Max Greenwood

President Donald Trump attacked the media once again on July 6, calling them "downright dishonest" and "really bad people" during a campaign-style rally in Montana. "I see the way they write. They're so damn dishonest," President Trump said. "And I don't mean all of them, because some of the finest people I know are journalists really. Hard to believe when I say that. I hate to say it, but I have to say it. But 75 percent of those people are downright dishonest. Downright dishonest. They're fake. They're fake." "They make the sources up. They don't exist in many cases," he continued.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Democracy 21 filed a criminal complaint alleging that the Trump campaign and a super PAC controlled by President Trump's new national security adviser John Bolton worked with the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to violate a law preventing foreign nations from participating in US elections. The groups allege that the John Bolton Super PAC, the Trump campaign and its former chairman Stephen Bannon were aware of Cambridge Analytica's nefarious activities.

Burger King is blasting the Federal Communications Commission's decision to scrap network neutrality rules in a new ad released Jan 24, using its signature sandwich to do it.  The fast food chain posted a video illustrating what it would be like if its restaurants implemented a policy of "Whopper neutrality," in which customers had to pay more to receive their burger faster. Customers ordering Whoppers were given the option to pay for various MBPS — "Making Burgers Per Second" — rates. The slowest rate cost only $4.99, but came with a long wait time.

President Donald Trump lashed out at the news media for what he said was demeaning coverage of Republicans' tax code overhaul. "The Tax Cuts are so large and so meaningful, and yet the Fake News is working overtime to follow the lead of their friends, the defeated Dems, and only demean," he said. "This is truly a case where the results will speak for themselves, starting very soon."

President Donald Trump said that AT&T's planned merger with Time Warner is "not good for the country."  Personally, I’ve always felt that that was a deal that’s not good for the country,” President Trump told reporters at the White House. The president's comments came a day after the Justice Department sued AT&T to block the $85 billion Time Warner merger, arguing that the deal would create a media behemoth and ultimately hurt U.S. consumers.

Sens Tom Udall (D-NM) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) are warning of a "pattern of hostility" by the Trump Administration toward journalists. In a letter sent to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, the Sens seek answers on why security guards at the FCC reportedly "manhandled" and ejected a reporter from the agency's headquarters on May 18. "Yesterday’s incident at the FCC is not an isolated one and seems to be a part of a larger pattern of hostility towards the press characteristic of this administration, which underscores our serious concern," the letter reads. Sens Udall and Hassan assail the security guard's treatment of CQ Roll Call reporter John Donnelly in the letter. "Given the FCC’s role as the primary authority for communications law and its regulatory role with respect to the media, the FCC should set a sterling example when it comes to supporting the First Amendment and freedom of the press for other government entities here in the United States and around the world," the letter reads.

Top Democratic Reps are asking the White House to turn over any recordings of President Trump's conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey. "Under normal circumstances, we would not consider credible any claims that the White House may have taped conversations of meetings with the President," Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) and Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wrote in a letter to White House counsel Donald McGahn. "However, because of the many false statements made by White House officials this week, we are compelled to ask whether any such recordings do in fact exist. If so, we request copies of all recordings in possession of the White House regarding this matter."

House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA) said, “If the President has ‘tapes’ of his conversations with Director Comey, it is because the president himself made them. For a President who baselessly accused his predecessor of illegally wiretapping him, that Mr. Trump would suggest that he, himself, may have engaged in such conduct is staggering. The president should immediately provide any such recordings to Congress or admit, once again, to have made a deliberately misleading — and in this case threatening — statement.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied the validity of a memo circulating on social media that claims that Fox News will be the only news channel allowed on televisions for one of the agency's units. “There was no directive or memorandum from the Administration that went out to employees about broadcast news channels displaying on monitors in common areas throughout the FDA’s White Oak campus,” an FDA spokeswoman said. The memo, which was apparently sent to employees at the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, says that administration officials have "requested that all monitors, under our control, on the White Oak Campus, display FOX news."

A top political ally to Vice President Mike Pence is an investor in the conservative news organization that was granted special access to cover Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's latest overseas trip. Nick Ayers, an Atlanta-based political strategist who worked on the campaign, is a part owner of the Independent Journal Review, whose White House correspondent was the only reporter allowed to accompany Tillerson on a trip to Asia this week.

There is no evidence to suggest that Ayers was behind or involved in the decision to allow the reporter to accompany Tillerson on his trip, nor is there any indication that the strategist is involved in the organization's editorial decisions. A State Department spokesman said the decision to allow IJR reporter Erin McPike on the trip was "to bring somebody in who doesn’t necessarily cover the State Department, a media outlet that isn’t steeped in foreign policy and give it a new, fresh perspective.” That decision enraged reporters assigned to cover the State Department, and reignited questions about the whether the Trump administration grants special privileges to news outlets that it views as favorable.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said that his panel has not received any evidence that President Donald Trump was wiretapped during the election campaign. "As I told you last week about the issue with the president talking about tapping Trump Tower, that evidence still remains the same, that we don't have any evidence that that took place," Chairman Nunes said. "In fact, I don't believe just in the last week of time, the people we've talked to, I don't think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower." It is not the first time Chairman Nunes has stated that there is no evidence to suggest Trump was wiretapped.