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Pay Money Get Info?

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Article in Al Jazeera by Staff and AP, 8/12/26

Headline:  “Media groups sue Trump over paid access to public social media posts”

Subhead:  “Lawsuit claims Trump profits unfairly by charging up to $100,000 monthly for exclusive access to presidential posts.”

“The publication The Intercept and the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation have filed a federal lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump to block his social media service from selling advance access to his posts.

“Court filings on Wednesday argue that the subscription-based service would restrict access to matters of public interest. . .”

“Critics have pointed out that Trump uses his Truth Social account to announce policy changes that could have effects on the economy. Trump’s comments, for instance, about the US-Israel war on Iran have sent ripples through global oil markets.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/12/media-groups-sue-trump-over-paid-access-to-public-social-media-posts

Don’t Worry, They’re Only Journalists

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 8/12/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump left Air Force One because of a threat. Journalists stayed aboard.

Subhead:  “Presidents have used decoys before. What’s different this time is that the press didn’t know.”

“. . .while journalists and some White House staff thought they were riding on the same plane as Trump, they were not.

“The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt and Zolan Kanno-Youngs wrote, ‘Reporters on the older plane were not told that Mr. Trump had not flown with them from Turkey to an air base in Britain, making them unwitting participants in the ruse and leaving them, along with some White House staff members, to serve as unknowing decoys.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/trump-air-force-one-decoy-reporters-threat/

Kansas Newspaper Restitution

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Article and photo in AP by John Hanna, 8/12/26

Headline: “A Kansas town will pay $850K to end a reporter’s lawsuit over a 2023 raid on her paper’s offices”

“A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper’s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom.

“Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit that the raid violated press freedoms and protections from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. She also said it almost immediately led to health problems, causing the return of potentially life-threatening seizures that had been controlled for years with medication. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c94e93cb264256678194d891a36108c9

Media Merger Will be Questioned

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Article in Raw Story by Matthew Chapman, 8/11/26

Headline:  ” ‘Be prepared’: MAGA-friendly media giant warned over sketchy merger”

“Democrats are gearing up to grill Paramount Skydance over its blockbuster $110 billion bid to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery — a merger that would put CNN under the thumb of the same MAGA-friendly executive who has overseen the controversial hollowing out of CBS. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rawstory.com/paramount-skydance/

Pay for NBC News Now?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/10/26

Headline: “The Peacock’s Paywall”

Subhead:  “NBC News once vowed to keep its journalism free, but the news outlet is now putting its exclusive and enterprise reporting behind a digitral paywall — and not everyone inside the company is thrilled, Status has learned

“Last February, NBC News Group boss Cesar Conde announced a major initiative in an internal meeting: a subscription service for NBC News. Until then, NBC News had proudly championed the fact that it made its reporting free. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/nbc-news-paywall-subscription-service

FCC Moving Further Right

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 8/11/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump’s FCC is poised for a further shift to the right”

Subhead:  “Trump’s latest nominee could give Republicans enough votes to conduct business without the commission’s lone Democrat”

“In a move that could further politicize the Federal Communications Commission, President Donald Trump has nominated Danielle Thumann Severs, a longtime aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, to fill one of the agency’s two vacant seats.

“Axios’ Sara Fischer writes, ‘If confirmed by the Senate, Thumann Severs would make it much easier for the Republican-led FCC to hold and pass votes unilaterally without any Democratic friction’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/trump-nominated-danielle-thumann-severs-fcc/

Rt. Media Burrito Rage!

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Article in Media Matters by Jack Winstanley, Gideon Taaffe & Hanne MacDonald, 8/11/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media’s affordability burrito brawl”

Subhead:  “After a post complaining about a $20 burrito went viral, some right-wing figures accused those dismissing concerns about affordability of “giving the finger to voters” and driving them ‘into the arms of the socialists’ ”

“Last week, Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet’s post about a college student noting the high price of a burrito sparked a debate among conservative commentators over whether food affordability is a real issue for voters.

“While some dismissed concerns over an expensive burrito, advising those complaining to ‘cry me a river’ and cook food at home, other right-wing personalities noted such responses were equivalent to ‘giving the finger to voters’ and accused those commentators of “trying to gaslight us into being happy that it’s unaffordable.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/right-wing-media-figures-push-back-other-conservatives-mocking-concerns-about

A Case for Print Newspapers

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Article in Common Dreams by Russell Mokhiber, 6/10/26

Headline:  “Why Print: On Newspapers, Democracy, and the Things a Screen Cannot Replace”

Subhead:  “We strive for a world in which we are informed with the paper in our hands—a world in which we run with that paper to our elected representatives and demand, ‘What the hell are you doing?'”

“Politics has become strangely empty. We sign petitions with a click, make five-dollar donations with a tap, and mistake engagement for participation.

“Capitol Hill Citizen believes that democracy requires something more substantial than that. It requires attention, presence, and involvement. It requires something tangible.

“That is why we print a newspaper.

“In the absence of tangibility, we are each reduced to data, data that corporations use to manipulate us, predict us, and sell us back to ourselves. In a world where corporations are treated as people under the law, Capitol Hill Citizen calls upon its readers to do something that a corporation cannot do: hold a newspaper. Better yet, do democracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/newspapers-better-than-print

Media Business Flying Without Pilot?

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Article in The Wrap by A. J. Katz, 8/10/26

Headline: “Where the Media Business Is Going”

Subhead: “In this week’s installment of The Media Front, we unpack what happens next as the streaming wars end and AI rises in newsrooms across the country”

“. . .For much of the past decade, Hollywood’s biggest media companies were chasing versions of the same goal: Build a streaming service, add subscribers and reach enough scale to compete with Netflix.

“This week’s earnings season offered perhaps the clearest evidence yet that the industry has moved on. . .”

“What the industry no longer agrees on is what comes next. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/future-of-media-business-streaming-ai-news/

Attacks on Media Outlined

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 8/10/26

Headline: “What 100-plus federal actions reveal about the Trump administration’s campaign against the press”

Subhead: “For 18 months, Poynter has tracked federal actions affecting journalists and news access, revealing a rapid, sweeping change in the media landscape”

“Since taking office, President Donald Trump has reshaped much of American political and civil life, and in doing so, indelibly altered the country’s media landscape. Over the past year, Poynter has documented more than 100 federal actions affecting journalists and access to the news through its Press Freedom Watch project.

“Some have targeted individual reporters, resulting in raids, assaults and detentions. Others have taken aim at outlets, subjecting disfavored newsrooms to investigations, lawsuits and funding cuts. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/trump-press-freedom/