Media Consolidation

Journalists’ Pentagon Walk-Out

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Article in The Washington Post by Scott Nover, 10/16/25

Headline:  “Hundreds of people cover the Pentagon. These are the 15 who signed its new press policy.”

Subhead: “The Federalist, the Epoch Times and One America News signed the Defense Department’s press rules. The rest are freelancers, independent or work for media outfits based overseas.”

” . . . Journalists from nearly every major U.S. news outlet, including The Washington Post, turned in their press badges Wednesday after refusing to adhere to the new rules for reporters at the Pentagon, which prohibit soliciting any information the government doesn’t authorize reporters to have. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/16/more-than-100-people-cover-pentagon-only-15-signed-its-new-press-policy/

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 10/16/25

Headline: ” ‘The Daily Show’ mockingly agrees to Hegseth’s press restrictions”

” ‘After serious consideration, The Daily Show has agreed to the Pentagon’s new demands regarding press access,’ the show said in a graphic posted on social media. ‘We were going to refuse, but everyone else rejected it so hard that it honestly made us feel kinda bad for Pete Hegseth.’ . . .’

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5558261-daily-show-hegseths-pentagon-press-rules/

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Wells 10/16/25

Headline: “White House spews pathetic lie about Pentagon media walkout”

“. . .in response to a photo of the reporters who left, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on X, ‘SOURCE: a few reporters on this wall have privately said they were bullied into participating in the walkout when they actually wanted to stay. ‘. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/16/2348899/-White-House-spews-pathetic-lie-about-Pentagon-media-walkout?

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Article in Raw Story by Robert Reich, 10/9/25

Headline:  “Opinion – How our media became so vulnerable to Trump — and what we can do about it”

“. . .today’s media ecosystem is far more vulnerable to authoritarianism than it was decades ago. . .”

“Today I want to explore three structural changes in our political economy that have made it so, and suggest what must be done to strengthen media independence.

” 1. Media concentration has facilitated censorship. . .; 2. Ultra-wealthy individuals are now controlling major media. These are people likely to be biased against the public’s right to know. . .; 3. The shift from stakeholder to shareholder capitalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rawstory.com/bari-weiss-2674169028/?utm_source=breaking

 

Media Fading Away?

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Article in Axios by Sara Fisher, 10/7/25

Headline: “Job cuts in news stabilize while broader media industry struggles”

“News media job cuts are more tempered so far this year, despite a few outlier organizations hit by public funding cuts and looming layoffs tied to consolidation.

“Why it matters: 2024 was a particularly brutal year for the news industry, as outlets raced to cut positions in an attempt to offset a weak ad market and get ahead of business disruptions from artificial intelligence. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/07/news-media-job-losses

Media Consolidation & Intimidation

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 10/8/25

Headline:  “MAGA’s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV”

“When Jimmy Kimmel made his dramatic return to ABC’s airwaves on September 23, I was eager to be one of the over 6 million who tuned in. Only I couldn’t, at least not on TV.

That’s because the local ABC station in the DC area, WJLA, is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Network. And the right-wing network refused to air the Jimmy Kimmel Show! on any of its 38 ABC affiliates. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/magas-little-helpers-sinclair-nexstar-and-the-consolidation-of-broadcast-tv/

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Article in Mother Jones by Monika Bauerlein, 10/8/25

Headline: “Nice Little TV Network You Got There”

Subhead: “How easily has Trump rolled corporate media? So much more easily than he probably expected.”

“The most basic American freedom, the first one enumerated in the Constitution, the right to say whatever the hell we please, including and especially about the powerful, was no longer reliable—for a celebrity employed by one of the world’s biggest media corporations, and thus for any of us.

Read the full article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/cbs-news-bari-weiss-free-press-corporate-media-nice-little-tv-network-trump/

Imperial Media

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Article in The Washington Post by Caroline O’Donovan and Will Oremus, 10/4/25

Headline:  “This billionaire Trump ally and his son are building an unprecedented media empire”

Subhead:  “Larry and David Ellison’s holdings span movies, TV networks, CBS and soon a stake in TikTok, in a paradigm-shifting portfolio with huge influence.”

“Journalists at CBS News reeled on Friday as they digested news reports that opinion journalist Bari Weiss, a fierce critic of the mainstream media, would become the editor in chief of the straitlaced legacy brand. . .”

Two months earlier, there had been cautious optimism in the Midtown Manhattan newsroom, according to two CBS News staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private information. . .”

“But the newsroom hasn’t heard directly from Ellison since that day, leaving many apprehensive about plans for the network, the two staffers said. The anxiety has been reinforced in recent weeks . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/10/04/larry-david-ellison-media-trump/

 

 

Pay to Play?

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 9/26/25

Headline:  “‘The White House Is Shaking Down Media Owners to Get Them to Follow the Trump Agenda’:

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Tim Karr on media capitulation”

“. . .And this is all part of a project by the Trump administration to basically control the message, to control the media. And they have been more effective in this administration than he was in his first administration, of figuring out where those pressure points are.

And those pressure points are often with massive media corporations that have business before government. They’re seeking approval of a merger, as is the case with Nexstar and TEGNA, as was the case for Paramount. . .”

And in order to get onto the government’s good side, they have to capitulate. They have to do whatever the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, tells them to do, and whatever the White House tells them to do. / /”

Read the full article at:

2 Broadcast Monopolies?

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Article in Daily Dot by Lindsey Weedston, 9/25/25

Headline: “Who is Sinclair? Behind the TV conglomerate refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel”

Subhead: “They were caught scripting what local news anchors said in 2017. “

“Sinclair Broadcast Group catapulted back into the spotlight following the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel over his Charlie Kirk comments. The U.S. telecommunications conglomerate has steadily bought up a huge share of local news stations and is accused of forcing journalists to cite scripts that promote right-wing talking points.

“Along with Nexstar, Sinclair is now the focus of concerns around broadcast monopolies and the fate of free speech in America. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailydot.com/news/who-is-sinclair-tv-conglomerate-jimmy-kimmel/

Clock is Ticking

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones and Nicole Slaughter Graham, 9/26/25

headline: “Opinion | A TikTok deal ticks closer to done

Subhead: “The deal would keep TikTok alive in the U.S. — but raises questions about who will shape what millions of young users see.”

“After months of delays and extended deadlines, it appears a deal that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States on a permanent basis is in its final stages.

That’s good. And, well, maybe not so good. . .”

“Aside from being able to say he ‘saved’ TikTok, he has other reasons to see that this deal goes through. Among the potential investors are tech and media giants Larry Ellison, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and Michael Dell. Ellison is founder of Oracle. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/tiktok-deal-trump-executive-order-china/

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Tory Lysik, 9/25/25

Headline: “Where the White House Is Leading Us with TikTok“

Subhead: “The Trump administration is pioneering a new form of political communication. The imminent prospect of a deal to reshape TikTok’s future in the United States could give the White House even more power.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/tiktok-white-house-press-ellison-trump-yass-murdoch.php

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Article in The Guardian by Blake Montgomery, 9/24/25

Headline:  “Murdoch’s TikTok? Trump offers allies another lever of media control”

Subhead:  “Under the known terms of the deal with China, TikTok would get a new board, including Murdochs and Ellisons”

“Donald Trump revealed last week the US and China are close to inking a deal to let TikTok continue operating in the US. Details are not final, but should the agreement go through as has been reported, the owners of the US’s most powerful cable TV channels may soon also steer the nation’s most influential social network. The arrangement would gift Trump’s billionaire allies a degree of control over US media that would be vast and unprecedented. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/24/tiktok-trump-murdoch-ellison

Booted Off the Air?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvao & Riddhi Setty, 9/25/25

Headline: “Local ABC Affiliates Are Getting Slammed”

Subhead:  “Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, promised to bring power to community stations. But it’s their corporate owners who make the big decisions—while regional reporters and station managers take the heat.”

“Fewer and fewer local broadcasters are independently owned: “In the early eighties, it was north of fifty companies that owned or controlled 90 percent of broadcast media. And I think over the last decade or so, it’s become five or six, depending on how you break it down,” Reed Showalter, the former antitrust enforcer now running for Congress in Illinois, said. . .”

“. . .”Louis Wall, the president of Sagamore Hill Broadcasting, a privately owned broadcaster in Georgia . . . who considers himself to be “very supportive” of the First Amendment, has suddenly had to navigate a complex and often contradictory set of political, ideological, and financial concerns. “Broadcast is under attack from so many different mediums and video sources, we don’t need another piece of our armor or another piece of our programming to be lost,” he said.

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/local-abc-affiliates-nexstar-sinclair-getting-slammed.php