Editorial Content

Is Bezos Breaking WaPo?

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan 2/2/26

Headline:  “Is Jeff Bezos going to destroy the Washington Post? It sure looks like it”

Subhead:  “He has the chance to be the steward of a national treasure, but he’s blowing it”

“. . .I worked on staff at the Post for six years, until 2022, as its media columnist, after admiring the paper for decades; it was an inspiring place to work, and I got to know its readership and its staff from the inside.

“It breaks my heart to see what’s happening now, and has been happening for more than a year.

As a major round of newsroom layoffs is threatened – losses that would further weaken an already decimated staff – Bezos is doing what should be unthinkable. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/02/jeff-bezos-destroy-washington-post

Violent Death Routine to Mainstream?

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 1/30/26

Headline: “Beyond Corporate Media, Journalists Are Stepping Up and Speaking Up About ICE”

“As millions around the world, fresh off watching real-time footage of federal law enforcement murdering Renee Good, saw federal agents murder Alex Pretti, CBS viewers got a headline (1/24/26): ‘Person Dead After Shooting in Minneapolis Involving Federal Immigration Agents.’

You can check your calendar; it is 2026. And yet corporate media still think we’ll fall for that passive voice business, wherein law enforcement are…there…and people just kinda die. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/beyond-corporate-media-journalists-are-stepping-up-and-speaking-up-about-ice/

Reporters Defend Reporting

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Image from Poynter

Article in Poynter by Staff, 1/30/26

Headline: “Journalists should prepare to defend their right to report the news”

Subhead:  “The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort on Friday signal an increasing willingness for the federal government to criminalize newsgathering activities.

“While the legal merits of those arrests have yet to be tested, they are a red flag for journalists and newsroom leaders everywhere. Given the speed and unpredictability of recent federal actions — including the seizure of a Washington Post reporter’s equipment earlier this month — every newsroom must prepare now to defend its right to report the news. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/journalists-should-prepare-to-defend-their-right-to-report-the-news/

Journalists – Ferguson to Minneapolis

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Article in Poynter by Kristen Hare, 1/28/26

Headline:  “For journalists who covered Ferguson, the news from Minneapolis feels ‘uncomfortably familiar’ “

Sybhead:  “Journalists who covered Ferguson reflect on what they learned — and what feels different — as unrest unfolds again in Minnesota”

“In the summer of 2014, a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. As journalists began getting arrested, Poynter sent me back to the city — where I’d spent five years reporting — to cover what was happening. . .”

“Still, while compiling a list of newsrooms in Minnesota to follow for nuanced, accountable, community-centered reporting, I’ve been thinking a lot about the journalists I met more than a decade ago in Ferguson. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/local-news/2026/from-ferguson-to-minneapolis-what-journalists-learned-covering-protests/

 

Journalist Exposes Secret Lists

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Article in Common Dreams by Brett Wilkins, 1/28/26

Headline: ” ‘She’s Lying’: Journalist Exposes Secret Watch Lists That Trump Official Says Don’t Exist”

Subhead:  ” ‘If we don’t explore more why all of these secret lists exist,’ one US intelligence officer said, there could be ‘even more of an environment of paranoia on the ground and more tragic killings.’ “

“Despite denials from a senior Trump administration official, secret watchlists of Americans are being used by federal agencies to track and categorize US citizens—especially protesters, activists, and critics of law enforcement—as ‘domestic terrorists,’ investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reported Wednesday.

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/secret-watchlists-of-americans

MAGA Media and Violence?

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Article in Raw Story by Robert Davis, 1/27/26

Headline:  ” ‘Bloodthirsty’: MAGA media calls for violence after nurse’s killing leaves analysts aghast”

“Two analysts were stunned on Tuesday after a flood of “bloodthirsty” MAGA media personalities called for President Donald Trump to inflict more violence against protesters in Minneapolis following the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

“Sam Stein, managing editor of The Bulwark, and Will Sommer, the publication’s senior reporter, discussed how the MAGA media sphere reacted to Pretti’s death during a new episode of ‘Bulwark Takes’ on Tuesday. They highlighted examples from commentators like Megyn Kelly, who claimed she felt no sympathy for Pretti after he was killed, and Greg Kelly, who said immigration officers were right to mistake Pretti’s phone for a gun. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rawstory.com/maga-2675052416/

Fairness Doctrine Revival . . .for Some?

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Article in The Washington Post by Kelly Kasulis Cho & Scott Nover, 1/22/26

Headline:  “FCC targets talk shows by revisiting ‘equal time’ rule for political candidates”

Subhead:  “By changing course on a decades-old ruling, the agency again raised free speech concerns over the Trump administration’s approach to media regulation”

“The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that network talk shows are required to give equal airtime to all candidates intending to run for the same public office, changing course on a decades-old ruling and again raising free-speech concerns over the Trump administration’s approach to media regulation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/22/late-night-equal-time-fcc/

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Article in Reuters by David Shepardson, 1/21/26

Headline:  “FCC says US late-night, daytime talk shows must offer equal time for candidate interviews”

“WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that daytime and late-night TV talk shows featuring interviews with political candidates must comply with “equal time” rules that give airtime to views of opposing candidates and that the shows cannot rely on a 2006 decision that suggested they were exempt.

“Until now, talk shows have qualified for the equal opportunities exemption as genuine news interviews, ever since the FCC’s Media Bureau granted an exemption to the interview portion of Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” in 2006. Networks have relied on the ruling as a precedent for recent interviews with political candidates. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/22/late-night-equal-time-fcc/

Greenland Not Enough?

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Arti9cle in Raw Story by Matthew Chapman, 1/20/26

Headline: “Fox News host claims Trump can seize Bermuda too ‘if we need’ it”

“Fox News anchor Jesse Watters casually suggested on Tuesday night that not only could the United States annex Greenland at will, but they could also seize control of the island of Bermuda.

“Watters, a firebrand who has been accused of dropping casual racism and sexual harassment, laughed at the horror from European leaders at President Donald Trump’s escalating threats to seize control of Greenland from Denmark, a critical NATO ally of the United States. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rawstory.com/jesse-watters-2674914697/

Searching Reporter’s House Portends?

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Article in Chicago Defender by Konstantin Zhukov, 1/14/26

Headline: “Searching reporters’ homes, suing journalists and repressing citizen dissent are well-known steps toward autocracy”

“The FBI search of a Washington Post reporter’s home on Jan. 14, 2026, was a rare and intimidating move by an administration focused on repressing criticism and dissent.

“In its story about the search at Hannah Natanson’s home, at which FBI agents said they were searching for materials related to a federal government employee, Washington Post reporter Perry Stein wrote that ‘[it is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://chicagodefender.com/searching-reporters-homes-suing-journalists-and-repressing-citizen-dissent-are-well-known-steps-toward-autocracy/

Journalists, Don’t be Intimidated!

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Article in The New Republic by Felipe La Hoz, 1/19/26

Headline:  “The Crisis Year for Journalism Is Here”

Subhead:  “Journalists have an inherent right and professional duty to defend their industry and its mission against those who want to derail it—even when those threats are coming from the inside.”

“. . .In-depth reporting is difficult work. It’s not easy to unearth hidden information on the one hand and parse avalanches of it on the other—much of it offered in bad faith—on deadline, especially as newsrooms have shrunk in tandem with the growth and entrenchment of PR and spin. . .”

“As increasingly emboldened interests amp up efforts to buy, sue, steal from, and use official power to coerce the news media into submission, we have to embrace a self-defense posture that won’t interfere with our news gathering but will acknowledge that we can’t continue news gathering if we’ve been knocked over by the powers we’re meant to hold accountable. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/205099/journalists-right-self-defense-cbs