Corporate Media

Legacy Media Straitjacketed?

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Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rozsa, 3/23/26

Headline:  “Mainstream media is playing a dangerous game: mental health experts”

“President Donald Trump is a habitual liar who may also suffer from serious mental illness, a seasoned journalist argued on Monday — but the mainstream media is too cowardly to call it out.

“ ‘For a while now, I’ve been imploring the leaders of our top news organizations to call out Donald Trump’s derangement,’ wrote Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch and former journalist at The Huffington Post and The Intercept. ‘My argument is simple: It is the central, underlying explanation for everything else they’re covering.’

“Yet, as Froomkin pointed out, ‘They won’t do it. Their arguments: It would appear partisan; We don’t want to take sides; And (more reasonably) we prohibit the use of language associated with mental illness unless a person has been diagnosed as mentally ill. (I wrestle with a variation of this last one myself: How do you call him insane without stigmatizing insane people?)’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/normalizing-trump/

Icon of Radio – Gone.

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 3/20/26

Headline:  “CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era”

“NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, ending an era and blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts. Said longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather: ‘It’s another piece of America that is gone.’. . .”

“Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/cbs-radio-news-bari-weiss-11372c28f9557d0b10e329e6c4be339f

Control of the Screens

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Article in Washington Post by Scott Nover, 3/19/26

Headline:  “U.S. approves $6.2 billion merger set to reshape local TV”

Subhead:  “The Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission gave a thumbs-up to the Nexstar-Tegna merger.”

“Nexstar, the largest owner of TV stations in the United States, won regulatory approval to buy rival Tegna on Thursday, in a $6.2 billion deal that promises to reshape the landscape for local television and news coverage.”

“. . .FCC Chairman Brendan Carr allowed the deal to proceed by waiving a cap that has historically barred station owners from expanding to reach more than 39 percent of American households. Nexstar previously said the deal would give it 265 stations across the country, reaching 80 percent of households. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/19/nexstar-tegna-tv-merger-approved/0

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 3/19/26

Headline:  “8 states are suing to stop another MAGA media monopoly”

“A coalition of eight states, led by their Democratic attorneys general, is suing to stop Nexstar Media Group from acquiring Tegna.

“Nexstar owns more than 200 TV stations while Tegna owns 64, so a merging of the companies would reach more than 54% of households, exceeding current Federal Communications Commission limits on station ownership. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/19/2373898/-8-states-are-suing-to-stop-another-MAGA-media-monopoly?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web

Notice on Washington Post

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 3/17/26

Headline:  “US media mogul sees a big opportunity in the cuts at the Washington Post“

Subhead:  “Robert Allbritton’s Notus plans to double its newsroom staff, which includes hiring prominent ex-Post journalists”

“Robert Allbritton, the billionaire media entrepreneur, said he was “pained” by the Washington Post’s decision to lay off a large chunk of its newsroom in early February. But he also saw it as an opportunity to hire some of the Post’s most well-known journalists, including many who would have been hard to poach in previous years. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/17/notus-hire-washington-post-staff-robert-allbritton

On Media Under. . .?

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Article in Washington Post by Scott Nover, 3/17/26

Headline:  “The Ellisons are building a media empire. Trump keeps cheering them on.”

Subhead:  “The president and defense secretary have each heaped praise on Larry and David Ellison as the Justice Department reviews Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros. deal.”

“President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly celebrated the wealthy Ellison family’s growing media empire in recent days, even as the Trump administration is reviewing Paramount Skydance’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery and its assets including CNN for $110 billion.. .”

“Trump’s fresh praise for the Ellisons comes as the president has spent weeks insulting the press over their coverage of the Iran war. On Sunday, Trump alleged without evidence in a Truth Social post that news organizations were running AI-generated Iranian propaganda and should be charged with “TREASON for the dissemination of false information. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/17/trump-hegseth-praise-ellisons-approval/

Circling Paramount Oscars

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 3/13/26

Headline:  “Free Press Circles the Oscars With a Mobile Billboard Protesting Paramount’s Terrible Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery”

Subhead:  “Protest sign mockingly urges the Academy to consider David Ellison for ‘Best Performance in a Puppet Show’ — with President Trump holding the strings”

“. . . a mobile billboard parodying Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison will be circling the Dolby Theater, site of Sunday’s Academy Awards. The billboard is a roving protest of Ellison’s plans to take over Warner Bros. Discovery and transform the resulting media colossus into a mouthpiece for Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

“The billboard urges members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to consider Ellison’s performance for the imaginary “Best Performance in a Puppet Show” category.. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-circles-oscars-mobile-billboard-protesting-paramounts-terrible-takeover-warner-bros

Fairness in Broadcasting?

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Article in Babylon Bee by Staff, 3/13/26

Headline: “To Save Time, CNN Will Now Run Retractions Simultaneously With News Stories”

“ATLANTA, GA — As part of the channel’s ongoing quest to ensure accurate media reporting, CNN has elected to run live retractions simultaneously with the news stories being reported at the time.

“Retractions will appear on an additional ticker at the bottom of the screen, retracting the usual live news updates with corrections of everything the on-screen anchor is saying. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://babylonbee.com/news/to-save-time-cnn-will-now-run-retractions-simultaneously-with-news-stories

Strait-Jacketed News?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 3/13/26

Headline:  “Dire Strait: Trump’s Fox Cabinet ignored Hormuz in the month before the U.S. attacked Iran”

“It’s little wonder that President Donald Trump didn’t seem to worry about the Strait of Hormuz in planning his war of choice against Iran: His Fox News advisers utterly ignored the possibility that Iran could respond by closing that critical shipping lane as they urged the president to launch the attack last month.

“Roughly 20% of global crude oil and liquified natural gas, along with a ‘dominant’ share of global fertilizers, reach world markets by flowing from the Persian Gulf through the narrow strait between Iran and Oman and into the Indian Ocean. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/dire-strait-trumps-fox-cabinet-ignored-hormuz-month-us-attacked-iran

Gambling With the News

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Article i in Columbia Journalism Review by Ivan L. Nagy, 3/11/26

Headline:  “Are Prediction Markets Actually Good for Journalism?”

Subhead:  “Dustin Gouker, the author of a Substack about prediction markets, says the media could benefit from keeping an eye on Kalshi and Polymarket.”

“By the time the US attacked Iran, on February 28, half a billion dollars had been wagered on Polymarket, one of the world’s top prediction markets, predicting when the strikes would happen. . .”

“Not long after the war started, Polymarket added a note to its Middle East markets. ‘The promise of prediction markets is to harness the wisdom of the crowd to create accurate, unbiased forecasts for the most important events to society,’ the company wrote. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the-interview/are-prediction-markets-actually-good-for-journalism-kalshi-polymarket-dow-jones-cnn.php

Fox Gives Advice to Tanker Pilots

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Article in Daily Kos by Walter Einenkel, 3/9/36

Headline:  “Sailing through a war zone is no big deal, says Fox News”

“The crew over at ‘Fox & Friends’ is twisting itself into a propaganda pretzel trying to spin President Donald Trump’s Iran war, with hosts Brian Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones unabashedly sharing their bizarre thoughts Monday. . .”

“Kilmeade then chastised oil-tanker captains for refusing to sail through a potential war zone in the Strait of Hormuz.

“If you want to diminish the Iranian threat, if you want to make sure that this ends up with complete Iran capitulation, sow some guts and go through that strait and do it,” he said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372385/-Sailing-through-a-war-zone-is-no-big-deal-says-Fox-News?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_9&pm_medium=web