Billionaires Bought the Media

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Article in The Hartmann Report by Thom Hartnann, 10/20/26

Headline:  “No Kings? Then Why Are We Letting Billionaires Rule What America Can See and Hear?”

Subhead:  “Millions march against authoritarianism while a handful of powerful men control the digital public square, shape our news, and decide which voices Americans get to hear… “

“As many of us were showing up this past Saturday for our local No Kings marches, with over 3,000 of them underway, the movement’s organizers suddenly found themselves locked out of their Instagram account for hours. . .”

“Then yesterday morning Christiane Amanpour announced that after reporting for CNN for 43 years she’s leaving the network. While she didn’t mention nepo-baby David Ellison who now owns the network, she didn’t have to . . .”

“What we’re seeing here with these two companies in microcosm is that the men who own the social media digital square where a near-majority of people get their news. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://hartmannreport.com/p/no-kings-then-why-are-we-letting-4ee

Trump Still Blocks CNN

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 10/20/26

Headline: “CNN threatens Trump’s DOJ with further legal action over Air Force One blocks”

“CNN is threatening President Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) with further legal action if the White House continues blocking the network from performing its duties in pool rotation.

In a letter to the DOJ this week, CNN’s attorney Ted Boutrous wrote “these efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” the outlet reported. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6161064-cnn-threatens-doj-legal-action/

Donors Saving Public Media

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Article in Poynter by Paul Farhi, 10/20/26

Headline:  “Public broadcasting found a lifeline after defunding. How long will it last?”

Subhead:  “A surge of ‘rage giving’ and philanthropy helped stave off widespread closures, but many public media organizations remain vulnerable”

“. . .President Donald Trump was urging Congress to wipe out almost all federal funding of public broadcasting — some $1.1 billion in subsidies. As many Republicans had before him, Trump demonized PBS and NPR as biased against conservatives. But the ‘rescission,’ or formal clawing back of funds appropriated by a previous Congress, would be a historic reversal: the first time Washington had withdrawn the financial support. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/public-broadcasting-federal-funding-cuts-donations/

Press Pool or Swimming Pool?

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Article in The New York Times by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, 10/20/26

Headline: “Trump Pushes to Evict the Press From the White House”

Subhead:  “President Trump has talked about replacing the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room with an indoor swimming pool.”

“. . .Mr. Trump has told aides he would prefer to bring back the indoor pool President Franklin D. Roosevelt added in 1933 as therapy for his polio-afflicted legs; President Richard Nixon later covered it over to make room for the news media. Journalists who are credentialed to cover the White House work out of a small office space connected to the press briefing room.

“While moving the media out of the White House may be a relatively small debate considering Mr. Trump’s attacks on journalists more broadly, it would be highly symbolic. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/us/politics/trump-white-house-media.html

FCC Chair Doesn’t Carr about Hatch Act?

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff. 10/19/26

Headline:  “USA: RSF and DDF file complaint against FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for potential misuse of office during partisan campaigning”

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) filed a complaint on October 19 asking the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to investigate whether Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr and two other officials violated the Hatch Act by appearing with President Donald Trump at a campaign rally for Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-rsf-and-ddf-file-complaint-against-fcc-chairman-brendan-carr-potential-misuse-office-during-0

Alternative Network for Alternative Facts

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, Ren LaForme and Amaris Castillo, 10/19/26

Headline:  “Opinion | The White House has a workaround when networks refuse to replace CNN”

Subhead:  “Since the White House restricted CNN’s press access, other networks have refused to replace it. It has turned to Real America’s Voice.”

“Over the weekend, CNN was once again blocked from traveling with President Donald Trump on Air Force One as part of the White House pool.

“And once again, conservative network Real America’s Voice was waiting in the wings, ready to provide pool footage after the other major networks declined to take CNN’s place. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/white-house-cnn-ban-real-america-voice/

Press Secretary – What’s That?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 10/19/26

Headline:  “What Is a White House Press Secretary For?”

Subhead:  “Katie Zacharia was out after five days. Where that leaves the role—and the White House Correspondents’ Association—is uncertain.”

“. . .After a decade of Donald Trump’s breathless, impulsive rhetoric, it can be strange to remember that, not so long ago, the messaging of politicians and presidents was so stage-managed that it sometimes seemed as if the spin doctors were really in charge. The idea of Trump taking advice, let alone direction, from a communications strategist seems faintly absurd. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/what-is-a-white-house-press-secretary-for-katie-zacharia-five-days-correspondents-association-future.php

Separate Mainstream Media Coverage?

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Article in The Intercept by Adam Johnson, 10/15/26

Headline:  “Trump Is Targeting Ilhan Omar. Where’s the Elite Media Outrage?”

Subhead: “Unlike the raid on John Bolton, the targeting of Omar has elicited zero condemnation from NYT, WSJ, and Washington Post.”

“. . .But with rare exception, the response from the mainstream media’s pundit class has been largely muted, with the vast bulk of the coverage coming in the form of he said/she said, down-the-middle reporting. This is in stark contrast with how elite opinion-shapers responded with uniform outrage in the days after Trump’s also dubious raid on John Bolton. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2026/10/15/ilhan-omar-raid-corporate-media-coverage/

CBS Shouting-Incident Apology

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 10/15/26

Headline:  “Contrition on the CBS Cruise”

Subhead: “After an explosive all-hands meeting that left CBS News’ Foreign desk in turmoil. embattled editor Shayndi Raice attempted to make some amends during an awkward boat cruise, Status has learned.”

“On Wednesday night, just one day after an explosive all-hands meeting that reverberated across CBS News and the larger media industry, staffers on the network’s foreign desk gathered at a pier along London’s Thames River for a boat cruise. The three-hour excursion had been scheduled some time ago, I’m told, intended as a team-building activity for the journalists who make up the London bureau. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-israel-meeting-shayndi-raice-bari-weiss-holly-williams

WH Press Sec. Gone But Not Forgotten

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Article in The New Republic by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, 10/15/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Press Secretary Admits She Was in ‘Sort of a Pyramid Scheme’”

Subhead:  “Katie Zacharia’s résumé included a stint at a fitness MLM.”

“Katie Zacharia’s long résumé includes stints as an unqualified legal commentator, an associate at a Chinese law firm, an uncredentialed general counsel, and—in her own words—a participant in ‘sort of a pyramid scheme.’. . .”

https://newrepublic.com/post/216714/trump-press-secretary-zacharia-pyramid-scheme-mlm