Lots to get to today, but first, I wanted to tell you about the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” which is out today.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine in a war that continues to this day. Over that time, the Pentagon has been seemingly and fully transparent about the weapons that the United States has provided Ukraine in its efforts to fight Russia — more than $66 billion worth.

But what was not known was the United States’ full involvement in the war. Until now. Recently, The New York Times and reporter Adam Entous published a remarkable piece of journalism that delved deep into this topic. It was called “The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine.”

Entous conducted more than 300 interviews over the course of a year with government, military and intelligence officials in a wide array of countries. Those officials shared sensitive information about the U.S.-Ukraine connection, allowing Entous to paint a full and nuanced picture of this delicate and critical relationship.

Entous joined “The Poynter Report Podcast” to talk about his story.

In our conversation, Entous and I talk about how he was tipped off to the story, what it’s like to work on a story for a year, how the relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine has changed with President Donald Trump now in the White House, and where this all goes from here. Give it a listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Amazon Music, and please consider leaving us a like or review. It helps a lot.

And now onto the rest of today’s newsletter.

Judge in AP case rules White House’s new pool policy appears to be in compliance with court order

For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.

On Friday, a federal judge denied a motion from The Associated Press asking him to enforce a ruling requiring that the White House restore the outlet’s access to President Donald Trump.

United States District Judge Trevor N. McFadden said during a hearing Friday that the White House appeared to be complying with his order, but he needed more time to determine whether it was engaging in “viewpoint discrimination” against the AP, according to The New York Times. McFadden had issued a preliminary injunction earlier this month, ordering the White House to lift the ban it had placed on the AP in February, in retaliation for the AP’s refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

After the injunction took effect April 14, AP journalists were excluded from the White House’s press pool for several days. The pool — a rotating group of journalists that have greater access to Trump — at that point had dedicated slots for photographers and wire outlets. Rather than allow the AP to rejoin the rotation of wire services participating in the pool, the White House announced on April 15 it was eliminating the slot entirely. Instead, the AP and wire services Bloomberg and Reuters would be put in a rotation with more than 30 other outlets for two “print” slots.

The AP filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to enforce the injunction. Shortly after, the White House allowed AP photojournalists back into the pool. The AP also received a print slot on Saturday.

McFadden said Friday that the White House’s new policy appeared “facially neutral,” according to the Times, but that there would be “consequences” if he found that the White House was defying his order.

Speaking of which …

The latest from Politico’s Michael Kruse: “Trump’s Most Important Relationship Is Ending. And the Break-Up Isn’t Pretty.”

Kruse writes, “Trump used to court the AP. Today he’s in court with the AP — key members of Trump’s administration are defendants in a lawsuit filed by the flagship wire service after he booted its reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One for not following his order to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. It might sound like some farcical sitcom plot, but it’s also the deadly serious front line of what’s become Trump’s all-out war on the mainstream media. And in his long, hyper-public life, this marks in Trump’s means of ascent nothing short of a massive shift.”

It’s true. Trump has gone from craving media coverage to now having an, as Kruse aptly put it, “all-out war on mainstream media.”

Kruse’s story is an excellent look into the whys and hows of Trump’s relationship with the media, going back to the 1980s, and where it is headed now.

Big name in journalism out at CJR

Sewell Chan has one of the more respected names in the journalism business. He has been a senior editor at places such as The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He was the editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune. He was elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2022. And just last September, he became executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review — another prestigious title in the journalism world.

But his tenure at CJR came to an abrupt end late last week when he was fired as a result of staff complaints.

In a lengthy post on X on Friday, Chan wrote, “This was the first time in a 25-year career that I’ve ever been subjected to discipline in a job — much less terminated from one.” He said that the decision to terminate him was “hasty, ill-considered and quite frankly baffling.”

So what happened?

Well, officially, Chan said he was made aware of complaints from staff over the way they said he treated them. Chan called them “pointed interactions in which I provided fair and critical feedback rooted in editorial rigor.”

He admitted there were three of those interactions in recent weeks. He wrote, “These are normal workplace interactions and I did exactly what I was hired to do, which was provide rigorous, fair, careful editorial oversight and raise the metabolism and impact of a publication that’s supposed to monitor the media.”

Chan said he offered to meet with staff and requested a coach to help him “navigate” his role.

“Instead,” he wrote, “I was fired.”

On Friday, Ravi Somaiya, a former editor at CJR, wrote an essay describing his workplace perspective on Chan. Somaiya claimed Chan yelled at him in a “a state of profound agitation. Near violence.”

Chan was a member of Poynter’s National Advisory Board, but that was well before I joined Poynter in 2019. He has since been at Poynter for various events and I know him to say hello, but haven’t had much interaction with him.

However, I would say the same thing that Dan Kennedy, a professor at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, wrote for MediaNation: “I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about either Chan or Columbia Journalism School dean Jelani Cobb, who fired him.”

There’s no question, and certainly no surprise, that CJR has done some excellent journalism with Chan in charge. But how that journalism came about is at the center of this controversy. Washington Post media reporter Jeremy Barr, in a tweet on X, had a quote from Cobb that certainly hints at some issues: “We are most grateful to the CJR staff for their resilience and dedication.”

It feels as if there is much more to uncover about this story.

The New York Times’ Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin wrote, “Mr. Chan’s departure comes at an inopportune time for CJR. The magazine, which has been running under tight budgetary constraints, was beginning a fund-raising campaign, two people familiar with it said. Now, the magazine is without a permanent editor to spearhead that effort.”

Betsy Morais, previously the managing editor of CJR, has been named interim editor.

Happy Easter

Sunday was Easter — one of the holiest and most joyful days of the year for Christians. So, naturally, President Donald Trump took to social media to send a wish of goodwill and celebration to the American people, right?

At 8:46 a.m. Eastern on Sunday, he posted on Truth Social a happy Easter to all, “including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country. Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!”

Also in his Easter warm wishes, he criticized former President Joe Biden and once again complained that the 2020 election was stolen.

Media tidbits

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, shown here last week at the White House. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

• Here we go again with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. From The New York Times, Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt and Maggie Haberman with “Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat.”
• The New York Times’ Anna Kodé with “Mr. Zuckerberg Goes to Washington and Buys a Mansion.”
• Mediaite’s Caleb Howe with “‘Don’t Become Monsters!’ Joe Rogan Opposition to Trump on Due Process for Abrego Garcia Praised By Liberals.”
• Catching up on this from last week. A game-show and radio legend has passed. Wink Martindale, best known for hosting game shows in the 1970s and 1980s such as “Gambit” and “Tic-Tac-Dough,” died last week. He was 91. The Associated Press’ Beth Harris has more.
• The NBA and NHL playoffs started over the weekend. Sadly, TNT did not have announcers on site for the opening game of the St. Louis-Winnipeg hockey series in Winnipeg. Announcers John Forslund and Jennifer Botterill called the game from a studio in Atlanta. That’s inexcusable. It’s the playoffs. Announcers should be on site to see everything that’s taking place. ESPN has game two of that series tonight and their announcers will be in Winnipeg.

Hot type

• A two-part Wall Street Journal investigation from Valerie Bauerlein. Part 1 is “Police Say He Killed in Self-Defense. His Phone Tells Another Story.” And Part 2 is “‘You’re Taken Care of’: Did Police Promise to Shield a Killer?”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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