Corporate Media

Media Find Happy Warrior

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Article in FAIR by Raina Lipsitz, 8/28/25

Headline:  “Media Like Newsom’s Fighting Words—But Are Words Enough to Beat Trump?”

“Corporate media outlets, and the consultants and former administration officials who work for them, have a message for Democratic voters: To revive its dwindling appeal, their party needs a fighter to take on Trump. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has lately made headlines for parodying Trump on X, is the man for the job. . .”

“Because corporate media outlets have taken Trump’s 2024 victory as evidence that the Democratic Party has moved too far left, they are eager to portray Newsom’s shifts as part of a commonsensical and pragmatic effort to broaden his appeal by tacking right. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/media-like-newsoms-fighting-words-but-are-words-enough-to-beat-trump/

Changing From Print to TV

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 8/27/25

Headline: “Can a print journalist become a TV reporter? Some face significant challenges. Others find success.”

Subhead: “Behind the scenes of a bold program at Scripps, the promise of reinvention collides with the realities of TV news culture.”

“Three years ago, The E.W. Scripps Company, one of the largest broadcast news organizations in the United States, prepared to launch an ambitious initiative. The Scripps Journalism Journey Initiative, a multiyear program with Google, was designed to transition experienced print journalists into broadcast news careers, at a time when local newspapers were closing and newsrooms were shrinking. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/scripps-jji-print-journalists-reinvent-careers-broadcast/

Murdoch Blames Renewable Energy

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Article in Media Matters by Ilana Berger, 8/27/25

Headline:  “Murdoch media find a scapegoat for New Jersey’s high electric rates”

Subhead:  “As data centers demand enormous energy outputs and Garden State grid operators reportedly slow-walk new projects, right-wing media take shots at renewable energy”

“Murdoch media outlets are blaming high electricity bills in New Jersey on ‘green-energy mandates.’ But experts and local politicians say price hikes are being driven by data centers, which ‘guzzle electricity around the clock,’ and decisions made by the regional operator. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/rupert-murdoch/murdoch-media-find-scapegoat-new-jerseys-high-electric-rates

Urgent Reporting Can Wait

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 8/19/25

Headline: “Media in Hiding From the Most Urgent Questions of the Day”

“. . . Corporate media are calling this kind of thing reporting, but reporting would keep at least one foot in the facts. So when White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller (X, 8/12/25) tweets that ‘crime stats in big blue cities are fake,’ would a press corps worth its salt say ‘some advocates dispute that,’ or would they show all the actual real-world data?

“Ideally, the blathering of a man who thinks that ‘the real rates of crime, chaos and dysfunction are orders of magnitude higher’ than that might be met with questions about, for one thing, whether he knows what ‘orders of magnitude’ means, but also, where is he looking for these official rates of ‘chaos and dysfunction’?

“But the press corps we have are engaged, like the New York Times, in hiding from the most urgent questions of the day. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/media-in-hiding-from-the-most-urgent-questions-of-the-day/

Saving Empire With a Deal

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 8/20/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Why did CBS settle with Trump? Media mogul Shari Redstone speaks”

Subhead: “Paramount’s controlling shareholder says settling with Trump was in the company’s best interest”

“Trump’s case stood little to no chance in court, but the general narrative was that Paramount settled with Trump to get the required approval from his administration for the merger.

At the center of all this was Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount.

Now, The New York Times’ James B. Stewart has a new major story out — “Why Did Shari Redstone Do It?” — which details the 13 months of negotiations between Paramount and Skydance, as well as the reasoning behind settling the lawsuit with Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

ttps://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/why-did-cbs-settle-with-trump-media-mogul-shari-redstone-speaks/

News Channel Clucked Too Much?

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Update below:

Article in Status by Jon Passantino, 8/18/25

Headline:  “Plucking MSNBC’s Feathers”

Subhead: “After nearly 30 years, MSNBC is dropping its name to become MS NOW a rebrand that sparked tension with NBCU and weeks of behind-the-scenes debate”

“On Monday morning, a little after 9 a.m. ET, Joe Scarborough delivered an unexpected jolt to MSNBC’s viewers. “We have breaking news as it pertains to our network: This morning, a new name of the network, the ‘Morning Joe’ host announced. ‘By the end of the year, we will become MS NOW, which stands for my source for news, opinion, and the world.’ The surprise decision unsurprisingly drew instant cheers from Scarborough, who hailed the network’s bold new logo as ‘very sporty,’ and cheered the name change as proof that ‘we’re independent.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/msnbc-new-name-rebrand-ms-now

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Article in Daily Dot by Jamie Jirak, 8/19/25

Headline:  “MSNBC is officially changing its name to MS Now, and the internet reacted as you’d expect: with memes and conspiracy theories”

Subhead:  “ ‘It’s not shocking, but it is noteworthy.’ “

“. . .Why is MSNBC changing its name?

“According to the announcement, the name change is happening due to a move to a new media company called VERSANT. MS NOW will no longer be a part of NBCUniversal and NBCNews. Instead, they will be under the same umbrella as CNBC, Golf Channel, GolfNow, and SportsEngine. . .”

“Unsurprisingly, people have a wide range of thoughts about this news. People have taken to social media to share their feelings and make some clever jokes about MS NOW. With name changes becoming increasingly common, some people just aren’t having it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailydot.com/viral-politics/msnbc-changing-name-to-ms-now/

D.C. & Media

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Trump Occupying DC: WaPo Used to Be Disgusted”

“. . .With DC’s self-governance under threat, the city’s paper of record is positioned to play a critical role. Right off the bat, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher sounded the alarm about Trump’s actions, telling the New Yorker (8/11/25), ‘This is troops-in-the-streets, shades-of-authoritarian-rule bad.’

“The next day, however, Fisher sounded like a different person in Post column (8/12/25). Trump was transformed from authoritarian to ‘astute-but-flawed leader’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/trump-occupying-dc-wapo-used-to-be-disgusted/

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffee & Chloe Simon, 8/14/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media cheer for Trump to deploy National Guard to other American cities after DC”

Subhead:  “TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk: ‘We got a big military. We should be willing to use it.’ “

“After President Donald Trump announced on August 11 that he is deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and suggested he would do it in other major U.S. cities too, many in right-wing media celebrated the announcement, claiming D.C. should be a ‘test case’ and arguing that ‘we need full military occupation’ of other ‘problematic cities’ like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. . .”

Red the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-cheer-trump-deploy-national-guard-other-american-cities-after-dc

Colbert and Liberty

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Article in The Contrarian by Josh Levs. 8/12/25

Headline:  “Two big things the legacy media missed about Colbert”

Subhead:  “In the fight for democracy, there’s something we must dismantle.”

“Among the many problems with the legacy media is the so-called ‘news cycle.’ These days, it often seems that we’re supposed to talk about an issue for only half a day before moving on to the next disaster. As a result, we can easily stay distracted and fail to learn important lessons from the latest developments.”

“. . .I stopped to look at two big things the media missed about CBS’ decision to cancel ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.’ . . .”

“He’ll very likely be better off, and even freer to say whatever he wants. That’s what happens when you get out from under a huge corporation. It’s also why some journalists have left newspapers that are now run by billionaires. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/two-big-things-the-legacy-media-missed

Who Monitors the Monitor?

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan. 8/9/25

Headline: “A ‘bias monitor’ for CBS News is a bad idea. Here’s why”

Subhead: “I was a public editor at the New York Times, handling complaints from the public. That is a better path than CBS’s one”

“For years before I became the public editor at the New York Times, I admired the work of journalists doing the job of holding their own newsrooms accountable to high standards.

“And when I heard that CBS News would get a position something like that, I thought – briefly – that this could be a positive development. After all, the network’s credibility and independence has come under fire after its parent company settled a frivolous lawsuit brought by Donald Trump. . .”

“I quickly changed my mind once I learned the details. This is not a traditional ombudsman but what some have dubbed a ‘bias monitor’ who will receive and evaluate claims of bias in the network’s journalism and report on them to the corporation’s president. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/09/bias-monitor-cbs-news

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Article in Poynter by Rick Edmonds, et al., 8/8/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Skydance and Paramount complete their merger – whither CBS News?”

Subhead: “New chairman talks about ‘empowered’ journalists; critic assails trading principles for profit”

“The headline-chewing Skydance Media takeover of Paramount Global was formally concluded Thursday. . .

Red the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/skydance-and-paramount-complete-their-merger-whither-cbs-news/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/7/25

Headline: “The Skydance Sidestep”

Subhead: “David Ellison admirably showed up to take tough, unscreened questions from a room full of reporters – but he danced around the biggest ones about Donald Trump. ’60 Minutes’, and more”

“Naturally, the assembled group of journalists didn’t ignore the elephant in the room, and the first was about Donald Trump. Specifically, whether Ellison, the Silicon Valley tech scion, had cut a secret side deal to air upwards of $20 million worth of public service announcements for causes Trump supports. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/david-ellison-paramount-trump-side-deal-60-minutes

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Article in Reuters by Deborah May and David Shepardson, 8/7/25

Headline:  “Paramount closes $8 billion merger with Skydance after settling ’60 Minutes’ lawsuit”

“. . .The merger was approved after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming would be free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints, and end diversity programs. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/paramount-closes-8-billion-merger-with-skydance-after-settling-60-minutes-2025-08-07/

Legacy Media Missing the Story?

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Article in The New Republic by Perry Bacon, 8/7/25

Headline:  “The Media Keeps Ignoring the Truth About American Politics”

Subhead:  “As the Republican Party further radicalizes, mainstream news organizations are still trying to cover politics as they always have. But alternative news sources are emerging.”

“Republicans in Texas are trying to gerrymander congressional districts to give the GOP a greater advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives, potentially even preserving the party’s control of the lower chamber in next year’s midterm elections. And yet, the mainstream media keeps missing the radicalism of the Republican Party—in part because too few reporters and editors follow news at the state level. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/198873/republican-extremism-media-ignoring-truth-politics