Corporate Media

Where Are Media Mergers Heading?

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Article in Electronic Frontier Foundation by Katherine Trendacosta, 12/10/25

Headline: “The Best Big Media Merger Is No Merger at All”

“. . .It’s important to recognize this as we see more and more media mergers. These mergers are not about quality, they’re about control. . .”

“. . .Media companies keep announcing mergers and acquisitions. They’ve been doing it for a long time, but it’s really ramped up in the last few years. And these mergers are bad for all the obvious reasons. There are the speech and censorship reasons that came to a head in, of all places, late night television. There are the labor issues. There are the concentration of power issues. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/best-big-media-merger-no-merger-all

Pressure on Broadcast News

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Article in Poynter, by Tom Jones, 12/12/25

Headline:  “Donald Trump’s mission to get CNN sold”

Subhead: “It’s one thing for the president of the United States to dislike a network. It’s quite another to get personally involved in the network’s sale.”

“There’s no doubt about it at this point. President Donald Trump has great interest in what happens to CNN.

“CNN is a part of Warner Bros. Discovery. And, at the moment, WBD is in a tug-of-war between being sold to Netflix or being taken over in a hostile bid by Paramount.

“That sets up this interesting equation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/donald-trumps-mission-to-get-cnn-sold/

Criticizing – Part of Journalism

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin, 12/11/25

Headline:  “The Future of Journalism After Gaza”

Subhead:  “Examining an ongoing crisis for press freedom—and how to manage security risks going forward.”

“. . .According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it took only ten weeks at the end of 2022 for Israel to kill more journalists in Gaza than had previously been killed in any one country over an entire year. The attacks have not relented in the three years since: while barring international journalists from entry, the Israeli military has treated journalists inside Gaza as acceptable collateral damage and even, at times, explicit targets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/future-journalism-gaza-committee-to-protect-journalists-idf-israeli-military-deadliest-year.php

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Article in Common Dreams by James Zogby, 12/10/25

Headline:  “The Media Is Behind the Times: Criticizing Israel Is No Longer a Political Liability”

Subhead:  “Israel’s war on Palestinians has taken a toll, both on that state’s favorable ratings with US voters and on the policies these voters want their government to take to rein in Israeli behaviors.”

“US voters’ attitudes towards the Israeli Palestinian conflict have changed, but media commentators and political consultants haven’t figured that out. They are stuck in the past with outdated assumptions about the electorate and as a result continue to operate from an old playbook. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/criticize-israel-us-politics

Saudis and American Media

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Article in Status by Brian Lowry, 12/12/25

Headline:  “Hollywood’s Saudi Serenade”

Subhead:  “With its backing of Paramount’s WBD bid and Vision 2030 plan, Saudi Arabia wants to establish a major foothold in media. But in Hollywood, buyer and seller should beware.”

“On Tuesday, a downpour temporarily shut down Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, as famous Hollywood faces huddled in the coastal city. That felt like an apt metaphor for a week that saw David Ellison-led Paramount launch a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with assistance from ‘petrostate’ money, reflecting the Saudi focus on media and the unpredictable risks that come with it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/hollywood-s-saudi-serenade

Bannon – Epstein – Mainstream Media?

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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel & Sophie Lawton, 12/11/25

Headline: “Mainstream news coverage almost totally ignored Bannon’s extensive ties to Epstein”

Subhead: “Bannon and Epstein exchanged hundreds of emails and texts. Most leading newspaper articles didn’t mention their history, and broadcast news ignored it entirely.”

“Media Matters reviewed print and online articles from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, as well as weekday episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight, CBS’ Mornings and Evening News, and NBC’s Today and Nightly News and the networks’ Sunday morning political talk shows (ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press) from November 12 through December 8 for articles and segments about Jeffery Epstein. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/mainstream-news-coverage-almost-totally-ignored-bannons-extensive-ties-epstein

Not Only Media . . .

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From Political Dictionary

Article in FAIR by Jim Naureckas, 12/10/25

Headline:  “FBI Is Making an Enemies List—and Most Corporate Media Didn’t Even Check It Once”

“The Trump FBI is drawing up an enemies list that could encompass well over half the US public. . .”

“Congratulations—you may be headed for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s “list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism. ‘Terrorism,’ of course, is the magic word that strips you of all sorts of legal protections, especially in the post-9/11 era. . .”

“. . .virtually no corporate media outlets covered this. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/fbi-is-making-an-enemies-list-and-most-corporate-media-didnt-even-check-it-once/

Media Decimation

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 12/10/25

Headline:  “Media’s Unhappy Holidays”

Subhead:  “Penske Media cuts mark the latest tremors in a brutal year for media jjobs, as rolling layoffs and mergers leave newsrooms across the country in an anxious holding pattern.

“Barely a few months after imposing a new return-to-office mandate—a move seen internally as an effort to thin the ranks—Jay Penske has quietly moved to initiate another round of cuts within his Hollywood media empire, Status has learned. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/media-layoffs-penske-washington-post-cbs-news

Media Suggesting “What You May Like”?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Lucy Schiller, 12/9/25

Headline:  “Locally Sourced Chum”

Subhead:  “The AI widgets taking over news sites and extracting our data.”

“Recently, on the website of USA Today, I asked a generative AI chatbot called DeeperDive a question: ‘Is AI good?’ DeeperDive, which was unveiled in June, is a product of a company called Taboola, one of the largest native advertising platforms on the internet, with some nine thousand publishing partners. USA Today’s corporate parent—formerly known as Gannett, which recently rebranded as USA Today Co.—runs America’s biggest newspaper chain, and has been in business with Taboola since 2013, amassing user data, selling ads, and suggesting ‘content you may like’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/locally-sourced-chum-ai-widgets-extracting-data-news-sites.php

Newspaper Breaking Out of the Cage?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 12/5/25

Headline:  “The New York Times draws a line on Pentagon press limits”

Headline:  “The Times sues the Pentagon, highlighting a pivotal moment for press freedom”

“The New York Times did something Thursday we haven’t seen enough of as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to strip away press freedoms.

“They took the fight to the administration.

“In a sign that they are sick and tired and aren’t going to take it anymore, the Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, claiming that their First Amendment rights are being violated by the Pentagon’s new press restrictions. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/new-york-times-sues-pentagon-npr-underage-women/

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Article in The Contrarian by Josh Levs, 12/3/25

Headline:  “The Media Helped Trump Spread a Lie After the National Guard Shooting”

Subhead:  “The job of the media is to provide truth, which equals facts plus context.”

“The shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., last week should have led to bipartisan action—specifically, an immediate commitment to shoring up protections for these men and women who volunteer to serve. Instead, it became President Donald Trump’s latest opportunity to spread a made-up number to Americans. And the legacy media, as always, helped him. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-media-helped-trump-spread-a-lie

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Article in Politico by Daniel Block, 12/2/25

Headline:  “News Organizations Are Bowing to Trump. This Small Magazine Knows How to Resist.”

Subhead:  “U.S. media outlets could learn some lessons from The Caravan.”

“. . .In India, the crackdown has been effective: the country’s mainstream media now rarely critiques Modi. In the United States, the press is also starting to pull some of its punches. But if India’s trajectory is cause for alarm, it also provides some reason for hope. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/12/01/lessons-on-surviving-autocracy-from-one-small-indian-magazine-00667380