Former President Donald Trump says he plans to file lawsuits against “a large number” of news outlets, just as he has against CNN.

In an email to supporters, the former president said those other news outlets — he did not identify them — were guilty of “lies, defamation, and wrongdoing,” including as it pertains to “The Big Lie,“ a euphemistic description of Trump’s unsubstantiated assertion that he won the 2020 presidential election. 

Also: Donald Trump Sues CNN for Defamation

Trump's history of litigiousness is well-documented. In fact, in the run-up to the 2016 election, USA Today reported, based on its analysis of legal filings, that Trump had been involved in “at least” 3,500 legal actions over the previous three decades, which they said was a record for a candidate.

In seeking donations, the Trump email added that the former president is considering filing suit against the special select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, which he said was also part of his effort to “stand up to Fake News and the Mainstream Media.”

Trump claims the committee ignored that he had authorized troops to be deployed to ensure the Capitol’s safety. ■

Former President Donald Trump, whose allegations, without evidence, that the 2020 election was rigged helped fuel the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, has signaled he plans to sue CNN for its "fake news."

But given that the news came in the form of one of innumerable fundraising emails from the President and his as-of-yet non-campaign, it could be yet another effort to raise money for a possible 2024 run.

"I have notified CNN of my intent to file a lawsuit," Trump said, citing its "repeated defamatory statements against me."

This is not the first time Trump or his representatives have threatened to sue CNN or said they intend to sue CNN over statements made about him, unless the network issued a retraction or apology.

Trump also said he would be launching lawsuits against other media outlets he claimed defamed him and "defrauded the public."

That was followed by the funding request, couched this way: "I’m calling on my best and most dedicated supporters to add their names to stand with me in my impending LAWSUIT against Fake News CNN." The "add your name" page also requests an accompanying donation, with $250 emphasized and "monthly" recommended.

Trump has been hawking T-shirts. medallions, hats and much more in an effort to raise money for the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee (PAC). ■

President Trump called 60 Minutes' interview with whistleblower Rick Bright fake news, called CBS News anchor Norah O'Donnell a third place anchor, and said the show was trying to demean the country to benefit the radical left. 

In a 60 Minutes interview Sunday night (May 17) hosted by O'Donnell, Bright, formerly a top scientist with the Department of Health and Human Services, said the Trump Administration's COVID-19 response had been slow, prioritized politics over science, pushed the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine, and ultimately cost lives. 

Following the show, President Trump fired off the following series of tweets, closing with a call for ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone to do something about 60 Minutes: 

It is unclear whether it was a temporary hiatus or the end of his daily appearances at COVID-19 briefings, but the President has tweeted a signal he might be backing away amidst a tirade of attacks on the press that included appearing to liken the mainstream media to the deadly virus itself, though it was unclear just what he was referring to.

On Monday (April 27), the President was continuing the attack on the press, tweeting:

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1254767509460234243[/embed]

He followed that a couple of minutes later with: "FAKE NEWS, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE."

Over the weekend the President signaled his displeasure with the tenor of the COVID-19 press conferences and suggested they could end.

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1254168730898173953[/embed]

The White House last year ended the long-standing tradition of a daily White House press briefing, though the President has answered questions on the White House lawn on his way to somewhere else.

That came after a run-in with a CNN reporter, Kaitlin Collins, last week when the President wouldn't answer a question because he called CNN fake news. The President periodically disses reporters in the press conferences, dismissing questions and questioners.

The Washington Post, another news outlet the President was attacking over the weekend--along with Fox News and the New York Times--reported Monday (April 27) that the White House tried to move Collins from her assigned seat in the front row the day after the dust up, but she would not move and the press conference went on as planned Friday (April 24), though the President did not wind up taking any questions and there were no press conferences over the weekend.

There have been reports that Republican strategists see the press conferences as counterproductive to the party's political aims of keeping the White House and Senate.

Clearly unhappy with the media coverage of his Administration's handling of the coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump tweeted a broadside at broadcast and cable news media in general late Sunday night. 

Lumped into the category of "fake news" that was destroying their business were CNN, MSNBC (which he calls MSDNC), ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox (at least "some of it"), The Washington Post and The New York Times. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241929664987148289[/embed]

Last week, even as the President was attacking media outlets as "fake and corrupt" over their reporting of a Google coronavirus website test in California that had apparently been conflated to a national effort by the President, Radio Television News Association president Dan Shelley sent a "thank you" note to journalists for their coverage of the crisis.  

"You are combating mis- and disinformation with your constant efforts to seek and report the facts about an unprecedented situation," he wrote. "I also know that you are asking tough questions of our leaders to get the best version of the truth that is obtainable. Do not heed the words of anyone telling you anything different." 

The group representing mainstream media outlets wants a memorial on federal land in Washington to honor journalists who have died while doing their service to the country. 

Related: Embattled Journalists Named Time Person of the Year 

The News Media Alliance represents news organizations often characterized by the President as fake and failing, but who routinely dispatch journalists to dangerous places to insure their are witnesses to history, good and bad. 

NMA said that "given increased attacks on members of the press in recent years," it is time for such a tribute. A foundation for that purpose has already been established to raise the requisite funds. 

The alliance has asked the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission*, which is meeting Tuesday (Sept. 24) to back that proposal. Various legislators have sponsored H.R.3465, the Fallen Journalists Memorial Act of 2019 (S. 1969 in the Senate), which "authorizes the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to establish a commemorative work on federal land in commemoration of the sacrifices made by journalists for a free and independent press."  

The memorial would be privately funded. 

While the bill has not passed, the commission must approve of the plan before the planning process could move forward in any event. The commission will be considering that plan at Tuesday's meeting.  

“Over our nation’s history, hundreds of U.S. journalists have died doing their jobs so that the American public could stay informed on important matters of the day and world events. When a journalist is killed in the line of duty, the entire community suffers, but outside of their newsrooms, they rarely receive the recognition they deserve for their sacrifice," said NMA president and CEO David Chavern." (The Newseum in Washington has maintained a memorial to fallen journalists, but it is closing at the end of the year due to financial issues.  

"We strongly encourage the Commission to support our efforts for this memorial and recommend its establishment to the U.S. Congress," said Chavern. 

* According to the Commission it was established "to advise the Secretary of the Interior and the Administrator, General Services Administration, on policy and procedures for establishment of, and proposals to establish, commemorative works in the District of Columbia and its environs."

President Donald Trump didn't wait long to try and leverage release of the Mueller report to raise money for his re-election campaign, including by again branding media outlets as fake news. 

"The summary of the Mueller Report said there was NO COLLUSION, but you already knew that. So Democrats and the Fake News claimed the full report would tell a different story….Sorry haters: NO COLLUSION & EXONERATION AGAIN!," the President said in an e-mail ot those supporters. "How many times do I have to be exonerated before they stop? WHAT A JOKE!" 

Related: Sanders Concedes Misleading Press on One Comey Firing Defense 

The report did not exonerate the President of obstruction of justice. 

The report found insufficient evidence to prove collusion, but made it clear that there was sufficient evidence to prevent the special counsel from exonerating the President of obstruction, leaving it to others to decide whether that evidence constituted obstruction given that under current Justice Department guidelines--the special counsel reports to the Attorney General--a sitting President could not be indicted. The concern was that such a charge hanging over the President but not resolved could impede his ability to do his job. 

Instead, it left that obstruction decision to others. Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that evidence did not constitute obstruction, though the report suggested Congress could make that call.  

The Congress could indeed pursue its own impeachment-related obstruction investigation though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) has suggested she didn't want to go there. House Democrats are already planning to interview Barr about his conclusions and Pelosi tweeted Thursday (April 18) that Mueller needs grilling as well: 

[embed]https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1118883825550024705[/embed]

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that Barr had been "disingenuous and misleading" in saying the President was cleared of wrongdoing. He said that even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report provides evidence that the President engaged in obstruction of Justice.

He said he had requested Mueller to appear before his committee, saying it was clear Barr could not be trusted. 

The President tried to get ahead of that Democratic effort and cast it in the same "conspiracy" light, adding in his fund-raising letter: "Sadly, this is just the beginning, Friend. The attacks and lies will keep coming because Democrats know they don’t stand a chance in 2020."

The President said that if the campaign could collect $1 million over the next 24 hours, it would "send a powerful message to the entire nation that this WITCH HUNT must end." 

"The Fake News media has clearly gone mad," the Trump/Pence reelection campaign said flatly in an email to supporters Saturday (April 6) that sought their votes on what the campaign tabbed the "Final Fake News Four in a nod to this weekend's Final Four men's basketball semifinals.

The email says those four will be the "four fakest media outlets that helped promote the Nasty Witch Hunt," a reference to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling.

As is the case with the re-election campaign's other e-mail attacks on the press, the question was a leading one since it presupposes the investigation was a witch hunt: "Which outlets do you believe did the WORST job covering the Mueller Witch Hunt? (Please select only 4)," is the survey's single question.

The options: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC NEws, The New york Times, The Washington Post and "other."

"Outlets like CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have published THOUSANDS of stories alleging conspiracy theories that were proven to be completely FALSE," the e-mail alleges.

"The mainstream media has lost ALL credibility.They have proven time and time again that they care only about smearing President Trump instead of reporting the facts," it continued. "A lot of outlets had completely dishonest coverage of the Witch Hunt, but we want to hear which four outlets YOU think stood above the rest as the FAKEST."

President Donald Trump has doubled down on blaming the media for much of the anger in society. That came in a tweet Thursday (Oct. 25) following up on his similar claim at a rally the night before. 

It also came after numerous pipe bombs were sent to prominent Democratic, and other, critics of the President, including one in care of CNN, which Trump has called fake news and one of the journalistic "enemies of the people."

The President was in "fake news" tweeting mode Thursday (Oct. 25), saying the New York Times had a "Fake Story" about his cellphone use, which he called "just more made up Fake News."

But before that he tweeted more to the issue of the societal anger that some were blaming for the pipe bombs--a cause or culprit have yet to be identified--the list of those targeted with the bombs growing with the addition of former VP Joe Biden and harsh Trump critic Robert de Niro.

The President tweeted:

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1055418269270716418[/embed]

The President has repudiated the pipe bomb attacks and said there is no excuse for politically motivated violence, but he has not appeared to tone down his anti-press rhetoric in the wake of that statement and before the attack praised a legislator who had body slammed a reporter.

Radio Television Digital News Association executive director Dan Shelly this week advised journalists to continue call out the President and his supporters on harsh rhetoric "aimed at further dividing our country and inflaming hateful ideologies."

Sen. Democrats Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have introduced a resolution condemning the President's attacks on the press, even as the President was launching more attacks in the wake of journalists' pushback.

Schumer is Senate minority leader and Schatz the ranking member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee.

That resolution comes the same day that journalists were joining together, led by the Boston Globe, to repudiate the President's characterization of them as enemies of the people and fake news.

“Every member of Congress has sworn to uphold the Constitution, including the right to the free press. This bill is an opportunity for us to uphold our oath and make clear that we support liberty and free speech,” said Schatz. “It also sends the message that the legislative branch is capable of functioning as a separate and co-equal branch of government.”

“Throughout history, the free press has always kept our government in check when it has gone astray, perhaps more than anywhere else around the world, and the Congress has a duty protect the press’s first amendment right,” said Schumer."

That congressional effort also came as the President took aim at that effort in a series of tweets, calling the news media the "opposition party."

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030094399362007040[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030091812495654912[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030074380397752320[/embed]

Facebook is continuing to try to address the issues around fake news that have put it in the spotlight in Washington, including threats that if it did not do something about being used as a misinformation tool by foreign actors and others, Congress would.

That threat came from a Democratic senator from California, the home of Silicon Valley.

Facebook this week announced a three-pronged effort to combat misinformation, and help restore trust in the massive social platform.

"False news is bad for people and bad for Facebook," blogged Tessa Lyons, a product manager on News Feed, concentrating on false news. "We’re making significant investments to stop it from spreading and to promote high-quality journalism and news literacy."

Related: Senate Drills Down on Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Appropriately, the company posted a Facebook video, Facing Facts, to explain how the company is coming to terms with mistakes is has made, why they were made, and what it needs to do to reduce the chances for misuse of its social platform without becoming a censor. Members of the News Feed team talk in the video about the complexity of the problem and how they are trying to tackle it.

Related: Facebook Extends Disclosures to Issue Ads

Adam Mosseri, VP, product management, News Feed/Sharing, said Facebook had made mistakes in what it had done, how it explained what it did, and "perhaps not explaining enough."

The Facebook approach also includes a news literacy campaign via print ads and on the News Feed providing tips on how to spot false news and filling in the general public on the steps Facebook is taking.   

FCC chair Ajit Pai said neither he nor his staff talked with AT&T representatives during the period when the company was making monthly payments to Donald Trump's then-attorney Michael Cohen.

Pai's comments came during a press conference following the FCC's public meeting Thursday (May 10) in response to a question from Bloomberg reporter Todd Shields.

AT&T has confirmed it paid Cohen's company, Essential Consultants, but said it was paying for insights into the new administration, reportedly including Trump's position on net neutrality, and that it was not for legal or lobbying work.

One insight AT&T was certainly interested in is how the President viewed the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger. 

Candidate Trump had said his administration would block an effort to combine AT&T with CNN parent Time Warner. He has been a vocal critic of the cable news net as one of the ringleaders of what he says has been a liberal media "fake news" attack on his presidency.

Video advertising platform SpotX said an extended partnership with zvelo is enabling it to prevent brands' commercials from running in objectionable content.

Zvelo’s ability to detect and block malicious websites and content— including fake news —helps ensure brand safety for SpotX users. Other content blocked includes material supporting terrorism and cryptocurrency mining, SpotX said.

Related: Advertisers Following Viewers as They Move to Over-the-Top

“Our expanded partnership with zvelo really reinforces SpotX’s unwavering commitment to brand safety, as well as our duty to clean up the video ad ecosystem and educate media buyers about fraudulent inventory as new threats emerge,” said Nick Frizzell, senior director, brand safety & inventory operations at, SpotX.

“Empowered by zvelo’s technology, we’re able to help media buyers avoid brand-damaging associations with fake news,” Frizzell said. “In an environment where buyers continually struggle to identify worthwhile ad inventory within the onslaught of new content and websites emerging every day, our zvelo-backed brand safety practices help publishers sort through the noise and successfully target advantageous ad placements.”

Related: fuboTV Connects With SpotX for Programmatic Advertising

Zvelo provides a classification engine that categorizes fake news using a combination of static and heuristic analysis techniques, aggregation of vetted third-party “fake news” feeds, and human-supervised machine learning.

"SpotX was the first supply-side platform that we partnered with in providing content categorization for brand safety, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done together to make the internet a safer place to advertise,” said Jeff Finn, CEO, zvelo. “At the same time, we’re excited to provide greater capabilities for the categorization of fake news sources than ever before, and to assist SpotX in offering a thoroughly vetted, brand-safe ad inventory for publishers.”  

President Donald Trump waited until Tuesday morning (Jan. 2) before renewing his attacks on the news media, though in this case in the form of a call for better coverage of his Administration.

In a pair ot tweets prompted by the naming of a new publisher for The New York Times, a favorite target, the President suggested it was a chance for the paper, which he has branded failing (and did again Tuesday) and a tool of his Democratic opponents, to "lose" all of its "phony" and "non-existent" sources. The President has railed against unnamed sources in stories critical of him or his Administration.

The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, “to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.” Get...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent “sources,” and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you won’t have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

The president's attacks on the media have led to reporters groups branding him a threat to a free press here and abroad and raised issues about how his administration would treat the proposed merger of AT&T and CNN parent Time Warner.

CNN has been the most consistent cable news target of the President's twitter ire, as the Times has been on the print side. The Justice Department is trying to block the merger. Though Justice argues that is because of the incentive and opportunity to favor must-have programming, the President's vow as a candidate to block the merger, combined with his attacks on CNN, have raised questions about Justice's move.

Just when you think Donald Trump's attacks can't get more caustic or inclusive comes the self-described "wrecking ball" aiming at all of D.C.

The president is finding enemies all over Washington's "swamp," according to the latest rabble-rousing fund-raising email from the Trump-Pence campaign committee, sent midday Tuesday (Oct. 31).

Related: Trump Says Mainstream Media Out to 'Bring Down' Administration

Citing a Time magazine story about how Trump is dismantling the government "as we know it," the president wears the magazine's characterization of his cabinet as a "wrecking crew" as a badge of honor.

"The federal government is a broken, lobbyist-infested cesspool of corruption that abuses its power, cooks deals for crooked politicians, and despises hardworking Americans," Trump says in the e-mail, sounding a note somewhere between a progressive chest-thumper and a Bolshevik bomb-thrower.

The president says the country voted for a "wrecking ball" that would "obliterate the status quo," but that the people's will is being impeded by the revolt of those government swamp dwellers (now downgraded to "cesspool" dwellers) abetted by the news media, enemies of the people he is sworn to defeat.

"The Fake News Media will do anything to try to rip apart the strong bonds of our movement," Trump says, "But they will never succeed -- because we are fighting to save our country, and that’s a fight we will NEVER surrender."

Related: Pew Finds Partisan Divide Widening on Role of Media

The attacks appear motivated by a desire to marginalize the president's critics, which are legion these days, and whip up his financial and political base as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of a Trump-Russia connection continues.

WASHINGTON — Edge providers are beginning to take more heat in the nation’s capital.

The bigger edge providers — companies that provide online applications, content or services, such as Google, Facebook or Yahoo — are being branded as gatekeepers of information, and getting called out as non-neutral online content arbitrators. That was once the exclusive province of internet service providers such as Comcast, AT&T and others, who have been branded as the snakes in the virtuous circle of content to network to consumer.

The doesn’t mean the pressure is off ISPs, particularly on the issue of Title II reclassification, but the vice is starting to twist more on Silicon Valley poster companies that pretty much got a pass in discussions about controlling the overall access to information.

The turning of that bitter worm was clear as one prominent House Democrat laid into edge providers, and at an Oct. 24 House hearing on political advertising saw newspaper publishers roll up their collective editions and spank Google and Facebook as peddlers of fake news for a buck.

Democrats on the House Energy & Commerce Committee have been talking among themselves about the optics of leaving edge providers out of the speech debate, particularly given the rise of fake news — i.e., the real kind, rather than the accusations of President Donald Trump against mainstream media.

Related: Some Troubled by 'Trump TV'

That came to something of a head, or at least to a signal of changing political fortunes, when Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) requested a briefing with edge providers that he accused of shaping news content.

“With a goal of ad clicks or driving page views, these companies’ policies are not neutral; they actively shape content on the web,” said Pallone, who sent a letter to Google, Facebook and Twitter seeking a briefing on their policies for “moderating content and advertising” as social media’s role in fake news and Russian election meddling swirled inside the Beltway.

Pallone was also responding to reports of vague, confusing and inconsistently applied content guidelines.

A Hill source said Democrats on the Energy & Commerce Committee are clearly trying to include tech firms in conversations about their role in net neutrality and the First Amendment going forward.

“The influence of the internet over our national dialogue and our lives has skyrocketed over the past decade,” Pallone said. “At the same time, the number of websites handling this traffic has consolidated to a handful of key platforms. The combination of these trends has led to these few companies taking on a quasi-governmental role policing content.”

Page Views vs. Page Turns
Pallone suggested that inconsistent application may be tied to the desire to boost page views and ad clicks, foreshadowing the complaints of the News Media Alliance at a hearing on political advertising last week.

Only a day after Pallone’s letter was made public, the head of the News Media Alliance, which represents almost 2,000 newspapers, pressed the issue in a hearing with House members on political advertising and a bill, the Honest Ads Act, that would require broadcast-live disclosures on online political ads.

Related: NMA Says Google, Facebook Business Models Fuel Fake News

While ISPs have gotten used to being called internet gatekeepers on Capitol Hill, NMA president David Chavern said that Google, Facebook and other edge players are news gatekeepers that have fueled fake news and “harmed the integrity of content and advertising.”

That’s because the edge business model is based on “not exercising responsibility over the integrity of content of the advertising that sustains its foundation,” Chavern told the House Oversight Committee’s Information Technology Subcommittee.

Chavern said that the public “should no longer have to suffer from unreliable information because it is profitable, while producers of content [such as his newspaper members] continue to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

President Donald Trump has, if possible, ratcheted up his media attacks, making it crystal clear Wednesday (Oct. 18) that he believes the mainstream media are indeed enemies of the people, bent on destroying him and willing to stop at nothing.

Trump once again circulated via email a new "Mainstream Media Accountability Survey," one of several the Trump-Pence campaign fundraising committee has conducted in concert with the Republican National Committee since Trump became president in January. The "surveys" began during his run for office.

"I’ve said it before and I will say it again: The mainstream media is out to bring down my administration," Trump said in the e-mail. "It’s a 24/7 barrage of hit jobs, fake stories and absolute hatred for everything we stand for as a movement.

"They don’t care about the truth," Trump continued. "They don’t care about what’s right. They only care about propping up the liberal Democrats they worship and destroying anyone who wants to put America First. There is nothing they won’t do to stop us."

Poll: Republicans Back Power to Pull News Media ‘Licenses’

The new survey focuses on four specific news outlets -- CNN, NBC, MSNBC and Fox News Channel -- asking whether any can be trusted to report fairly on his presidency. Trump has been highly critical of CNN and NBC News, and generally positive toward FNC.

Trump last week reacted to an NBC News story suggesting he wanted to boost the U.S. nuclear arsenal by calling it “fake news,” and “pure fiction.” He also called for broadcast licenses to be challenged and if need be revoked.

FCC chair Ajit Pai said this week that the commission can’t revoke licenses over the content of newscasts and he would continue to defend the First Amendment.

President Donald Trump used a speech to the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Beaver, W.Va., Monday (July 24) to attack the news media, politicians and Washington.

That is according to a transcript of his remarks supplied by the White House.

"Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?," he said to the scouts after opening his speech with a veiled reference to his accusation that the media underreported the size of his inaugural audience, saying: "The press will say it’s about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people," and saying that "[t]onight, we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C., you’ve been hearing about with the fake news and all of that."

But while he signaled it was not a night to speak about politics, he could not help talking about it anyway.

"You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians and I see the swamp," he said. "And it’s not a good place. In fact today I said we ought to change it from the word swamp to the word cesspool or, perhaps, to the word sewer."

He was referring to a recent tweet aimed at the mainstream media and politicians. "But it’s not good. Not good. And I see what’s going on, and believe me I’d much rather be with you. That I can tell you."

The president could not help but return to his criticism of TV and crowd size, saying: "And by the way, where are our Indiana Scouts tonight?  [Applause.] I wonder if the television cameras will follow you. They don’t like doing that when they see these massive crowds. They don’t like doing that."

And then again later: "I’m waving to people back there so small I can't even see them. Man, this is a lot of people. Turn those cameras back there, please. That is so incredible. By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible, massive crowd, record-setting is going to be shown on television tonight? One percent or zero? The fake media will say: President Trump spoke before a small crowd of Boy Scouts today."

And while he said it was not a time to speak about politics, he attacked Hillary Clinton, spent a good deal of time talking about vote counts in the election, and characterized Obamacare as a horrible thing that needs killing, even joking about threatening to fire HHS Secretary Tom Price if he didn’t round up the votes to do so.

Even as FCC nominees were pledging to speak out against attacks on journalists, President Donald Trump was continuing his verbal assault on the media, going so far as to offer a new "Fight Fake News" bumper sticker in exchange for a $1 donation to his joint (with the RNC) fundraising committee.

FCC Nominees Pledge to Speak Out Against Media Attacks

In an e-mail signed by the president and circulated Wednesday (July 19), Trump let fly with now familiar broad-brush attacks:

"Friend,

"I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the Fake News Media is the real opposition.

"Rather than working to fix the problems this nation is facing, the Fake News Media and the Left are hand-in-hand peddling supposed 'news' based on anonymous sources and an unbelievable lack of journalistic integrity.

"In fact, they’re so focused on bringing down the success of my administration -- that they’re forgetting about you, the American people.

"It is nothing but a 24/7 barrage of hit jobs, fake stories, and absolute disdain for everything we stand for as a movement.

"But Friend, I made a promise to stay focused on the American people.

"And I will not forget about you or that promise.

"This is a fight we can’t afford to lose. The future of our great country hangs in the balance. Stand with me in our fight against the FAKE NEWS with a contribution of $1 or more today."

Elsewhere in Washington, Democratic senators were calling on Republican leadership to hold a hearing on the state of the news media and attacks on journalists by the administration and others.

Citing a host of stories, many by targets of the President's attacks on the mainstream media, a majority (Republican) staff report out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (cited in a story by Politico) has recommended that law enforcement thoroughly investigate leaks of "potentially sensitive" government material that are coming at an "alarming rate."

According to the report, the Trump Administration has seen on average a leak a day--125 stories based on leaks--with the majority (78) related to the probe into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

The majority report cited 18 different news outlets sourcing "every possible permutation" of anonymous current and former government officials, including intelligence officials.

The report did not suggest every leak should result in criminal prosecution, but said it was clear that the "cascade" of leaks was causing "real harm."

The study looked at leaks from Jan. 20, when the new Administration came in, to May 25, and concluded that during that time there were 62 leaks of information related to national security versus eight such leaks in the first 126 days of the Obama Administration and nine in the same period of the George W. Bush Administration.

The report includes a list of the leaked stories and the names of the outlets and reporters. The majority (about two thirds) are from the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, all of which have been prime targets for President Donald Trump's broad-brush attack on the news media as failing, biased, and enemies of the American People.

NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox also had at least one story in the leak-a-thon addendum to the letter.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has branded the Administration attacks an unprecedented threat to press freedom, was troubled by the reports identification of reporters and the suggestion of a widespread investigation.

"The naming of more than a hundred journalists accused of harming national security seems intended to have a chilling effect on the press and is the type of measure that we see more often in authoritarian countries,” said CPJ senior researcher for the U.S., Alexandra Ellerbeck. “The free press and national security are not opposing interests: the American people are best served when a vigorous media holds the government to account.”

President Donald Trump attacked new polls from ABC and NBC as fake news and "totally wrong in general" Monday morning (April 24), only 12 hours after saying new polls were "very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative" and quoting stats from an ABC News/Washington Post poll, in which 53% of respondents said he was a strong leader

He also continued to maintain he would have won the popular vote, a curious claim that surfaces periodically, tweeting the assertion "Would still beat Hillary in popular vote," though it was unclear what he meant since Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton won the popular vote by several million.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday (April 23) found that 54% disapproved of the job President Trump is doing, compared with 40% who approved. The poll found that 82% of Republicans approved of his job performance to date (he marks his first 100 days in office April 29), while only 30% of Independents and just 7% of Democrats approved.

Only 50% of respondents in the NBC/WSJ poll gave Trump high marks for being firm and decisive, down from 57% in a February poll. He got "honest and trustworthy" high marks from only 25%, down from 34% in February.

The poll was conducted April 17-20 among 900 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

The ABC/WaPo poll found that 42% approved of Trump's performance as president vs. 53% who disapproved, compared with an average approval/disapproval split of 69%/19% for past presidents in the first 100-days window.

Just 37% approve of Trump's plans for changes in federal spending --which include cuts to the EPA and state funding as well as zeroing out federal funding for noncommercial TV and radio stations, among others. And only 34% approved of his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner having major posts in the administration.

But the poll had some "brighter" spots for the president, finding that 73% approved of his pressuring companies to stay in the U.S., and the 53% who said he was a strong leader. In addition, 96% of Republicans who voted for Trump said they would do it again, so there was no buyer's remorse, as the poll put it.

The ABC/WaPo poll was conducted April 17-20, in English and Spanish, among a random sample of 1,004 adults. The margin of error is 3.5 points.

President Donald Trump may be trying to finesse his media attacks a bit, or maybe not.

In a tweet Monday morning (April 17), Trump's latest attack was: "The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election. Every story is badly slanted. We have to hold them to the truth!"

He did not say what the "real media" was, but the tweet at least suggested he might see a difference, though it could have been a carve-out for Fox & Friends, which he has consistently praised in recent weeks while hammering other news shows.

Over the weekend, Trump reminded his Twitter followers that he had won the election, that the election was over, and that the previous eight years of foreign policy had been a total failure, of which he said, "So true."

But not long after the tweet suggesting there was at least a "real news" against which to judge the fake, Trump and the Republican National Committee had taken out their broad brush once again.

In an effort to raise money for a special election Tuesday in Georgia in which the Republicans face a tough challenge, "Team Trump" sent out an e-mail Monday asking for money on the argument that it was needed to "cut through the noise of the fake news media."

Trump also tweeted that the Democrat in the Georgia race "wants to protect criminals." The seat was once held by former Speaker of the House and Trump advisor Newt Gingrich.

WASHINGTON — Last week's rollback of the FCC's privacy rules spurred legislative action in the Minnesota State Senate, while in the U.S. Senate, the Intelligence Committee launched hearings on Russia's interference with the 2016 presidential election. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department tapped AT&T to build and maintain the nation's first-responder network. Following are highlights from last week in D.C.

Minnesota Adopts Own Privacy Rules
The Minnesota State Senate had its own exclamation point for Congress’s move to roll back broadband privacy rules. In light of Congress’s approval of the Congressional Review Act, and the president’s expected signoff, the state Senate voted to adopt its own version of the regulations, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

Republicans had argued that state privacy laws would remain in effect even after the Federal Communications Commission’s rules were scrapped. Minnesota’s Senate took that cue and added its own.

An amendment to an economic development bill passed the Minnesota Senate with the help of one Republican vote. A similar amendment was added to the House bill, which must now be reconciled with the Senate bill.

The Minnesota amendment would prevent any ISP with a franchise agreement in the state from collecting personal information from customers “without express written approval from the customer” or from denying service if that approval was not given.

Those were two key elements of the FCC regulations that were rolled back. (Pictured: The Minnesota State Capitol)

9/11 Overhaul
More than 15 years after 9/11, the Commerce Department last week announced that AT&T had been awarded the 25-year, $46.5 billion contract to build out and maintain FirstNet, the interoperable broadband first responder network. AT&T will invest $40 billion, and in exchange will get access to the network during nonemergencies.

The network is being built using 20 MHz of spectrum set aside from the FCC’s 700-MHz auction and the government’s $6.5 billion contribution to the cause came from the FCC’s AWS-3 wireless spectrum auction.

Smaller and rural broadband providers were looking to get in on some of that action. “NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association and its members, network operators in rural areas of the country with substantial assets and infrastructure, are eager to partner with AT&T to leverage this infrastructure and to promote success in the quest to build, operate and maintain a ubiquitous public safety network throughout the country,” said association CEO Shirley Bloomfield after the announcement. Read more here.

Fake News, for Real
Broadband was much on the minds of the Senate Intelligence Committee as it launched a series of hearings on Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. That included both cybersecurity issues and the proliferation of fake news that has been amplified by mainstream, and nonmainstream, media chasing the latest story.

Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) cited the media “echo” chamber as partly to blame.

“The Russians employed thousands of Internet trolls and botnets to push out disinformation and fake news at high volume, focusing this material onto your Twitter and Facebook feeds and flooding our social media with misinformation,” Warner said. “[T]his fake news and disinformation was then hyped by the American media echo chamber and our own social media networks to reach — and potentially influence — millions of Americans.” Read more here.

Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) cited the media "echo" chamber at the first day of a week-long committee hearing Thursday (March 30) on Russia's attempts to influence the presidential election.

"Russia continually sought to diminish and undermine our trust in the American media by blurring our faith in what is true and what is not," he said in his opening statement. "Russian propaganda outlets like RT and Sputnik successfully produced and peddled disinformation to American audiences in pursuit of Moscow’s preferred outcome," he said.

But Warner suggested Russia had help in this country as well.

"The Russians employed thousands of Internet trolls and botnets to push out disinformation and fake news at high volume, focusing this material onto your Twitter and Facebook feeds and flooding our social media with misinformation," he said. "[T]his fake news and disinformation was then hyped by the American media echo chamber and our own social media networks to reach – and potentially influence – millions of Americans."

And as to President Donald Trump's tweets about Russian influence investigations being 'fake news," Warner had a response, though he did not make it personal: "This is not innuendo or a false allegation. This is not fake news. This is what actually happened to us."

The Senate Intelligence Committee is taking the lead after a House Intelligence Committee inquiry into Russian interference was sidelined by the chairman of that committee, Rep. Devin Nunes.

"This investigation is NOT about whether you have a “D” or an “R” next to your name. It is NOT about re-litigating last fall’s election.  It is about clearly understanding and responding to a very real threat," said Warner.

Committee chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said the role of Russia in the 2016 elections was a "critical intelligence question." Most of the committee's investigation will not be in public, but said it was crucial to take the "rare step" of publicly discussing the investigation. He said there would be more open hearings. He said "malign actors are using old techniques and new platforms to undermine our democratic institutions."

The hearing was to essentially provide a baseline understanding of Russian disinformation campaigns and the role of cyber efforts, including social media and other online activities. He said the takeaway from the hearing was that we are all targets of active Russian efforts. "The public deserves to hear the truth about possible Russian involvement in our elections," he said. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this, and do it right,” said Warner.

Clinton Watts, who was testifying as a senior fellow at the George Washington Center for Cyber & Homeland Security, put what he said was a cyber imbalance between Russia and the U.s. this way: "[Russia] has the best hackers that are out there...We, on the other hand, worry a lot about who we are going to bring into the cyber field because they might have smoked weed one day or they can't pass a security clearance."

Asked by Burr what the takeaway for U.S. media outlets was from that Russian hacking supremacy in terms of disniformation, Watts said: "They [the media] have to improve their editorial processes, and they also have to take a step back from the 'I gotta get it out first' competitive environment."

He said part of the reason the Russian system of disinformation works is that with every outlet racing to get the story out first--in an age when stories can be turned around and posted in minutes--"they put themselves at risk to fall for these sorts of schemes.

He said until that improves, or until "they collectively have some sort of standard that the public or the media holds to itself, we're going to keep seeing them fall for these campaigns," and not just from Russia. "The playbook has been thrown out there, he said, and many other nations are going to pick it up.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai continued this week to stick with historic comments about the value of free media, but not weigh in on the recent comments of Donald Trump that the media are the Enemy of the People.

Pai had said last week in a letter to congressional Democrats concerned about the President's view that Trump had been referring to "fake news."

But a reporter following the FCC's public meeting March 23 pointed out that just this week the President had included ABC and NBC, whose broadcast content the FCC regulates, in the fake news category, as he earlier had the New York Times and others.

Pai said the media had an important job exercising a "core Frist Amendment function," but said what is or isn't fake news is a political debate among "political actors" that he again refused to "wade into."

But reporters at the post-meeting press conference were not done. Another, following up on the issue. He was asked why it was not relevant for him to comment on allegations against news outlets whose parent companies he regulated, using the public airwaves that he also regulates, given the suggestion those regulated outlets were misleading Americans.

"Look, again, that is a political debate and many people in the political arena have debated back and forth and my job is not to be a political actor but to be someone who is administering the laws of the United States and so, I am not going to wade into that kind of political debate but be focused on the values of the First Amendment."

He was asked whether, if someone brought some kind of complaint that false information was being disseminated, he would pursue it. He said he had not seen any such complaint and would not speculate on what he might do.

Faced with reports that his campaign may have collaborated with Russia on the leaks of information about his opponent in the presidential race, Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday morning to brand NBC and ABC purveyors of "fake news," the latest in a string of such accusations.

"Just watched the totally biased and fake news reports of the so-called Russia story on NBC and ABC. Such dishonesty!," Trump tweeted.

The reports followed the testimony of FBI director James Comey that his agency has for several months been investigating whether there were such contacts, and a story Wednesday night by CNN that cited unnamed "U.S. officials" that the FBI had information "that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign," saying that was, in part, what Comey was referring to.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, has said there is "more than circumstantial evidence" of collusion that is "worthy of investigation."

This week FCC chairman Ajit Pai said he did not think the media were the enemy of the American people, as President Trump has alleged, but added that the president appeared to be talking about "fake news."

Related: Trump Brands Media 'Enemy of the American People'

The Urban Dictionary now defines “fake news” as “a  term formerly useful for describing websites consisting entirely of intentionally fabricated news stories, but now used to describe virtually anything that does not mesh with one's own views.”

A survey conducted by CNN has found that its reputation has not been hurt by President Trump's accusations of "fake news," CNN CEO Jeff Zucker said.

Zucker said he had been concerned that the drum beat from the White House was tarnishing the cable news network's brand and he commissioned one of the network's biggest studies ever.

Related: Trump calls CNN 'Fake News'

"We are still incredibly trusted," Zucker said. "There is no impact whatsoever from all these attacks on the CNN brand."

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

In a "feet to the fire" and "shoulder to the wheel" call to arms, Randall Rothenberg,  the president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Monday (Jan. 30) told his industry it is their duty to fight fake news, saying it was undeniable that with all the good his online ad network industry has done, some of what it has "brought into existence" has had "dire consequences."

That means identifying their customers, and "If they’re engaged in child porn or distributing pirated movies or generating neo-Nazi propaganda, or anything else you wouldn’t want your parents, spouses, neighbors, or children to know about, then stop doing business with them."

At its tenth annual leadership meeting in Hollywood, Fla., Rothenberg called on his members to rid the digital supply chain of fake news. "You wouldn’t want your son to breakfast on a cereal sourced from bacteria-riddled grains. Then you shouldn’t abet the creation, distribution, or monetization of untruthful, dangerous falsehoods to other people’s’ sons and daughters. And you should stop it now."

"Much of what the IAB community has done is undeniably beneficial," he told his audience, according to a copy for the speech. "We have given voice to the voiceless, enabled people to pursue passions across borders, helped young men and women to cure sometimes crippling social isolation by allowing them to find others just like themselves, a town or a world away. Out of bits and bytes, billions of dollars of value and millions of jobs have been created, flowing from boomtowns like Palo Alto and Seattle into mom and pop enterprises in small hamlets on every continent."

But along with that, he said, the networks his members operate can be used to distribute stolen content, block access to news, and satisfy the public's hunger for knowledge with "littered deliberately with ripe falsehoods, ready to be plucked by – and to poison – the guileless.

Rothenberg said their goal must go beyond just fixing the supply chain. "Our objective isn’t to preserve marketing and advertising. When all information becomes suspect – when it’s not just an ad impression that may be fraudulent, but the data, news, and science  that undergird society itself – then we must take civic responsibility for our effect on the world."

"There’s a linear connection between fake news and those trolls of digital marketing and media: click fraud, fraudulent non-human traffic, consumer data breaches, privacy violations, and the sources of ad-blocking. Each represents the failure of our supply chain – the same kind of supply chain failure we at IAB and our members have dealt with repeatedly and successfully over the years," he said.

Quoting from Genesis one moment to Alexis de Tocqueville the next, Rothenberg emphasized that IAB members had a duty as both executives and citizens to fight fake news.. "As leaders of our ecosystem – as senior executives in brands, agencies, tech companies, platforms, and publishers – you have a responsibility to keep our commons safe, secure, and flourishing.

He said few of his members bear responsibility for something they could not anticipate before the fact, but given the current threat, "all of us bear responsibility to our community once a potential or actual crisis, like fake news, is identified."

Rothenberg came armed with some weapons in the fight: comply with industry standards. "[N]on-compliance with industry standards has put us on the slippery slope to relativism that leads directly to fake news," he said.

Rothenberg's invocation of neo-Nazi propaganda was not simply meant to be a frightening hypothetical. He said he recently got a letter from someone who someone who tried to contact an IAB member who was servicing ads to site promoting a neo-Nazi march on Martin Luther King Day.

"[A]ny company sitting in this room has the ability to police itself and to actively banish fakery, fraudulence, criminality, and hatred from its midst – and it is your obligation to do so," he said.

"Don’t tell me that it’s difficult. Don’t tell me that it will take a lot of time. Don’t tell me that it’s too complex to resolve quickly.

In a multidimensional industry that can invest untold billions on driverless cars, Mars missions, Super Bowl ads, next season’s prime-time lineup, and the acquisition of hot programmatic startups, surely we can fix fake news first."

He said it was up to them to move fast, fix things and "repair our credibility."

Facebook has outlined some of the first steps it is taking to address the issue of fake news and hoaxes, which can spread like wildfires on social media platforms.

In a blog post Thursday (Dec. 15) , Adam Mosseri, VP, news feed, for Facebook said its efforts fell into four basic areas:

1. Easier reporting (if you see something fake, say something);

2. Flagging stories. Facebook will work with third parties that have signed onto the Poynter Institutes Fact Checking Code of Principles. (http://www.poynter.org/fact-checkers-code-of-principles/), sending them stories that have been flagged.

3. Informed sharing. It will test including a signal for stories that are significantly less likely to be shared after they are read, in case there is a correlation with fake news.

4. Disrupting financial incentives for spammers. Checking sites to see if they are enforcing policies and eliminating the ability to spoof domains.

"It’s important to us that the stories you see on Facebook are authentic and meaningful," he said. But he also said they needed to be careful and that said Facebook was focusing its efforts on "the worst of the worst" because "[w]e believe in giving people a voice.... [W]e cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves."