The White House has reportedly escalated its campaign against what it calls the “fake news media,” unveiling a new “media offender of the week” feature on its official website.
The section is dedicated to publicly naming and shaming news organizations the administration accuses of bias, distortion, and deliberate misinformation targeting President Donald Trump.
The first outlets to be highlighted are The Boston Globe, CBS News, and The Independent. According to the White House, each “offender” was selected for allegedly misrepresenting Trump’s comments about members of Congress who, in Trump’s view, were encouraging insubordination within the military.
The controversy stems from a video released by several Democratic lawmakers urging military and intelligence personnel to refuse “illegal orders.” Though these lawmakers never cited specific orders, they claimed threats to the Constitution exist within the United States. Trump blasted the group in posts on Truth Social and said “seditious behavior” is “punishable by death,” while arguing those lawmakers should be jailed and put on trial for inciting rebellion.
Critics immediately interpreted the posts as Trump calling for executions. CBS, The Boston Globe, and The Independent ran headlines and coverage suggesting Trump had advocated death for political opponents.
But the White House pushed back, saying the outlets’ framing amounted to a smear campaign. “The media misrepresented President Trump’s call for Members of Congress to be held accountable for inciting sedition by saying that he called for their ‘execution,’” the website states. It argues that Trump’s comments were grounded in existing law describing maximum penalties for treason and sedition, not instructions for carrying out executions.
The administration included a section labeled “the truth,” which does not mention the “punishable by death” phrase directly, but instead reframes the controversy as an attempt by Democrats and the media to falsely imply Trump had issued illegal orders to the military. “Every order President Trump has issued has been lawful,” the site asserts, calling it “dangerous” for sitting lawmakers to encourage insubordination.
The White House says the media outlets engaged in “misrepresentation” and “omission of text,” selectively quoting Trump’s posts to paint him as advocating violence against elected officials. The website claims it “exposed” the bias of the three organizations’ reporting.
Trump has frequently clashed with the media and has been particularly aggressive toward CBS in recent years. He previously reached a $16 million legal settlement with Paramount, CBS’s parent company, over a 60 Minutes segment he said was deceptively edited to manipulate the 2024 election outcome.
With the rollout of the new “media offender of the week” feature, the White House is formalizing a communications strategy that directly confronts what it views as coordinated media efforts to undermine Trump’s agenda. Supporters see the move as long overdue—an effort to hold major outlets accountable for narratives they believe consistently distort or weaponize Trump’s words. Critics, meanwhile, argue the White House is attempting to intimidate the press.
Regardless, the administration’s message is clear: it intends to keep a spotlight on what it considers misinformation campaigns and media malpractice, naming names and pushing back aggressively when it believes coverage crosses the line.
[READ MORE: DeSantis Rejects Digital Driver’s Licenses in Florida, Citing Risks of Government Overreach]
