The Hound | Sept. 25

Hi there,

It’s Friday. While CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were barred from the White House grounds Thursday morning — in defiance of a court order — China Global Television Network and Xinhua News had full access. Chinese state media filmed Xi Jinping's arrival at the White House. American outlets did not. The entire U.S. TV pool boycotted coverage in solidarity. As CNN's Kaitlan Collins put it: "The Chinese communist state media is allowed onto the White House grounds — but we are not."

🖊️ Sign the petition to call on the media to cover Trump's differential treatment of American and foreign state press not as a press access story, but as what it is: a president who is more comfortable with the controlled media of America's adversaries than with the free press of his own country.

This is not the first time. In his first term, Trump barred the U.S. press pool from the Oval Office while allowing Russian state media to photograph his meeting with Russian officials. The pattern is unmistakable: a president who calls American journalists enemies of the people rolls out the red carpet for the propaganda arms of authoritarian governments. The public deserves reporting that names that preference plainly — and asks what it reveals about whose interests this administration actually serves.

In addition, a new report shows how ICE has likely wasted tens of millions of dollars to expand detention centers. And at the United Nations General Assembly, Panama champions a new universal declaration on the rights of nature.

Read about these, and more, in today’s stories:

Trump Gives Chinese State Media More Power Than American Media (The New Republic)

ICE has wasted tens of millions to carry out Trump’s mass detention agenda – report (The Guardian)

At the UN, Panama Champions a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature (Inside Climate News)

Federal Judge Torches ICE for Mass Detention in “Degrading” Conditions (The New Republic)

How the Smithsonian Became the Latest Front in Trump’s Culture War (ProPublica)

Green Energy Is Coming for the Desert (The Intercept)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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