Broadcasting

Fire in the FCC?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 12/16/25

Headline:  “Carr’s Collision Course”

Subhead: “FCC Chair Brendan Carr will be on Capitol Hill for rare Congressional testimony on Wednesday—a hearing in which fellow commissioner Anna Gomez will sharply criticize the agency under his watch, Status has learned.”

“On Wednesday morning at 10 a.m ET, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr will take a seat before the Senate Commerce Committee for a rare appearance before Congress. Carr won’t be alone. Commissioners Olivia Trusty and Anna Gomez will join him, marking the first Senate Commerce oversight hearing with all FCC commissioners present in more than five years—a notable moment for an agency that has largely not been subjected to tough congressional scrutiny. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/brendan-carr-fcc-senate-hearing-testimony

Media Health Coverage Adequate?

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Article in Mediaite by Charlie Nash, 12/15/25

Headline:  “Jake Tapper Says He’s Covering Trump’s Health ‘All the Time’ Now Because He ‘Didn’t Ask as Many Questions as We Should Have’ About Biden”

“. . .During an interview with Tapper on Pod Save America, host and former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor asked, ‘How do you think the media is handling, kind of, these growing instances of Trump falling asleep in meetings or maybe seeming like he’s losing a step? Like, when is it a critical mass that it becomes book-worthy’? ”

“It’s a great question,” replied Tapper. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/jake-tapper-says-hes-covering-trumps-health-all-the-time-now-because-he-didnt-ask-as-many-questions-as-we-should-have-about-biden/

Sainthood for New Pentagon Press Corps?

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Article in The Intercept by Katherine Krueger, 12/13/25

Headline:  “The Brand-New Pentagon Press Corps Is Gaga for Hegseth”

Subhead:  “The Department of War has cracked the code on making the perfect press corps by welcoming in only its biggest cheerleaders.”

“The welcome was so warm it could’ve been the first day of school for a new class of kindergartners, and with the so-called reporters’ level of skepticism for the administration, they might as well have been.

” ‘I would also like to take a moment today to welcome all of you here to the Pentagon briefing room as official new members of the Pentagon press corps. We’re glad to have you,’ Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in her December 2 briefing. . .”

“Wilson also said that ‘legacy media chose to self-deport from this building,’ a cute way of noting that dozens of news organizations — among them the New York Times, the Washington Post, the major broadcast news outlets, and even Fox News and Newsmax — gave up their press passes rather than sign on to the administration’s blatantly anti-First Amendment set of rules for reporting on Pete Hegseth’s Department of War. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/13/hegseth-new-pentagon-press-reporters/

Pressure on Broadcast News

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Article in Poynter, by Tom Jones, 12/12/25

Headline:  “Donald Trump’s mission to get CNN sold”

Subhead: “It’s one thing for the president of the United States to dislike a network. It’s quite another to get personally involved in the network’s sale.”

“There’s no doubt about it at this point. President Donald Trump has great interest in what happens to CNN.

“CNN is a part of Warner Bros. Discovery. And, at the moment, WBD is in a tug-of-war between being sold to Netflix or being taken over in a hostile bid by Paramount.

“That sets up this interesting equation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/donald-trumps-mission-to-get-cnn-sold/

Bannon – Epstein – Mainstream Media?

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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel & Sophie Lawton, 12/11/25

Headline: “Mainstream news coverage almost totally ignored Bannon’s extensive ties to Epstein”

Subhead: “Bannon and Epstein exchanged hundreds of emails and texts. Most leading newspaper articles didn’t mention their history, and broadcast news ignored it entirely.”

“Media Matters reviewed print and online articles from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, as well as weekday episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight, CBS’ Mornings and Evening News, and NBC’s Today and Nightly News and the networks’ Sunday morning political talk shows (ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press) from November 12 through December 8 for articles and segments about Jeffery Epstein. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/mainstream-news-coverage-almost-totally-ignored-bannons-extensive-ties-epstein

Loony Media Influencers?

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Article in NPR On the Media by WYNC Staff, 12/9/25

Headline:  “Covering the Pentagon, from Sy Hersh to Laura Loomer”

“The New York Times has sued the Pentagon for restricting access to journalists. On this week’s On the Media, meet the new cast of right wing influencers and conspiracy theorists replacing the press corps in the Pentagon. . .”

Read the full article at:

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

Mega-Media Monsters Good?

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Article in Democracy Now! by Staff, 12/9/25

Headline:  ” ‘Merger Madness’: Trump at Center of Rival Netflix-Paramount Bids for Warner Bros.”

“President Donald Trump says he will be personally involved in the potential sale of Warner Bros. Discovery, with two enormous buyout offers on the table that risk further exacerbating U.S. media concentration. Netflix announced an $83 billion deal last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which would give the tech giant control of the Warner Bros. movie studio and rival streaming service HBO Max. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/9/warner_bros_discovery_sale

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Article in Business Insider by Paige Bruton, Sarah Jackson, and Henry Chandonnet; 12/9/25

Headline: “Meet David Ellison, the 42-year-old Paramount Skydance CEO trying to throw a monkey wrench in Netflix’s plan”

“David Ellison is officially the CEO of Paramount Skydance. After a successful Paramount merger, next on his wish list is Warner Bros. Discovery — and he’s launched a hostile takeover bid in an effort to scoop it out from Netflix’s hands. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-david-ellison-paramount-skydance-ceo-2025-12?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BusinessInsider-post-rentertainment

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 12/8/25

Headline: “Ellison’s Endgame”

“What began as quiet courtship by David Ellison has morphed into a hostile takeover attempt of Warner Bros. Discover – with the battle only likely to get messier in the days ahead. . .”

Read the article at:

https://www.status.news/p/david-ellison-david-zaslav-warner-bros-paramount-bids

No Room in the Basket?

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Article in New York Times by John Koblin, 12/25/25

Headline:  “CNN, Unwanted by Netflix, Is Excluded From a Sale, for Now”

Subhead:  “The prospect of Paramount buying Warner Bros. Discovery had led CNN journalists to wonder if the channel might be combined with CBS News. Instead, CNN will remain in a separate corporate entity.”

“Netflix’s mega $83 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery has major implications for the entertainment industry, as well as the Warner Bros. film and TV studios and HBO.

“The fallout, at least for now, will be far less significant for CNN.

“The 24-hour news channel is conspicuously absent from the media entities that Netflix said on Friday it planned to acquire in its proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/business/media/cnn-netflix-warner-bros-discovery-deal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6U8.DPP4.1A8q34iR9fB9&smid=url-share

Lack of Accurate News Bites Back?

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Article in The Washington Post by the editorial board, 12/5/25

Headline:  “Trump’s closure of Voice of America is coming back to bite him”

Subhead:  “As the president threatens Venezuela, Russia and China are filling the information vacuum.”

“President Donald Trump has said he won’t rule out anything when it comes to removing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from power. Yet he is missing an important tool from the arsenal: the Voice of America.

“Since Trump’s March executive order dismantling the news agency, most of VOA’s 1,300 staff members and contractors have been fired or placed on administrative leave, its website has been frozen and the 83-year-old broadcaster has gone dark for the first time since its founding during World War II. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/05/venezuela-voa-voice-of-america-maduro-trump/