Media Corruption

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

FCC As Media Attack-Dog?

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 12/19/25

Headline:  “FCC Fights First Amendment and ‘Democracy Itself’ “

“. . .Under Trumpist Brendan Carr, the FCC is, as is well known, threatening stations that deliver content they disapprove (FAIR.org, 2/26/25), very much in violation of the First Amendment. Asked in a Senate hearing (Variety, 12/17/25) if it’s ‘appropriate to use your position to threaten companies that broadcast political satire,’ Carr responded that ‘any licensee that operates on the public airwaves has a responsibility to comply with the public interest standard.’

“But Trump’s FCC is also seeking to further loosen ownership limits and allow powerful media conglomerates to usurp more of the airwaves (CJR, 10/20/25; FAIR.org, 10/8/25). . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/fcc-fights-first-amendment-and-democracy-itself/

“THE PRESIDENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY. . .”

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Article in The Guardian by Arwa Mahdawi, 12/15/25

Headline:  “It’s the media’s job to hold power to account. This year, too many got into bed with it instead”

Subhead:  “The lines between advertising, public relations and journalism have become dangerously blurred”

“. . .Journalists should work without fear or favor. Whether writing about foreign policy or new technology, our focus should be on the truth, not cozying up to the powerful or making corporations look good.

“And yet here we are, in a world where the lines between advertising, public relations and journalism are dangerously blurred; where once-respected media institutions have been hijacked by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, the Murdoch family, and Larry Ellison and turned into strategic megaphones. Where politicians are sold to the public with the same cynical strategies with which ad-people market alcohol. Guinness is good for you? Authoritarianism is even better!. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/15/its-the-medias-job-to-hold-power-to-account-this-year-too-many-got-into-bed-with-it-instead

Sainthood for New Pentagon Press Corps?

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Article in The Intercept by Katherine Krueger, 12/13/25

Headline:  “The Brand-New Pentagon Press Corps Is Gaga for Hegseth”

Subhead:  “The Department of War has cracked the code on making the perfect press corps by welcoming in only its biggest cheerleaders.”

“The welcome was so warm it could’ve been the first day of school for a new class of kindergartners, and with the so-called reporters’ level of skepticism for the administration, they might as well have been.

” ‘I would also like to take a moment today to welcome all of you here to the Pentagon briefing room as official new members of the Pentagon press corps. We’re glad to have you,’ Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in her December 2 briefing. . .”

“Wilson also said that ‘legacy media chose to self-deport from this building,’ a cute way of noting that dozens of news organizations — among them the New York Times, the Washington Post, the major broadcast news outlets, and even Fox News and Newsmax — gave up their press passes rather than sign on to the administration’s blatantly anti-First Amendment set of rules for reporting on Pete Hegseth’s Department of War. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/13/hegseth-new-pentagon-press-reporters/

Saudis and American Media

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Article in Status by Brian Lowry, 12/12/25

Headline:  “Hollywood’s Saudi Serenade”

Subhead:  “With its backing of Paramount’s WBD bid and Vision 2030 plan, Saudi Arabia wants to establish a major foothold in media. But in Hollywood, buyer and seller should beware.”

“On Tuesday, a downpour temporarily shut down Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, as famous Hollywood faces huddled in the coastal city. That felt like an apt metaphor for a week that saw David Ellison-led Paramount launch a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with assistance from ‘petrostate’ money, reflecting the Saudi focus on media and the unpredictable risks that come with it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/hollywood-s-saudi-serenade

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Article in The Contrarian by Josh Levs, 12/3/25

Headline:  “The Media Helped Trump Spread a Lie After the National Guard Shooting”

Subhead:  “The job of the media is to provide truth, which equals facts plus context.”

“The shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., last week should have led to bipartisan action—specifically, an immediate commitment to shoring up protections for these men and women who volunteer to serve. Instead, it became President Donald Trump’s latest opportunity to spread a made-up number to Americans. And the legacy media, as always, helped him. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-media-helped-trump-spread-a-lie

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Article in Politico by Daniel Block, 12/2/25

Headline:  “News Organizations Are Bowing to Trump. This Small Magazine Knows How to Resist.”

Subhead:  “U.S. media outlets could learn some lessons from The Caravan.”

“. . .In India, the crackdown has been effective: the country’s mainstream media now rarely critiques Modi. In the United States, the press is also starting to pull some of its punches. But if India’s trajectory is cause for alarm, it also provides some reason for hope. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/12/01/lessons-on-surviving-autocracy-from-one-small-indian-magazine-00667380