Internet Media

Dominion Over Rt. Wing Media

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 8/18/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media outlets are still paying up for 2020 election lies”

“Right-wing media company Newsmax has agreed to pay out $67 million in a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for promoting lies about the 2020 election. The announcement adds to a tally of over $900 million paid out by right-wing outlets for peddling these lies, underlining their role in spreading mass disinformation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/18/2339006/-Right-wing-media-outlets-are-still-paying-up-for-2020-election-lies?

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Article in UPI by Allen Cone, 8/18/25

Headline:  “Newsmax settles defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems for $67M”

Subhead:  “Dominion alleged statements made in Newsmax’s coverage about the 2020 election were defamatory.”

“Newsmax on Monday agreed to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems in a defamation suit against the conservative media company over its 2020 presidential election coverage. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/08/18/Newsmax-settle-defamation-suit-Dominion-Voting-Systems-67-million/7281755536574/

Media Evolution or Revolution?

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Article in The Atlantic by Jessica Yellin, 8/13/25

Headline:  “The Awkward Adolescence of a Media Revolution”

Subhead:  “Truth is still alive on social media—but it’s not easy enough to find”

“There’s a quiet revolution in how millions of Americans decide what’s real. . .The Reuters Institute reports that this year, for the first time, more Americans will get their news from social and video platforms—including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and X—than from traditional outlets. . .”

“For anyone who cares about credible information, this is a potentially terrifying prospect. Social media rewards virality, not veracity. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/awkward-adolescence-media-revolution/683863/

FCM Co-Sponsored Event

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You are cordially invited to a hybrid discussion of how to reduce nuclear dangers and improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity —  August 17, next Sunday, 2-4 PM Central.
Zoom or in person at the Bluford Library, 3050 Prospect Ave., KCMO  – credentials:
A z-fold with an overview of related topics with space for your questions and comments is available at:
For more information, see:  http://pwkc.org/817.
Please help us brainstorm and prioritize topics for research and writing to increase impact of our work without sacrificing a commitment to facts.
See you Sunday.  Spencer Graves, PhD; President, Friends of Community Media (FCM, ourfcm.org) & Secretary, PeaceWorks Kansas City (pwkc.org)

Media Friends are Enemies?

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Article in Daily Dot by Anna Good, 8/6/25

Headline:   “Right-wing radio host and longtime Trump ally says MAGA is turning on him—and lists 7 reasons why”

Subhead:  “Savage isn’t alone.”

“Conservative radio host Michael Savage delivered a critique of President Donald Trump on X this week. In it, he outlined seven key reasons why he believes Trump has “alienated” some of his most loyal voters. In a post shared on X Tuesday afternoon, Savage accused Trump of abandoning core principles that helped build his MAGA base in 2016.

“Although Trump continues to lead in most Republican polls, Savage warned that a growing number of disillusioned supporters may sit out the 2026 midterms, or even the next presidential race. Additionally, he emphasized that these voters aren’t likely to switch to Democrats, but they may disengage entirely. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailydot.com/viral-politics/michael-savage-calls-out-donald-trump/

Journalists in Danger From AI?

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Article in Yahoo! News by Thomas Urbain, 8/3/25

Headline:  “AI search pushing an already weakened media ecosystem to the brink”

“Generative artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT are cutting into traditional online search traffic, depriving news sites of visitors and impacting the advertising revenue they desperately need, in a crushing blow to an industry already fighting for survival.

” ‘The next three or four years will be incredibly challenging for publishers everywhere. No one is immune from the AI summaries storm gathering on the horizon,’ warned Matt Karolian, vice president of research and development at Boston Globe Media.

” ‘Publishers need to build their own shelters or risk being swept away.’ ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ai-search-pushing-already-weakened-013023862.html

Propaganda is – Propaganda?

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Article in The Guardian by Arwa Mahdawi, 7/29/25

Headline:  “Ghislaine Maxwell is not a victim. And if she is pardoned, it won’t be for the sake of justice”

Subhead:  “The Epstein files may never be released, but it’s increasingly likely that Epstein’s right-hand woman could be. The groundwork is already being done”

“. . .The cable news channel, which is to the right of Fox News, is essentially a pro-Trump propaganda outlet with strong financial ties to the president. Earlier this month the outlet announced that it had struck a deal for the Trump Media and Technology Group Corp to stream Newsmax on its platform. Which obviously raises a lot of conflict-of-interest questions. “This is now the Trump network,” one Newsmax insider complained to the Independent last week. ‘Even the most conservative people at Newsmax think it’s a terrible look and they feel like state-run media.’ Also raising questions is the fact that Alex Acosta, the prosecutor who gave Epstein that plea deal in 2008, happens to be on the board of Newsmax.. .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/29/ghislaine-maxwell-pardon-epstein-files

Spreading the Right Word

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Article in The Washington Post by Sarah Ellison, 7/9/25

Headline:  “Trump’s social media company strikes deal with friendly news outlet”

Subhead:  “Truth+, a new streaming service attached to the Truth Social platform, will expand globally, featuring Trump-friendly Newsmax.“

“The company that owns the social media platform Truth Social and counts President Donald Trump as its largest shareholder said Monday that it had reached a deal with Newsmax, which its founder has described as “supportive of the President and his policies,” to stream Newsmax content globally.

“The unprecedented deal links a company whose largest shareholder is the sitting president with a conservative media ally, in a deal that could benefit both parties financially. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/09/trump-truth-social-newsmax-streaming-deal/

Publish a Thousand Points of View?

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Article in The New York Times by Benjamin Mullin, 6/25/25

Headline:  “The Washington Post Will Ask Some Sources to Annotate Its Stories”

Subhead:  “The program, called From the Source, will start with articles from the publication’s climate team. It could provide readers with more viewpoints but would also require moderation and vetting.”

“The Washington Post, facing serious financial shortfalls, has spent the past year working on new ways to draw more readers to its site, and encourage those who come to spend more time there.

“In November, executives rolled out ‘Ask The Post A.I.,’ an artificial intelligence tool that answers readers’ questions using published works from The Post. The publication has also been experimenting with lower-priced subscriptions, called flexible access, for readers who want to sample its journalism.

“On Wednesday, The Post’s top editor said in a memo that the publication would begin piloting another attempt to keep readers engaged: inviting some of the people quoted in its stories to annotate articles they appeared in. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/business/washington-post-annotations-comments.html

Old Media Blowing in the Wind?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop 6/24/25

Headline:  “Old Media Meets New on Primary Day in New York”

Subhead:  “Is the race between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani a proxy for changes in our media environment?”

“. . . If old media is now irrelevant in shaping voter perceptions, someone seemingly forgot to tell the Mamdani supporters (and others) who have criticized coverage of the candidate in major outlets, particularly when it comes to his positions on Israel. (Writing for In These Times earlier this month, Adam Johnson accused the Times of trying to manufacture tension between Mamdani and Jewish voters when he was not polling notably badly with that group; Lach, of The New Yorker, wrote yesterday that ‘outlets like the New York Post and the Free Press have tried to make him a bogeyman,’ though Lach allowed that ‘part of the reason that reporters have kept asking Mamdani about Israel is because his answer isn’t very convincing.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/old-new-media-new-york-primary-cuomo-mamdani-brad-lander.php

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 6/24/25

Headline:  “Life on the other side: Refugees from ‘old media’ flock to the promise of working for themselves”

“Six months ago, Jennifer Rubin had no idea whether she’d make it in a new media world. She just knew it was time to leave The Washington Post, where she’d been a political columnist for 15 years.

“The Contrarian, the democracy-focused website that Rubin founded with partner Norm Eisen in January, now has 10 employees and contributors like humorist Andy Borowitz and White House reporter April Ryan. Its 558,000 subscribers also get recipes and culture dispatches.

“In the blink of an eye, Rubin became a independent news entrepreneur. ‘I think we hit a moment, just after inauguration, when people were looking for something different and it has captured people’s imaginations,’ she says. ‘We’ve been having a ball with it.’

“YouTube, Substack, TikTok and others are spearheading a full-scale democratization of media and a generation of new voices and influencers . . .”

read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/new-media-mainstream-substack-youtube-influencers-076dfb132475aa42c3e4ebe81f63eb9a

“Media Matters” Sues FTC

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 6/23/25

Headline:  “Media Matters files suit in federal court to block retaliatory FTC investigation and protect its First Amendment rights”

Subhead:  “Investigation into Media Matters is the latest example of Trump administration abusing power to target perceived political opponents”

“Media Matters for America filed suit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block an investigation launched by the Federal Trade Commission. The investigation is the latest effort by Elon Musk and his allies in the Trump administration to retaliate against Media Matters for its reporting on X, the social media site Musk controls, and it’s another example of the Trump administration weaponizing government authorities to target political opponents. The suit alleges that the FTC has violated Media Matters’ First Amendment rights by retaliating against the organization for its reporting on Elon Musk and X. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/justice-civil-liberties/media-matters-files-suit-federal-court-block-retaliatory-ftc-investigation