Events

Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 3/6/25

Headline:  “Ellison’s CNN Platitudes”

Subhead:  “David Ellison finally addressed CNN’s future—but his rehearsed talking points offered few clues about what he’ll actually do with the news network.”

“Early Thursday morning, on the sunny Paramount lot in Los Angeles, David Ellison sat for an interview with CNBC. . .”

“What Ellison did not address on his own, though, was the elephant in the room: CNN, the prized news asset that played an outsized role in the war over WBD’s assets. Indeed, since making the winning offer for the David Zaslav-led empire, Ellison had been absolutely mum about the future of the globally recognized news brand. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/david-ellison-cnn-cbs-news-future

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Ivan L Nagy, 3/4/26

Headline: “The New York Times Takes the Pentagon to Court”

Subhead:  “As the US wages war on Iran, journalists’ fight for access enters a new phase.”

“. . .Hegseth and Caine spoke for twenty-nine minutes, then opened the floor for questions. . .In the first few rows of the briefing room, MAGA-friendly reporters passed the microphone to one another for a total of thirteen minutes before Hegseth and Caine left the stage. (Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, denied that Hegseth had chosen the questioners in advance. . .”

“In December, the Times sued the Defense Department, Hegseth, and Sean Parnell, the department’s chief spokesman, arguing that the reporting guidelines violate the First Amendment. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/new-york-times-takes-pentagon-court-hegseth-parnell-lawsuit.php

Article in Free Press by Staff, 12/17/25

Headline: “Trump’s Censorship Czar Faces Senate Grilling on Efforts to Silence and Control the Media; Backpedals on Earlier Acknowledgement of FCC Independence”

“During a Wednesday Senate oversight hearing, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr faced a thorough grilling from Commerce Committee Democrats — and even some Republicans . . .”

“. . . recent polling from The Economist and YouGov shows 68 percent of the American public found it “unacceptable” for the government to pressure broadcasters to remove programming that includes speech it disagrees with. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/trumps-censorship-czar-brendan-carr-faces-senate-grilling-fcc-efforts-censor-and-control-media

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Article in Huffpost by Sanjana Karanth

“Headline: “Trump FCC Stooge Tries tp Rewrite History on Jimmy Kimmel Firestorm”

Subhead: “FCC Chair Claims Agency Never Threatened To Pull License Over Kimmel”

“FFC Chairman Brendan Carr told senators on Wednesday he never threatened to pull ABC’s license over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s employment, calling it “nothing more than projection and distortion by Democrats.”

Read the Full Article at:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brown-university-shooting-rob-reiner-death_n_693fda79e4b0775c50782f40/liveblog_6942e501e4b0fd459eef59ca?origin=home-latest-news-unit

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Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe & Vhris Stein, 12/17/25

Headline:  “FCC chair suggests agency is not independent amid fears of Trump power-grab”

“Brendan Carr’s declaration to senators raised concerns of a further power-grab by the White House, amid concerns surrounding efforts by Donald Trump and his officials to exert greater control over independent agencies since his return to office in January.

“The FCC, Carr told the Senate’s commerce, science, and transportation committee on Wednesday, ‘is not an independent agency, formally speaking’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/trump-fcc-brendan-carr

Article in Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett, 10/13/25

Headline:  “Ceasefire Sparks Fresh Calls for Global Media Access to Gaza”

Subhead:  “Press groups are also demanding justice for the more than 200 journalists slaughtered in Palestinian territory over the past two years.”

“. . .’It is particularly critical for American journalists to overcome the Israeli government’s attempts to hide the aftermath of the US-funded devastation in Gaza,’ CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] added. ‘Reporters must immediately receive access to Gaza so they can see and report on the consequences of the genocide for themselves’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalism-in-gaza

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Article in Mother Jones by Moran Barkai and Paul TUllis, 10/13/25

Headline:  “Israeli Media’s Distorted View of the War in Gaza”

Subhead:  “While global news showed a humanitarian disaster, most outlets in Israel remained silent.”

“In December 2023, nearly three months after the October 7 massacre, the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies gathered members of the country’s media. . .”

“For months on TV, nationalism, grief, and revenge had mixed freely. Israeli victims’ testimonies were common, as were first responders’ accounts. The idea of a second Holocaust, requiring a massive military response, was a regular talking point. But the suffering in Gaza was hardly noted. By mid-December, close to 20,000 people in Gaza had been killed. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/israeli-media-gaza-channel-television-press-distorted-view/

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Article in FAIR by Drew Favekh, 9/27/25

Headline:  “When Palestinians Die in Israeli Captivity, US Media Almost Never Take Note”

“The different treatment accorded to the plights of Palestinian and Israeli prisoners by US corporate media illustrates a persistent double standard that treats some people as more human than others. . .”

“The lack of US media attention in 2025 cannot be attributed to a lack of either abuses or available leads. In July, an exposé by Israeli newspaper Haaretz (7/6/25) showed Megiddo Prison to be one of the more brutal of Israeli prisons. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/when-palestinians-die-in-israeli-captivity-us-media-almost-never-take-note/