Media Corruption

Media Birds of a Feather Now?

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 6/7/26

Headline:  “The Post’s Opinion Non-‘Sense’

Subhead:  “After Jeff Bezos mandated a rightward overhaul of the opinion section, a Status examination of Adam O’Neal’s podcast feels more like culture-war red meat than ‘personal liberties and free markets,’ and it’s struggling to find an audience.”

“Last month, a group of commentators sat down for a conversation that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Fox News, Breitbart, or Joe Rogan’s podcast. Lounging on a beige couch with exposed microphones and a wood-paneled backdrop, the four panelists derided the Biden administration’s response to the Covid pandemic. . .”

“But that discussion wasn’t taking place on a right-wing media outlet. It featured The Washington Post opinion editor. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-podcast-adam-o-neal

Will Ellison Leash Weiss?

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Article in The Wrap by Sharon Waxman, 6/8/26

Headline:  “Bari Weiss Has Become a Liability for David Ellison at CBS News – Will He Make a Move? | Analysis”

Subhead:  “It turns out that her immaturity, disorganization and inability to learn from mistakes have been even more damaging than her lack of experience”

“It was an apocalyptic week in the world of media, where the polite veneer at CBS News was ripped away to reveal fear, loathing, betrayal and ultimately the murder of the most respected newsmagazine on television, ’60 Minutes,’ by Editor in Chief Bari Weiss.

Weiss’s name was everywhere on social media all weekend, with overwhelmingly negative backlash to her decision to fire Scott Pelley last week after firing the senior leadership days before that. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/tv/will-david-ellison-fire-bari-weiss-cbs-news/

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Article in The Nation by Jon Walsh, 6/8/26

Headline:  “Fire Bari Weiss!”

Subhead:  “Which is worse, her political malevolence or her incompetence?”

“After CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley was fired by Bari Weiss’s incompetent henchman Nick Bilton last week, the network veteran went public with his complaints about Weiss’s politically motivated mismanagement of the show. One of his most noteworthy complaints was that she pushed the correspondents to add distortions and lies to some of their segments. Media critics asked that Pelley be more specific, and on Sunday, with The New York Times, he was. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/scott-pelley-60-minutes-cbs-news/

Media Defiance

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Article in AlterNet by Thom Hartman, 6/7/26

Headline: “Opinion | One defiant stand is sending shockwaves through Trump’s media takeover”

Over the past year and a half, we’ve watched Brendan Carr, Trump’s hitman at the FCC, go to CPAC conferences and brag about how he’s going to assault stations that say things he and Trump dislike. He’s trying to intimidate ABC affiliates into muzzling Jimmy Kimmel — again. And he succeeded in taking down Stephen Colbert.

“And a Trump-adjacent billionaire nepo-baby has acquired CBS and is systematically stripping it of its journalistic integrity,

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/scott-pelley-trump/

Pushing Ideology Into Iconic Program

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts and Jeremy Bar, 6/3/26

Headline:  “Fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley says CBS told him to inject ‘falsehoods’ into reporting”

Subhead:  “Veteran journalist says executives pushed unverified claims and gave politicians a say in interviews”

“. . .’When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.’

“Pelley criticized the new leadership at CBS, adding: ‘Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/03/60-minutes-scott-pelley-cbs-accusations

Podcast to Media Control in “60 Minutes”

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Article in Daily Beast, 5/28/26

Headline:  “New ‘60 Minutes’ Producer’s Cringe Side Hustle Revealed”

“. . .Tech columnist Nick Bilton was tapped by   far more controversial editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, to sit at the helm of the network’s flagship newsmagazine show on Thursday—a move that sent shockwaves through CBS and beyond. The 49-year-old replaced Tanya Simon, a producer at the program for nearly 30 years, in one of Weiss’s boldest moves yet since coming aboard the network in October.

Weiss told The New York Times that she chose Bilton largely for his storytelling across multiple platforms, which apparently includes podcasting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nick-biltons-cringe-side-hustle-revealed/

Foreigners in U.S. Media?

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 5/27/26

Headline: “Free Press Urges FCC to Reject Paramount Skydance’s Request for Massive Foreign Investment from Governments Hostile to Press Freedom”

“. . . Free Press urged the FCC to reject Paramount Skydance’s petition to waive the Communications Act’s prohibition against the significant foreign investment that’s part of the massive media company’s proposal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

If Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery survives state antitrust review, at least half (or 49.5 percent) the ownership of the resulting colossus will end up in the hands of foreign investors, including the sovereign wealth funds of three Middle Eastern governments. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-urges-fcc-reject-paramount-skydances-request-massive-foreign-investment

When is “News” Not News?

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Article in the Washington Post by Kathleen Parker, 5/22/26

Headline:  “All this ‘talent’ breaks my brain — and my heart”

Subhead:  “AI fakery is overwhelming. What will happen to human imagination?”

“. . .This brings us to fake news — though not in the way President Donald Trump would have us think. A report from Vulture cites a former executive who estimates that more than 90 percent of what’s online is advertising ‘in disguise.’ At its peak, the content distributor Floodify ran 65,000 dummy social media accounts to gin up interest in its clients, said Joe Lim, who founded the company. This meant that on a given day, Floodify posted 50,000 ads across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X, which are all supposedly the output of everyday users. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/22/ai-is-creating-digital-world-fake-talent-fame/

 

Rt. Wing Media – Money for Mobs?

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Article in Media Matters by Sophie Lawton, 5/21/26

Headline:   “Right-wing media react to Trump’s slush fund for allies with unquestioning loyalty — and some vague skepticism”

“Some right-wing media figures are jumping on board with the Trump administration’s newest effort to support MAGA allies despite numerous questions about its legality; a few are voicing light skepticism of the plan.

This week, the Department of Justice announced that the Trump family had agreed to drop a legally questionable $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the fund’s intended recipients are “victims of lawfare and weaponization” by the federal government. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/right-wing-media-react-trumps-slush-fund-allies-unquestioning-loyalty-and-some-vague

Trump’s Fox Fellow-Travelers Urge War?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 5/18/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Fox Cabinet urges escalation as he ponders a return to war in Iran”

“. . .Influential pundits on the MAGA propaganda channel are telling the president that he currently holds ‘the cards’ and are urging him to use U.S. military might to seize Iran’s uranium stockpile, force open the Strait of Hormuz, assassinate the country’s leaders, and overturn its regime. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/trumps-fox-cabinet-urges-escalation-he-ponders-return-war-iran

Imperial Ballroom & Rt. Wing Media

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Article in Media Matters by Isabella Corrao & Jane Lee 5/7/26

Headline:   “Right-wing media spent months claiming Trump’s ballroom wouldn’t cost taxpayers a penny. Republicans are now proposing $1 billion in taxpayer money to secure it.”

“Since President Donald Trump first demolished the East Wing to build a new White House ballroom, right-wing media personalities have frequently echoed White House talking points asserting that private donors would fund the ballroom at no cost to taxpayers. Recently, however, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) proposed $1 billion as part of a “long-term immigration and border patrol funding bill” for security upgrades related to the ballroom construction project . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-spent-months-claiming-trumps-ballroom-wouldnt-cost-taxpayers-penny