The Media Beat with David Tereshchuk
Oct 2, 2026 · 15 min · 7 segments
In both the US and Middle East, political leaders try to muzzle the media. THE MEDIA BEAT’s public radio podcast this week assesses the stakes, as elections loom in both arenas. Artwork Credit…
All over the White House, at least in the areas where the press corps generally has had access, sheets of paper, informally reeled off from an office printer, were pinned to the people's house walls, proclaiming, We stand with AP, CNN, MSNOW, and Politico.
AP's apparently punishable offense, you might remember, was refusing to go along with the president's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
You may wonder, I certainly do, just what was the point for Donald Trump in provoking this whole anti-press fracas in the first place.
And even those who were banned can continue to report verbally on the administration, although their reports may remain unillustrated with material from TV cameras.
Correspondents in the Oval Office asked him was he upset by any particular coverage recently.
No, he told them, quote, it's really just cumulative stories over the last two years, he said.
That line of reasoning, and certainly when cased in those particular petulant words, left his attorneys, who are tasked, after all, with trying to legally justify the administration's actions, with an obvious problem.
They can hardly stand up in court and just say, the president is sick of it, your honor.
The White House press office issued letters to the three newly banned organizations that accused them of, quote, trafficking in verifiable falsehoods and publishing sensitive or classified information.
And this was not a leak, as charged, but instead was an entirely authorized briefing, It began, as the taped recording makes clear, with these words from a press office functionary.
The contents of this call are on background, attributable to a senior administration official.
All over the White House, at least in the areas where the press corps generally has had access, sheets of paper, informally reeled off from an office printer, were pinned to the people's house walls, proclaiming, We stand with AP, CNN, MSNOW, and Politico.
AP's apparently punishable offense, you might remember, was refusing to go along with the president's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
You may wonder, I certainly do, just what was the point for Donald Trump in provoking this whole anti-press fracas in the first place.
And even those who were banned can continue to report verbally on the administration, although their reports may remain unillustrated with material from TV cameras.
Correspondents in the Oval Office asked him was he upset by any particular coverage recently.
No, he told them, quote, it's really just cumulative stories over the last two years, he said.
That line of reasoning, and certainly when cased in those particular petulant words, left his attorneys, who are tasked, after all, with trying to legally justify the administration's actions, with an obvious problem.
They can hardly stand up in court and just say, the president is sick of it, your honor.
The White House press office issued letters to the three newly banned organizations that accused them of, quote, trafficking in verifiable falsehoods and publishing sensitive or classified information.
And this was not a leak, as charged, but instead was an entirely authorized briefing, It began, as the taped recording makes clear, with these words from a press office functionary.
The contents of this call are on background, attributable to a senior administration official.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.