Colbert and the rightward drift of the news division – are ways of signalling that the Ellisons are more than willing to serve Trump’s interests." —Margaret Sullivan www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Anderson Cooper saw that.
Excellent piece by @sulliview.bsky.social at www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Great to see @sulliview.bsky.social calling on @victorpickard.bsky.social and @parkermolloy.com for the crisis sweeping US media as corporate owners aligned with Trump sell out media independence & core 1st Amendment values to further their own interests.
"When you take the truth and the falsehood and report down the middle, you’re actually not doing the job of journalism." - @sulliview.bsky.social
