Corporate Media

Last Call for Free Media?

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Article in Reuters by David Shepardson, 5/25/25

Headline: “Trump, FCC want to reshape the media landscape starting with CBS”

“President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr told CNBC Friday. “The media industry across this country needs a course correction.”

“On Thursday, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the $8.4 billion merger between CBS parent Paramount Global and Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming is free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints and end diversity programs.

“Trump has repeatedly attacked broadcast networks for what he perceives as unbiased news coverage and called on Carr to rescind their licenses. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-fcc-want-reshape-media-landscape-starting-with-cbs-2025-07-25/

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Article in Daily Kos by Walter Einenkel, 7/25/25

Headline: “Media keeps caving to Trump, but FCC goon demands even more”

“Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr was asked about Stephen Colbert, whose show was canceled in what many view as a craven concession to appease President Donald Trump, during an appearance on CNBC Friday.

“ ‘They have such a storied history, and it’s sort of sad to see what’s happening to Colbert. They obviously can’t get it done. They’re not making money over there. But I think they need a course correction. And frankly, I think, you know, the media industry across this country needs a course correction,’ he said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/25/2335172/-Media-keeps-caving-to-Trump-but-FCC-goon-demands-even-more?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_recent_news&pm_medium=web

 

Legal Fight Against Corporate Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Kyle Paoletta, 7/25/25

Headline: “The Fight for Free Speech Goes Corporate”

Subhead: “As Paramount prepares for a merger, the Freedom of the Press Foundation stands to challenge the company for capitulating to Trump. Will it work?”

“Early this month, as soon as the news broke of Paramount’s decision to pay President Donald Trump’s foundation sixteen million dollars to settle a lawsuit against CBS News, the Freedom of the Press Foundation moved to take legal action. The FPF, as it’s known, tracks and resists government infringement on the news media. It’s also a Paramount shareholder, prepared to push for those interests with corporate muscle. Trump’s case, and the response of Paramount’s board, immediately set off alarm bells, as the company was in the midst of pursuing an eight-billion-dollar merger with Skydance, a Hollywood studio, that required approval from the Federal Communications Commission. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature-2/paramount-trump-lawsuit-settlement-skydance-merger-press-freedom.php

FCC Slides Major Deal Through

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Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin, 7/24/25

Headline:  “F.C.C. Approves Skydance’s $8 Billion Merger With Paramount”

Subhead:  “The deal, which came under intense scrutiny by the Trump administration, was hailed by the F.C.C. chief, who welcomed “significant changes” at CBS, a unit of Paramount.”

“The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it would allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance, clearing the way for one of the most highly scrutinized media deals in the last decade.

“Brendan Carr, the chairman of the F.C.C., said in a statement that the agency had approved the deal after receiving assurances from Skydance that the new company would be committed to unbiased journalism and would not establish programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/business/media/fcc-skydance-merger-paramount.html

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Article in The Washington Post by Jeremy Barr, 7/24/25

Headline: “FCC approves $8 billion Paramount-Skydance merger after lengthy review”

Subhead:  “The commission voted 2-1 in favor of the transaction amid accusations of political pressure on Paramount and Skydance, with Biden-appointed Commissioner Anna M. Gomez in opposition.”

“. . .Gomez, who has expressed concern that the administration was unduly pressuring Skydance and Paramount to make concessions to secure approval of the merger, blasted the outcome in a statement. ‘After months of cowardly capitulation to this administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted,’ she said. ‘Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/24/fcc-approves-8-billion-paramount-skydance-merger-after-lengthy-review/

Media Deal or Bribe?

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Article in Democracy Now by Jeff Cohen, 7/23/25

Headline: “Big Fat Bribe: Stephen Colbert’s Show Canceled After He Slams Trump & Paramount/Skydance Merger”

The top-ranked show on late-night television, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been canceled, just days after Colbert skewered Paramount, the parent company of CBS, for settling a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. The lawsuit accused another CBS show, 60 Minutes, of biased editing in an interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Its settlement comes as Paramount works to finalize a lucrative merger with Skydance Media that must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. On his show, Colbert called the settlement ‘a big fat bribe.’

“So many media conglomerates had already given thinly disguised bribes to Trump to settle lawsuits they could not possibly lose in court,” explains Jeff Cohen, co-founder of the online action group RootsAction and the media watch group FAIR, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. Cohen says he suspects Paramount agreed to cancel Colbert’s show — and will likely remove other programming critical of Trump — as part of a deal with the administration to win favorable conditions for its merger. . . It’s profit maximization. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/23/stephen_colbert

Media Political Victim?

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Article in Rolling Stone by Alan Spinwall, 7/22/25

Headline:  “Politics, Not Performance, Killed ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”

Subhead:  “The end of ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ signals a much bigger shift for late night. But it’s not just about money”

“At the start of Thursday night’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the veteran talk show host announced that on Wednesday, his bosses at CBS informed him that Late Show would be coming to an end next May. As the studio audience booed at great length and volume, Colbert acknowledged, ‘Yeah, I share your feelings.’ Then he inspired additional sympathetic boos by adding, “It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. . .”

“. . . A specific merger with Skydance Media was proposed last year, and it is still awaiting approval by the Federal Communications Commission — an agency whose chief reports to the man who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and who earlier this month received a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit he filed against CBS regarding the editing of a 60 Minutes episode. Colbert has been one of the most vocal critics of the current administration of anyone on television. . .

Read the full article at:

https://au.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/late-show-with-stephen-colbert-ending-analysis-80208/

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Article in The Guardian by Adrian Horton, 7/22/25

Headline: “Losing Stephen Colbert and The Late Show is a crushing blow, whatever the reason”

Subhead: “After watching the comedian’s smart and incisive assessment of America’s daily chaos for years, there’s something major to be mourned as he leaves the air”

“. . .or the better part of six years, I have watched every late-night monologue as part of my job at the Guardian (hello, late-night roundup), and though I often grumble about it, The Late Show has become a staple of my media diet and my principle source of news; as a millennial, I haven’t known a television landscape without it. There are many bleaker, deadlier things happening daily in this country, and the field of late-night comedy has been dying slowly for years, but the cancellation of The Late Show, three days after Colbert called out its parent company for settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump, felt especially and pointedly depressing – more a sign of cultural powerlessness and corporate fecklessness in the face of a bully president than the inevitable result of long-shifting tastes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/22/stephen-colbert-cancelled-trump-late-night

The Ends Meet

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 7/21/25

Headline: “The Epstein Effect”

Subhead:  “Has the mainstream press gone QAnon?”

“In Thursday’s edition of this newsletter, Emily Bell wrote about the increasingly curious right-wing-media dynamics surrounding the biggest political story of the moment: the Trump administration’s frantic, yet seemingly doomed, attempts to move its base on from conspiracy theories related to Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile who killed himself in jail in 2019, and the base’s refusal to be moved. ‘Trump is now confronting the outcome of a media ecosystem he invented, one based on panicky, consensus-squashing conspiracy theories,’ Bell observed. . .”

“. . .I’d argue that the MSM, on the whole, has never sounded as much like MAGA media as it has this past fortnight; as one unnamed reporter put it to New York’s Charlotte Klein last week, ‘Perhaps for the first time, the mainstream media and far-right media are sort of rowing in the same direction,’ at least when it comes to calling for Trump to release more records. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/epstein-effect-mainstream-media-press-qanon-conspiracy.php

Davros Gets Served

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Article in AP by Anna Durkin et. al., 7/18/25

Headline:  “Trump sues Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over reporting on Epstein ties”

” . . .President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch Friday, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. . .”

“Trump had promised to sue the Wall Street Journal almost immediately after the paper put a new spotlight on his well-documented relationship with Epstein by publishing an article that described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. . .”

read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-justice-department-ece8a837f9bd179771f801a765e242e4

Fallout from Paramount / CBS

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Article in The Guardian by Cecelia Nowell, 7/18/25

Headline:   “Democrats condemn CBS for axing Colbert show: ‘People deserve to know if this is politically motivated’ “

Subhead:   “Lawmakers note cancellation follows Colbert’s criticism of parent company Paramount for settling Trump suit”

“Democrats are condemning CBS for its recent decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, noting the news comes just a few days after its host criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a $16m lawsuit with Donald Trump. . .”

“In early July, Paramount settled a ‘frivolous’ lawsuit with Trump over the president’s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Paramount is also seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/18/democrats-cbs-colbert-show

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Article in NBC News by Tim Stelloh and Steve Kopack, 7/17/25

Headline: “Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show‘ run will come to an end next year as CBS cancels franchise”

Subhead: ” ‘The decision “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,’ the network said.”

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will broadcast its final show in May, CBS said Thursday.

“The network, which has aired ‘The Late Show’ with Colbert as its host since 2015, said it is ending the franchise after a ‘historic run.’

” ‘We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘”THE LATE SHOW” franchise at that time,’ CBS executives said in a joint statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.

” ‘This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/stephen-colbert-late-show-end-cbs-rcna219499?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Mr. Fixit and Wapo

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 7/14/25

Headline:  “WaPo’s Looming Opinion Overhaul”

Subhead:  “Adam O’Neal was appointed last month to lead the Washington Post’s opinion section – on Monday, he officially started and introduced himself to staffers, promising ‘ambitions and thorough’ change on the horizon”

“On Monday morning, just a few minutes past 9 a.m., staffers on The Washington Post’s opinion desk saw an email slip into their inbox. It was from Adam O’Neal, the little-known editor recently named to take over the prestigious and politically influential section. Staffers didn’t know much about him. They didn’t even know when he was supposed to start. So when his note arrived, simply titled ‘Looking forward,’ they opened it with curiosity—and a fair dose of apprehension.

“Indeed, staffers have been on edge ever since O’Neal was abruptly introduced as their new editor in an unconventional, selfie-style video posted to The Post’s communications account on X. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/adam-oneal-washington-post-introduction-memo-opinion

Spreading the Right Word

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Article in The Washington Post by Sarah Ellison, 7/9/25

Headline:  “Trump’s social media company strikes deal with friendly news outlet”

Subhead:  “Truth+, a new streaming service attached to the Truth Social platform, will expand globally, featuring Trump-friendly Newsmax.“

“The company that owns the social media platform Truth Social and counts President Donald Trump as its largest shareholder said Monday that it had reached a deal with Newsmax, which its founder has described as “supportive of the President and his policies,” to stream Newsmax content globally.

“The unprecedented deal links a company whose largest shareholder is the sitting president with a conservative media ally, in a deal that could benefit both parties financially. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/09/trump-truth-social-newsmax-streaming-deal/