Media Corruption

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/

More CBS Grief?

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Article in The New York Times by Maggie Astor and Benjamin Mullin, 2/23/26

Headline:  “Peter Attia Leaves CBS News Amid Epstein Files Fallout”

Subhead:  “Emails showed that the longevity influencer had provided medical advice to Jeffrey Epstein and had made crude comments about women.”

“The longevity influencer Peter Attia has resigned from his position as a contributor to CBS News, about three weeks after the revelation of his relationship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. . .”

“Dr. Attia was one of several high-profile contributors recently named to CBS News by Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief, . .”

“The controversy over Dr. Attia is the latest setback for CBS News, which has found itself in the headlines since Ms. Weiss took over last year. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/well/peter-attia-cbs-epstein.html

Media in Crisis?

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Article in Common Dreams by Victor Packard, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Why the US Media Is in Crisis and How to Rescue It”

“What we’re witnessing isn’t a singular breakdown, but discrete and cascading layers of ‘media capture’ by capitalists, oligarchs, and authoritarians that produce censorship, exclusion, and democratic failure.

“From the recent gutting of the Washington Post to the rightward lurch of CBS, the sheer proliferation and variation of media failures and attacks on the press during Trump 2.0 are difficult to grasp. Regulatory bodies have become political weapons. Major news organizations have complied and retreated. Media ownership has consolidated in the hands of a few feckless billionaires. Taken together, these developments endanger our information and communication systems, our First Amendment freedoms, and our democracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-media-crisis

Paramount Choosing News?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Paramount is mangling CBS — and CNN may be next”

Subhead:  “Trump’s corruption makes capitulation a media business plan”

“The Tuesday announcement by Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, that it is reopening deal talks with Paramount marks the latest example of President Donald Trump’s corrupt effort to quell dissent by pushing media companies into the hands of his supporters.

“Warner Bros. agreed in December to sell its movie and streaming assets to Netflix and spin off its cable networks, including CNN, into a new entity. But Paramount, owned by David Ellison, the son of megabillionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, is mounting a hostile bid to take over the entire company — and the Ellisons have a powerful ally in the White House. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/paramount-mangling-cbs-and-cnn-may-be-next

Authoritarians Always Attack Media

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Article in Common Dreams by Stephen R. Weissman, 2/12/26

Headline:  “Don Lemon’s Travail Is a Warning of Rising Authoritarianism; I Would Know”

Subhead:  “My experience as a university professor in Congo demonstrates that repressive governments may go after a variety of observers sympathizing with militant protesters by purveying false or distorted reports of their actions. . .”

“Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is under federal indictment for participating in a Minnesota protest group’s obstruction of a church service. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. News of his prosecution took me back more than five decades to when I was a young university professor in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). At that time, President Mobutu Sese Seko’s government threatened to arrest me for my alleged involvement in student disruptions.

“In both cases, increasingly authoritarian governments decided to clamp down on independent observers—journalists or others—who sympathized with community activists. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/don-lemon-authoritarianism

WaPo = CBS Future?

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Article in Daily Kos by Lisa Neeham, 2/9/26

Headline: “Washington Post chief’s firing should terrify new regime at CBS News”

“Will Lewis is out at The Washington Post. Since he was a fancy ‘chief executive,’ his departure is being reported with the genteel framing of him ‘stepping down,’ even though it is very evident that Post owner Jeff Bezos sent Lewis packing.

“Ostensibly, Amazon billionaire Bezos felt that Lewis didn’t handle the complete decimation of the newspaper with enough gravitas and was instead partying in San Francisco at Super Bowl-related events. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/9/2367949/-Washington-Post-chief-s-firing-should-terrify-new-regime-at-CBS-News

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/9/26

Headline: “Opinion | The Washington Post just experienced a week that will live in infamy”

Subhead:  “The week’s upheaval ended with CEO Will Lewis stepping aside after being missing in action as the newsroom was cut”

“What a bizarre week at The Washington Post. Bizarre and puzzling and heartbreaking — not necessarily in that order.

It started last Wednesday with massive layoffs in what former editor Marty Baron called one of the “darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.” Another former star reporter, Ashley Parker, called it a murder.

The week ended in startling fashion on Saturday when publisher and CEO Will Lewis abruptly resigned in a short (less than 100 words) note to staff. He said it was the “right time” to step away. . .:

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/washington-post-layoffs-will-lewis-gone/

Which Road for CBS News?

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/4/26

Headline:  “The Weiss Way or the Highway”

Subhead:  “As speculation swirls over whether CBS News will take any action after new health contributor Peter Attia was ensnared in the Epstein Files, Status has learned what Bari Weiss’s silence actually signals—and what it says about her leadership.”

“On Friday, the Department of Justice released millions of new pages from the Epstein Files, ensnaring some of the world’s wealthiest and most well-known men in the ever-growing scandal. . .”

“But over at CBS News, another name quickly caught the eye of staffers: Peter Attia, the YouTube wellness influencer whom Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss just proudly named as a network contributor.

Attia, it turns out, had exchanged dozens of emails with the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/peter-attia-epstein-files-bari-weiss-cbs-news

CBS, Does She Get It?

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 1/27/26

Headline:  “Bari Weiss tries to win CBS staffers’ trust amid ‘noise’ over 60 Minutes segment”

Subhead:  “In her first town hall, Weiss expressed some regret over her decision to pull 60 Minutes segment at the last minute”

“During her first address to CBS News employees as editor in chief, Bari Weiss acknowledged that there had been “a lot of noise” about her tumultuous tenure and said that some staffers might decide they don’t support her or want to continue working at the company.

“ ‘I just want to start by saying: I get it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/27/bari-weiss-cbs
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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 1/27/26

Headline:  “Weiss and the Wary”

Subhead:   “The new CBS News chief finally addressed her skeptical newsroom, presenting her vision of the network’s future and fielding tough questions about her editorial views—though some staffers told Status they left unconvinced.”

Read the article at:

https://www.status.news/p/bari-weiss-cbs-news-town-hall

Taking CBS Somewhere

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Article in The New Yorker by Clare Malone, 1/19/26

Headline:  “Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News“

Subhead:  “The network’s new editor-in-chief has championed a press free from élite bias, while aligning herself with a billionaire class more willing than ever to indulge Donald Trump.”

“. . .Weiss’s embrace of a press free from élite bias—what she might call woke politics—has taken her to the top of the media establishment. It has also aligned her with a tech-billionaire class more willing than ever to indulge Trump to protect the sanctity of shareholder value. . .”

“Trump, for his part, was effusive in his praise of Weiss. “I think you have a great new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise,” he said during his sit-down with O’Donnell. . .“

Read the full article at:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/26/inside-bari-weisss-hostile-takeover-of-cbs-news