Media Birds of a Feather Now?

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 6/7/26

Headline:  “The Post’s Opinion Non-‘Sense’

Subhead:  “After Jeff Bezos mandated a rightward overhaul of the opinion section, a Status examination of Adam O’Neal’s podcast feels more like culture-war red meat than ‘personal liberties and free markets,’ and it’s struggling to find an audience.”

“Last month, a group of commentators sat down for a conversation that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Fox News, Breitbart, or Joe Rogan’s podcast. Lounging on a beige couch with exposed microphones and a wood-paneled backdrop, the four panelists derided the Biden administration’s response to the Covid pandemic. . .”

“But that discussion wasn’t taking place on a right-wing media outlet. It featured The Washington Post opinion editor. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-podcast-adam-o-neal

No News for CBS is Good News

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/9/26

Headline:  “Opinion | CBS News would like to get back to covering the news”

Subhead:  “After another week of headlines about firings and feuds, some staffers are simply tired of being the story”

“When you cover the news, you’re not supposed to be the news.

“That’s the unenviable spot CBS News finds itself in these days. It is supposed to report the news, not be the focus of it. And that’s what has happened in recent weeks.

“Actually, CBS News has been in the news ever since Bari Weiss took over as editor-in-chief. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/cbs-news-becomes-the-news/

A Win or Free Speech

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Article in Daily Beast by Owen Mason-Hill 6/5/26

Headline: “John Oliver Defeats Defamation Suit After Damning Takedown”

“John Oliver’s brutal takedown of a U.S. healthcare manager who made the Last Week Tonight host want to ‘punch a hole in the wall’ has been protected by law.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dismissed a defamation suit brought against Oliver, 49, by the subject of one of his HBO show’s ‘scathing critiques’ on Tuesday.

The win maintains Last Week Tonight’s perfect record against defamation lawsuits intact. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/john-oliver-wins-defamation-suit-after-damning-takedown/

Stormy Time for Media Matters

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 6/8/26

Headline::  “Media Matters’ Musk Mayhem”

Subhead:  “The progressive media watchdog has been forced to undergo layoffs and take other cost-cutting measures as it continues to battle the “dark MAGA” billionaire in a costly legal war, Status has learned.”

“In March of this year, an uncomfortable reality dawned on Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters, and the non-profit’s leadership team. As he examined the progressive media watchdog’s finances, which had come under enormous strain over the last year amid a costly legal war waged by Elon Musk, Carusone concluded that he would need to make some difficult cuts to the organization. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/media-matters-elon-musk-lawsuit-layoffs

CBS favors Trump?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/8/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Scott Pelley accuses CBS News leadership of favoring the Trump administration”

Subhead:  “In his first interview since being fired from CBS News, the former ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent also blasted leaders he says don’t understand TV news”

“. . .In the first interview since his controversial firing last week, Pelley spoke with The New York Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro and continued to make serious allegations about network leadership. He also went over in detail what led to the fiery meeting last week with new ’60 Minutes’ executive producer Nick Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist and documentary filmmaker who has no real experience in traditional TV news. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/scott-pelley-thumb-on-scale-trump-bari-weiss/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo 6/8/26

Headline:  “Scott Pelley sparks backlash from right with New York Times interview on CBS, 60 Minutes”

“Scott Pelley, the longtime ’60 Minutes’ correspondent who was fired by the network last week after criticizing its new leadership, is sparking scorn from conservatives over a new interview with the New York Times.

“During the wide-ranging interview, Pelley fought back tears as he described being fired by top bosses at CBS News, accused its corporate leadership of altering coverage to please President Trump and called for the ouster of the network’s top editor Bari Weiss. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5915100-conservatives-pelley-criticize-media/

Will Ellison Leash Weiss?

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Article in The Wrap by Sharon Waxman, 6/8/26

Headline:  “Bari Weiss Has Become a Liability for David Ellison at CBS News – Will He Make a Move? | Analysis”

Subhead:  “It turns out that her immaturity, disorganization and inability to learn from mistakes have been even more damaging than her lack of experience”

“It was an apocalyptic week in the world of media, where the polite veneer at CBS News was ripped away to reveal fear, loathing, betrayal and ultimately the murder of the most respected newsmagazine on television, ’60 Minutes,’ by Editor in Chief Bari Weiss.

Weiss’s name was everywhere on social media all weekend, with overwhelmingly negative backlash to her decision to fire Scott Pelley last week after firing the senior leadership days before that. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/tv/will-david-ellison-fire-bari-weiss-cbs-news/

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Article in The Nation by Jon Walsh, 6/8/26

Headline:  “Fire Bari Weiss!”

Subhead:  “Which is worse, her political malevolence or her incompetence?”

“After CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley was fired by Bari Weiss’s incompetent henchman Nick Bilton last week, the network veteran went public with his complaints about Weiss’s politically motivated mismanagement of the show. One of his most noteworthy complaints was that she pushed the correspondents to add distortions and lies to some of their segments. Media critics asked that Pelley be more specific, and on Sunday, with The New York Times, he was. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/scott-pelley-60-minutes-cbs-news/

Media Defiance

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Article in AlterNet by Thom Hartman, 6/7/26

Headline: “Opinion | One defiant stand is sending shockwaves through Trump’s media takeover”

Over the past year and a half, we’ve watched Brendan Carr, Trump’s hitman at the FCC, go to CPAC conferences and brag about how he’s going to assault stations that say things he and Trump dislike. He’s trying to intimidate ABC affiliates into muzzling Jimmy Kimmel — again. And he succeeded in taking down Stephen Colbert.

“And a Trump-adjacent billionaire nepo-baby has acquired CBS and is systematically stripping it of its journalistic integrity,

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/scott-pelley-trump/

Interview Tyrants?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 6/1/26

Headline:  “Should Journalists Interview Dictators?”

Subhead:  “Encounters on the line between control and conditions.”

“. . .The trope of the dictator interview—presenting a despot as a celebrity, a figure of popular fascination with whom a reporter has managed to secure time—crystallized in the sixties and seventies, when Oriana Fallaci, an Italian journalist and provocateur, confronted Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, among others. In 1979, not long after the triumph of the Iranian revolution, she interviewed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and—famously—ripped off her chador, calling it a “stupid medieval rag.” Barbara Walters took the opposite tack, humanizing and personalizing repressive leaders such as Fidel Castro, whom she first interviewed in 1977, and Mu‘ammar Gaddhafi, with whom she spoke a dozen years later. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/should-journalists-interview-dictators-dan-rather-jon-lee-anderson-christiane-amanpour.php

No Questions From Her!

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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 6/3/26

Headline:  “Kaitlan Collins Responds To Trump’s Oval Office Outburst at Her, Points Out She ‘Had Yet To Ask the President a Question’ “

“. . .the president seemed clearly irritated when he was asked earlier today why his administration says it is not moving forward with that $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, as they have called it,’ she said. ‘And just to note, as you’re about to listen to this, this first exchange actually occurred before I had yet to ask the president a question’. . . .”

” ‘CNN’s a very corrupt organization with a corrupt reporter standing right there,’ Trump said. ‘Never smiles. A young, beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile on her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/kaitlan-collins-responds-to-trumps-oval-office-outburst-at-her-points-out-she-had-yet-to-ask-the-president-a-question/

Replacement for “60 Minutes”

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Article in The Wrap by Alyssa Ray, 6/3/26

Headline:  “Jimmy Kimmel Rips the ‘Trump Suck-Ups’ at CBS News After Scott Pelley’s ’60 Minutes’ Termination | Video”

Subhead: “ ’60 Minutes’ will be replaced by new episodes of ‘Reporters Unleashed,’  the late night host quips”

“The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host touched on Pelley’s ousting from the storied news program during Wednesday’s monologue, in which he celebrated the longtime journalist for standing for ‘truth and integrity.’

“ ‘Last night, the Trump suck-ups at CBS fired a great and deeply respected journalist, Scott Pelley, from his job at “60 Minutes,” because he stood up for truth and integrity at a show that’s been the gold-standard for broadcast journalism for 57 years,’ Kimmel said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/tv-shows/jimmy-kimmel-reacts-scott-pelley-60-minutes-firing-slams-cbs-news/