Kate Couric launches attack on ‘worrisome and upsetting’ Trump changes – Celebrity News – Entertainment

Veteran news anchor and talk-show host Katie Couric has publicly criticised Donald Trump’s recent policy changes and media-monitoring efforts, saying that the president’s increasing oversight of the mainstream media is “worrisome and really upsetting.”

In a detailed interview, Couric addressed his administration’s involvement in mergers between major media companies, along with what she calls corporate pressure on journalists. This comes after she spoke out in defense of Jimmy Kimmel, who was suspended by ABC following comments about Charlie Kirk’s shooting.

Couric pointed to the recently finalised deal between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, including an $8 billion merger approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as a relevant example of media consolidation happening under Trump’s watch.

She tied that merger and the settlement surrounding it to the broader question of editorial independence and corporate influence.

Without naming specific outlets, Couric said, “Listen, I’m disappointed. I mean, there’s no way around it. This corporate pressure on these journalists is, in my view, truly criminal. I believe that we must be purveyors of the truth. The idea that Barry Weiss was down there, and they were in Mar-a-Lago, honestly it was a little too cozy for my taste.

“And I think it’s really dangerous. And listen, I have spoken out…about just how disgusting this quid pro quo was before the merger, and paying Donald Trump $16 million. And, you know, I was disappointed ABC did the same thing. Someone told me that they should have just issued a…correction immediately, that it was sexual assault and not rape.”

She later added, “I think it’s actually really worrisome and really upsetting, and I think that’s one reason that a huge swath of Americans don’t trust mainstream media anymore. I mean, there a whole bunch of reasons why they don’t. But certainly when they know that these corporate overlords are saying, ‘don’t p— off the president,’ ya know, how much can they trust their journalists?”

Couric argued that when news organizations fold under pressure, whether from powerful individuals, corporations, or government figures, public trust is ruined.

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She referenced a “quid pro quo” tied to the merger involving the payment to Trump and criticised what she described as an inappropriate closeness between media figures and the president.

Senatorial investigations into the merger raised concerns about a link between the $16 million settlement and the approval of the merger by the Trump-era regulatory agency.

Couric has a history of publicly criticizing Donald Trump and the changes he has brought to the media world. In previous appearances, she has described the MAGA movement and its supporters as driven by “anti-intellectualism and elitism”.

On her Next Question podcast, she has also addressed how the rules of journalism have shifted in the era of Trump, noting that she doesn’t believe “there’s no such thing as true objectivity.”