BBC Brouhaha


Article in The Guardian by Michael Savage, 11/10/25

Headline:  ” ‘Make no mistake – this was a coup’: the extraordinary downfall of the BBC’s top bosses”

Subhead:  “The whirlwind that started when Deborah Turness came under attack at a board meeting is part of a wider political story, some say”

“. . .The departures of Davie and Turness leave the BBC exposed and rudderless as it enters crucial talks over its future and the licence fee. . .”

“The episode has also left everyone wondering whether running the BBC is even possible in a politically hostile environment. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2025/nov/10/make-no-mistake-this-was-a-coup-the-extraordinary-downfall-of-the-bbcs-top-bosses

– – – – –

Article in UPI, by Allen Cone, 11/10/25

Headline:  “Trump threatens $1 billion lawsuit against BBC over video of speech”

“. . .Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brit, wrote a letter to the British-based outlet demanding a retraction of a BBC Panorama documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit of ‘no less’ than $1 billion.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/11/10/Trump-threatens-lawsuit-Jan-6-speech/5861762799135/

– – – – –

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 11/10/25

Headline:  BBC resignations over a Trump speech edit show the high cost of editorial mistakes in a polarized era”

Subhead: “A sloppy edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech sparked two BBC resignations and a reminder that even small errors can fuel big narratives”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2025/bbc-resign-director-tim-davie-ceo-deborah-turness/

– – – – –

Article in The Guardian by Geraldine McKelvie, 10/8/25

Headline:  ‘BBC ‘100% fake news’, says Donald Trump’s press secretary”

Subhead:  “Comments by Karoline Leavitt follow allegations that Panorama documentary misled viewers with its editing of a Trump speech”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/08/bbc-100-fake-news-says-donald-trumps-press-secretary

Media Natives Are Restless

Article in The Washington Post by Laura Wagner and Scott Nover, 11/7/25

Headline: “Bari Weiss’s first month at CBS News unfolds in a newsroom culture clash”

Subhead:  “The opinion journalist took over as editor in chief in October, launching a new era for the network amid layoffs, confusion and shifting expectations.”

“. . .A shake-up might have been what Ellison had in mind by hiring Weiss, an opinion journalist with no experience running a large newsroom. For years, ‘CBS Evening News’ has run in third place behind the evening news programs from NBC and ABC, and some staffers welcomed new ideas.

“ ‘My guess is that what they’re trying to do is appeal to those who feel they are alienated from CBS because they think that it’s too left-leaning or too biased in one way or another,’ said Jacob Nelson, a communications professor at the University of Utah. The risk Weiss and Ellison take on, he added, ‘is that they are just going to alienate even the people that they already have.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/07/bari-weiss-cbs-news-remake/

Pundits Ignore Things?

Article in FAIR by Julie Hollar, 11/7/25

Headline:  “For Establishment Press, the Lesson of Mamdani’s Victory Is to Take No Lessons”

“. . .Corporate media acknowledged the strong rebuke to the Trump regime, but pundits and reporters across the country’s major national newspapers quickly warned Democrats against reading too much into Mamdani’s victory or shifting too far to the left. . .”

“It would seem that ‘pragmatism’ in the minds of the country’s establishment punditocracy means not the dictionary definition of ‘dealing with a problem in a sensible way that suits the conditions that really exist,’ but instead something more like ‘upholding the status quo.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/for-establishment-press-the-lesson-of-mamdanis-victory-is-to-take-no-lessons

Full Mental News?

Article in AlterNet by Robert Reich, 11/6/25

Headline:  “The media once again misses the real news about Trump’s rapid mental decline “

” ‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT’ . . .”,  according to Pollsters,’ Trump posted after Tuesday’s blowout, not naming the pollsters.

“Yet the media obediently repeated Trump’s words, as if they were news.

“They aren’t news. They’re postures. His words and thoughts add nothing to our understanding of anything. Yet the media reproduces them as if they did.

“He says whatever happens to be in his brain at the moment. He posts about whatever annoys him at the moment. He constantly changes his mind. His brain wanders in ways that cause many to question whether he — who will be 80 in June, and whose family has a history of dementia — is all there. . .”

Read the full article at:

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

Media Swamps?

Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 11/6/25

Headline:  “Tucker’s WSJ Turbulence”

Subhead: “Inside The Wall Street Journal, Editor-In-Chief Emma Tucker is navigating staff unease while reshaping the newsroom and quietly vetting candidates for its most powerful vacant roles.”

Read the article at:

https://www.status.news/p/emma-tucker-wall-street-journal-layoffs

Wrong Climate for News?

Article in The Nation by Amy Westervelt, 11/5/25

Headline:  “The Media Is Complicit in the Climate Confusion”

Subhead: “The vast majority of people want their governments to take climate action—but most wrongly think they’re in the minority. The media is partly to blame.”

” . . .Now new research is highlighting the role the media plays in perpetuating this gap. Yale’s most recent climate opinion poll shows that while more than two-thirds of Americans want stronger climate policy, less than a third of them say they see coverage of the issue in the media at least once a week. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/climate-media-perception-gap/

 

 

Youth – Dim View of the Press

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvao, 11/5/25

Headline:  “Biased, Boring Liars”

Subhead:  “More than three-quarters of teens surveyed have negative views of the press, a new study finds.”

“A study published today by the nonprofit News Literacy Project paints a bleak picture of how young people view the press. It found that more US teens think ‘reporters are skilled at lying than informing the public,’ and about half believe the news media frequently engages in ‘unethical practices such as making up quotes.’ When asked what word best describes news media, 84 percent of teens surveyed ‘expressed a negative sentiment,’ often using words like ‘fake,’ ‘false,’ and ‘lies.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/biased-boring-liars-news-literacy-perceptions-media-youth-cynicism.php

Media and the New Distortion


Article in The Guardian by Arwa Mahdawi, 11/4/25

Headline:  “Trump and his media buddies are taking the muddling of reality to a whole new level”

Subhead:  “How scared should we be by Trump’s heavily edited appearance on a US news programme this weekend, and Elon Musk’s Grokipedia?

“. . .As we all know, a good journalist should always make the rich and powerful feel comfortable.

“While I wait for that day to come, I’m watching and learning from the head honchos at CBS. Trump appeared on CBS News’s 60 Minutes on Sunday night for his first sit-down with the show in five years and commented on how much better the network has become after its owner, Paramount, was taken over by his billionaire allies, the father-and-son duo Larry and David Ellison. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/04/trump-media-buddies-are-muddling-reality-whole-new-level

Big Brother WaPo Now?


Article in The New Republic by Michael Tomasky, 11/3/25

Headline:  “The Washington Post Has Become Right-Wing Even Faster Than I Thought”

Subhead:  “It’s not going to happen. It’s happening: The mainstream media is becoming right-wing. What are wealthy liberals going to do about it?”

“I almost wrote a column about The Washington Post’s new but increasingly clear editorial slant last week after I read the editorial headlined ‘In defense of the White House ballroom.‘ That’s the kind of headline, opening with ‘in defense of,’ that might be tongue-in-cheek; a bit catty. But no, it was a dull, moronic, straightforward defense of the president of the United States crushing to dust one-third of a building of singular historic importance that is owned by the American people, and doing so while not merely ignoring but saying a colossal fuck you to the rules and procedures that normally govern such changes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/202581/washington-post-right-wing-bezos

CBS News – “Lotta Money”


Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 11/3/25

Headline:  CBS News heavily edits Trump 60 Minutes interview, cutting boast network ‘paid me a lotta money’ “

Subhead:  “Trump said Paramount’s sale to David and Larry Ellison was ‘greatest thing that’s happened in a long time’ for free press”

“. . .The edits are notable because, exactly one year before Trump was interviewed by O’Donnell at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday he had sued CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to help her chances in the presidential election.

While many legal experts widely dismissed the lawsuit as ‘meritless’ and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, CBS settled with Trump for $16m in July. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/03/trump-cbs-60-minutes-interview-edited

– – – – –

Article in Mediaite by Sean James, 11/2/25

Headline:  ” ‘Paid Me a Lotta Money!’ Trump Takes Victory Lap Over ’60 Minutes’ — In Part of Interview That Didn’t Air Live On ’60 Minutes’

“One part of President Donald Trump’s 60 Minutes interview on Sunday that did not air live: The president gloating that CBS paid him millions of dollars to settle his lawsuit against the program for its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris last year. . .”

He also complimented Bari Weiss, the new head of CBS News, and said he believed she will do a good job leading the news operation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/paid-me-a-lotta-money-trump-takes-victory-lap-over-60-minutes-in-part-of-interview-that-didnt-air-live-on-60-minutes/