Broadcasting

NPR vs. CPB

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Article in The Washington Post by Scott Nover, 9/27/25

Headline:  “NPR challenges CPB’s authority to redirect millions in funding”

Subhead:  “The public radio network asked a federal judge to block the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from transferring $57.9 million to a new nonprofit.”

“NPR has asked a federal judge in D.C. to block the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from transferring millions in satellite funding to a newly formed nonprofit run by a coalition of public media organizations.

“The legal filing Friday came just hours after CPB announced it was awarding as much as $57.9 million over five years to Public Media Infrastructure (PMI), the nonprofit group that counts such radio mainstays as New York Public Radio, American Public Media and PRX as founding partners. . .”

“NPR argued in its court filing that CPB, which is set to wind down operations starting with mass cuts in the coming days, has carried out an executive order that it considers illegal by doling out congressionally appropriated satellite funds to another group. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/27/npr-cpb-funding/

Holding an Empty Bag

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Article in Ars Technica by Staff, 9.26.25

Headline: “Sinclair gets nothing it asked for, puts Jimmy Kimmel back on anyway”

Subhead: “Sorry, Brendan Carr: Sinclair and Nexstar stop preempting Kimmel on ABC affiliates.”

“Conservative broadcaster Sinclair is putting Jimmy Kimmel Live! back on the air. In a statement today, Sinclair said it will end its preemption of the show on its ABC affiliates starting tonight, even though ABC and owner Disney haven’t accepted its request for an ombudsman and other changes.

Facing the threat of lost advertising dollars, Sinclair said it ‘received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/sinclair-gets-nothing-it-asked-for-puts-jimmy-kimmel-back-on-anyway/

Passed Time?

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Article in Daiy Kos by Alex Samuels, 9/26/25

Headline: “Broadcasters throw in the towel on censoring Jimmy Kimmel”

“Well, well, well … looks like Sinclair and Nexstar are bringing back ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ beginning Friday. The broadcasters had yanked the late-night show last week over Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the alleged murderer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the MAGA movement. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/26/2345643/-Broadcasters-throw-in-the-towel-on-censoring-Jimmy-Kimmel?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web

 

 

2 Broadcast Monopolies?

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Article in Daily Dot by Lindsey Weedston, 9/25/25

Headline: “Who is Sinclair? Behind the TV conglomerate refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel”

Subhead: “They were caught scripting what local news anchors said in 2017. “

“Sinclair Broadcast Group catapulted back into the spotlight following the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel over his Charlie Kirk comments. The U.S. telecommunications conglomerate has steadily bought up a huge share of local news stations and is accused of forcing journalists to cite scripts that promote right-wing talking points.

“Along with Nexstar, Sinclair is now the focus of concerns around broadcast monopolies and the fate of free speech in America. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailydot.com/news/who-is-sinclair-tv-conglomerate-jimmy-kimmel/

Some Media People Don’t Bow

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 9/25/25

Headline: “Opinion | Jimmy Kimmel came back defiant — and viewers rewarded him”

Subhead:  “The late-night host walked back onstage without apology, defended free speech and turned a suspension into record-breaking ratings”

“On Tuesday, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel returned from his suspension with an empathetic but defiant monologue and included a joke about President Donald Trump. Kimmel said, “You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/jimmy-kimmel-monologue-disney-nexstar/

Booted Off the Air?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvao & Riddhi Setty, 9/25/25

Headline: “Local ABC Affiliates Are Getting Slammed”

Subhead:  “Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, promised to bring power to community stations. But it’s their corporate owners who make the big decisions—while regional reporters and station managers take the heat.”

“Fewer and fewer local broadcasters are independently owned: “In the early eighties, it was north of fifty companies that owned or controlled 90 percent of broadcast media. And I think over the last decade or so, it’s become five or six, depending on how you break it down,” Reed Showalter, the former antitrust enforcer now running for Congress in Illinois, said. . .”

“. . .”Louis Wall, the president of Sagamore Hill Broadcasting, a privately owned broadcaster in Georgia . . . who considers himself to be “very supportive” of the First Amendment, has suddenly had to navigate a complex and often contradictory set of political, ideological, and financial concerns. “Broadcast is under attack from so many different mediums and video sources, we don’t need another piece of our armor or another piece of our programming to be lost,” he said.

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/local-abc-affiliates-nexstar-sinclair-getting-slammed.php

 

Flag Flying Over All Media?

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Article in The Atlantic by David Karpf, 9/24/25

Headline:  “The MAGA Media Takeover”

Subhead:  “Trump and his powerful friends are creating a dangerous moment for free speech.”

“American mass media has been transformed in these early months of President Donald Trump’s second administration. We’re about 35 weeks into a term that will last for 173 more, and in that time, we have seen a tech titan gut a once-great newspaper in an apparent act of capitulation to the commander in chief, government accounts gleefully spreading hateful memes on X (the far-right platform owned by a billionaire tech oligarch), a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump against The New York Times (and quickly dismissed by the judge as ‘superfluous’), and, of course, the assault on free speech carried out by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman. Big things can happen very quickly. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/09/maga-media-takeover-tiktok/684351/

 

Standing For Free Speech

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Article in The New Republic by Perry Bacon, 9/24/25

Headline:  “Jimmy Kimmel Just Showed the Rest of the Media How to Fight Trump”

Subhead:  “New York Times writer E.J. Dionne says that the late-night host essentially forced ABC to end his suspension because of the broad, strong coalition that defended him”

“Jimmy Kimmel strongly defended free speech and slammed President Trump in his return to late night after a brief suspension. In the latest edition of Right Now With Perry Bacon, New York Times opinion writer E.J. Dionne and Perry discussed why Kimmel’s fast return was such a coup for pro-democracy voices. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/200871/kimmel-brilliant-anti-trump-campaign

 

Gotta Catch ‘Em All

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Article in The New York Times by Cecelia Kang, 4/24/25

Headline:  “Brendan Carr Plans to Keep Going After the Media”

Subhead:  “While “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned to ABC on Tuesday, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has promised to continue his campaign against what he sees as liberal bias in broadcasts.”

“. . .Driven by the belief that liberal tech and media companies have unfairly silenced viewpoints on the right, Mr. Carr is working to transform the F.C.C. from a once sleepy agency best known for licensing local TV stations and expanding 5G cellular networks into a protector of conservative speech. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/technology/brendan-carr-fcc-kimmel.html