Broadcasting

Radio Lifeline Disappearing

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Article in The Washington Post by Staff, 7/22/25

Headline:  “Congress cut public media funding. Now what?

Subhead:  “What one rural community in Alaska could be losing now that Congress has defunded public media. And why this became a priority for President Donald Trump.”

“KYUK is the oldest Native American-owned radio station in the country. It broadcasts morning newscasts in both English and Yup’ik, the local Indigenous language, to 56 remote communities in Southwest Alaska. When there’s a weather emergency or even just a local basketball game, these communities turn to KYUK for information. But soon, that could all change.

“Late last week, Congress passed a rescissions bill that claws back the money set aside for public broadcasting for the next two years. For KYUK, this money represents close to 70 percent of its entire budget. Without it, the station could go dark. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/congress-cut-public-media-funding-now-what/

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Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 7/22/25

Headline:  “NPR’s editor-in-chief to step down days after Congress cuts $1.1bn in funding”

Subhead:  “Edith Chapin’s announcement comes after Congress approves Trump bill to cancel all federal funding for public broadcasters”

“The editor-in-chief of the US public radio network NPR has told colleagues that she is stepping down later this year.

“Edith Chapin’s announcement comes just days after federal lawmakers voted in support of Donald Trump’s plan to claw back $1.1bn from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the umbrella organization that funds both NPR and the non-commercial TV network PBS. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jul/22/npr-editor-in-chief-to-step-down

Media Political Victim?

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Article in Rolling Stone by Alan Spinwall, 7/22/25

Headline:  “Politics, Not Performance, Killed ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”

Subhead:  “The end of ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ signals a much bigger shift for late night. But it’s not just about money”

“At the start of Thursday night’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the veteran talk show host announced that on Wednesday, his bosses at CBS informed him that Late Show would be coming to an end next May. As the studio audience booed at great length and volume, Colbert acknowledged, ‘Yeah, I share your feelings.’ Then he inspired additional sympathetic boos by adding, “It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. . .”

“. . . A specific merger with Skydance Media was proposed last year, and it is still awaiting approval by the Federal Communications Commission — an agency whose chief reports to the man who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and who earlier this month received a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit he filed against CBS regarding the editing of a 60 Minutes episode. Colbert has been one of the most vocal critics of the current administration of anyone on television. . .

Read the full article at:

https://au.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/late-show-with-stephen-colbert-ending-analysis-80208/

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Article in The Guardian by Adrian Horton, 7/22/25

Headline: “Losing Stephen Colbert and The Late Show is a crushing blow, whatever the reason”

Subhead: “After watching the comedian’s smart and incisive assessment of America’s daily chaos for years, there’s something major to be mourned as he leaves the air”

“. . .or the better part of six years, I have watched every late-night monologue as part of my job at the Guardian (hello, late-night roundup), and though I often grumble about it, The Late Show has become a staple of my media diet and my principle source of news; as a millennial, I haven’t known a television landscape without it. There are many bleaker, deadlier things happening daily in this country, and the field of late-night comedy has been dying slowly for years, but the cancellation of The Late Show, three days after Colbert called out its parent company for settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump, felt especially and pointedly depressing – more a sign of cultural powerlessness and corporate fecklessness in the face of a bully president than the inevitable result of long-shifting tastes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/22/stephen-colbert-cancelled-trump-late-night

Shiving the Media

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Article in New York Times by Jess Bidgood, 7/21/25

Headline: “Trump Sharpens Attacks on a Favorite Foe: The News Media”

Subhead: “How the president is using the levers of government power against the news industry.”

“In declaring war on The Wall Street Journal over its coverage of his years long friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, President Trump tapped his supporters’ distrust of his favorite foe — the news media — in an effort to put down a mutiny within his base, as my colleague Erica Green explained.

“It was a familiar move that might have been lifted straight from his playbook in the 2016 presidential campaign.

“But this is a very different moment. If Trump’s complaints about the media feel like a throwback to his first term, his actions toward the industry have gone much further than that. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/us/politics/trump-news-media.html

A Dirge for Public Media?

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Public media is not state-controlled media

Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 7/18/25

Headline: “Congress signs off on Trump’s request to rescind $1 billion in funding for public broadcasting”

Subhead: “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will lose its funding starting in October — a first in its history”

“For the first time in its 58-year history, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the organization responsible for distributing federal dollars to NPR, PBS and other public broadcasters — will lose its funding.

“The loss is a result of Congress’ striking deference to President Donald Trump. Under the Constitution, Congress holds the power to control government spending. But early Friday morning, at Trump’s request, the House joined the Senate in agreeing to take back $9 billion in funds it had already appropriated. That money included $1.07 billion for CPB and nearly $8 billion in foreign aid. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/trump-defunds-npr-pbs-cpb-public-broadcasting/

Goodbye to Some Media

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Public media is NOT state-controlled media

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Andrew Mercein, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Inside the Radio Stations Devastated by Public Funding Cuts”

Subhead:  “ ‘If we have to make cuts, there’s no easy choice,’ one station manager said.”

“At noon on Friday, just hours after Congress revoked more than 1.1 billion dollars in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, more than a hundred and fifty member stations joined a closed-door Zoom call with NPR leadership. The federal funding they had spent months trying to save was gone. What remained was a shared sense of loss, exhaustion, and the daunting task of reevaluating their mission and programming.

“In an emotional hour-long call, station leaders grappled with fallback plans and infrastructure gaps. Some large stations offered to share resources with smaller ones. Others voiced gratitude for NPR’s efforts in Washington. But no one believed the damage could be undone quickly—if at all. ‘It was, in some ways, a postmortem,’ said one person who listened to the call. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/public-radio-stations-funding-cuts-rescission.php

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Defunding NPR and PBS passed the Senate — and it’s a direct hit to rural America”

“As feared, President Donald Trump, with the help of Congress, is making good on his threat to cut federal funding for NPR, PBS and other public broadcasting.

‘It’s a dark day for journalism, the free press and, perhaps most importantly, everyday Americans who are going to feel the effects of what happened Thursday. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/defunding-npr-and-pbs-passed-the-senate/

Native American Media in Jeopardy

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Article in Indian Country Today by AP & Kevin Abourezk, 7/18/25

Headline:  “Native public media reels after federal budget cuts”

Subhead:  “Congress approves Trump’s $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid”

Francene Blythe-Lewis spent Friday morning crying at her desk, trying to assess how the loss of nearly half of her organization’s $2.8 million annual budget would impact its ability to support public media by and about Native people.

“ ‘It’s been very stressful,’ she said. ‘I don’t know 100 percent how it’s going to affect us. It’s not going to close Vision Maker Media.’

“Vision Maker Media’s woes were realized early Friday when the U.S. House approved President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid . . .”

“The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure. . .”

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years. . .”

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/news/native-public-media-reels-after-federal-budget-cuts/

Fallout from Paramount / CBS

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Article in The Guardian by Cecelia Nowell, 7/18/25

Headline:   “Democrats condemn CBS for axing Colbert show: ‘People deserve to know if this is politically motivated’ “

Subhead:   “Lawmakers note cancellation follows Colbert’s criticism of parent company Paramount for settling Trump suit”

“Democrats are condemning CBS for its recent decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, noting the news comes just a few days after its host criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a $16m lawsuit with Donald Trump. . .”

“In early July, Paramount settled a ‘frivolous’ lawsuit with Trump over the president’s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Paramount is also seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/18/democrats-cbs-colbert-show

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Article in NBC News by Tim Stelloh and Steve Kopack, 7/17/25

Headline: “Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show‘ run will come to an end next year as CBS cancels franchise”

Subhead: ” ‘The decision “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,’ the network said.”

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will broadcast its final show in May, CBS said Thursday.

“The network, which has aired ‘The Late Show’ with Colbert as its host since 2015, said it is ending the franchise after a ‘historic run.’

” ‘We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘”THE LATE SHOW” franchise at that time,’ CBS executives said in a joint statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.

” ‘This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/stephen-colbert-late-show-end-cbs-rcna219499?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Alligators Can Bite in Undrained Swamp

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Article in AlterNet by Carl Gibson, 7/17/25

Headline: ” ‘Worse by the day’: Analyst reveals how Trump is rapidly losing backing of far-right media”

“President Donald Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case has resulted in a vast multitude of far-right media figures turning on the person they helped elect, according to a new analysis.

“In a Thursday article in anti-Trump conservative outlet The Bulwark, author Will Sommer detailed how some of the biggest names in the MAGA media sphere have deemed Trump a heretic over the administration’s insistence that the Epstein matter is closed and that the rumored ‘client list’ purportedly including contact information for Epstein’s criminal associates never existed. He listed multiple examples suggesting that Trump’s biggest online advocates may not forgive him over the Epstein issue. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-right-wing-media/

Senators ask FCC to end Hunt?

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Article in Reuters by David Shepardson, 7/16/25

Headline:  “Senators urge FCC chair to end probes into CBS News, other media outlets”

“Two Democratic U.S. senators on Wednesday urged Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr to end investigations into CBS News and other media outlets.

“Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Ed Markey, in a letter to Carr first reported by Reuters, urged the commission ‘to end its partisan attacks on CBS and cease interfering with the judgment of independent news organizations. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/senators-urge-fcc-chair-end-probes-into-cbs-other-outlets-2025-07-16/