Dylan Byers

President Donald Trump has been treated better by Fox News since Rupert Murdoch took over for Roger Ailes -- and he knows it. The president has been heard on multiple occasions talking about how Fox's coverage of him has become more positive since Murdoch took the reins at the network, sources at both the White House and Fox News told CNNMoney.

The president "talks about how the coverage under Murdoch is better than under Ailes," a White House source said. According to New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman, President Trump was also heard on a hot mic this week telling Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, "Rupert's been a lot better to me than Roger ever was." The president's sentiments about Murdoch may explain why he repeatedly gives interviews to Fox outlets while ignoring other networks.

Much of conservative media rallied behind Donald Trump in 2016. Now that he's struggling to live up to some of his promises as president, the relationship is fast becoming more complicated. President Trump's failure to bring Obamacare repeal legislation to a vote, the sense that his credibility -- including on promises he made to conservatives -- has been diminished, and his waning approval numbers are exposing fissures between and within conservative media outlets that had effectively served as a united front during his bid for the presidency.

The fissures reflect divisions among factions in Trump's own White House, as well as the various factions among Republicans on Capitol Hill. They are exacerbated by the fact that, for the first time in a decade, Republicans control both the White House and the Congress -- leaving conservative critics without a favorite scapegoat: Democrats. Broadly speaking, there are three groups within conservative media: Populists who were enthusiastic passengers on the Trump train but now appear to be prioritizing their principles over strict allegiance to the president; moderate Republicans and Never-Trumpers who do the same, albeit with a different set of principles; and unabashedly pro-Trump conservatives who for now appear set to defend and promote the president no matter what.

The White House press briefing is usually a forum for reporters and the public to learn new information about the president and his administration. On March 13, after two months of baseless accusations and contradictory statements from the White House, the briefing instead turned into a debate about whether claims made by the president and his administration can even be trusted. "When can we trust the president?" NBC's Peter Alexander asked press secretary Sean Spicer. "When he says something, can we trust that it's real?" Alexander highlighted two claims by President Trump that raised questions about his trustworthiness. The first was Trump's accusation, made without presenting any evidence, that President Obama had wiretapped his phones. The second was his claim, also made without presenting any evidence, that previous jobs reports were "phony," while current ones were real.

Sean Spicer has barely moved into his office. Three weeks after the inauguration, the only things adorning the White House press secretary's shelves are a framed picture of himself at the podium, a book on Naval Special Warfare (he's in the Reserve), and a Super Soaker commemorating the infamous "Saturday Night Live" skit in which he, played by an enraged Melissa McCarthy, berated reporters while dousing them with soapy water. Just beyond these walls, in the briefing room and the restaurants and hotel bars frequented by the town's journalists and politicos, conclusions about Spicer's future have already been drawn. The prevailing wisdom is that the combative press secretary is not long for his office, destined to be thrown out in a matter of months or perhaps weeks for failing at what everyone describes as the hardest job in Washington: defending, and pleasing, President Donald J. Trump.

[Commentary] In turning one of the most consequential decisions of the presidency into a primetime television event, and doing so before publicly sorting out the details of his latest executive order, President Donald Trump is governing in the way a television executive might, making moves that have the effect of controlling the narrative and driving ratings.

It's a familiar play for President Trump: During his presidential campaign, he made controversial statements or scheduled rallies to distract attention from his opponents. As president, however, Trump's big swings haven't moved the news cycle quite as much as they once did. Every major news organization covered Trump's Supreme Court tweet, but normally an impending nomination announcement would dominate the news; on Jan 30, it barely registered amid the cacophony of headlines and analysis surrounding the travel ban. At the Jan 30 White House press briefing, the majority of questions focused on the ban. There were only two about the forthcoming Supreme Court nominee.

The line between news reporting and opinion is blurring in Ferguson (MO) as some national journalists inject their perspective and even themselves into the story.

The conduct of a few prominent members of the press on the ground has drawn the attention of media observers and prompted the wrath of conservatives who see an anti-law enforcement bias in the Fourth Estate.

Forty-eight media organizations -- ranging from the Associated Press to Fox News to The New Yorker and the National Press Club -- sent a letter to law enforcement authorities in Ferguson (MO) to protest the police's treatment of reporters and ask for greater transparency regarding the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American who was shot and killed by police.

Former Vice President Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt have filed a lawsuit against Al Jazeera on charges of fraud and material breaches in their acquisition of Current Media.

Gore and Hyatt, the co-founders of Current Media, say that Al Jazeera has unlawfully refused to turn over tens of millions of dollars currently located in an escrow account. That money is owed to Current Media shareholders per the terms of the $500-million merger agreement made in January 2013, the plaintiffs say.

The complaint has been filed under seal at the request of Al Jazeera, though Gore and Hyatt have filed a motion seeking to unseal it.

The Washington Post is drawing attention from media critics who question whether the paper's new owner Jeff Bezos is influencing coverage of his company Amazon.

Nearly one week after The New York Times reported on a bitter dispute between Amazon and the book publisher Hachette, the Post has yet to cover the story. Amazon has been discouraging customers from buying Hachette books by delaying deliveries, according to the report.

The absence of any Amazon-Hachette mention in the Post has been flagged by media critics Jack Shafer and Jim Romenesko, and criticized by the publisher Melville House. Post executive editor Martin Baron assured POLITICO that the lack of coverage was simply a matter of resources and editorial judgment.