Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 8/5/25

Headline  “Is the US Media Captured?”

Subhead:  “The phenomenon comes in many forms. Experts believe it’s already here.”

“Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, who was born in Romania and today is a leading scholar of democracy, first observed ‘media capture’ two decades ago in Eastern Europe. The press there was not facing active repression. But it was far from free. Governments, she realized, were exercising control through indirect means—collusion and corruption. Captured media, Mungiu-Pippidi wrote in a 2013 paper, ‘trade influence and manipulate rather than inform the public.’

“Other scholars of media capture have since examined the phenomenon in different parts of the world—Mexico, Kenya, Hungary—highlighting government strategies ranging from manipulation of advertising to economic and regulatory pressure to the exploitation of informal relationships with media owners.  . .”

“The US government-funded Center for Independent Media Assistance, part of the National Endowment for Democracy, produced a video in 2019 describing how government cronies buy up struggling media outlets and bring them to heel.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/paramount-la-times-media-capture.php