☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Trump files $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times
- New from Pew Research Center: Which topics do Americans get news about?
- In other news: ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel show over Charlie Kirk comments
- Looking ahead: Former Univision anchor Jorge Ramos launches new English-language podcast
- Chart of the week: Older Americans more likely to get news about several topics
🔥 Featured story
The New York Times and book publisher Penguin Random House are on the receiving end of a defamation lawsuit from President Donald Trump. The suit filed this week targets a book by two Times reporters and three articles about Trump that were published prior to the 2024 election. It claims the book contained “fabrications” and that the articles were “false, malicious, defamatory, and disparaging.” The Times and Penguin said the lawsuit is without merit.
This isn’t the president’s first legal clash with media companies: Since the beginning of 2024, Trump has also sued The Wall Street Journal, The Des Moines Register, CBS News and ABC News, with the latter two reaching settlements. Meanwhile, the Associated Press filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after facing retaliation for continuing to use “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America.”
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late February and early March found that majorities of both Republicans and Democrats said that the relationship between Trump and the news media was very or somewhat bad. But while seven-in-ten Democrats said that the Trump administration has been too critical of the news media, a similar share of Republicans said that the news media has been too critical of the Trump administration.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
More Americans say they get news about government and politics than four other topics asked about in a March Center survey. Older Americans and those who voted in the 2024 presidential election are especially likely to get political news. Younger adults are more likely than older people to get news about entertainment.
📌 In other news
- ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after criticism of comments about Charlie Kirk killing
- Washington Post columnist says she was fired for social media posts after Kirk’s murder
- U.S. and China near deal over future of TikTok
- A closer look at Nepal’s protests that started with a social media ban
- NPR to cut $5 million from budget; local stations facing uncertain future
- The Baltimore Banner to expand coverage within Maryland
- House Republicans plan bill to consolidate three U.S. Agency for Global Media broadcasters
- YouTube announces new AI tools for podcasters
📅 Looking ahead
Former Univision anchor Jorge Ramos has launched a new English-language podcast with his daughter, aiming to connect with the growing number of U.S. Hispanics who seek news in English. The show, called “The Moment,” premiered on Wednesday with an interview of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
About half of U.S. Hispanic adults (51%) say they prefer to get their news in English, far more than the share who prefer to get news in Spanish (24%), according to a 2024 Center study on Hispanic Americans’ news habits. An additional 23% say they have no preference. Hispanics who were born in the U.S. overwhelmingly prefer their news in English (79%), while a much smaller share of Hispanic immigrants feel this way (22%).
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart of the week comes from a recent Center analysis about which topics of news Americans are most likely to get. Older adults are more likely to say they get news on most of the topics we asked about extremely often or often. For example, among Americans ages 65 and older, 77% get news about government and politics extremely often or often, compared with half of those ages 18 to 29.
However, younger adults are more likely than older people to frequently get entertainment news. About a third of adults under 30 get entertainment news extremely often or often, compared with 19% or fewer in older age groups.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang, Emily Tomasik, and Joanne Haner. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Mia Hennen.
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