Aug. 17, 2026

■ ICE shot a journalist and threw him in detention. He’s approaching 300 days behind bars with a festering wound. (The Intercept) / Journalists call for more transparency from ICE (CNN) 

■ Trump secretly switched planes. The journalists left aboard say they deserved a warning. (Washington Post) / ‘Nearly a week after the revelations about Trump’s secret plane switch that treated the WH press pool like a decoy, there’s been no press briefing; no serious acknowledgment of the deception; no commitment to handle it differently if there’s a next time…’ (Brian Stelter) / What to do about Donald Trump duping the press (New York Magazine)

■ New York Times WH correspondent reveals Trump’s White House staff quietly question his priorities (MS NOW) 

■ BBC asks a US court for help in getting testimony from the Trump family in defamation suit (Associated Press)

■ ‘Outrageous’ handcuffing of New Orleans journalist sends ‘chilling message,’ says media group (The Guardian) 

■ What Karoline Leavitt leaves behind (Columbia Journalism Review)

■ Paramount demands that states post $1.88 billion bond amid Warner Bros. antitrust suit (Hollywood Reporter) / CNN president pitches giving network an editorial board to shield it from Paramount (Semafor)

■ Europe’s broadcasters want to get bigger. The hard part is how (Hollywood Reporter)

■ CBS News Chief Correspondent Matt Gutman accused of harassment in wrongful-termination suit by former ABC News producer (Hollywood Reporter)

■ New York Magazine drops columnist Ross Barkan after internal review of sourcing, attribution (TheWrap)

■ Daily Mail brings on exec as it plans video expansion (Semafor) / STAT hires two new reporters (Talking Biz News) / Sinclair names Carol Kellum VP-GM of KPTM & KHGI-KFXL (TV News Check) / Tech reporter Rabinowitz departs NBC News for Wired (Talking Biz News) / The New York Times appoints new weekend editor in Metro (New York Times)

■ Charlotte independent alternative newspaper Queen City Nerve shuts down after eight years (WCCB Charlotte) 

■ Axios partners with OpenAI to ‘automate’ local journalism (Futurism) 

■ ABC unveils new twist for live-streamed news: Shows that respond to viewer queries, needs (Variety) 

■ Can public media build its own social network? Chicago Public Media teams up with New_ Public to try (Nieman Journalism Lab)

■ Why WTOP’s ‘Top News Podcast’ is the wake-up call news radio needed (Barrett Media)

TOMORROW: Framing national public health stories for local audiences

A great public health story doesn’t stop at geography. The most impactful journalism connects the dots, showing how local realities reflect national trends and how national policies shape what’s happening in communities every day.

Learn how to elevate your reporting by placing local and regional stories within a broader national context — and how to bring national issues home in ways that feel relevant and real for your audience — during a free training.

🗓️ Tuesday, Aug. 18 | ⏰ 11 a.m. ET | 📍Zoom

Designed for journalists covering public health and healthcare, this training will help you translate complex systems into compelling, accessible narratives.

You’ll learn how to:

• Anchor local reporting in national data, policy, and trends without losing nuance
• Localize national health issues with reporting that centers people, place, and lived experience
• Translate complex public health and healthcare topics into clear, engaging stories for broad audiences

About the speaker:

Tracy Jan is a senior editor for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. Jan regularly partners with local news outlets on investigative projects of great significance. Before joining ProPublica in 2025, Jan was a deputy health and science editor at The Washington Post, where she led coverage of medical misinformation, public health, and other health accountability stories.

This program is part of the NPCJI’s monthly webinar series produced as part of the Public Health Reporting Fellowship. In partnership with the Common Health Coalition, the fellowship offers training and financial support for mid-career journalists to complete reporting projects focused on the intersection of public health policy and health care delivery.

Resources

• What Trump's latest executive order means (and doesn't mean) for vaccine policy (Association of Health Care Journalists)
• 10 practical tips for verifying scientific claims (Global Investigative Journalism Network) 
• AI is eating your journalism. Here are the 11 tools you can use to take back control (JournalismUK)

This newsletter is written and edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

Get this from a friend? Subscribe and view the archives.