Taking CBS Somewhere

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Article in The New Yorker by Clare Malone, 1/19/26

Headline:  “Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News“

Subhead:  “The network’s new editor-in-chief has championed a press free from élite bias, while aligning herself with a billionaire class more willing than ever to indulge Donald Trump.”

“. . .Weiss’s embrace of a press free from élite bias—what she might call woke politics—has taken her to the top of the media establishment. It has also aligned her with a tech-billionaire class more willing than ever to indulge Trump to protect the sanctity of shareholder value. . .”

“Trump, for his part, was effusive in his praise of Weiss. “I think you have a great new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise,” he said during his sit-down with O’Donnell. . .“

Read the full article at:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/26/inside-bari-weisss-hostile-takeover-of-cbs-news

NYT Sued Redux?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 1/23/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Stop us if you heard this one before: Trump threatens The New York Times“

Subhead:  “The president is not happy about the outlet’s recent poll results”

“With Donald Trump finishing up his first year as president for the second time, there’s a new New York Times/Siena poll about his job performance.

“Two things about it are not surprising.

“One, his approval rating is not good. And, two, Trump is mad as hell about it.. .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/trump-sues-new-york-times-tiktok-deal-reached/

Passes & Dossiers on Journalists?

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Article in Mediaite by Colby Hall, 1/23/26

Headline:  “Don Lemon, WaPo, Ozturk: Trump’s War on the First Amendment Now Alarmingly Clear”

“In a functioning democracy, the federal government does not compile dossiers on students for their political views, threaten journalists with prison for covering protests, or seize reporters’ devices as a warning to sources. Yet all three have now come into focus in the United States, supported by newly unsealed court records and recent actions by the Trump administration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/don-lemon-wapo-ozturk-trumps-war-on-the-first-amendment-now-alarmingly-clear/

Do the Media Need Therapy?

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Article in AlterNet by Adam Lynch, 1/23/26

Headline:  “The media has a ‘coping mechanism’ for Trump — and it’s ‘dangerous’: analysis”

Subhead:  “Bulwark Editor Jonathan Last believes he’s uncovered the media’s ‘coping mechanism’ for dealing with a madman, and is warning that it’s deadly and dangerous.”

“ ‘The media tends to treat [President Donald] Trump’s more insane statements as ephemeral, but then turns around and treats his climb-downs as binding,’ said Last. ‘For instance: Trump can say a dozen times that he might run for a third term and the media reports it as ‘Trump said this crazy thing about running again.’ But then Trump gives one interview where he says he won’t run again and the coverage is: ‘Trump rules out third term.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-media-coping-mechanism/

 

Greeniceland, No Problem

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 1/22/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump misspoke at Davos. Karoline Leavitt told reporters not to believe their ears.”

Subhead:  “During a speech, Trump repeatedly referred to Iceland while talking about Greenland. Then the press secretary denied what the video plainly shows.”

“Greenland? Iceland? What is President Donald Trump talking about? . . .”

“Meanwhile — and this is the larger concern — Leavitt losing her cool and trying to gaslight a reporter by saying the reporter didn’t hear what the world clearly heard only makes Leavitt and the administration look more deceitful and, quite frankly, shady. Somehow, Leavitt’s remarks made the matter even worse. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/did-trump-call-greenland-iceland-davos-speech/

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 1/22/26

Headline:  “Trump Press Sec. Goes Full Cult as Reviews of Davos Fiasco Turn Brutal”

Subhead:  “As Karoline Leavitt and others struggle to spin Trump’s speech as a world-historical triumph, a critic of Trump’s unfitness explains why it was a disaster for our whole country and its future.”

“. . .White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt unleashed an extraordinary stream of obsequious praise, absurdly declaring that “America is back” and that Trump played “leader of the free world.” When reporters savagely noted the Greenland-Iceland confusion, she offered a true knee-slapper of buffoonish damage control. We think it all exposed the scam at the core of MAGA in a fresh way. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/205528/trump-press-sec-goes-full-cult-reviews-davos-fiasco-turn-brutal

“60 Minutes” Disappearing Staff?

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Article in Daily Beast by William Vaillancourt, 1/22/26

Headline:  “Trump-Kissing CBS Boss Is Plotting ‘60 Minutes’ Bloodbath”

“CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss may fire two 60 Minutes correspondents amid their criticism of her leadership.

“Sharyn Alfonsi and Scott Pelley, each winners of multiple Emmys, could soon become casualties of Weiss’s overhaul of the show, sources told the New York Post on Thursday.. . .”

“Alfonsi, 53, and Weiss, 41, butted heads over the program’s delayed segment on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-kissing-cbs-boss-bari-weiss-is-plotting-60-minutes-bloodbath/

Gambling with the News?

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Article in Slashdot by BeauHD, 1/21/26

Headline:  “America Is Slow-Walking Into a Polymarket Disaster’

“In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, senior editor Saahil Desai argues that media outlets are increasingly treating prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi as legitimate signals of reality. The risk, as Desai warns, is a future where news coverage amplifies manipulable betting odds and turns politics, geopolitics, and even tragedy into speculative gambling theater. . .”

“The problem is that prediction markets are ushering in a world in which news becomes as much about gambling as about the event itself. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/22/006212/america-is-slow-walking-into-a-polymarket-disaster

Fairness Doctrine Revival . . .for Some?

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Article in The Washington Post by Kelly Kasulis Cho & Scott Nover, 1/22/26

Headline:  “FCC targets talk shows by revisiting ‘equal time’ rule for political candidates”

Subhead:  “By changing course on a decades-old ruling, the agency again raised free speech concerns over the Trump administration’s approach to media regulation”

“The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that network talk shows are required to give equal airtime to all candidates intending to run for the same public office, changing course on a decades-old ruling and again raising free-speech concerns over the Trump administration’s approach to media regulation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/22/late-night-equal-time-fcc/

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Article in Reuters by David Shepardson, 1/21/26

Headline:  “FCC says US late-night, daytime talk shows must offer equal time for candidate interviews”

“WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that daytime and late-night TV talk shows featuring interviews with political candidates must comply with “equal time” rules that give airtime to views of opposing candidates and that the shows cannot rely on a 2006 decision that suggested they were exempt.

“Until now, talk shows have qualified for the equal opportunities exemption as genuine news interviews, ever since the FCC’s Media Bureau granted an exemption to the interview portion of Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” in 2006. Networks have relied on the ruling as a precedent for recent interviews with political candidates. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/22/late-night-equal-time-fcc/

Media Abandon Civil Rights?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 1/21/26

Headline:  “Comprehensive New Report Puts Major Media Companies on Notice for Anti-DEI Capitulations”

Subhead:  “In a detailed analysis of the 35 most dominant U.S. media companies, Free Press reveals a disturbing and cowardly reversal on prior civil-rights commitments. . .”

“On Wednesday, Free Press published an authoritative report analyzing the retreat in 2025 of the nation’s largest media companies from prior commitments to promote diversity, equity and inclusion principles in their workplaces and policies. The report — COMPLICIT: Corporate Media’s Capitulation to Trump’s Attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — sheds new light on the ongoing capitulation of major media and tech companies to the dictates of a bigoted and corrupt Trump administration. . .”

Read the Full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/comprehensive-report-puts-major-media-companies-notice-anti-dei-capitulations-trump

Radio Stations vs. Cuts

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Lucy Schiller, 1/21/26

Headline:  “The NPR and Colorado Stations That Took Trump to Court”

Subhead:  “It isn’t just an affront to localism. It’s an attempt to reengineer thought.”

“. . .Nationally, the landscape of public radio has been charred since last July, when Congress stripped more than a billion dollars from public broadcasting, at the behest of Donald Trump, who released an executive order characterizing NPR and PBS as “biased.” NPR prepared to file suit against the Trump administration in federal court, arguing that the stoppage of funds, via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, inhibited freedom of speech, in the form of viewpoint discrimination. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-npr-and-colorado-public-media-radio-stations-that-took-trump-to-court.php