Media Corruption

Gambling with the News?

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Article in Slashdot by BeauHD, 1/21/26

Headline:  “America Is Slow-Walking Into a Polymarket Disaster’

“In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, senior editor Saahil Desai argues that media outlets are increasingly treating prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi as legitimate signals of reality. The risk, as Desai warns, is a future where news coverage amplifies manipulable betting odds and turns politics, geopolitics, and even tragedy into speculative gambling theater. . .”

“The problem is that prediction markets are ushering in a world in which news becomes as much about gambling as about the event itself. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/22/006212/america-is-slow-walking-into-a-polymarket-disaster

Media Abandon Civil Rights?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 1/21/26

Headline:  “Comprehensive New Report Puts Major Media Companies on Notice for Anti-DEI Capitulations”

Subhead:  “In a detailed analysis of the 35 most dominant U.S. media companies, Free Press reveals a disturbing and cowardly reversal on prior civil-rights commitments. . .”

“On Wednesday, Free Press published an authoritative report analyzing the retreat in 2025 of the nation’s largest media companies from prior commitments to promote diversity, equity and inclusion principles in their workplaces and policies. The report — COMPLICIT: Corporate Media’s Capitulation to Trump’s Attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — sheds new light on the ongoing capitulation of major media and tech companies to the dictates of a bigoted and corrupt Trump administration. . .”

Read the Full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/comprehensive-report-puts-major-media-companies-notice-anti-dei-capitulations-trump

Venezuelan Media – Same Old

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvao & Ivan L. Nagy, 1/16/26

Headline:  “For Venezuelan Journalists, It’s Like Maduro Never Left”

Subhead:  ” ‘If you have contacts or sensitive information that you’re not supposed to have, you could be thrown in jail.’ “

“. . .This is less a function of recent American interference than business as usual. Under the leadership of Hugo Chávez, through Nicolás Maduro’s tenure to today, official narratives have echoed across state-controlled TV, radio, and print media; authorities have declined visas for foreign journalists to enter the country; independent news outlets are banned and accessible only via VPN. In the week following the US incursion, police, military forces, and colectivos—pro-government paramilitaries—roamed the streets, cracking down on protesters, members of the opposition, and independent journalists. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/for-venezuelan-journalists-its-like-maduro-never-left.php

US and Censorship Attempts

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Article in Techdirt and Free Press by by Mike Masnick and Nora Benavidez, 1/16/26

Headline:  “Trump’s ‘Free Speech’ Presidency Racked Up 200 Censorship Attempts In Its First Year”

“We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it because apparently it needs repeating: Donald Trump is not a free speech president. He just plays one on TV while doing the exact opposite behind the scenes. And in front of the scenes. And basically everywhere. Over and over and over again. . .”

Read the full articles at:

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/trumps-free-speech-presidency-racked-up-200-censorship-attempts-in-its-first-year/

. . .and:

https://www.freepress.net/news/trumps-free-speech-presidency-racked-200-censorship-attempts-its-first-year

Is FCC Making Money for. . .?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 1/14/26

Headline:  “Chairman Carr’s Corruption of the FCC Requires Greater Congressional Action and Oversight”

“Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr dodged accountability during a House Commerce Committee oversight hearing on Wednesday.

“Throughout the hearing, Carr refused to answer questions about his efforts to weaponize the agency in service of President Donald Trump. His record includes helping the White House silence the president’s critics in the media, install so-called “bias monitors” inside private media companies and enrich Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/chairman-carrs-corruption-fcc-requires-greater-congressional-action-and-oversight

CBS Wreck?

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 1/12/26

Headline:  “David Letterman calls CBS News a ‘wreck’ under newly installed leadership”

Subhead: “Former late-night host makes comments amid merger of CBS’s parent company Paramount with Skydance Media”

“The former CBS late-night host David Letterman has criticized his old network, calling its news division a ‘wreck’ under its newly installed leadership. . .”

“He said: ‘CBS News is a wreck – it’s just gone. CBS News, for decades, going back to [the second world war], before [it], Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London from the rooftop of buildings in London for CBS Radio, and it was that mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News, that has been trampled on, pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/12/david-letterman-cbs-news-bari-weiss

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jem Bartholomew, 1/12/26

Headline:   “And That’s the Way It Is”

Subhead:  “At CBS News, the suppression of critical reporting and the promotion of appeasement reveal Bari Weiss’s true colors.”

Read the article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/cbs-news-suppression-critical-reporting-appeasement-bari-weiss-tony-dokoupil.php

Network Slowly, Slowly Sinking

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Article in Mother Jones by Mika Bauerlein, 12.30.25

Headline:  “The End of CBS News”

Subhead:  “Why corporate media won’t come to save us.”

“. . .Now, editors-in-chief often, annoyingly, ask for changes in stories. I was one, and I did it. But what no editor in her right mind will do is yank a piece at the last minute, after it has been reported, vetted, fact-checked, lawyered, greenlit for publication, and promoted for several days. For if you do that, the issue will no longer be the reporting. The issue will be your management. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/the-end-of-cbs-news/

Gambling With the News

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Article in Common Cause by Staff, 12/25

Headline:  “Save impartial public media”

“PBS and NPR are the only major networks still anchored in public service – not gambling on the news or making billionaires richer. But they’re struggling after deep funding cuts.

“We urge you to restore full funding for public media and protect America’s information ecosystem. . .”

“CNN and CNBC have signed deals with Kalshi, an online gambling company, to push betting odds directly into the news.

“No matter how bad you think it could get – the reality is probably worse: Kalshi recently ran a betting market on the probability of famine in Gaza. And Donald Trump Jr. has recently joined them as a ‘strategic advisor,’ raising even more alarms about how these gambling markets could be weaponized for political gain. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commoncause.org/actions/save-impartial-public-media/

From White House to TV Host?

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Article in Raw Story by Alexander Willis, 12/23/25

Headline:  ” ‘Would you like me to leave?’ Trump floats ditching White House for TV hosting gig”

“President Donald Trump floated the idea of ditching the Oval Office Tuesday to instead pursue a career as a television host, asking his followers whether they supported the idea of an abrupt career change.

“Whether serious or in jest, Trump made the remarks after announcing that he would be hosting the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony scheduled for Tuesday evening, which he said he’d be doing ‘at the request of the board, and just about everybody else in America.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674824636/

Disappeared People, Disappeared News

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Article in Mediaite by Jennifer Bowers Bahney, 12/21/25

Headline: “Critics Lash Out at Bari Weiss After 60 Minutes Yanks Segment on Trump Deportations Last Minute: ‘SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!’ “

“New CBS News boss Bari Weiss was bashed by a number of media critics on Sunday night, immediately after 60 Minutes abruptly postponed a report on a “brutal” El Salvador prison that President Donald Trump deported suspected gangsters and illegal immigrants to. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/critics-lash-out-at-bari-weiss-after-60-minutes-yanks-segment-on-trump-deportations-last-minute-shame-shame-shame/

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Article in Daily Beast by Julia Ornedo, 12/22/25

Headline: “ ‘60 Minutes’ Suddenly Drops Segment on Major Trump Controversy”

“60 Minutes abruptly canceled a segment about a notorious El Salvador megaprison that houses deportees who have been kicked out of the U.S. by President Donald Trump.

“The iconic CBS newsmagazine show announced that the scheduled segment covering the Terrorism Confinement Center—dubbed CECOT or Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo in Spanish—will air at a later date instead. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/60-minutes-suddenly-drops-segment-on-major-trump-controversy/

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Article in Showbiz411 by Roger Friedman, 12/21/25

Headline:  “CBS News Pulls ’60 Minutes‘ Story on Trump Sending Venezuelans to El Salvador Prison — and Torturing Them — Promoted, Then Erased (Photo, Teaser)”

“The story was about Trump and something called CECOT — aka Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, the El Salvadoran prison where he was sending Venezuelans.

“But now the newly conservative network has pulled the plug, announcing there will be no segment even though it was promoted. CBS says it will air sometime in the future. But it’s very rare for a ’60 Minutes’ piece to get axed right before showtime. This reeks of new CBS News editor in chief, conservative website owner Bari Weiss, who’s been given control of the department. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.showbiz411.com/2025/12/21/cbs-news-pulls-60-minutes-story-on-trump-sending-venezuelans-to-el-salvador-prison-and-torturing-them-promoted-then-erased