Broadcasting

Journalism by Order of Management

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 10/24/25

Headline:   “Ex-60 Minutes producer Bill Owens says bosses discouraged him from covering Gaza and Trump”

Subhead: “Show’s leader, who resigned in April, says he was also pressured to apologize for edit of Kamala Harris interview”

“The former executive producer of 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, said he faced intense internal pressure from his corporate bosses to avoid certain stories that had the potential to generate backlash for parent company Paramount, in his first public remarks since his sudden resignation in late April.. .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/24/60-minutes-bill-owens

Public Radio Fallout

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Article in Freepress.net by Amy Kroin, 10/23/25

Hedline:  “The Defunding of Public Media Is Hitting Local Stations Hardest”

Subhead:  “The decision to end federal funding for public media in the United States already has local stations reeling. . .”

“A New York Times analysis found that 245 stations in rural communities were at risk of closure. That’s because rural stations were far more dependent on CPB funding than many urban stations, which often have a far greater range of underwriters and larger donor pools.

Rural stations have long served as a lifeline for local communities. At a time when media consolidation has decimated local news, public-media stations are often the only source of local journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/blog/defunding-public-media-hitting-local-stations-hardest

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Article in NPR by Staff, 10/22/25

Headline: “How Funding Cuts Are Changing Public Radio”

“This summer, Republicans clawed back over a billion dollars that had been pledged to public media. . . . Now, many stations are weighing whether to spend their shrinking budgets on national programming from the likes of NPR, or to fund journalism on their local communities. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

Grabbing All the Media?

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Article in The Guardian by Laura Aratani, 10/21/25

Headline:  “Warner Bros Discovery considers sale as potential buyers show interest”

Subhead:  “Netflix, Comcast and Paramount Skydance are reportedly among possible bidders in sale that could shake up industry”

“Warner Bros Discovery is considering putting the entire company up for sale, a move that could see huge restructuring in an industry that has seen ripples of changes since Donald Trump took office. . .”

“Warner Bros Discovery is the parent company of several subsidiaries including CNN, HBO, DC Studios and the Harry Potter franchise. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/21/warner-bros-discovery-considers-sale

Burning Down Local Radio

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Article in Al Jezeera by Andy Hirschfeld, 10/20/25

Headline:   “As US public media funds officially dry up, local radio stations struggle”

Subhead:  “Local stations like the Allegheny Mountain Radio serve as a key resource for locals during crises.”

“For Scott Smith, the cuts to the Corporation For Public Broadcasting are existential.

He is the general manager of Allegheny Mountain Radio, which he runs alongside programme manager Heather Nidly. The funds were slashed as part of United States President Donald Trump’s vast tax cut and spending bill that was signed into law in July. As a result, the station, which has been on air for more than four decades, lost 65 percent of its funding. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/10/20/as-public-media-funds-officially-dry-up-local-radio-stations-struggle

 

TV News Loses to Monopolies

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Kyle Paoletta 10/20/25

Headline:  “Brendan Carr’s Deregulation Blitz Is a Disaster for TV News”

Subhead:  “The FCC chairman is clearing the way for Trump and corporate broadcasters to control the airwaves.”

“. . .Under his leadership, the FCC is in the midst of a historic deregulation spree he’s calling “Delete, Delete, Delete.” The campaign is currently reviewing the agency’s “multiple ownership” rules, which prohibit any one company from exerting outsize control over the local television market. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/brendan-carr-fcc-deregulation-blitz-is-a-disaster-for-tv-news.php

Fox in a Whitehouse

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Article in Media Matters by Tyler Monroe, 10/20/25

Headline: “Star Fox host Laura Ingraham is now in business with the president’s son”

“Fox News star Laura Ingraham spent years railing against the purported corruption caused by the business interests of President Joe Biden’s son. But now she’s going into business with Donald Trump Jr., federal records show, a wildly and obviously unethical conflict of interest that no credible news outlet would tolerate. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump-jr/star-fox-host-laura-ingraham-now-business-presidents-son

Network News Slowly Twisting

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 10/25/25

Headline: “Rattled at 30 Rock”

Subhead:  “NBC News is reeling from its biggest round of cuts in years, cutting about 150 staffers as it divorces itself from MSNBC and CNBC.”

“On Wednesday morning, NBC News staffers saw a last-minute meeting added to their calendar for 10 a.m. Most immediately knew what the unspecified meeting would be about: layoffs. Staffers across the organization have been dreading cuts for months . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/nbc-news-layoffs-cuts

Local Journalism Gets it Right

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Article in Media Matters by Noah Howe & Pete Tsipis, 10/10/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media say Portland is a war zone under siege. On-the-ground coverage paints a different picture.”

Subhead:  “Local coverage has highlighted the peaceful nature of protests and the violent response of federal agents”

“Right-wing media claim that Portland’s protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement show a city ‘under siege’ or ‘conquered by antifa,’ but on-the-ground coverage, by both national media outlets and local media outlets, has revealed the opposite.”

“Multiple local broadcast outlets report that protests are relatively small and peaceful, with many demonstrators ‘in pajamas, sharing pastries, throwing a frisbee, and playing board games’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-say-portland-war-zone-under-siege-ground-coverage-paints-different

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Editors 10/10/25

Headline:  “Local TV News Does Good”

Subhead:  “Forget about the mergers and buyouts and executive leadership for a while. The local grunts keep breaking news.”

“. . .firestorm ignited by Porter’s [California Governor Candidate] reaction to Watts’s calm, sensible questioning was just one example of what has been a banner couple of weeks for the often overlooked foot soldiers of local television news. At a time when the national conversation about TV news has been dominated by anxiety about mergers and corporate politics and hostile takeovers, it’s reassuring to see the reporters on the ground continuing to do the kind of work that makes them indispensable to the communities they serve.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/laurels-and-darts/local-tv-news-does-good-porter-california-governor-fox.php

CNN & Cable News Doomed?

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Article in Mediaite by Colby Hall, 10/9/25

Headline:  “EXCLUSIVE: One-on-One With Mark Thompson — The Man Hired to Save CNN“

“. . .Like every legacy media institution, CNN faces pressures that go far beyond the traditional 24-hour news cycle. Linear television is steadily losing its grip on viewers, cord-cutting accelerates each year, social platforms like TikTok are siphoning attention, and AI threatens to redefine what it means to deliver trustworthy, fact-based news. . .”

Read the full article at:

Shape of Things to Come?

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(Penguin Books)

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 10/6/25

Headline:  “Unbelievable Stupidities”

Subhead:  “How the press can rise to the moment.”

“In April 1944, in one of his early Tribune columns, George Orwell described the feeling of coming across a newspaper from before the outbreak of World War II, which at the time had been raging for almost five years, and ‘marvelling at its almost unbelievable stupidity.’

“The stupidity that Orwell saw was a naive disregard—or in some cases a willful downplaying—of the danger signs of the coming global war. . .”

“. . .Ten years from now, or eighty years from now, what might future observers look back on as the media’s ‘unbelievable stupidities’? Will they think the press of today rose to the moment? . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/unbelievable-stupidities.php