Democracy Needs Journalism

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 4/10/26

Headline:  ” ‘Local News Is a Genuine Public Good We Need for Our Democracy’ “

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Alex Frandsen on Local News Day”

“Janine Jackson: News media can be like the old joke about the weather: Everybody complains, but nobody does anything. But as we’ve seen billionaire owners turning news into yet another profit-driven enterprise—not, to be clear, entities that need to sustain themselves, but that need to generate ever-higher quarterly profits for shareholders—the truth is there has been plenty of, not just protest and criticism, but ground-level organizing to find other ways to support the work we need from journalism in the public interest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/local-news-is-a-genuine-public-good-we-need-for-our-democracy/

Sometimes Muck Needs Raking

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Susie Banikarim, 4/10/26

Headline:  “Tony Gonzales and the Patient Work of Local News”

Subhead:  “Impactful reporting from the San Antonio Express-News; Fargo columnists fed to the wood chipper; profiling the Big Beautiful Bill’s ugliness.”

“In February, the San Antonio Express-News broke a story that quickly became national news: Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas, had an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, an aide who died by suicide after setting herself on fire. The fallout was significant. Gonzales initially denied the relationship. Last month, he admitted to it and dropped his reelection bid. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/laurels-and-darts/tony-gonzales-and-the-patient-work-of-local-news.php

News Predictions Can be Wrong?

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Article in Media Matters by Zachary Pleat, 4/10/26

Headline:  “Fox promised oil and gas prices would quickly drop once US attacks on Iran ended. Analysts say prices will be elevated well into next year.”

“Analyses from consulting firms, economists, and at least one government agency are contradicting rosy promises by Fox News personalities that oil and gasoline prices would quickly drop toward pre-war levels once U.S. attacks on Iran ceased. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-promised-oil-and-gas-prices-would-quickly-drop-once-us-attacks-iran-ended-analysts-say

Stupid Media People?

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 4/9/26

Headline: “Trump slams conservative media figures over splitting with him on Iran “

“President Trump on Thursday tore into several right-wing media figures who had been reliably supportive of him during his second term until the U.S. war in Iran broke out. . .”

“ ‘I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon,’ Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform. ‘Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5824607-trump-iran-war-tucker-carlson-megyn-kelly/

TV President Redux?

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Article in Poynter by Pete Croatto, 4/9/26

Headline:  “Q&A: What Tucker Carlson’s path reveals about where journalism is headed”

Subhead:  “New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle, author of a biography on the former Fox News star, breaks down why Carlson may run for president”

“Tucker Carlson’s career is ‘a good cautionary tale,’ says The New Yorker’s Jason Zengerle, author of ‘Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind,’ a riveting, sharp-eyed biography of the political pundit’s rise from acclaimed magazine writer to cable news mainstay to leading MAGA shriek.

“His path also represents the crumbling of journalism and the growing, troubling influence of a man who increasingly lives in an echo chamber. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/jason-zengerle-tucker-carlson-unraveling-conservative-mind/

Throw the Book at Pentagon Media?

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Article in The Guardian by Jefemy Barr, 4/9/26

Headline:  “US judge rules Pentagon has violated his order in press access case”

Subhead:  “Paul Friedman grants New York Times’s motion to force implementation of earlier ruling that gutted restrictive new policy”

“A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon has not complied with an order last month that undid much of a restrictive new press pass policy implemented by the Department of Defense, and ordered the return of credentials to seven New York Times reporters.

The newspaper, which sued the Trump administration in December, had urged the judge to compel implementation of his 20 March ruling after the Pentagon responded to the judge’s determination by creating a new press access policy, which the newspaper called an ‘end-run’ around the judge’s ruling. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/apr/09/pentagon-judge-press-access-case

Saving a Community Station

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Article in AP by Jonathan Landrum Jr., 4/9/26

Headline:  “Dave Chappelle helps keep Ohio radio station rooted in hometown with restored building”

“YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (AP) — Comedian Dave Chappelle stood on the front lawn of a newly restored 19th-century schoolhouse Thursday, joining neighbors and local officials as a small-town radio station secured its future in the community he calls home.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked two historic moments: Chappelle’s restoration of the Union Schoolhouse and WYSO’s relocation of its new broadcast facility inside it, bringing together distinct efforts to keep the station rooted in Yellow Springs at a time when local media outlets face mounting challenges. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/dave-chappelle-radio-station-1297aeb70e20d61e5a46481f0b660332

Surrender or Victory?

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Article in Media Matters by Giddeon Taaffe, tri Lonergan, Noah Towe, 4/8/26

Headline:   “How fractured right-wing media are spinning Trump’s Iran capitulation”

Subhead:  “Right-wing media have been split over the war. As a ceasefire is agreed to, some figures claim Trump ‘negotiated the deal of his life,’ others argue he ‘chickened out again’ and warn the deal ‘could be an amazing victory for Iran.’ “

“Right-wing media are split on the temporary two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States, with some calling it ‘victory’ and crediting Trump’s ‘hyperbolic rhetoric,’ while others remain skeptical, going as far as to call it ‘total U.S. defeat’ and arguing the deal is ‘very difficult to accept.’ Both critics and supporters of the war have criticized the terms of the ceasefire, saying it is a ‘defeat’ and that ‘Iran practically got everything that they wanted.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/how-fractured-right-wing-media-are-spinning-trumps-iran-capitulation

Doppelganger Reporting

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Article in The Intercept by Katherine Krueger, 4/7/26

Headline: “The Media Just Can’t Help Turning Iran Fighter Jet Rescue Into ‘Black Hawk Down’ “

Subhead: “Everyone reported the exact same story at the exact same time — and they all relied on the same liars who got us into this mess.”

“Neither Josh Hartnett nor Ewan McGregor were there, but the way the mainstream media is telling it, they might as well have been. The Sunday morning rescue of a U.S. airman shot down over Iran launched a thousand breathless tick-tock retellings from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and many, many more — helpful water-carrying for an administration prosecuting a deeply unpopular war without a clear end in sight. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2026/04/06/iran-fighter-jet-rescue-media-coverage/