Good evening, and welcome to this week’s ‘Ragebait.’
Justin Baragona here. In tonight’s edition, Donald Trump’s press ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico was challenged in court this afternoon, where the judge didn’t seem to buy the administration’s ad hoc “national security” justification for barring the outlets. With the court almost certainly set to order the White House to restore the outlets’ access on due process grounds, I look at how this authoritarian ban has actually been bad for right-wing media. Plus, despite a blockbuster interview, ‘60 Minutes’ continues to be Bari’d, and all the latest from the WarnerMount merger.
Why Fox and Co. Need Trump’s Press Ban to End
When a Newsmax anchor admitted this week that Donald Trump’s press ban was “backfiring just a little bit,” many took it as the president finally being deprived of that sweet narcotic of television coverage, which is what he craves more than oxygen itself.
And while that is certainly true, what quickly became apparent is that Trump barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House was also hurting the MAGA media landscape to the point that they desperately needed this ban to be reversed in short order.