Internet Media

Next: Kash Selling Vacs Door-to-door?

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Article in The New Republic by Edith Olmstead, 10/6/26

Headline:  “Why the Hell Is Kash Patel’s FBI Making Campaign Ads?”

Subhead:  “Patel has turned the bureau into a P.R. agency for Donald Trump.”

“Kash Patel’s FBI slammed Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a wildly partisan, and likely illegal, propaganda video Tuesday.

“In a two-minute video posted on social media, the supposedly nonpartisan agency decried “democratic socialist leaders” for calling to defund the police. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/post/216292/kash-patel-fbi-campaign-ads-donald-trump11:34 PM 10/6/2026

Streaming Killing Public Media?

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Article in The Guardian by Mark Sweney, 9/19/26

Headline:  “‘A losing battle’: will UK public service broadcasters survive amid US onslaught?”

Subhead:  “Jobs and programme budgets in firing line at BBC, Channel 4 and ITV as they are outgunned by YouTube and Netflix“

“‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the BBC or Channel 4 disappeared,’ says one of the thousands of TV staff at risk of redundancy, as British broadcasters face what has rapidly become a fight for survival against US digital rivals.

“’My generation grew up with Netflix and YouTube … Honestly, I feel like it is a losing battle.’

“Over the course of the summer the crisis facing the UK’s biggest public service broadcasters (PSBs) – the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV – has reached fever pitch amid announcements of deep job cuts and talk of business models unfit to face up to the deep-pocketed streamers. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/sep/19/uk-public-service-broadcasters-us-bbc-channel-4-itv-netflix-disney-amazon

A Case for Print Newspapers

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Article in Common Dreams by Russell Mokhiber, 6/10/26

Headline:  “Why Print: On Newspapers, Democracy, and the Things a Screen Cannot Replace”

Subhead:  “We strive for a world in which we are informed with the paper in our hands—a world in which we run with that paper to our elected representatives and demand, ‘What the hell are you doing?'”

“Politics has become strangely empty. We sign petitions with a click, make five-dollar donations with a tap, and mistake engagement for participation.

“Capitol Hill Citizen believes that democracy requires something more substantial than that. It requires attention, presence, and involvement. It requires something tangible.

“That is why we print a newspaper.

“In the absence of tangibility, we are each reduced to data, data that corporations use to manipulate us, predict us, and sell us back to ourselves. In a world where corporations are treated as people under the law, Capitol Hill Citizen calls upon its readers to do something that a corporation cannot do: hold a newspaper. Better yet, do democracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/newspapers-better-than-print

Media Sinking Into the Swamp?

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Article in AP by Bernard Condon, 8/10/26

Headline:  “Trump media company announces a massive loss and new turnaround effort”

“The president’s media company posted a massive loss in the second quarter and announced plans to ditch new business lines and refocus as a forum for users to post their views.

“Trump Media & Technology, the company behind the Truth Social platform, said Monday that it lost $238 million in the three months through June as it branched into businesses unrelated to media, including crypto. That was more than 10 times the loss from a year earlier. The per-share loss widened to 86 cents from 8 cents. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/truth-social-media-trump-djt-crypto-e86747f01cc12dbee0146c5f0e79012b

Progressive Media Growing

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Article in Reuters by Helen Coster, 8/6/26

Headline:  “How the new generation of left-wing US media is powering progressive candidates “

“. . .This fast-growing world of left-wing websites, podcasters, YouTube hosts and livestreamers – many of whom blend opinion journalism and activism – affords candidates a sympathetic space to sharpen their message and mobilize grassroots support. But it also risks deepening the fissures in the Democratic Party, analysts say, and alienating moderates in the coalition. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/how-new-generation-left-wing-us-media-is-powering-progressive-candidates-2026-08-06/

Robots Reading You the News?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew 7/6/26

Headline:  “All the News While Doing the Dishes”

Subhead:  “News organizations have embraced AI narrators. But how does artificial mediation change our relationship to a piece of writing?”

On major news sites, you may have started noticing a button—maybe a triangular ‘play’ symbol, or a little headphones icon—allowing you to hear an article read aloud. Tap the button, and you may be told that the piece is being ‘read by an automated voice.’ News outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal . . . have all embraced automated text-to-speech tools to oralize their journalism in recent years. . .”

“Does hearing journalism narrated by a synthetic voice change a reader’s relationship to the story?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/all-the-news-while-doing-the-dishes-ai-narration-artificial-mediation-relationship-writing-new-yorker-new-york-times-singer-remnick-elevenlabs-staniszewski.ph0p

Media Conspiracy Against Diversity?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Miranda Green, 7/30/26

Headline:  “How a Network of Pink-Slime News Sites and Conservative Activists Went After Campus DEI”

Subhead:  “Using FOIA requests and hidden-camera videos, the groups targeted universities, leading to the firing of faculty and staff.”

“In February of 2025, as college students across the country settled into their spring semesters, administrators at four major public universities in the Midwest received public records requests about their policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. . .”

“The requests, from sites owned by a paid partisan network called Metric Media, were part of a strategic, ongoing effort to expose and castigate public universities for teaching with an eye on diversity. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/how-a-network-of-pink-slime-news-sites-and-conservative-activists-went-after-campus-dei-hidden-camera-foia-flood-university-firings-heritage-foundation-project-2025.php

Unhinged Journalist-Harassment?

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Article in Ars Technica by Jon Brodkin, 7/28/26

Headline:  “eBay pays $46M to journalists it targeted in bizarre harassment campaign”

Subhead:  “eBay sent bloody pig mask and other macabre deliveries to journalists’ home.”

“eBay and three former executives agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement over a macabre campaign of cyberstalking and harassment that targeted two journalists in 2019.

“As we’ve previously written, the case involved deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a book about surviving the loss of a spouse, and a bloody pig mask to the home of a couple who run a news website. There were also harassing messages sent via email and Twitter, and an attempt to install a GPS tracking device on the victims’ car. Criminal charges resulted in guilty pleas and prison terms for former eBay employees. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/ebay-former-execs-pay-56m-to-settle-bloody-pig-mask-harassment-case/

Losing His Grip on Media?

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 7/24/26

Headline: “. . .Trump’s grasp on current issues has faded because ‘he’s no longer connected to the media landscape that used to give him that insight’

Subhead:  “. . .Fox News is just echoing back to him what they think he wants to hear. All the people around him are totally sycophantic. … The incentives are just so deeply baked in now that they’ve forgotten how to have their own opinion.”

Listen to the audio at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/ms-now-msnbc/angelo-carusone-ms-nows-line-trumps-grasp-current-issues-has-faded-because-hes-no

TRO For Paramount Merger?

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Article in The Wrap by Lucas Manfredi, 7/17/26

Headline:   “Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger: Judge Will Rule on Temporary Restraining Order by Wednesday”

Subhead:  “State AGs argued the $110 billion deal would give the combined company more leverage over movie theaters and cable distributors, increase consumer prices and reduce content output”

_”Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín will decide on whether to issue a temporary restraining order against the pending $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger by July 22.

The update comes after lawyers for a group of 12 state attorneys general, Paramount and WBD made their arguments during a Friday court hearing.

The state AGs sued to blocked the merger on Monday, arguing it would create an entertainment giant. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/public-policy-legal/paramount-warner-bros-temporary-restraining-order-decision-deadline/