Media Corruption

Pay to Play Journalism

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Article in The Bulwark by Will Somer, 3/23/26

Headline:  “Folks, We’ve Got Yet Another Right-Wing Media Payola Scandal”

Subhead:  “This one involves Jack Abramoff’s crypto venture!”

“HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST to bribe a Daily Caller writer for positive coverage? It could be cheaper than you think.

“According to a newly unearthed ledger kept by a Washington lobbyist who tracked his payments to conservative bloggers, it took only $500 to buy a story in the publication, which was one of a handful caught in the latest payola scandal. And though the story appeared under the byline of the Caller’s managing editor, prosecutors who unearthed the ledger say it was actually ghostwritten by the company that effectively bought the coverage. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/another-right-wing-media-payola-scandal-cryptocurrency-abramoff-darling-andrade

Legacy Media Straitjacketed?

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Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rozsa, 3/23/26

Headline:  “Mainstream media is playing a dangerous game: mental health experts”

“President Donald Trump is a habitual liar who may also suffer from serious mental illness, a seasoned journalist argued on Monday — but the mainstream media is too cowardly to call it out.

“ ‘For a while now, I’ve been imploring the leaders of our top news organizations to call out Donald Trump’s derangement,’ wrote Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch and former journalist at The Huffington Post and The Intercept. ‘My argument is simple: It is the central, underlying explanation for everything else they’re covering.’

“Yet, as Froomkin pointed out, ‘They won’t do it. Their arguments: It would appear partisan; We don’t want to take sides; And (more reasonably) we prohibit the use of language associated with mental illness unless a person has been diagnosed as mentally ill. (I wrestle with a variation of this last one myself: How do you call him insane without stigmatizing insane people?)’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/normalizing-trump/

Journalists Cover Which War?

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 2/20/26

Headline:  “Pete Hegseth’s War on Journalists (and Iran Too)”

Subhead:  ” ‘Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appears to be in the midst of two conflicts, one…in Iran, and the other with the American free press over its coverage of the widening Middle East war.’ – MS NOW‘s Sydney Carruth (3/13/26)”

“Last fall, nearly the entire Pentagon press corps was banned from the Pentagon after refusing to sign Pete Hegseth’s loyalty oath, which would have bound them to only report information “authorized” by the government (FAIR.org, 9/23/25). They were quickly replaced by pundits from Hegseth-approved outlets like One America News, Gateway Pundit and Lindell TV, which is ‘Pillow Guy’ Mike Lindell’s pet project.

“But once the Iran War got underway, it dawned on Hegseth that a Defense secretary needs to communicate with the whole country, not just the narrow slice of it reached by his favorite right-wing pundits. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://fair.org/home/pete-hegseths-war-on-journalists-and-iran-too/

Media Matters Says Right Wing Media Busy

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Article by Matt Gertz in Media Matters 3/20/26

Headline: “Prime-time Fox shows gave less than a minute of airtime to the Pentagon’s $200 billion Iran funding request”

“Fox News isn’t bothering to sell the staggering cost of the ill-conceived war President Donald Trump launched against Iran. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/prime-time-fox-shows-gave-less-minute-airtime-pentagons-200-billion-iran-funding

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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel 3/20/26

Headline: “As Iran war drags on, right-wing media lash out at NATO and Iranians who haven’t overthrown their government”

Subhead: “When it comes to assigning blame for the Iran war spiraling out of control, MAGA media have found convenient scapegoats who aren’t named Trump”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/iran-war-drags-right-wing-media-lash-out-nato-and-iranians-who-havent-overthrown

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Article in Media Matters by Allison Fisher & Ilana Berger

Headline:  “As oil prices continue to rise, right-wing media urge Trump to seize Kharg Island

Subhead:  “Experts warn this type of escalation could further destabilize the global economy and put troops in harms way”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/oil-prices-continue-rise-right-wing-media-urge-trump-seize-kharg-island

Hegseth Patriotic Media

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Article in New Republic by Greg Sargent, 3/13/26

Headline: “Raging at Media, Pete Hegseth Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud”

Subhead:  “He wants ‘patriotic’ coverage of the Iran war. He doesn’t understand: In a democracy, coverage that asks difficult questions of the government is itself ‘patriotic.’ ”

“Pete Hegseth wants to live in a world in which the American military can drop bombs on scores of schoolchildren and not face serious media scrutiny over it. And he just might get that world soon enough. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/207760/pete-hegseth-iran-war-patriotic-media-coverage

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Article in Mediaite by Kathryn Wilkens 3/13/26

Headline:  Newsmax Host Greg Kelly Rips Hegseth’s Iran ‘Trash Talk’: Save It for Your ‘Podcast Bros’

“In a Friday X post, Newsmax host Greg Kelly ripped Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his “trash talk” amid the ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran, emphasizing that he should save that type of rhetoric for his ‘podcast bros.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/online/newsmax-host-greg-kelly-rips-hegseths-iran-trash-talk-save-it-for-your-podcast-bros/

Reporters and Contradictions

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Article in Mother Jones by Anna Merlan, 3/11/26

Headline:  “The Pro-MAGA Press Can’t Agree on How to Cover Trump’s War on Iran”

Subhead:  “A combination of fight, flight, fawn, and freeze. ”

“Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth conducted a remarkably peevish press conference on the United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran. At various points, journalists in the briefing room asked—reasonably enough—whether there was ‘a concern of this spiraling into a longer war.’

“ ‘Did you not hear my remarks?’ Hegseth responded, sounding indignant. . .”

“The prickly exchange was notable, considering that the current Pentagon press pool is almost entirely made up of right-wing outlets who typically provide overwhelmingly pro-Trump coverage. The previous Pentagon press corps walked out en masse in October after refusing to sign a restrictive media policy and were largely replaced by a variety of conservative media organizations and influencers. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/maga-press-iran-war-donald-trump/

FCC Doesn’t Probe Fox News?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 3/9/26

Headline:  “Shouldn’t Brendan Carr be launching an FCC probe of Fox Broadcasting Co.?”

“Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr faces an important test of his stated standards for news organizations this week: If he’s not just looking to punish media outlets for being insufficiently deferential to President Donald Trump, he must launch a news distortion investigation of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Broadcasting. . .”

“Fox News’ right-wing propagandists would lose their minds if a Democratic president did such a thing. But on Sunday morning, the network instead seemed to hide the president’s disrespect toward the dead. While purporting to cover the previous day’s event, Fox & Friends Weekend aired months-old footage. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/shouldnt-brendan-carr-be-launching-fcc-probe-fox-broadcasting-co

Trust the Media?

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Article in The Hill by Bernard Goldberg, 3/6/26

Headline: “With media distrust at an all-time high, journalists must do some soul-searching”

“Just about every day a new poll drops — and when it shows how unpopular President Trump is, the so-called mainstream media can’t wait to blast it across the screen. Breaking news! Flashing graphics! Panels of experts nodding gravely.

“Bad news for the president is good news for liberals — whether they’re in the media or just watching it.

“But there’s one poll the media treats like it has a contagious disease. It comes out every year from Gallup. And it measures something inconvenient: trust in the media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/opinion/5769193-media-trust-erosion-journalism/

More Grabbing ALL the media

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Article in the New York Times, by By Lauren HirschMichael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin, 2/26/26

Headline:  “Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover”

Subhead:  “The move was a stunning development in the long-running corporate battle for the storied media giant.”

“Netflix said on Thursday that it would not counter Paramount’s higher bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a stunning development that essentially assures the media giant will end up under the control of a rival bidder, the technology heir David Ellison.

“Netflix had beat out Paramount in December to sign an $83 billion deal to acquire a large portion of Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, including HBO and the storied Warner Bros. movie studio. The acquisition was poised to cement Netflix, once a striving outsider to the film and entertainment business, as the pre-eminent juggernaut of Hollywood. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/business/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-deal-netflix.html

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 2/26/26

Headline: “Paramount wins bid to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery after Netflix bows out”

“Netflix on Thursday said it would not match a bid from Paramount seeking to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery, the sprawling media empire that includes legacy brands in news and entertainment like CNN and HBO.

“News of the streamer bowing out of its deal with Warner Bros. Discovery came just minutes after the David Zaslav-led company said it considered the hostile bid mounted by Paramount to be a ‘superior’ offer to the one it struck with the streamer late last year. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5757985-netflix-declines-warner-discovery/

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 2/26/26

Headline: “Paramount Skydance’s Takeover of Warner Bros. Is Bad News for Workers, Consumers and Free Expression”

“On Thursday, the Warner Bros. Discovery board decided to abandon its plans to sell the company to Netflix in favor of a Paramount Skydance bid. . .”

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:  “The Netflix deal was disastrous but this new one is even worse. The idea that Paramount should be allowed to control CBS and CNN should be unthinkable, especially given their record of turning the Tiffany Network into a trash heap. The Ellisons have already promised the Trump administration that they’ll make sweeping changes to CNN given the chance, and we know what that means: firing journalists, spiking important stories, and replacing the news with empty propaganda. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/paramount-skydances-takeover-warner-bros-bad-news-workers-consumers-and-free-expression

Corporate Media & Labor

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Photo by Brontë Wittpenn via Getty Images

Article in FAIR by Silas Gaughran Bedell, 2/26/26

Headline:  “Corporate Media Mock Chicago Teachers for Trying to Help Their Community”

“The Washington Post editorial ‘The Chicago Teachers Union’s New Year’s Resolution: More Mediocrity (1/10/26)’  is the latest in a string of opinion pieces from both the Post and Wall Street Journal attacking the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), amid historic victories for teachers and school staff. The opinion pages of these billionaire-owned media outlets have consistently relied on cherry-picked test scores to obscure union successes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/corporate-media-mock-chicago-teachers-for-trying-to-help-their-community/