Article in Slashdot by BeauHD, 4/23/26
Headline: “Warner Bros Shareholders Approve Paramount’s $81 Billion Takeover”
“Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have approved Paramount Skydance’s takeover bid, moving the massive Hollywood merger a step closer to completion. It’s not a done deal quite yet, though, as it still faces regulatory scrutiny and fierce opposition from critics who warn it will further concentrate media power. The Associated Press reports. . .”
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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty 4/22/26
Headline: “The Post Tries to Regroup”
Subhead: “After announcing major cuts, the paper is delaying layoffs and attempting to hire back former staffers.”
“When the Washington Post announced mass layoffs, in February, the company offered severance packages to the roughly three hundred and fifty staff members losing their jobs. To receive their severance, these employees would have to sign their packages by April 10; they would then begin receiving the payments after April 30. But after the terms were set, something strange happened. Editors who were overseeing the laid-off employees began contacting several of them, asking them to return—not as full-time staff, but to work under what their union called a ‘delayed layoff.’. . .”
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Article in Daily Kos by Staff, 4/21/26
Headline: “Trump’s media hitman to rub elbows with his victims”
“Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, known for using his power to suppress free speech, will be a guest at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25.
“Carr was asked to attend the event by Paramount, the parent company of CBS, which is headed by Republican donor David Ellison.
“CBS News also reportedly invited Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior White House adviser Stephen Miller. All three have frequently attacked dissenting speech throughout their careers, particularly since joining the Trump administration. . .”
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Article in FAIR by Caitlan Scialla, 4/17/26
Headline: “Paramount’s Purchase of CNN Heralds a New Trump-Friendly Media Empire”
“The ultra-wealthy have long leveraged their capital to build sprawling media empires that narrow our public range of debate (FAIR.org, 6/1/87). But Paramount Skydance‘s winning bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) marks a major milestone in media monopolization that, if successful, will further expand Trump-allied tech moguls Larry and David Ellison’s burgeoning power over US news and entertainment media. . .”
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https://fair.org/home/paramounts-purchase-of-cnn-heralds-a-new-trump-friendly-media-empire/
Article in Free Press by Staff, 4/15/26
Headline: “Free Press Flies Protest Banners Around Paramount Studios as a Struggling CBS Attempts to Woo Advertisers During ‘Upfront Week’ “
Subhead: “Billboard trucks and a plane circle studio lot showing the dangers of media mega-mergers as CBS seeks to attract advertisers amid historic declines in ratings.”
“LOS ANGELES — On Wednesday evening, two mobile billboards and a plane banner exposing the dangers of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger circled the Paramount Studio lot as the media giant attempts to woo advertisers to purchase spots on CBS’s fall primetime schedule. . .”
“The protest billboards and banner, produced by Free Press, warn advertisers about placing their products on CBS, as it remakes itself into a mouthpiece for the Trump regime. If the Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery goes through, it would put outlets including HBO and CNN under the control of David Ellison and his father Larry, one of the richest men in the world. . .”
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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 4/2/26
Headline: “Trouble for Nexstar Merger That Would Create Mega-Network for MAGA”
“It’s not exactly breaking news that President Donald Trump endlessly attacks the media, or that his administration lapdogs quickly echo his gripes. But there’s one official who has stood apart, and he’s done so by not only mimicking Trump, but by remaking the US media in his boss’s image, most recently by rushing through local TV broadcast giant Nexstar’s takeover of Tegna.
“ ‘Unlike his predecessors, Carr isn’t just another corporate lawyer,’ Rolling Stone’s Matt Bai (3/17/26) wrote about Brendan Carr, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair:
” ‘He is a cultural claims adjuster, a pasty-faced, soft-spoken agent of Trump’s retribution. If you were going to single out the most dangerous functionary in Trump’s little circle of Hell, you’d have plenty of candidates…. But don’t sleep on Brendan Carr. His legacy of awfulness may yet prove more durable’. . .”
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https://fair.org/home/trouble-for-nexstar-merger-that-would-create-mega-network-for-maga/
Article in FAIR by Peter Castagno. 4/1/26
Headline: “Washington Post Promotes Nuclear Agenda Tied to Bezos’ Investments”
“The Washington Post has devoted four editorials to supporting the expansion of nuclear energy in the past three months, relying on factual errors and distortions to make the case for the Trump administration’s unprecedented cuts to nuclear safety regulation. The Post‘s owner, Jeff Bezos, is the chair of Amazon, a company dependent on electricity-guzzling data centers that invested more than $1 billion in nuclear energy last year. . .”
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https://fair.org/home/washington-post-promotes-nuclear-agenda-tied-to-bezos-investments/
Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 3/24/26
Headline: ” ‘A Media System Built on Profit Is Incredibly Fragile’:”
Subhead: “CounterSpin interview with Jim Naureckas on MAGA vs. the First Amendment”
“. . . All of the conflicts we were told we were either making up or exaggerating are out in broad daylight. The president is overtly handing control of the country’s media outlets to a tiny group of MAGA billionaires. The Trump-appointed head of the public interest–defending regulator is stating that any outlets that don’t toe the Trump line, wherever that is today, could lose their broadcasting license for that reason. . .”
“There is lots of informed, impassioned debate going on right now about the various nightmares unfolding in and from the US. What does it mean that that’s happening largely outside the still-influential news media outlets that have long shaped public understanding?. . .”
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https://fair.org/home/a-media-system-built-on-profit-is-incredibly-fragile/
Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Kyle Paoletta, 3/20/26
Headline: : “Brendan Carr’s Deregulation Blitz Is a Disaster for TV News”
Subhead: “The FCC chairman is clearing the way for Trump and corporate broadcasters to control the airwaves.”
“. . .Appearing on a conservative podcast, Carr had delivered an open warning to the television stations that aired Kimmel, saying, “These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
“Carr’s threat had teeth. Under his leadership, the FCC is in the midst of a historic deregulation spree he’s calling ‘Delete, Delete, Delete.’ The campaign is currently reviewing the agency’s ‘multiple ownership’ rules, which prohibit any one company from exerting outsize control over the local television market. A loosening of those rules could prove immensely profitable for the owners of local ABC affiliates, including Nexstar and Sinclair, so those companies seem to have viewed Carr’s desire to punish Kimmel as an opportunity to curry favor with the administration. . .
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https://www.cjr.org/analysis/brendan-carr-fcc-deregulation-blitz-is-a-disaster-for-tv-news.php
Free Press Press Release by Staff, 3/23/26
Headline: “Unlawful Approval of Largest Broadcast Merger in History”
Subhead: “Notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit comes as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr continues his campaign to censor and control a free and independent press in the United States”
“WASHINGTON – On Monday, Free Press, the Communications Workers of America, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Inc. and Public Knowledge filed an appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s rushed approval of the largest broadcast television merger in U.S. history.
“The challenge, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asks the court to stop the merger of Nexstar and Tegna before it proceeds and the companies combine all operations, and asks the court to set aside the FCC’s approval of the deal. The groups assert that the merger is unlawful — in contradiction of laws established by Congress and of FCC procedures, too. . .”
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