Even before Donald Trump returned to the White House, he set his sights on dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media — the agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and Radio Free Asia.

He hand-picked two-time election loser Kari Lake, the Arizona Republican, to be his hatchet, most notably taking a whack at the Voice of America, the longstanding and well-respected media outlet that has promoted democracy and transparency across the globe since World War II. And why? Essentially because they didn’t act like state media, promoting and advancing his policies and ideas.

Behind these cuts at the federally-funded VOA are real journalists, real people. More than 900 full-time employees were placed on indefinite leave. Another 500 contractors were fired.

But here’s another number: six. That’s how many VOA staff members are suing the Trump administration, arguing that shutting down the outlet is unlawful and unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by Patsy Widakuswara, who was VOA’s White House bureau chief, and Jessica Jerreat, its press freedom editor, as well as four anonymous journalists named as John Does. They ask that all full-time staffers and contractors be reinstated.

Defendants include USAGM acting CEO Victor Morales and Lake, who is a special adviser to the agency.

The complaint says Trump violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights of free speech. They believe that Congress has sole authority over the agency because Congress created and funded it.

The complaint says, “In many parts of the world a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void. What is happening to the VOA Journalists is not just the chilling of First Amendment speech; it is a government shutdown of journalism, a prior restraint that kills content before it can be created.”

The complaint argues that the Trump administration violated federal law, which says the head of USAGM “shall respect the professional independence and integrity” of the news outlets.

It goes on to say, “The firewall signifies that even though the networks are state funded, they are free, independent journalistic outlets designed to function like the most credible and reputable private news organizations in the world.”

David Seide, the lead attorney on the suit and senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, told NPR’s David Folkenflik, “Tragically, Kari Lake lives in the MAGA fantasy world, but she makes decisions that have real-world consequences for hundreds of journalists. We’ve assembled a coalition of journalists, unions, and advocacy groups to stop and reverse the DOGE machine.”

As Folkenflik noted, backers of the suit include Reporters Without Borders and unions representing federal employees, journalists and foreign policy staffers.

When asked for comment by Folkenflik, Lake’s office wrote, “Kari Lake does not grant interviews or interact with disreputable ‘news’ outlets like NPR.”

Check out Folkenflik’s story for more details.

Strong piece

Read the latest piece from Associated Press media writer David Bauder: “2 months into Trump’s second administration, the news industry faces challenges from all directions.”

Bauder writes, “During the first Trump administration, the biggest concern for many journalists was labels. Would they, or their news outlet, be called ‘fake news’ or an ‘enemy of the people’ by a president and his supporters? They now face a more assertive President Donald Trump. In two months, a blitz of action by the nation’s new administration — Trump, chapter two — has journalists on their heels.”

This second go-around is just as, if not more so, dangerous. As Bauder notes, it includes: “Lawsuits. A newly aggressive Federal Communications Commission. An effort to control the press corps that covers the president, prompting legal action by The Associated Press. A gutted Voice of America. Public data stripped from websites. And attacks, amplified anew.”

Bill Grueskin, a journalism professor at Columbia University, told Bauder, “It’s very clear what’s happening. The Trump administration is on a campaign to do everything it can to diminish and obstruct journalism in the United States.”

Read Bauder’s story. It’s depressing, but important.

What’s in a name

In his latest Status newsletter, media writer Oliver Darcy looks into how media outlets are referring to the body of water between Florida and Mexico. Most of the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico. The president wants it called the Gulf of America.

Darcy writes specifically about TV news media, most notably their coverage of the NASA astronauts who were rescued last week after being in space for nine months. They splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida panhandle.

Darcy wrote:

A review of transcripts, courtesy of SnapStream, revealed an alarming reality: not one of the outlets could muster up the courage to simply refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico, the water feature’s name since the 16th century.

Instead, television news organizations tied themselves in knots, performing linguistic gymnastics to stay out of Donald Trump’s crosshairs, while also tiptoeing around audiences who would have surely been incensed to see them bend the knee and call it the “Gulf of America.” On ABC News, “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir referred to “spectacular images from off the coast of Florida.” On the “NBC Nightly news,” anchor Lester Holt spoke about the astronauts “splashing down off the Florida Gulf coast.” On the “CBS Evening News,” it was referred to simply as “the Gulf.” And on CNN, anchor Jake Tapper tried to seemingly have it both ways, noting the U.S. government refers to it as the “Gulf of America,” but the rest of the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico.

Remembering a journalism legend

The city room of the New York Times after a federal judge ordered the paper to temporarily cease publication of a series of articles on the Vietnam War based on a Pentagon study, June 15, 1971. From left are Times editors James L. Greenfield, foreign editor; Max Frankel, chief Washington correspondent; and Fred P. Graham from the Times Washington bureau. (AP Photo)

Max Frankel — the Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who went on to become the executive editor of The New York Times — has died. He was 94. His son said Frankel died from complications due to bladder cancer.

Frankel fled Nazi Germany as a child and went on to become a powerful force in American journalism. The Times’ Robert McFadden wrote, “Mr. Frankel landed in New York in 1940 without a word of English, a refugee in knickerbockers with European sensibilities for opera, art, languages and mathematics. But he found his calling in journalism, and it led to global news assignments, associations with world leaders, the pantheon of Pulitzer honorees and the editorships, successively, of The Times’s opinion pages and of its news coverage.”

As The Washington Post’s Emily Langer noted, “During the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, Mr. Frankel was White House correspondent. In his own tenure as Washington bureau chief, from 1968 through 1972, he played a key role in the publication by the Times of the secret government history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.”

Frankel won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for coverage of President Richard Nixon’s visit to China. The Times reported Frankel wrote 24 articles and 35,000 words in eight days in Shanghai, Peking (now Beijing) and Hangchow (Hangzhou).

In 1976, Frankel was one of the moderators of the second presidential debate between then-President Gerald Ford and Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter. It was during that debate when Ford made one of the worst gaffes in debate history, saying, in response to a question by Frankel, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.”

Frankel responded by saying, “I’m sorry, could I just pause, did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence and occupying most of the countries there and making sure with their troops that it’s a communist zone?”

Some believe that moment cost Ford the presidency.

After working as a reporter, Frankel went on to become the editorial page editor at the Times and then was named executive editor in 1986. He would be in charge of the newsroom until stepping down in 1994. During that time, the Times won 13 Pulitzers.

McFadden noted, “A year after Mr. Frankel became editor, the stock market crashed, touching off a recession and advertising cutbacks that limited Times budgets for most of his tenure. Advertising fell by almost half from 1987 to 1993, his last full year in charge; revenues faded from $1.64 billion to $1.53 billion, and profits fell from $160 million to $6 million. But circulation rose from 1.02 million on weekdays and 1.6 million on Sundays in 1986, to 1.17 million on weekdays and 1.78 million on Sundays in 1993.”

McFadden added, “Mr. Frankel hired and promoted more Black and Hispanic staff members, but acknowledged that racial diversification was fitful and slow. Women fared better. There were none on the masthead of news executives, or even in line to lead major departments, in 1986. But during his tenure, women were hired in equal numbers with men, and filled more than a third of the professional jobs.”

These are all just snippets of Frankel’s event-filled career in journalism, so check out the extensive and fascinating remembrances written by McFadden and Langer.

More sad news

Bryce Miller, sports columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune, died on Saturday. He was 56. According to the Union-Tribune’s Ryan Finley, Miller had been diagnosed with muscle-invasive bladder cancer two years ago. Miller continued to write through his treatment. His final column was Feb. 23. Miller also was the former sports editor and columnist at The Des Moines Register.

Miller covered a variety of big sporting moments during his 35-year career, including six Olympics, the World Series and MLB All-Star Games, the Final Four, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, college football championships, the Rose Bowl, NFL playoffs, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.

Union-Tribune editor Lora Cicalo told Finley, “Bryce was an insightful columnist, a keen observer of the human condition and a masterful storyteller who easily won the trust of others — whether they were sources, strangers or stars. But more than any of those things, he was a truly exceptional human being — generous, kind and unfailingly approachable — as anyone who crossed paths with him.”

Media tidbits

• The New York Times’ John Koblin writes that things are tough on Sesame Street in “Why Does Big Bird Look So Sad?”
• The Washington Post’s editorial board with a strong editorial: “A spotlight on Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest.”
• And on that topic, here’s The New York Times’ Eric Lipton with “Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts.”
• Speaking of Musk, didn’t he purchase what was then called Twitter because he was this big free speech guy? Anyway, here’s Politico’s Eliza Gkritsi with “Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest.”
• The Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Rector with this news analysis: “Trump consistently frames policy around ‘fairness,’ trading on American frustration.”
• The Daily Montanan’s Darrell Ehrlick with “State’s largest newspaper company settles suit for giving personal information to Facebook.”

Hot type

• “CBS News Sunday Morning” and host Jane Pauley profile magazine editor Graydon Carter.
• A fun feature as we count down to this week’s real Opening Day in Major League Baseball: from the Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Baxter, it’s “‘We’re not guaranteed 3,000 at-bats.’ What it’s like to have a one-game MLB career.”

More resources for journalists

• Transform your approach to Immigration policy with Poynter’s Beat Academy training. Enroll now.
• Develop responsible AI practices for newsrooms. Start here.
• Perfect your editing skills with the Poynter ACES Advanced Certificate. Enroll now.
• The Poynter Leadership Academy is our signature program for established leaders and managers. Apply by March 24.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.