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2025 Summer: Volume 30, Number 3
Below is the Table of Contents for the 2025 Summer edition of the Silha Bulletin. Click on the title to read the full article.
Top Story: Trump Reaches Settlement with Paramount; FCC Approves Paramount SkyDance Merger
On July 1, 2025, Paramount, the parent company of CBS, announced that it had reached a $16 million dollar settlement with President Donald Trump to resolve the 2024 lawsuit he brought alleging that the weekly news magazine show 60 Minutes had deceptively edited an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Public Media Access: News Networks Under the Umbrella of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Including Voice of America, Continue to Fight Trump Administration’s Shutdown Orders
In early 2025, President Trump and various members of his administration, including Senior Advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Kari Lake, took actions to shutter the news networks under USAGM’s control.
Public Media Access: Corporation for Public Broadcasting Cuts Affect PBS and NPR
On May 1, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14290 (EO) directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other agencies to halt both direct and indirect federal funding support for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR).
U.S. Supreme Court: Supreme Court Upholds Law That Requires Online Users to Verify Their Age to Access Sexual Content
On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court by a 6 to 3 vote along ideological lines upheld a Texas law that requires age verification to access sexual material online.
Sophie Gillmor: 1927-2025
Sophie Gillmor, née Kryzanowski, died on July 16, 2025, at the age of 97. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Gillmor, who became the founding director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law in 1984 and was named the first Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law in 1990.
Social Media: New State Laws Regulating Social Media Raise First Amendment Concerns
In 2025, numerous states proposed and passed laws that will, in various ways, significantly affect children’s ability to access and use social media.
Prior Restraint: Florida State Agency Sends Cease-and-Desist Letter to Orlando Sentinel Over Critical Reporting
On Jun 6, 2025, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) sent a cease-and-desist letter to the executive editor of the Orlando Sentinel and one of its reporters after the newspaper began investigating the Hope Florida Foundation (Hope Florida), a nonprofit charity run by Casey DeSantis, the wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Press Freedom: Colorado Court Rejects Consumer-Protection Suit Against Denver Post and Its Owner
In June 2025, a Boulder County (Colo.) judge dismissed entrepreneur Andrew Michael Baron’s lawsuit accusing the owner of The Denver Post of violating the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (CCPA).
Media Ethics: ABC News Declines to Renew Longtime Correspondent’s Contract Following Criticism of Trump
In June 2025, ABC News declined to renew its contract with longtime correspondent Terry Moran after he called President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller “world-class” haters on the social media platform X, according to reporting from NPR.
Defamation: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Loses Defamation Rulings; President Trump Defamation Cases Allowed to Proceed
Summer and fall 2025 yielded several significant rulings in defamation cases, including two rulings against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell stemming from statements he made about the 2020 election, and decisions by two state courts which permitted defamation lawsuits filed by President Trump to proceed.
Defamation: California Governor Newsom, President Trump Each File Defamation Suits
On June 27, 2025, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Fox News for defamation, seeking $787 million in damages.
Endangered Journalists: Violence Against Journalists in LA Protests
In early June 2025, demonstrations erupted across Los Angeles over federal immigration operations and detentions at workplaces, churches, and public spaces.
Endangered Journalists: Journalists in Danger in Israel-Hamas War: Israeli Ban on Foreign Journalists Throttles Information Coming From the Gaza Strip
In late summer 2025, Israel faced growing criticism for its policy of barring foreign reporters from entering the territory and for the killing of journalists in Gaza.
Silha Center Events: 40th Annual Silha Lecture Addresses the Role of Editorial Cartoonists in “Democracy’s Perilous Moment”
On Sept. 30, 2025, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes - whose work has been published in The New York Times, Le Monde, and The Washington Post, among other outlets — spoke about the role of editorial cartoonists and satirists in civic debate, especially at this moment in the nation’s political history, as she delivered the 40th annual Silha Lecture, “Stop Drawing or Else: A Cartoonist's View on Democracy’s Perilous Moment.”