Editorial Content

CBS Loses Training Wheels?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/19/26

Headline:  “Opinion | CBS keeps finding new ways to have a bad week”

Subhead:  “Anderson Cooper’s exit from ‘60 Minutes’ and Stephen Colbert’s clash with the network add to months of ugly news for CBS“

“It has been another awkward and miserable week at CBS.

“The network has been in the news a lot. And not in a positive way.

“First, CBS News lost one of the most respected journalists in the business when Anderson Cooper announced he was stepping away from the venerable ’60 Minutes’ after nearly two decades. . .”

“Then came the whole Stephen Colbert drama. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/cbs-news-anderson-cooper-stephen-colbert/

Nonprofit Lifeline for Journalism?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Emily Bell and Heatger Chaplin, 2/19/26

Headline: “Profit or Nonprofit? A Debate over Journalism’s Future”

Subhead: “While the newspaper industry continues to contract, nonprofit news outlets have proliferated over the past decade. But dismissing profitable models for journalism is premature. “

“How can journalism survive? Perhaps the question would once have sounded unduly panicked, but it has only grown more pressing over the past twenty years. Between 2004 and 2019, newspapers lost an astonishing 77 percent of their jobs—more than any other industry on record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/profit-nonprofit-debate-journalism-future-amazon-washington-post-bezos-bureau-labor-statistics.php

Grim Reaper for WaPo?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/18/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Will The Washington Post exist in five years? A veteran insider weighs in.”

Subhead:  “Former Post media reporter Paul Farhi joined ‘The Poynter Report Podcast’ to explain how the newsroom reached this moment and what may come next”

“It’s still hard to believe what happened at The Washington Post.

“In just one day earlier this month, owner Jeff Bezos and then-publisher and CEO Will Lewis took a sledgehammer to one of the most respected and legendary news outlets in history by laying off more than 300 journalists, accounting for, according to some reports, more than 40% of the staff. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/future-washington-post-for-sale-closed-down/

Media in Crisis?

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Article in Common Dreams by Victor Packard, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Why the US Media Is in Crisis and How to Rescue It”

“What we’re witnessing isn’t a singular breakdown, but discrete and cascading layers of ‘media capture’ by capitalists, oligarchs, and authoritarians that produce censorship, exclusion, and democratic failure.

“From the recent gutting of the Washington Post to the rightward lurch of CBS, the sheer proliferation and variation of media failures and attacks on the press during Trump 2.0 are difficult to grasp. Regulatory bodies have become political weapons. Major news organizations have complied and retreated. Media ownership has consolidated in the hands of a few feckless billionaires. Taken together, these developments endanger our information and communication systems, our First Amendment freedoms, and our democracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-media-crisis

Manipulating the News?

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Article in The Guardian by JAne Martinson, 2/14/26

Headline:  “Learn this from Bezos and the Washington Post: with hyper-capitalists in charge, your news is not safe”

Subhead:  “His shameful stewardship of a once great title highlights how much we lose when private interest eclipses the public good”

“. . .Job cuts in an industry that has struggled financially since the internet came into existence and killed its business model is hardly new, but last week’s brutal cull of hundreds of journalists at the Bezos-owned Washington Post marks a new low. . .”

“Why it happened is still baffling, at least for anyone not inside the head of one of the world’s richest men. Marty Baron, the Post’s former editor, highlighted the owner’s “sickening” efforts to curry favour with Donald Trump in a “case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction”. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/14/jeff-bezos-washington-post-news-not-safe

News – Harumph!

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/12/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Americans say the news is essential. They just don’t enjoy it much.”

Subhead:  “The latest Pew data reveals a growing gap between the civic duty to follow the news and the willingness to support it”

“If you’re reading this newsletter, it likely means that you care about the news and you’re interested in the media. Or you’re related to me.

“But news consumption for most Americans has become complicated and confusing in recent years. There is, no doubt, news fatigue among some who are tired of divisive politics and seemingly constant bad news. Meanwhile, many news organizations are struggling financially to the point that they either shut down or severely cut staff, creating news deserts across the country. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/do-americans-consume-news-anymore/

Media Napalm in the Morning?

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Article in FAIR by Gregory Shupak, 2/10/26

Headline:  “Leading Papers Call for Destroying Iran to Save It”

“The United States has no right to wage war on Iran, or to have a say who governs the country. The opinion pages of the New York Times and Washington Post, however, are offering facile humanitarian arguments for the US to escalate its attacks on Iran. These are based on the nonsensical assumption that the US wants to help brighten Iranians’ futures.

“In two editorials addressing the possibility of the US undertaking a bombing and shooting war on Iran, the Washington Post expressed no opposition to such policies and endorsed economic warfare as well. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/leading-papers-call-for-destroying-iran-to-save-it/

How Does Cable News Cover Racism?

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Article in Mediaite by Colby Hall 2/9/26

Headline:  “Trump Shares Racist Imagery. Cable News Reveals Its Priorities”

Subhead:  “The most revealing part of Trump sharing a video that depict the Obama as apes is not the post itself, but how uncertain the media is in how to cover it.”

“The most revealing part of President Donald Trump sharing a video that depicts Barack and Michelle Obama as apes is not the post itself. It is how clearly cable news has shown where it believes this kind of story belongs, and where it does not.

“That distribution of attention not only matters, but is truly revealing. . .”

“Programming that forces that audience into moral conflict with Trump cuts against the business model. Avoidance protects the product. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/trump-shares-racist-imagery-cable-news-reveals-its-priorities/

Rt. Wing Media Likes Coups?

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Article in Media Matters by Zachary Pleat, 2/6/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media rally behind Trump’s efforts to trigger regime change in Cuba”

“After right-wing media pushed for and then celebrated the Trump administration’s ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and seizure of the country’s oil supplies last month, they quickly pivoted to the administration’s reported efforts to overthrow Cuba’s government, which for now primarily involves starving the island of oil. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-rally-behind-trumps-efforts-trigger-regime-change-cuba

NBC Not Calling Out Lies?

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Article in AlterNet by Carl Gibson, 2/5/26

Headline: “CNN calls out NBC for letting Trump get away with ‘rapid-fire dishonesty’ “

“Earlier this week, President Donald Trump sat down with NBC News reporter Tony Llamas for a wide-ranging interview on multiple subjects. However, Llamas often let the president lie without pushing back. Now, CNN is taking Llamas to task for not doing his job — while debunking Trump’s lies.

In a Thursday article, CNN’s Daniel Dale did a point-by-point fact-check of Trump’s biggest lies, and admonished Llamas for doing little to counter what he called Trump’s ‘rapid-fire dishonesty.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/cnn-nbc-trump-interview/