Internet Media

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/

Justice With Satire

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Article in AP by Frey Collins, 7/1/26

Headline:   “The Onion’s new parody of Alex Jones’ Infowars starts with $100,000 to Sandy Hook families”

“The satirical news site The Onion isn’t waiting to take possession of Infowars to launch a parody of Alex Jones ’ conspiracy platform.

“More than a year after first trying to buy Infowars, The Onion on Thursday will debut a send-up under its own website with plans to give some of the revenue to families of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

“The families have still received no money from Jones since courts ordered him to pay more than $1 billion for falsely calling the 2012 shooting a hoax. . .’

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/infowars-alex-jones-newtown-shooting-onion-e38e5447435e6dc117e1ce996a58ac5c

AI Stealing the Media

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Article in The Nation by Mark Hertsgaard, 6/18/26

Headline:  “Why Aren’t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech?”

Subhead:  “A.G. Sulzberger urges the media to unite and fight back.”

The publisher of The New York Times recently made an extraordinary speech about AI, journalism, and the public square that’s received surprisingly little public reaction. . .”

“Sulzberger’s core argument when addressing the annual WAN-IFRA World News Media Conference on June 1 was that Big Tech is stealing the news media’s property and undermining democracy, and that the only solution is for news organizations to work together to resist them. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/why-arnt-newsrooms-covering-this-ai-speech/

Many Rt. Wing Media Are Unhappy

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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel, 6/27/26

Headline:  “The right-wing media revolt against Trump’s proposed MOU with Iran”

Subhead:  “Conservative pundits are trashing the White House’s memorandum of understanding”

“Right-wing media figures and outlets, including many that have been all-in on President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, are in open revolt against his proposed memorandum of understanding that seeks to deescalate the conflict. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/right-wing-media-revolt-against-trumps-proposed-mou-iran

A Win or Free Speech

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Article in Daily Beast by Owen Mason-Hill 6/5/26

Headline: “John Oliver Defeats Defamation Suit After Damning Takedown”

“John Oliver’s brutal takedown of a U.S. healthcare manager who made the Last Week Tonight host want to ‘punch a hole in the wall’ has been protected by law.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dismissed a defamation suit brought against Oliver, 49, by the subject of one of his HBO show’s ‘scathing critiques’ on Tuesday.

The win maintains Last Week Tonight’s perfect record against defamation lawsuits intact. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/john-oliver-wins-defamation-suit-after-damning-takedown/

When is “News” Not News?

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Article in the Washington Post by Kathleen Parker, 5/22/26

Headline:  “All this ‘talent’ breaks my brain — and my heart”

Subhead:  “AI fakery is overwhelming. What will happen to human imagination?”

“. . .This brings us to fake news — though not in the way President Donald Trump would have us think. A report from Vulture cites a former executive who estimates that more than 90 percent of what’s online is advertising ‘in disguise.’ At its peak, the content distributor Floodify ran 65,000 dummy social media accounts to gin up interest in its clients, said Joe Lim, who founded the company. This meant that on a given day, Floodify posted 50,000 ads across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X, which are all supposedly the output of everyday users. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/22/ai-is-creating-digital-world-fake-talent-fame/

 

Hope for Journalism

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 5/18/26

Headline: “Opinion | Why one longtime media reporter still has hope for journalism”

“On ‘The Poynter Report Podcast,’ David Bauder reflects on four decades covering media upheaval and why he still believes in the work”

“There’s plenty to be depressed about when it comes to the state of journalism these days.

“Layoffs. Dwindling resources. A decline in audiences. And public distrust in the media partly sowed by a president who has done nothing but attack the press for the past decade.

“But it’s not all doom and gloom. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/poynter-report-podcast-david-bauder-journalism-business-hope/

Infowars – Gone?

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 5/6/26

Headline: “You Don’t Know What It Is, Do You, Mr. Jones?”

“Silence had never sounded so sweet, blankness had never looked so beautiful. A visit to the far-right conspiracy outlet Infowars website had no ‘Jesus Returns’–sized headlines about government-tainted water turning the frogs gay, or fresh anti-vaccine claims. No promotions for host Alex Jones’ supplements, either, or videos of him screaming gibberish about politicians eating babies. Just a white screen and two very small words: ‘Off Air’. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://fair.org/home/you-dont-know-what-it-is-do-you-mr-jones/

Techno-Kings Controlling the Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Emily Bell & Heather Chaplin, 5/4/26

Headline:  “Journalism in the Age of Techno-Kings”

Subhead:  “How Elon Musk is colonizing the future.”

“Before Elon Musk, there was Henry Ford: an attention-seeking car manufacturer, newspaper owner, and media celebrity who pushed reactionary views on the public and transformed society around his business interests. . .”

“In a new book, Muskism, Ben Tarnoff, a technology writer, and Quinn Slobodian, a historian at Boston University, analyze Musk in similar terms, as a maverick businessman who stands for a new type of society and a new social contract. They find that “Muskism” provides a far more dystopian package than Fordism’s offering. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/journalism-in-the-age-of-techno-kings-muskism-elon-ben-tarnoff-quinn-slobodian.php