Broadcasting

Control All Media

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Article in The Nation by Ben Schwartz, 11/21/25

Headline:  “Trump’s Quest for Total Media Control”

Subhead:  “Look beyond the petty celebrity feuds, and you’ll see a plan to transform American media companies into outlets for MAGA agitprop.”

“. . .Colbert, Kimmel, and Meyers are just comedy collateral damage in Trump’s pursuit of his bigger goals. Trump’s brain operates simultaneously at the pettiest and grandest levels of venality and scheming. He could have Brendan Carr make private calls to Comcast executives to let them know what’s coming. Instead, Trump went after Meyers to show he’s always in there slugging—but also to remind Comcast of what he’d already done to Colbert and Kimmel.

“It’s easy to get distracted by Trump’s celebrity feuds, but we should never lose sight of Trump’s master plan: to push our media world so far to the far right that he’s never again asked about his sexually predatory or homicidal friends.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-skydance-comcast-wbd/

Arm And A Leg Coverage?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Ivan L. Nagy, 11/20/25

Headline:  “Adding Insult to Injury”

Subhead:  “As Washington braced for the release of the Epstein files, Trump’s red-carpet welcome of Mohammed bin Salman and threats directed at an ABC News reporter made his hostility to journalists chillingly clear.”

“. . .This was Mohammed bin Salman’s first visit to the White House since 2018, when Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, was brutally assassinated at the age of fifty-nine. . .”

“. . .’US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist,’ Mary Bruce, the chief White House correspondent for ABC, said, facing MBS. ‘Nine-eleven families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr. President.’. . .”

read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/adding-insult-to-injury-trump-mbs-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-jamal-khashoggi-saudi-mary-bruce-abc-fake-news.php

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Article in The Hill by Tara Sutter, 11/20/25

Headline:  “Jon Stewart rips Trump, tech leaders over Saudi crown prince visit”

“. . . ‘Jon, what do you think about all of the CEOs attending the White House dinner for MBS [Mohammed bin Salman]?” Brittany Mehmedovic, Stewart’s producer, asked on his “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” podcast.

” ‘What did we think they were? Honestly? Like, I — are people surprised by it? Are people — ‘I cannot believe that the head of Apple, the head of Meta … all the different — would sit at a state dinner with the guy who is funneling billions and billions of dollars into their businesses,’ Stewart replied in the Thursday episode highlighted by Mediaite. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5616043-stewart-trump-tech-ceos-saudi-ties/

More Media Judgements?

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Article in Mediaite by Sean James, 11/19/25

Headline:  ” ‘They Will Win!’ Dan Abrams Urges Media Orgs To Fight Trump on ‘Meritless’ Lawsuits After CNN’s Court Victory”

“Dan Abrams urged media companies on Wednesday to punch back against President Donald Trump whenever he files a “ridiculous” lawsuit against them, because, as CNN just showed in court, “they will win!”

Abrams made his plea to outlets one day after a U.S. appeals court upheld the dismissal of a Trump lawsuit against CNN. The president sued the cable channel in 2022 for $475 million after several of its reporters referred to his claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged as ‘The Big Lie.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/they-will-win-dan-abrams-urges-media-orgs-to-fight-trump-on-meritless-lawsuits-after-cnns-court-victory/

One Company – One Media?

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Article in Freepress by Staff, 11/19/25

Headline:  “Proposed Nexstar-Tegna Merger Is Blatant Violation of the Law Prohibiting One Company from Too Much Control of Local Airwaves”

Subhead:  “The $6.2 billion deal would also violate the FCC’s few remaining local-ownership limits in nearly 30 markets. In some, it would leave Nexstar in control of three of the top-four-ranked stations.”

“On Tuesday, Nexstar Media Group announced that it had filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission seeking agency approval to acquire Tegna, Inc.’s broadcast licenses in a proposed $6.2 billion deal first reported in August. . .”

If approved, the deal would combine the nation’s largest television-station conglomerate with its fourth largest. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/proposed-nexstar-tegna-merger-blatant-violation-law-prohibiting-one-company-too-much-control

Networks Have Broadcast Licenses?

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 11/18/25

Headline:  “Trump threatens ABC News broadcast license after reporter asks about Epstein “

“President Trump attacked an ABC News reporter Tuesday after she asked about the Epstein files, threatening to have the network taken off the air for questioning him about the controversy. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5611057-president-trump-threatens-abc/

Eating All the Media?

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Article in Poynter by Al Tompkins, 11/18/25

Headline: “Scripps tells staff a Sinclair takeover isn’t a done deal, even after surprise stock purchase”

“Scripps Broadcasting president and CEO Adam Symson told employees Monday that a takeover by rival Sinclair Broadcasting is far from a done deal, even after Sinclair announced it had purchased more than 8% of Scripps stock and had been in merger talks for months. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/scripps-tells-staff-a-sinclair-takeover-is-unlikely-despite-surprise-stock-purchase/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 11/18/25

Headline: “The War for Warners”

Subhead:  “Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix are preparing final bids for Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will reorder the media landscape”

“. . . Variety had reported, and then largely walked back, that Paramount had ‘formed an investment consortium with the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi’ to pursue a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. . .”

“What is accurate is that Paramount is preparing its final bid for WBD, which Ellison still hopes to swallow whole despite David Zaslav’s best efforts to beat back the takeover. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/warner-bros-discovery-bids-paramount-comcast-netflix

Destroy American Broadcasting?

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Illustration from Fire.org

Article in The Guardian by John Oliver, 11/17/25

Headline:  “John Oliver on the mass defunding of US public media: ‘Just stupid’ “

Subhead:  “The Last Week Tonight host delves into the many vital functions of US public media imperiled by congressional Republicans’ defunding plan”

“On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver checked in on the ‘dire’ state of public media in the US, where almost all public media falls under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Until recently, the CPB distributed funding to more than 544 radio TV grantees representing more than 1,500 locally managed and operated stations nationwide, reaching more than 99% of the US population . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/17/john-oliver-public-media-cuts

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Article in Freepress by Staff,   11/17/25

Headline: “Free Press Action’s Mike Rispoli Testifies Before the New Jersey State Senate on Behalf of Public Funding for Public Media “

“. . .In September, NJ PBS — the state’s only public-television station — announced that it will cease operations in 2026. The move is related to Congress’ decision earlier this year to claw back $1.1 billion in funding from the previously approved federal budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the CPB’s subsequent decision to shut down operations. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-actions-mike-rispoli-testifies-new-jersey-state-senate-behalf-public-media-funding

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Article in The Atlantic by Gilad Edelman, 11/17/25

Headline: “The ‘Easy Way’ to Crush the Mainstream Media”

Subhead: “FCC chair Brendan Carr is on a crusade to Trumpify the airwaves.”

“. . .when he issued a mob-style threat over a Jimmy Kimmel monologue that Republicans didn’t like—’We can do this the easy way or the hard way’—he made the Trump administration’s appetite for censorship unignorable.

“Most of the administration’s efforts to manipulate the media up to that point had retained at least a patina of deniability. Here, by contrast, was an uncomplicated threat of government interference—one that prompted Disney, ABC’s parent company, to fall in line by suspending Kimmel’s show. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/11/brendan-carr/684936/

Broadcasting Blow-Up

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 11/13/25

Headline:  “How Donald Trump Blew Up the BBC“

Subhead:  “The president set out to undermine public broadcasters in the US. Now, with help from British allies, he’s taking his strategy global.”

“Last week, I wrote about the BBC’s big ambitions for the US market and its confidence that a just-the-facts approach, combined with a global sensibility, would give it a competitive edge in Trump’s America. . .’

“The same day my column ran, The Telegraph published a story that seemed to utterly upend those plans. Based on a leaked internal memo, it alleged that a documentary aired just before the 2024 US presidential election on the BBC program Panorama had ‘doctored’ a Donald Trump speech by making him appear to encourage the Capitol Hill riot” of January 6, 2021. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/how-donald-trump-blew-up-bbc-us-market-telegraph-panorama-jan-6.php

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Article in the New Republic by Malcolm Ferguson, 11/13/25

Headline: “BBC Apologizes to Trump but Refuses to Pay Up Like He Demanded”

Subhead:  “The BBC is warning Donald Trump that he doesn’t have a real defamation case.”

“The British Broadcasting Corporation has apologized to President Donald Trump for editing his speech on an episode of Panorama, but will not fork over the $1 billion he threatened to sue for. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/post/203183/bbc-apologizes-trump-refuses-pay-defamation

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Article in Daily Kos by Alix Breeden, 11/11/25

Headline:  “Trump’s war on the media goes global”

“President Donald Trump is trying to take his war on the media across the pond, but the United Kingdom isn’t having it.

“Trump’s attorney threatened a $1 billion lawsuit on the British Broadcasting Corporation Tuesday over a doctored clip of Trump speaking to his beloved Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/11/2353343/-Trump-s-war-on-the-media-goes-global?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web

Billionaires Buy the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Robert Reich, 11/13/25

Headline:  “Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back”

“The richest man on Earth owns X.

“The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS, and could soon own Warner Bros, which owns CNN.

“The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

“The fourth-richest man owns the Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

“Another billionaire owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

“Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic – some might say sinister – reason. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/13/trump-media-ultra-rich-democracy

Media Natives Are Restless

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Article in The Washington Post by Laura Wagner and Scott Nover, 11/7/25

Headline: “Bari Weiss’s first month at CBS News unfolds in a newsroom culture clash”

Subhead:  “The opinion journalist took over as editor in chief in October, launching a new era for the network amid layoffs, confusion and shifting expectations.”

“. . .A shake-up might have been what Ellison had in mind by hiring Weiss, an opinion journalist with no experience running a large newsroom. For years, ‘CBS Evening News’ has run in third place behind the evening news programs from NBC and ABC, and some staffers welcomed new ideas.

“ ‘My guess is that what they’re trying to do is appeal to those who feel they are alienated from CBS because they think that it’s too left-leaning or too biased in one way or another,’ said Jacob Nelson, a communications professor at the University of Utah. The risk Weiss and Ellison take on, he added, ‘is that they are just going to alienate even the people that they already have.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/07/bari-weiss-cbs-news-remake/