Media Consolidation

Media Uber Alles

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Article in The Nation by Steve Scherer, 3/20/26

Headline:  “Correspondent to Uber Driver”

Subhead:  “I once documented human displacement and desperation. Now, due to a crumbling media ecosystem, I am living it.”

“. . .After serving as Reuters’s Ottawa bureau chief for five years, my job was eliminated in a cost-cutting drive. . .”

“As a correspondent who covered politics on two continents, I have seen politicians in other countries use immigrants as scapegoats. It’s always a deadly approach, especially for the immigrants. But Trump needs scapegoats to distract from the gaping wound that is the relentless shrinking of America’s once-great middle class. That social grouping once included me. But not anymore. . . .”

“South of the border, in the United States, more than 10,000 journalists lost their jobs between 2022 and 2024, according to Nieman Reports. . .”

“When I lost my job, I told myself, ‘If all else fails, I’ll drive for Uber.’ Well, here I am, and it’s not as comforting as I thought it would be. I used to think I was different from the migrants I wrote about—protected by a passport, a salary, a press badge. But the past two years have stripped away that illusion. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/from-foreign-correspondent-to-uber-driver/

Icon of Radio – Gone.

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 3/20/26

Headline:  “CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era”

“NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, ending an era and blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts. Said longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather: ‘It’s another piece of America that is gone.’. . .”

“Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/cbs-radio-news-bari-weiss-11372c28f9557d0b10e329e6c4be339f

Judge Bari Show?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 3/19/26

Headline:  “CBS’ Judgment Day”

Subhead:  “Staffers at CBS News tell Status they are “on edge like crazy” as the newsroom readies itself for mass layoffs overseen by Bari Weiss that will reshape the storied outlet around her vision for it”

“Over on 57th Street, at the CBS Broadcast Center on the West Side of Manhattan, anxiety and fear in the air are palpable. Over the last 24 hours, word has spread amongst staffers that the axe is set to fall imminently, with a second round of mass layoffs poised to hit the David Ellison-owned newsroom just months after the last round. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-layoffs-bari-weiss-ce41

Control of the Screens

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Article in Washington Post by Scott Nover, 3/19/26

Headline:  “U.S. approves $6.2 billion merger set to reshape local TV”

Subhead:  “The Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission gave a thumbs-up to the Nexstar-Tegna merger.”

“Nexstar, the largest owner of TV stations in the United States, won regulatory approval to buy rival Tegna on Thursday, in a $6.2 billion deal that promises to reshape the landscape for local television and news coverage.”

“. . .FCC Chairman Brendan Carr allowed the deal to proceed by waiving a cap that has historically barred station owners from expanding to reach more than 39 percent of American households. Nexstar previously said the deal would give it 265 stations across the country, reaching 80 percent of households. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/19/nexstar-tegna-tv-merger-approved/0

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 3/19/26

Headline:  “8 states are suing to stop another MAGA media monopoly”

“A coalition of eight states, led by their Democratic attorneys general, is suing to stop Nexstar Media Group from acquiring Tegna.

“Nexstar owns more than 200 TV stations while Tegna owns 64, so a merging of the companies would reach more than 54% of households, exceeding current Federal Communications Commission limits on station ownership. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/19/2373898/-8-states-are-suing-to-stop-another-MAGA-media-monopoly?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web

Notice on Washington Post

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 3/17/26

Headline:  “US media mogul sees a big opportunity in the cuts at the Washington Post“

Subhead:  “Robert Allbritton’s Notus plans to double its newsroom staff, which includes hiring prominent ex-Post journalists”

“Robert Allbritton, the billionaire media entrepreneur, said he was “pained” by the Washington Post’s decision to lay off a large chunk of its newsroom in early February. But he also saw it as an opportunity to hire some of the Post’s most well-known journalists, including many who would have been hard to poach in previous years. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/17/notus-hire-washington-post-staff-robert-allbritton

On Media Under. . .?

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Article in Washington Post by Scott Nover, 3/17/26

Headline:  “The Ellisons are building a media empire. Trump keeps cheering them on.”

Subhead:  “The president and defense secretary have each heaped praise on Larry and David Ellison as the Justice Department reviews Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros. deal.”

“President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly celebrated the wealthy Ellison family’s growing media empire in recent days, even as the Trump administration is reviewing Paramount Skydance’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery and its assets including CNN for $110 billion.. .”

“Trump’s fresh praise for the Ellisons comes as the president has spent weeks insulting the press over their coverage of the Iran war. On Sunday, Trump alleged without evidence in a Truth Social post that news organizations were running AI-generated Iranian propaganda and should be charged with “TREASON for the dissemination of false information. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/17/trump-hegseth-praise-ellisons-approval/

Circling Paramount Oscars

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 3/13/26

Headline:  “Free Press Circles the Oscars With a Mobile Billboard Protesting Paramount’s Terrible Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery”

Subhead:  “Protest sign mockingly urges the Academy to consider David Ellison for ‘Best Performance in a Puppet Show’ — with President Trump holding the strings”

“. . . a mobile billboard parodying Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison will be circling the Dolby Theater, site of Sunday’s Academy Awards. The billboard is a roving protest of Ellison’s plans to take over Warner Bros. Discovery and transform the resulting media colossus into a mouthpiece for Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

“The billboard urges members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to consider Ellison’s performance for the imaginary “Best Performance in a Puppet Show” category.. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-circles-oscars-mobile-billboard-protesting-paramounts-terrible-takeover-warner-bros

Indigenous Media in Trouble

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 3/10/26

Headline:  “On Standing Rock, Local News Is Teetering”

Subhead:  “ ‘We are like living ghosts,’ the editor of the Teton Times said.”

“In January, the Lakota Times, a newspaper based in southwestern South Dakota, on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, abruptly announced its closure, citing ‘unforeseen circumstances and health issues.’ Avis Red Bear, an Indigenous journalist based in McLaughlin, a small town in the center of the Standing Rock reservation, took the closure of the Lakota Times especially hard. . .”

“To other Indigenous journalists, Red Bear helped pioneer the importance of independent Indigenous media. ‘She stands as a beacon of tenacity and commitment to producing local news,’ said Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, founder of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, which publishes the independent news site Buffalo’s Fire. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/standing-rock-local-news-teetering-teton-lakota-times-sioux-native-indigenous-media-avis-red-bear.php

Media Control Under the Rock

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Article in by Saurav Sarkar, 3/5/26

Headline:  “Three Massive Funds Control a Chunk of Most Media:”
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Subhead:  “Maybe that’s why you might not have heard of them”

“Recently, FAIR (2/3/26) took a look at the owners of the biggest online media outlets. It focused on the controlling owners of those outlets, which are mostly publicly traded corporations. But a lot of the money—about $2 trillion dollars—invested in the top 50 online media outlets in the US is not the controlling owners’. Rather, it is possessed by minority institutional investors that manage assets for others.

“Take BlackRock, Inc., for instance. Innovation & Tech Today (7/8/22) called it ‘the biggest company you’ve probably never heard of.’ The multinational’s influence comes from the $13.5 trillion it manages on behalf of retirement funds, governments, other corporations and individual investors. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/three-massive-funds-control-a-chunk-of-most-media/

Slithering Around All The Media

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Article in The Ringer by Brian Phillipsm 3/3/26

Headline:  “The Terrifying Tentacles of Paramount’s Media Empire”

Subhead:  “The Ellisons are building a multicorporate network of data mining, surveillance, news, and entertainment. What could possibly go wrong?”

“What are the Ellisons building? I wonder if even they know. Last week, the news broke that the superbillionaire family had beaten out Netflix—or sort of beaten out Netflix? after Netflix had initially won?? and then the Ellisons swooped in and reversed the outcome through a combination of no-holds-barred political maneuvering and saying the biggest number???—in the battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and its sprawling stable of media assets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theringer.com/2026/03/03/media/paramount-warner-bros-discovery-larry-ellison-david-merger-netflix7:37 PM 3/5/2026