Poynter is reporting that President Donald Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over objections to their coverage. It said the three outlets sued, and a federal judge ordered the White House to let them back in. Poynter said the fight is not over and that Tom Jones covered the saga in The Poynter Report.
Poynter is reporting that McClatchy laid off Alex Acquisto, a reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky, despite her work covering public health, the methamphetamine crisis, rural health departments, the pandemic, Kentucky's near-total abortion ban and, as a ProPublica fellow, an addiction treatment company whose employees said it fraudulently billed Kentucky Medicaid millions of dollars. It said Acquisto was one of 13 journalists cut from the Herald-Leader, more than half its staff, as part of layoffs that eliminated upward of 90 jobs across McClatchy. Poynter said the cuts will leave the paper without dedicated reporters covering Appalachian Kentucky, Lexington city government or the day-to-day work of the state legislature. It said McClatchy told employees it needed to focus on journalism that is differentiated, consequential and difficult to replicate and rooted in its communities.
Poynter is reporting that NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" reaches roughly 3.2 million listeners a week, sells out live shows and ranks among the country's most popular podcasts nearly 30 years after its debut. It said host Peter Sagal told Poynter contributor Jessica Lipsky that the darker times get, the more important the program feels.
Poynter is reporting that Rebuild Local News founder and president Steven Waldman proposes a $4 million one-time contribution from each data center to create a permanent endowment for two local reporters, with the money routed through independent community foundations so the companies have no say in coverage. It said one reporter could keep tabs on the data center while the other covers the community more broadly.