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. . .”
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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 9/25/25
Headline: “On The Joy Reid Show, Angelo Carusone discusses media consolidation and news outlets standing up to threats to free speech”
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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. . .”
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https://www.dailydot.com/news/who-is-sinclair-tv-conglomerate-jimmy-kimmel/
Article in Poynter by Tom Jones and Nicole Slaughter Graham, 9/26/25
headline: “Opinion | A TikTok deal ticks closer to done
Subhead: “The deal would keep TikTok alive in the U.S. — but raises questions about who will shape what millions of young users see.”
“After months of delays and extended deadlines, it appears a deal that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States on a permanent basis is in its final stages.
That’s good. And, well, maybe not so good. . .”
“Aside from being able to say he ‘saved’ TikTok, he has other reasons to see that this deal goes through. Among the potential investors are tech and media giants Larry Ellison, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and Michael Dell. Ellison is founder of Oracle. . .”
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https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/tiktok-deal-trump-executive-order-china/
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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Tory Lysik, 9/25/25
Headline: “Where the White House Is Leading Us with TikTok“
Subhead: “The Trump administration is pioneering a new form of political communication. The imminent prospect of a deal to reshape TikTok’s future in the United States could give the White House even more power.”
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https://www.cjr.org/analysis/tiktok-white-house-press-ellison-trump-yass-murdoch.php
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Article in The Guardian by Blake Montgomery, 9/24/25
Headline: “Murdoch’s TikTok? Trump offers allies another lever of media control”
Subhead: “Under the known terms of the deal with China, TikTok would get a new board, including Murdochs and Ellisons”
“Donald Trump revealed last week the US and China are close to inking a deal to let TikTok continue operating in the US. Details are not final, but should the agreement go through as has been reported, the owners of the US’s most powerful cable TV channels may soon also steer the nation’s most influential social network. The arrangement would gift Trump’s billionaire allies a degree of control over US media that would be vast and unprecedented. . .”
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/24/tiktok-trump-murdoch-ellison
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.
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https://www.cjr.org/news/local-abc-affiliates-nexstar-sinclair-getting-slammed.php
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. . .”
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https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/09/maga-media-takeover-tiktok/684351/
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. . .”
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/technology/brendan-carr-fcc-kimmel.html
Article from Poynter by Angela Fu , 9/15/25
Headline: “Media consolidation is shaping who folds under political pressure — and who could be next”
Subhead: “ABC sidelining Jimmy Kimmel and Paramount canceling Stephen Colbert underscore how corporate interests weigh on free speech in the Trump era”
“. . .Media watchers called Kimmel’s sidelining an alarming act of capitulation — one that fit into a larger pattern of media giants self-censoring in anticipatory obedience to President Donald Trump and his administration.
“Kimmel’s show, though popular, was just one cog in the Disney media empire (ABC’s parent company), and its distribution relied in part on two other media behemoths, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting Group. That made it especially vulnerable to political pressure since both Nexstar and Sinclair are exploring acquisitions regulated by Carr’s agency, the Federal Communications Commission. . .”
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https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/which-media-outlets-could-capitulate-to-trump/
Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 9/23/25
Headline: “You Don’t Know Jack”
Subhead: “CNN’s interview with Jack Posobiec prompted internal backlash, while raising larger questions about how mainstream outlets cover far-right figures”
“Earlier this month, in the chaotic aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, CNN correspondent Meena Duerson sat down with far-right media personality Jack Posobiec to discuss his friend’s murder. Posobiec, of course, was no ordinary grieving ally—he has spent years spreading misinformation, promoting conspiracy theories, and inciting harassment against journalists.
“So it was jarring, to say the least, to see him appear on CNN’s air. What was more surprising was that the network, which gave the package prime placement on ‘Erin Burnett OutFront,’ didn’t note any of his long history of pumping toxic waste into the information ecosystem, nor did it confront him with tough questions about his well-documented behavior as an online MAGA troll. . .”
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https://www.status.news/p/cnn-jack-posobiec-interview-backlash
Article in Daily Kos by Olliver Willis, 9/22/25
Headline: “Trump gives his Fox News pals a new platform to push propaganda”
“President Donald Trump has reportedly chosen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, owners of Fox News, as part of a group that will have control over TikTok’s influential algorithm.
The move further consolidates right-wing media control while the Trump administration engages in a full-scale assault on the First Amendment. . .”
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Article in The New York Times by David Streitfeld and Theodore Schleifer, 9/23/25
Headline: “Larry Ellison, a Media Mogul Like No Other”
Subhead: “The database billionaire and his son, David, are Trump favorites. The family could soon control an empire that includes CBS, Paramount, Warner, CNN and a piece of TikTok.”
” . . . At any other time, the regulatory hurdles to owning TikTok, CBS and CNN along with a major swath of Hollywood would have been insurmountable. This is a decidedly different era, where being in the good graces of Mr. Trump counts for a great deal. . .”
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/technology/larry-ellison-oracle-tiktok.html