The battle between the Trump administration and the press continued this week, including Thursday’s court hearing involving The Associated Press and the White House over press access. So let’s start today’s newsletter there. My colleague, Angela Fu, reports on Thursday’s news.

Associated Press journalists told a federal judge Thursday that the White House’s ban on the outlet has hampered its coverage and led to a chilling effect among other outlets, the AP and CNN reported.

“We’re basically dead in the water on major news stories,” said Evan Vucci, the AP’s chief photographer in Washington, D.C. He and White House correspondent Zeke Miller testified Thursday during a hearing for the AP’s lawsuit challenging the ban. The AP is seeking a preliminary injunction to temporarily lift the ban as its lawsuit makes its way through court.

The White House curtailed AP journalists’ access to presidential events last month in retaliation for the AP’s refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” That move, which involved kicking the AP out of the White House press pool, is a violation of the First Amendment, argues the AP. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is among the officials named as defendants in the AP’s lawsuit.

Vucci and Miller cited multiple instances in which the ban had hurt the AP’s journalism. When President Donald Trump decided to delay tariffs against Canada and Mexico, one of AP’s competitors beat them by nearly 40 minutes, Miller said.

Vucci, who captured the viral photo of Trump pumping his fist after surviving an assassination attempt, told the court that the AP was unable to send a D.C.-based photographer to the infamous Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month. Instead, the AP had to rely on a foreign-based photographer traveling with Zelenskyy’s press pool.

“But that person, Vucci said, lacked the experience and skill he has that allow him to transmit photos back to his editors for wider distribution within seconds,” CNN reported.

Miller also said he had noticed a “softening of tone and tenor” in the questions journalists at other outlets asked. He did not recall any specific examples, according to CNN, though he mentioned noticing more off-topic questions in reviewing transcripts and other outlets’ coverage of White House events.

The defendants, meanwhile, argued that the AP had not suffered irreparable harm from the ban, the AP reported. Brian Hudak, a lawyer for the government, noted that the AP has licensing deals that allow it to source and sell photos from events that its journalists cannot cover

“‘There is no showing of exclusion,’ (Hudak) said, adding that AP can still access events in the East Room and document who arrives at the White House and leaves it. The AP says that it has had only sporadic access to East Room events,” the AP reported.

It is unclear when U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden will rule on the AP’s request for a preliminary injunction. McFadden declined the outlet’s first request to halt the ban last month, though he urged the Trump administration at the time to reconsider the ban.

New York Times and Washington Post editorials stay quiet on security breach

For this one, I turn it over to Rick Edmonds, Poynter’s media business analyst. 

Easy question. What’s the biggest news story of the week? Of course, the Trump administration’s Signal chat to which The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally invited.

Harder question. As of early Thursday evening, neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post has offered an unsigned editorial on the subject. Why’s that? Will they?

By contrast, The Wall Street Journal editorial board was on the case Monday, the day the story was breaking, and has weighed in twice since. All three pieces had some rough criticism of President Donald Trump’s cabinet members and advisers.

New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander emailed me that the Times has run five signed opinion pieces this week. Signed opinion is hot these days and traditional institutional editorials are in disfavor — at the Times and many other places. Stadtlander reminded me that a transition is in process at Times opinion, with four editorial writers asked to take new jobs or leave and David Leonhardt just promoted to rethink and oversee the editorial board’s work with opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury.

I’ve asked for a comment from the Post and will add it if I get it. The Post, of course, has its own work to do in figuring out how to follow owner Jeff Bezos’s Feb. 26 directive to focus on advocacy of free markets and personal liberties.

I have written a number of times about the growing trend in newspapers to wind down endorsements completely and make unsigned editorials rare. The theory is that today’s audience doesn’t like to be told what to think. But I hadn’t been expecting that sort of reticence to drift upstream from the Gannett and McClatchy chains to the Times and the Post.

Since we are talking about editorials, here’s mine: In this instance, I don’t care about the challenges of your new protocols. Just tell me what your editorial board makes of the security breach — preferably before the weekend.

But what about …?

The Signal app is seen on a mobile device screen Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Signalgate continues to dominate the news, as many continue to push for answers on how a journalist could be included in a text chain discussing military action against another country. Many on the right — particularly the Trump administration, Republicans and conservative media — continue to downplay the situation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who isn’t supposed to be partial to any party or person, clearly is in Trump’s camp on this, repeating the company line that, “It was sensitive information — not classified.”

She then did what many on the right are doing, which is to somehow dismiss the embarrassing and potentially harmful events by rolling out a bunch of “what about …” sentences, mostly bringing up Hillary Clinton’s emails.

But as much as Trump and the right see this as no big deal, that’s not what the American people think. A new YouGov poll shows that 74% said the situation was at least a “somewhat serious” problem. And 53% said it was “very serious.”

The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote, “The White House can pretend all it likes that this isn’t a big deal. But more people appear to believe it’s a big deal than all of these other recent big-deal controversies. And that makes it harder to play off and move past without accountability.”

USAGM hit by another lawsuit, backtracks on decision to defund Radio Free Europe

Here’s one more item from my Poynter colleague Angela Fu.

The United States Agency for Global Media is now the subject of at least four lawsuits after Radio Free Asia sued the agency in federal court Thursday, demanding the release of congressionally appropriated funds.

The lawsuit comes as USAGM rescinds the termination order for grants to sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Following a March 14 executive order from President Donald Trump, USAGM halted funding to nonprofit outlets Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sued USAGM last week for its funds and, on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the agency to temporarily stop its efforts to defund the outlet. On Thursday, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty announced that USAGM had backtracked, reinstating the outlet’s grant agreement for the current fiscal year.

“This is an encouraging sign that RFE/RL’s operations will be able to continue, as Congress intended,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty chief executive Stephen Capus said in a statement. “We await official confirmation from USAGM that grant funding will promptly resume based on the intention expressed in last night’s letter.”

Many of the arguments in Radio Free Asia’s lawsuit echo those made by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In its complaint, Radio Free Asia argued that USAGM cannot withhold the millions of dollars in funding that Congress has already approved for the outlet. Without access to those funds, the network has had to furlough more than 200 employees and cancel 93% of its contracts with freelancers, significantly inhibiting its ability to produce journalism for audiences in Asian countries lacking a free press.

Meanwhile, USAGM is also facing lawsuits over its decision to shutter state media network Voice of America. Director Michael Abramowitz and three other VOA journalists sued the agency Wednesday in an attempt to prevent the “wholesale destruction” of the outlet. More than 900 employees there have been put on leave. Six of them, along with several labor and press advocacy groups, sued the agency last week. Middle East Broadcasting Networks, which has furloughed more than 400 employees, is also preparing to take legal action.

Career change

Taylor Tomlinson at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in 2024. (Jordan Strauss/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

Often, comedians work hectic, tireless schedules doing stand-up in hopes of getting a break and starring in their own TV show. That’s what happened to Taylor Tomlinson. The comedian ended up with her own show, CBS’s “After Midnight,” which came on after Stephen Colbert, who produced the humor-filled game show.

But now Tomlinson is going the other direction: She’s stepping away from the show to return to stand-up. As a result, CBS is canceling “After Midnight,” which will end its run in June. The show debuted in January 2024 and had completed two seasons, with a third planned for the fall.

In a statement, Colbert said, “I want to thank CBS for their constant support and invaluable partnership on ‘After Midnight,’ and the whole staff for their amazing dedication. While we were excited and grateful for our third season to start in the fall, we respect Taylor’s decision to return to stand-up full time.”

It probably is the right decision for Tomlinson to escape the dwindling popularity of late-night television to get into stand-up and other platforms aimed at younger audiences, such as podcasts and social influencer projects.

In a review of the show after its debut, USA Today’s Kelly Lawler wrote that it looked like a “half-baked cable timeslot filler. The series is fine, occasionally chuckle-worthy and entirely inoffensive. But greatness never came from anything labeled ‘fine.’” Lawler added, “It’s an outright crime that CBS took its first female late-night host and gave her a crummy, cheap format. On the outside, it seems forward-thinking, breaking free of the desk-and-couch format that has dominated the genre for decades. But what it really does is restrict Tomlinson.”

As Brian Steinberg pointed out in his story for Variety, “After Midnight” was a cost-effective replacement for “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” CBS, for now, has no plans to run programming in that time slot.

In a piece for LateNighter, longtime TV writer Bill Carter suggested CBS reair “The Daily Show” in that time slot.

Also, check out this thoughtful analysis from Steinberg: “Why Taylor Tomlinson and Other Young Late-Night Hosts Choose Creator Economy Over TV.”

Leaving Los Angeles

ESPN announced this week that it’s ending the Los Angeles version of “SportsCenter.” It will move the nightly sportscast back to ESPN’s home base in Bristol, Connecticut.

In a statement, ESPN said, “Based on our current business needs, we are relocating the L.A.-based ‘SportsCenter’ and soccer studio shows to ESPN’s Bristol headquarters, including the limited number of employee positions related to these shows. The Los Angeles Production Center will continue to host ESPN’s NBA studio productions and provide office space to additional L.A.-based employees.”

The last L.A.-based “SportsCenter” will air May 19. The move will impact 35 of its 229 L.A. production employees, or roughly 15%.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports that a source told him “that impacted employees have the option to move to Connecticut to continue their employment.”

Marchand noted that when ESPN’s L.A. studio — which is across the street from Crypto.com Arena, where the NBA Lakers and NHL Kings play — debuted on April 6, 2009, ESPN reached 98 million viewers.

The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio wrote more in “ESPN’s L.A.-based ‘SportsCenter’ is leaving and heading east.”

More media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review …

• Michelle Ross-Stanton — the wife of Fox News video journalist Pierre Zakrzewski, who was killed while covering the war in Ukraine — is suing Fox, claiming it didn’t adequately protect Zakrzewski and did not hold the necessary insurance to be able to fully compensate his family after his death. She filed the suit in Britain and is asking for approximately $11.6 million. The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr has the details. Fox gave Barr a statement saying, “We remain devastated by the death of Pierre Zakrzewski. His extraordinary dedication to telling the stories of the war in Ukraine placed a critical spotlight on the atrocities there and we are forever grateful for his commitment to journalism and his ultimate sacrifice. We did everything humanly possible in the aftermath of this unprecedented tragedy amid the chaos of a war zone.”
• Politico’s Gregory Svirnovskiy with “LA Times owner defends remaking paper to Tucker Carlson.”
• Catching up on this from earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter’s Erik Hayden with “CNN Hires Chief Content Officer Amid Digital Rebuild.”
• The Sundance Film Festival is moving from Park City, Utah, where it has been since its start in 1978, to Boulder, Colorado. Deadline’s Dominic Patten and Anthony D’Alessandro have more.
• If you haven’t done so yet, check out the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast.” My guest is Dr. Justin Martin, the chair of media ethics and press policy at the University of South Florida. He has led a new revealing survey about kids and their use of smartphones, social media and more. Poynter’s managing editor Ren LaForme has more details in “Kids with smartphones report better mental health than those without, study finds.”

More resources for journalists

• Last Chance: The Poynter Leadership Academy delivers comprehensive leadership development for established management professionals. Apply by March 31.
• Reimagine your reporting as a non-fiction book. Apply by April 25.
• Refine your immigration policy expertise with Poynter’s Beat Academy. Enroll now.
• Advance your legal understanding through a workshop with strategies to secure your work in the current media climate. Enroll now.
• Establish your investigative foundation to deliver journalism that matters. Enroll now.

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

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