Both KGAN (CBS 2) and KXFA (Fox 28) will be increasing the amount of Trump-friendly news commentary they broadcast. Neither station has a choice in the matter. Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the media company that owns one of the Cedar Rapids stations, and operates the other, is mandating the pro-Trump content boost.
Donald Trump
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Democracy in Crisis: Press Briefs — Sad little scenes from the White House briefing room
1. The White House briefing room feels like a mansion’s pool house, but with the carpet of a church basement. On the eve of the summer solstice, after a week without an on-camera press briefing, the room smells like a grill doused with too much lighter fluid. Cameramen and techies move around in loose clothes […]
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Protesters, Trump supporters face off outside of Trump’s Cedar Rapids rally
In the hours leading up to President Donald Trump’s Cedar Rapids rally, protesters and Trump supporters stood in the rain on separate sides of the street. One side held aloft posters and chanted — “Dump Trump” and “Love Trumps Hate.” The other side sported “Make America Great Again” hats and occasionally shouted slogans of their own, including the ever popular “USA, USA.”
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Iowa City’s Sudanese community navigates Trump’s travel ban rhetoric
Hanadi Elshazali will always remember what it felt like to go to work on Nov. 9, 2016 — the day after the country elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. She’ll remember the chaotic silence as she entered her office at the Pheasant Ridge Neighborhood Center of Johnson County, the muffled whispers that made her […]
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Democracy in Crisis: The indictment of journalist Aaron Cantú portends grim future for First Amendment
Dozens of defendants, each sitting with their own lawyer, fill a Washington, D.C. courtroom, looking like college students wearing their nicest clothes for a job interview. It is far more serious than that. They are all facing charges of felony rioting, conspiracy to riot and destruction of property on the morning of Donald Trump’s inauguration, when they were scooped up en masse by police with a controversial crowd-control technique which corrals protesters in a “kettle.”
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Democracy in Crisis: I took my Trump-loving father to Mar-A-Lago
A couple of weeks ago, my dad and I stood on a Palm Beach sandbar staring at President Trump’s Mar-A-Lago golf club and resort. Even though my dad and I were standing on the same sandbar, looking through the same zoomed phone screen, squinting in the same midday sun and turned away by the same security guard, we saw totally different things.
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Democracy in Crisis Podcast: Maryland Attorney General on why he’s suing Trump
On this week’s episode co-host Marc Steiner interviews Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who, along with District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, filed a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump. The lawsuit argues that Trump is violating the emoluments clause (an anti-corruption clause in the Constitution) by accepting payments from foreign governments.
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Trump returns to Iowa on June 21 for rescheduled campaign rally
President Donald Trump will visit Cedar Rapids on June 21 at 7 p.m. for a re-scheduled rally at the U.S. Cellular Center, according to a press release sent today by the Trump campaign.
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Sen. Grassley to Trump: ‘Shutting down oversight requests doesn’t drain the swamp … It floods the swamp’
In a seven-page letter addressed to President Donald Trump and dated June 7, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley accused the executive branch’s Office of Legal Council (OLC) of attempting to “insulate the executive branch from scrutiny by the elected representatives of the American people.” The letter, written by Grassley and sent on behalf of the U.S. […]
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No, Berkeley Breathed was not hassled by Trump’s lawyers
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, novelist, illustrator, screenwriter and producer and former Iowa City resident Berkeley Breathed pranked his fans yesterday by posting a threatening letter on his Facebook page ostensibly written by President Trump’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.
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Democracy in Crisis: Trump, Erdoğan and populist oppression
What we can learn from Turkey’s populist regime I fucked up on Twitter last week when sending out a story I wrote about Kurds and other activists who were attacked by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security forces outside of the Turkish ambassador’s Washington, D.C. residence. Instead of typing “Turkish security forces,” I inadvertently wrote “Trump security […]
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Democracy in Crisis Podcast: Trump gives secrets to the Russians; Chelsea Manning freed
On this week’s episode, co-hosts Marc Steiner and Baynard Woods talk first about the secrets Trump shared with Russian diplomats. Then, they are joined by Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, and a close friend and supporter of Chelsea Manning to talk about what Manning’s release from prison.
