The Brief Trump Press Ban Unified the Media, But How Long Will it Last?

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TOP STORY

MEDIA SOLIDARITY … OR SOMETHING ELSE?

This week’s big story has been President Donald Trump’s media ban, and everything it’s inspired. That has included a renewed focus on partisan politics and a sense of unity among media outlets, but it’s tough to know if that will stick. The media ban was a welcome distraction from so much the president wants Americans to overlook: declining approval ratings, the war in Iran and its associated costs, AI and data centers, and a Republican Party that latest polls show is on track to bottom out ahead of midterms.

It also gave legacy media something to report about, together. Will that stick?

THREE TAKES

CJR’s Laurels and Darts, Susie Banikarim — Much of the media coverage has been about the show of solidarity this week. CNN’s Brian Stelter touted Fox News as an ally as outlets banded together to show Trump they won’t be taken down, TV pools refused to air footage of Trump’s events — you get the idea. But Banikarim isn’t completely buying it, and she’s not entirely sure it will do much. “Whether this incredible display of fellowship will force the White House to stand down remains to be seen,” she wrote, adding, “A cynic might say the solidarity, however encouraging, had less to do with principle and more to do with a recognition that appeasement buys no protection from the Trump administration.” Ultimately, CJR awarded a laurel to “everybody who showed up to support their colleagues this week,” and Banikarim added there is hope that “the show of unity won’t be needed again soon.”

CNN’s Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter — Speaking of Stelter, his “glass-half-full assessment of this media moment” highlighted a key win: “The American courts keep defending the First Amendment despite President Trump’s best efforts to crack down on free speech and the free press.” And First Amendment protection groups are certainly sticking together, because they think such attacks will continue. One unnamed source told Stelter, “Trump is always testing, testing … testing the fences for the weaknesses, systematically. They remember.”

Townhall, Larry Elder — But maybe not everyone is interested in unity. Elder asked one question about Trump’s ban today: “What took so long?” He added, “The man is angry at the blatantly biased and Trump-despising legacy media. He blames them for his poor poll numbers. His bitterness is more than justified.” Despite the fact that there is “a lot of good news” about the administration, the story legacy media tells “stands in stark contrast with the breathless drum-beating coverage of the Russia-Trump collusion hoax, the first and biggest media-clamped weight on Trump’s ankle.”

TAKEAWAY: Only time will tell if the results of this week have staying power. If there is one thing we’ve learned from the Trump administration, it’s that there’s always a new story each week. By this time next week, we may well all be focused on something else, and the media ban may feel like a distant memory. Perhaps that’s the point.

📰 TOP SCOOPS & ANALYSIS 📰

SCOOP 🍨The Washington Sun, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Jasmine Wright, Manuela Silva — Republicans were hoping this week would go differently for them (and the midterms), The Sun reported today. An unnamed consultant told the outlet, “I don’t want to say the bottom is falling out yet, but I feel like we are in this place, and the realization is setting in, that some tough decisions will need to be made. You can’t get around the fact that Democrats have the advantage on the economy, on gas prices. There’s no choice in this election. It’s a referendum on Trump.”

SCOOP 🍨POLITICO Playbook, Adam Wren, Dasha Burns, and Will Steakin — James Talarico is doing something “extraordinary” in Texas: “holding his own in late September polls.” That’s despite “historic” Republican spending, Playbook added. Texas Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne told Playbook, “What Talarico is representing is a Texas Democrat, not a national Democrat. And that’s how you win Texas. Another strategist, Jesse Lehrich, added Talarico has been smart to avoid campaigning with establishment Dems. Lehrich said, “There’s just not much for him to gain from being the new Beto that every Democrat wants to do stuff with.”

ANALYSIS 👀Page Six Hollywood, Ian Mohr — Bob Iger and Bob Chapek have beef, apparently, and that’s something (former Disney exec) Chapek spends a good bit of his memoir focusing on, Tim Baysinger reported for Page Six today. The upcoming release is “focused heavily on his ire toward Iger.” In an excerpt shared by Vanity Fair, “Chapek accuses Iger of engaging in a three-year effort to “undermine” him and set him up to fail to win back power.” Baysinger also observed, “Coincidentally (or not so coincidentally?), Iger did a friendly interview the same day the excerpts dropped for the Harvard Business Review with former Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria (the executive chairman of Thrive Capital, where Iger’s an adviser).”

ANALYSIS 👀The Bulwark’s Morning Shots, Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger — In 2025, Trump 2.0 “carried out big, conspicuous, intimidating immigration crackdowns in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis,” and those attacks “didn’t really work,” Kristol and Egger noted today. They added, “The backlash was fierce, the strain on ICE and the other agencies dogged by protests and trackers was probably considerable.” The administration and ICE have changed tactics: “Instead of targeting individual cities, this summer the agency conducted a record number of arrests by distributing its operations broadly—especially in red-leaning states with cooperative local law enforcement.”

ANALYSIS 👀The Poynter Report, Tom Jones — Theodore Boutrous, lead attorney for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, spoke to MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace yesterday about what press punishments he expects from the Trump administration next. He said, in part, that things are not over: “I imagine they’ll keep pushing that as we go to the next stage of this litigation, the preliminary injunction stage, and try to flesh it out somehow.” Jones observed, “While it’s likely that the media outlets will continue to prevail, Boutrous remains troubled by the government’s stance.”

📈BUSINESS OF MEDIA 🎥

ADWEEK Daily, Ryan Joe — McDonald’s announced plans to launch the McDonald’s Media Network, an in-house advertising business leveraging customer data across its app, kiosks, and in-store menu boards to target $1 billion in annual ad revenue. Remember that viral WIRED piece from August about McDonald’s building data “dossiers” on customers? The company has plenty of info to work with here. QUOTE 📣 “Global CMO Morgan Flatley said during an investor day that McDonald’s is gunning for $1 billion in ad revenue across its 70 million daily customers.”

ADWEEK Daily, Ryan Joe — Piggybacking off that McDonald’s news, this is actually sort of a trend right now: Best Buy is expanding its retail media network into full studio production, utilizing a 70,000-square-foot facility in Minneapolis alongside a creator network to produce content across CTV partners like Amazon, Roku, and LG.  QUOTE 📣 “McDonald’s might just be warming up the grill, but Best Buy’s ad biz is already cooking with oil, so much so that it’s taking the next step by offering full-on production capabilities.”

Status, Oliver Darcy — Newsletter on newsletter on newsletter! Our favorite! RedBird Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in newsletter publisher Puck in a deal valuing the media company at $250 million, providing fresh capital for acquisitions and talent expansion while existing investors TPG and Standard Investments take their leave. QUOTE 📣 “Of course, as Status has noted, the investment also saddles Puck with an awkward conflict of interest as it covers Paramount and David Ellison’s reshaping of the media landscape. [Gerry] Cardinale is one of Ellison’s most notable backers and sits on the Paramount board.”

Barrett Media’s Morning Edition, Garrett Searight — Edison Research data indicates mobile devices have officially surpassed traditional AM/FM radio receivers as the primary in-car audio source for listeners aged 13 to 34, quickening the industry’s shift toward app-first station strategies. QUOTE 📣 “Ultimately, the crossover has arrived. And the Edison Research data proves what we already knew. Younger audiences put much more emphasis on their phones. You can argue that the industry misplayed that push that’s been steadily growing for years. But there’s also time to rectify that, too. Radio has always won by meeting listeners where they are. Right now, more of them are on their phones. You need to be, too.”

Awful Announcing’s The A Block, Drew Lerner — Following Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the combined CBS-TNT sports division will control nearly 30 media rights deals. Sports analysts are predicting Paramount will end up shedding mid-tier rights to manage its debt load. AA is also predicting downsizing, of course. QUOTE 📣 “One unfortunate reality to any merger is the associated redundancies it creates. This combination will shrink the market for both on-air sports talent and behind-the-scenes producers, programming managers, graphics personnel, etc. … Long-term, the merger means there is now one fewer company hiring for any number of sports media jobs. A tough industry to survive in is becoming even tougher.”

Awful Announcing’s The A Block, Drew Lerner — Chicago Cubs reporter Taylor McGregor is saying goodbye to Marquee Sports Network after seven years to take a full-time role at ESPN, where she’s been shining with college football coverage. QUOTE 📣 McGregor: “This has been the ride of a lifetime…”

Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright — Following Axel Springer’s acquisition of The Telegraph, the U.K. publisher is preparing for job cuts as its U.S. expansion slows down, even as leadership attempts to build a unified global reporter network across Politico, Business Insider, and The Telegraph. QUOTE 📣 “Boston Consulting Group managing director, Neal Zuckerman, has flown to London from New York and begun meeting with top execs and editors. Zuckerman, a core member of BCG’s strategy, tech and media team, has baffled many by how clueless he is about The Telegraph’s brand.”

OTHER COOL STUFF

Morning Brew — Yawn, stretch, and try to come alive because cities across the U.S. are celebrating Dolly Parton Day today. It’s 9/25. Like, 9-2-5. You get it, right? Say you get it.

Awful Announcing — Hollywood mega-agent Ari Emanuel revealed he is actively trying to land sports talk host Pat McAfee a role in director Michael Mann’s upcoming sequel, Heat 2.

👀 WHAT GOT MISSED? 👀

POLITICO Playbook, Adam Wren, Dasha Burns, and Will Steakin — There’s another candidate in Texas: Gina Hinojosa, who is attempting to oust the state’s Gov. Greg Abbott. Hinojosa told Politico as part of this week’s episode of The Conversation that she will not “seek to expand abortion access or reverse laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors should she win the Texas governor’s mansion.” Hinojosa added, “Those are the culture wars, and that is not what I have any interest in working on. “My interest is coming together in a bipartisan way to deliver economic relief for working families that are struggling so much.”

🏆 NEWSLETTER OF THE DAY 🏆

CJR’s Laurels and Darts, Susie Banikarim — After a week in which the media was the story they were telling, Banikarim was correct to evaluate the results of everything that’s been said, written, and pursued the last seven days.

Elsewhere, CJR examined what’s next for the Paramount/WBD/Rob Bonta update, and what might happen to CNN and CBS. “I was pushing for a spin-off of CNN, untethered from the mother ship,” said Connecticut’s AG William Tong, because “the way Ellison has run CBS, he said, is ‘pretty ugly.’” There’s a lot of good stuff in today’s Laurels and Darts, and it’s worth perusing.

This newsletter was produced by Lindsey Ellefson.