Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with press freedom in America under attack by Trump and the oligarchs who support

him as the White House shuts out Reuters and the Huffington Post from the press pool,

which for over 100 years has been run by the White House Correspondents Association,

to have mainstream reporters replaced by Trump-friendly

commentators and propagandists from Blaze Media and Newsmax. Joining us to discuss this and how

the owner of the Washington Post appears to be bending the knee again to Trump by taking over the

opinion page in a move that elicited a bravo from Musk is Paul Fari,

who was a reporter for the Washington Post for 35 years.

He covered business, a presidential campaign, and the news media.

He left at the end of 2023 and has been a freelance writer contributing to the Atlantic,

The Athletic, Neiman

reports, The Daily Beast and the Columbia Journalism Review, where he has an article we will discuss,

will others dive into the White House press pool. Then we'll assess the new budget the House

Republicans just passed with a one-vote margin after Trump had put the squeeze on wavering

Republicans who did not want to vote against their constituents' interests by cutting Medicaid

in particular to please plutocrats with another massive tax cut.

Joining us is Michael Offren, who has spent 28 years working in Congress, the last 16, as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget Committees.

He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Party is Over, How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class got shafted.

His latest article at Common Dreams is, The Last Taboo, Why Are Voters Never

Held Responsible for Their Choices. Then finally we'll look into why Israel voted with Russia and Iran

...