Trump has relied on lawsuits and settlements to control the media and undermine journalistic freedom. He sued Meta and recently settled for $25 million. His lawsuit against ABC, which attacked the way host George Stephanapoulos described Trump’s assault of a writer, earned him $15 million. In July, Paramount settled with Trump for $16 million, resolving a suit against the company’s editing of a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris, which Trump claimed was biased. The money will help fund Trump’s presidential library. These and other lawsuits, threats, and bans–targeting CNN, the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, and ABC–reflect Trump’s efforts to control the media’s portrayal of him.
Not only has Trump used legal strategies to attack the media, but he has also ordered financial changes to comply with his preferences for journalistic coverage. In January, the FCC launched an investigation into NPR and PBS, two entities receiving government funding. This led to an executive order, released on May 2, 2025, to cease the CPB’s subsidization of these outlets. The order claimed that NPR and PBS, which should be independent, cover issues in an unfair way. For many journalists, it signaled a growing need to self-censor to survive.
The sources we read for class agree that Trump’s legal and financial actions against CBS, NPR, and other outlets are part of a broader campaign to control the press. Such a campaign could enable a dictatorial grip on the press, one that only allows the media to publish material consistent with the President’s wishes. In this context, the government would become, as lawyer Bob Corn-Revere says, “the media’s editor-in-chief.”
But to Trump, control of the press is a necessary measure to temper what he perceives as a clear bias in the media. Two narratives–one fearing censorship, the other, left-leaning bias–are at war.
This tension reflects divisions that, in many ways, the media landscape forged. Since cable news enabled viewers to watch a variety of live shows and rerun programs at any time of day, media consumption has continued to fracture. Fewer people consume the same media at the same time of day than ever before. Instead, we can search and view content–and even demand an algorithm to create it–whenever we want. As our media landscape splinters, our shared sense of reality suffers. My hope is that new models of media will revive an engagement with prime time, allowing us to consume the same content, at the same time. At the same time, policy must ensure that this content is fact-based and independent from government censorship.
