Broadcasting

Is FCC Making Money for. . .?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Chairman Carr’s Corruption of the FCC Requires Greater Congressional Action and Oversight”

“Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr dodged accountability during a House Commerce Committee oversight hearing on Wednesday.

“Throughout the hearing, Carr refused to answer questions about his efforts to weaponize the agency in service of President Donald Trump. His record includes helping the White House silence the president’s critics in the media, install so-called “bias monitors” inside private media companies and enrich Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/chairman-carrs-corruption-fcc-requires-greater-congressional-action-and-oversight

Network News Down the Drain?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Amos Barshad, 1/13/26

Headline: “Unaffiliated”

Subhead: “Some TV news stations are breaking their national network affiliations, and leaning into local programming.”

“. . .Amid mass media-job losses over the past year and increases in network television licensing fees that have been mounting for a while longer, WPLG has, since last spring, made sixty new hires.

“The growth has come as a direct result of WPLG’s decision, in August, to cut ties with ABC, with which it’s been affiliated since going on the air, sixty-nine years ago. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/unaffiliated-local-tv-stations-leaving-national-affiliates.php

CBS Wreck?

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 1/12/26

Headline:  “David Letterman calls CBS News a ‘wreck’ under newly installed leadership”

Subhead: “Former late-night host makes comments amid merger of CBS’s parent company Paramount with Skydance Media”

“The former CBS late-night host David Letterman has criticized his old network, calling its news division a ‘wreck’ under its newly installed leadership. . .”

“He said: ‘CBS News is a wreck – it’s just gone. CBS News, for decades, going back to [the second world war], before [it], Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London from the rooftop of buildings in London for CBS Radio, and it was that mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News, that has been trampled on, pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/12/david-letterman-cbs-news-bari-weiss

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 1/12/26

Headline:   “And That’s the Way It Is”

Subhead:  “At CBS News, the suppression of critical reporting and the promotion of appeasement reveal Bari Weiss’s true colors.”

Read the article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/cbs-news-suppression-critical-reporting-appeasement-bari-weiss-tony-dokoupil.php

Did “60 Minutes” Lose Something?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 1/8/26

Headline: “The Shadow Over ‘60’ “

Subhead:  “As Sharyn Alfonsi’s ’60 Minutes’ report remains shelved, Status has learned that an Anderson Cooper piece is also caught in a prolonged editorial review process, frustrating the veteran producer attached to the story.”

“Earlier this week, on Tuesday, members of the ’60 Minutes’ team gathered for a meeting to discuss the future of Sharyn Alfonsi’s delayed piece on migrants deported by Donald Trump’s administration to a notorious El Salvadorian prison. The segment, which had been slated for broadcast on December 21, was pulled from air at the eleventh hour by the network’s new MAGA friendly editor in chief, Bari Weiss. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/60-minutes-bari-weiss-cbs-news-cecot

R.I.P. CPB

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Public media are not state-controlled media

Article in The Guardian by Lauren Aratani, 1/5/26

Headline:  “Corporation For Public Broadcasting formally dissolves after federal funding cuts”

Subhead:  “Board of directors vote to dissolve organization after nearly 60 years in operation after funding cuts under Trump”

“The nonprofit charged by Congress with allocating funds to NPR, PBS and other US public radio and television stations announced is dissolving after massive federal funding cuts under Donald Trump.

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced on Monday that its board of directors had voted to dissolve the organization after nearly 60 years in operation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/05/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-board-dissolves

BBC Questionable Right?

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Article in Slashdot bu Sagepub, 1/2/26

Headline:  A Decade of BBC Question Time Data Reveals Imbalance in Journalist Guests

A new study [PDF] from Cardiff University analyzing a decade of the popular topical debate programme BBC Question Time found that the broadcaster’s flagship political debate show relies disproportionately on journalists and pundits from right-wing media outlets, particularly those connected to The Spectator magazine.

Researcher Matt Walsh examined 391 editions and 1,885 panellist appearances between 2014 and 2024. Journalists from right-leaning publications accounted for 59.59% of media guest slots, compared to just 16.86% for left-leaning outlets. . .”

No equivalent frequency existed for left-wing journalists. . . The BBC maintains that Question Time aims to present a “breadth of viewpoints,” but the data suggests the programme’s construction of impartiality tilts notably in one direction.

Read the full article at:

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/02/1542232/a-decade-of-bbc-question-time-data-reveals-imbalance-in-journalist-guests

Right-Wing Host Says Legacy Media Dead

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Article in Mediaite by Zoe Engels, 1/1/26

Headline:  ” ‘Nothing Will Happen at CBS’: Megyn Kelly Declares Legacy Media ‘Dead”

“SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly pronounced the death of legacy media on Thursday, declaring ‘nothing will happen at CBS’ in a post on X.

“She seized the opportunity to slam the network in her reply to a post featuring incoming CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil instructing viewers to make him ‘earn’ their trust.

“ ‘Nothing will happen at CBS,’ Kelly wrote on X. ‘Nothing. Legacy media is dead and evening news has been totally irrelevant for a long time.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/nothing-will-happen-at-cbs-megyn-kelly-declares-legacy-media-dead/

Even More Duopoly Rules Discarded?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 12/31/25

Headline:  “Labor Unions and Media Justice Groups File Petition Urging the FCC to Reject Nexstar’s Proposed Takeover of Tegna“

“The petition to deny the transfer of broadcast licenses from TEGNA to Nexstar was filed by Free Press, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians—Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA), The NewsGuild—Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA), the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry and Public Knowledge. In their filing the petitioners state that the merger would result in an illegal broadcast conglomerate, exceeding the 39-percent audience-reach ‘National Cap’ set by Congress.

“Though Nexstar and TEGNA seek a waiver of this limit, the commission is prohibited by law from waiving, altering, or eliminating this National Cap. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/labor-unions-and-media-justice-groups-file-petition-urging-fcc-reject-nexstars-proposed

Network Slowly, Slowly Sinking

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Article in Mother Jones by Mika Bauerlein, 12.30.25

Headline:  “The End of CBS News”

Subhead:  “Why corporate media won’t come to save us.”

“. . .Now, editors-in-chief often, annoyingly, ask for changes in stories. I was one, and I did it. But what no editor in her right mind will do is yank a piece at the last minute, after it has been reported, vetted, fact-checked, lawyered, greenlit for publication, and promoted for several days. For if you do that, the issue will no longer be the reporting. The issue will be your management. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/the-end-of-cbs-news/

Standing Firm Against Targeting

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Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin

Headline:  “NPR’s C.E.O. Was a Right-Wing Target. Then the Real Trouble Started.”

Subhead:  “Katherine Maher has taken an unyielding approach to NPR’s biggest battles — which has sometimes put her at odds with her colleagues in public media.”

“. . .Ms. Maher, 42, stood by her strategy.

“ ‘The government targeted public funding to punish specific editorial decisions it disagreed with,’ she said in a recent interview with The New York Times. ‘That’s not a funding dispute dressed up as a constitutional case; that’s textbook First Amendment retaliation.’

“Ms. Maher’s stance brought support pouring in for her organization. NPR emerged from the biggest political battle in its history on firm footing, generating record donations. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/business/npr-katherine-maher.html