Media Corruption

Colbert and Liberty

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Article in The Contrarian by Josh Levs. 8/12/25

Headline:  “Two big things the legacy media missed about Colbert”

Subhead:  “In the fight for democracy, there’s something we must dismantle.”

“Among the many problems with the legacy media is the so-called ‘news cycle.’ These days, it often seems that we’re supposed to talk about an issue for only half a day before moving on to the next disaster. As a result, we can easily stay distracted and fail to learn important lessons from the latest developments.”

“. . .I stopped to look at two big things the media missed about CBS’ decision to cancel ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.’ . . .”

“He’ll very likely be better off, and even freer to say whatever he wants. That’s what happens when you get out from under a huge corporation. It’s also why some journalists have left newspapers that are now run by billionaires. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/two-big-things-the-legacy-media-missed

Confusion by D.C. Federal Prosecutor?

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Article in Mediaite by Staff, 8/12/25

Headline:  “DC Reporter Confronts Jeanine Pirro on Trump Pardoning Cop-Beaters: ‘How Is This Not a Mixed Message?’ “

“U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dismissed criticism from police of President Donald Trump’s January 6 pardons during an interview with Fox 5 reporter Jillian Smith about the administration’s decision to send the National Guard into Washington, D.C. to crack down on crime.

Smith pressed Pirro on the contradiction between the president’s pro-police messaging now and his sweeping pardons of rioters who assaulted cops during the January 6 Capitol attack. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/crime/dc-reporter-confronts-jeanine-pirro-on-trump-pardoning-cop-beaters-how-is-this-not-a-mixed-message/

Who Monitors the Monitor?

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan. 8/9/25

Headline: “A ‘bias monitor’ for CBS News is a bad idea. Here’s why”

Subhead: “I was a public editor at the New York Times, handling complaints from the public. That is a better path than CBS’s one”

“For years before I became the public editor at the New York Times, I admired the work of journalists doing the job of holding their own newsrooms accountable to high standards.

“And when I heard that CBS News would get a position something like that, I thought – briefly – that this could be a positive development. After all, the network’s credibility and independence has come under fire after its parent company settled a frivolous lawsuit brought by Donald Trump. . .”

“I quickly changed my mind once I learned the details. This is not a traditional ombudsman but what some have dubbed a ‘bias monitor’ who will receive and evaluate claims of bias in the network’s journalism and report on them to the corporation’s president. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/09/bias-monitor-cbs-news

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Article in Poynter by Rick Edmonds, et al., 8/8/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Skydance and Paramount complete their merger – whither CBS News?”

Subhead: “New chairman talks about ‘empowered’ journalists; critic assails trading principles for profit”

“The headline-chewing Skydance Media takeover of Paramount Global was formally concluded Thursday. . .

Red the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/skydance-and-paramount-complete-their-merger-whither-cbs-news/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/7/25

Headline: “The Skydance Sidestep”

Subhead: “David Ellison admirably showed up to take tough, unscreened questions from a room full of reporters – but he danced around the biggest ones about Donald Trump. ’60 Minutes’, and more”

“Naturally, the assembled group of journalists didn’t ignore the elephant in the room, and the first was about Donald Trump. Specifically, whether Ellison, the Silicon Valley tech scion, had cut a secret side deal to air upwards of $20 million worth of public service announcements for causes Trump supports. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/david-ellison-paramount-trump-side-deal-60-minutes

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Article in Reuters by Deborah May and David Shepardson, 8/7/25

Headline:  “Paramount closes $8 billion merger with Skydance after settling ’60 Minutes’ lawsuit”

“. . .The merger was approved after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming would be free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints, and end diversity programs. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/paramount-closes-8-billion-merger-with-skydance-after-settling-60-minutes-2025-08-07/

Clean Money for Nonprofit Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Bernstein & Margaret Sullivan, 7/7/25

Headline:   “For Nonprofit Newsrooms, Ethical Funding Is Essential”

Subhead:  “How outlets are updating their strategies to protect editorial independence.”

“As advertising revenue for small news organizations dries up, donor money from foundations is playing a bigger role. This relationship presents some new ethical questions for journalists: Who should newsrooms accept money from? On what terms? And how should they disclose that relationship to the public? In considering these questions, we were reminded of an incident that happened at PBS in 2013, when the broadcaster announced ‘Pension Peril,’ a two-year series on a crisis in public employee retirement benefits. The series ran during PBS NewsHour Weekend and was spearheaded by its flagship New York station, WNET.   “However, PBS failed to disclose that the series was funded with a 3.5-million-dollar grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, founded by John Arnold, a billionaire hedge-funder with a history of involvement in pension policy reform. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/nonprofit-newsrooms-ethical-and-sustainable-funding.php

Hands up, Media!

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Article in Daily Kos by TheBradBlog, 8/6/25

Headline:  ” ‘Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens’: Media Giants Continue Trump Capitulation: ‘BradCast’ 8/6/2025″

“. . .The corporate capitulation is worse than you think. And it strikes right at the heart of what this nation’s founders saw as perhaps the most important protection for freedom from monarchs and tyrants. Ya know, like the one we ended up with anyway. . .”

“Following Donald Trump’s gutting of the 80-year old Voice of America earlier this year, his and the Republican Congress’ ending of federal funding for NPR and PBS a week or so ago, and the absurd $16 million dollar settlements of ridiculous defamation lawsuits filed by Trump against the corporate owners of Disney/ABC and Paramount/CBS, the largest media conglomerates in the nation continue to rollover in fear, in hopes of placating and/or currying favor with our press-freedom hating, tyrannical man-baby President. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/6/2337193/-Ain-t-Nobody-Here-But-Us-Chickens-Media-Giants-Continue-Trump-Capitulation-BradCast-8-6-2025?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Media Consolidation Threat

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News Release from Free Press by Staff, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Press Freedom Groups Tell FCC: Media Consolidation Poses Grave Threat to Independent News and Information in the United States”

Subhead:  ” ‘Allowing for even more media consolidation poses too great a risk to our democracy, and to the free press on which it depends.’ “

“WASHINGTON — On Monday, 16 leading press freedom groups, civil liberties organizations and labor unions urged the Federal Communications Commission not to move forward with plans to loosen media ownership limits before it fully assesses the negative impacts media consolidation has had and will have on local news and information in the United States.

Earlier this summer, the FCC asked for public comments on changing or eliminating a longstanding rule that limits the size and national reach of giant broadcasters — like Sinclair, Nexstar and Fox Corporation — which already own hundreds of local stations across the country.

“Our chief concern regards the impact further consolidation of media ownership will have on the independence of the nation’s press and the vitality of its local journalism,” wrote the groups, including the NewsGuild CWA, Free Press, Open Markets Institute, Reporters Without Borders-USA, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Project Censored, Writers Guild of America East and Writers Guild of America West, among others. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-freedom-groups-tell-fcc-media-consolidation-poses-grave-threat-independent-news-and

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Article in Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Press Freedom Coalition to FCC: Don’t Ditch Checks on Corporate Media Consolidation”

Subhead:  “The 16 groups urge the agency “to uphold its obligation to promote competition, localism, and diversity in the U.S. media.”

“A coalition of 16 civil liberties, press freedom, and labor groups this week urged U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to abandon any plans to loosen media ownership restrictions and warned against opening the floodgates to further corporate consolidation.

“Public comments on the National Television Multiple Ownership Rule were due to the Federal Communications Commission by Monday—which is when the coalition wrote to the FCC about the 39% national audience reach cap for U.S. broadcast media conglomerates, and how more mergers could negatively impact “the independence of the nation’s press and the vitality of its local journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fcc

Which Media Capitulated Most?

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Article in American Crisis by Margaret Sullivan, 7/29/25

Headline:  “American Crisis exclusive: The ‘Media Capitulation Index’ “

Subhead:  “A sweeping report — with rankings — on the decline of independence in our corporatized media”

“If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you know that the media has been on a capitulation-and-kowtowing spree.

“To tick off a few cases: The parent company of CBS News paid $16 million to settle a suit brought by Donald Trump over a (routinely edited) ’60 Minutes’ interview of Kamala Harris. Another Trump suit — against ABC News — raked in $15 million, and garnered a note of regret; many legal experts think ABC could have won the case had they tried. The owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, ordered an editorial endorsing Harris to be killed last fall; and Bezos was front and center at Trump’s inauguration after contributing $1 million to the festivities. Fox News drastically cut back on its coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein story after Trump charged it was a non-story and a hoax. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/american-crisis-exclusive-the-media

Exporting Anti-Journalism

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 7/28/25

Headline:  “Six months of Trump’s war on the press: importing and exporting authoritarian tendencies”

“Six months into US President Donald Trump’s second term, his administration has become increasingly hostile towards the press, both mimicking and inspiring authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian regimes around the world. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns of the dangers of a transnational anti-press movement that shares tactics across borders and has found in the American president one of its most powerful proponents yet.

“Donald Trump has grown into a key figure in a global anti-journalism political movement that has contributed to a recent decline in press freedom globally, and is currently on full display in the United States just six months into his second administration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/six-months-trump-s-war-press-importing-and-exporting-authoritarian-tendencies

The Heat is on FCC Chief Carr

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 7/28/25

Headline: “Chasing the Runaway Carr”

Subhead:  “The Freedom of the Press Foundation is turing the tables on Brendan Carr, filing a complaint to investigate and poteitially disbar the FCC chairman over his moves to punisdh Donalt Trunp’s media critics.”

“For months, Seth Stern had weighed whether to take the extraordinary step of filing a disciplinary complaint against the country’s top communications regulator. As director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Stern had watched with alarm as Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr repeatedly blurred the line between law and politics—reviving baseless investigations into major news networks, threatening companies over their diversity initiatives, and slow-walking approval of Paramount Global’s merger with Skydance Media while Donald Trump pursued an absurd “60 Minutes” lawsuit against the company.

“The tipping point, however, came last week. Just 22 days after Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the case, Carr approved the $8 billion merger. . .”
Read the full article at:

Last Call for Free Media?

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Article in Reuters by David Shepardson, 5/25/25

Headline: “Trump, FCC want to reshape the media landscape starting with CBS”

“President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr told CNBC Friday. “The media industry across this country needs a course correction.”

“On Thursday, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the $8.4 billion merger between CBS parent Paramount Global and Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming is free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints and end diversity programs.

“Trump has repeatedly attacked broadcast networks for what he perceives as unbiased news coverage and called on Carr to rescind their licenses. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-fcc-want-reshape-media-landscape-starting-with-cbs-2025-07-25/

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Article in Daily Kos by Walter Einenkel, 7/25/25

Headline: “Media keeps caving to Trump, but FCC goon demands even more”

“Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr was asked about Stephen Colbert, whose show was canceled in what many view as a craven concession to appease President Donald Trump, during an appearance on CNBC Friday.

“ ‘They have such a storied history, and it’s sort of sad to see what’s happening to Colbert. They obviously can’t get it done. They’re not making money over there. But I think they need a course correction. And frankly, I think, you know, the media industry across this country needs a course correction,’ he said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/25/2335172/-Media-keeps-caving-to-Trump-but-FCC-goon-demands-even-more?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_recent_news&pm_medium=web