Article in Reuters by Krisztina Than, 4/13/26
Headline: “Hungary’s election winner Magyar says to suspend state media news broadcast”
” Hungary’s election winner Peter Magyar said on Monday that his government will suspend the news broadcast of public state media until unbiased news coverage can be ensured.
“Magyar’s Tisza party scored a landslide victory in Sunday’s elections. . .”
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Article in Poynter by Pete Croatto, 4/9/26
Headline: “Q&A: What Tucker Carlson’s path reveals about where journalism is headed”
Subhead: “New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle, author of a biography on the former Fox News star, breaks down why Carlson may run for president”
“Tucker Carlson’s career is ‘a good cautionary tale,’ says The New Yorker’s Jason Zengerle, author of ‘Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind,’ a riveting, sharp-eyed biography of the political pundit’s rise from acclaimed magazine writer to cable news mainstay to leading MAGA shriek.
“His path also represents the crumbling of journalism and the growing, troubling influence of a man who increasingly lives in an echo chamber. . .”
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Article in The Nation by David Futrelle, 3/6/26
Headline: “The AI Sector’s Crass Bid for Media Domination”
Subhead: “When you’re a galactically rich tech mogul upset with adverse press coverage, you just buy yourself more flattering media outlets.”
” ‘Freedom of the press,’ A.J. Liebling famously wrote, ‘is guaranteed only to those who own one.’ This pithy observation from one of Liebling’s 1960 ‘Wayward Press’ columns in The New Yorker sums up a great deal about how journalism is transacted under the pressures of American capitalism. But the gist of it has to hit different if you have several hundred million dollars sitting around and a reputation that could use a bit of burnishing. . .”
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https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ai-techonology-business-and-programming-network-podcasts/
Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Klaudia Jazwinska, 4/3/26
Headline: “The Problem with Binding News and Prediction Markets”
Subhead: “Polymarket and Kalshi are quickly making deals with news publishers, with potential implications for the regulation of prediction markets. It’s unclear how journalism wins.”
“Prediction markets—platforms where users can place wagers on the outcomes of future events —are suddenly all over the news. Every day we’re seeing headlines—allegations of insider trading, states accusing prediction markets of violating gambling laws, warnings about the “depravity economy.” We’re also seeing prediction markets’ efforts at becoming part of the news ecosystem. . .”
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Article in FAIR by Peter Castagno. 4/1/26
Headline: “Washington Post Promotes Nuclear Agenda Tied to Bezos’ Investments”
“The Washington Post has devoted four editorials to supporting the expansion of nuclear energy in the past three months, relying on factual errors and distortions to make the case for the Trump administration’s unprecedented cuts to nuclear safety regulation. The Post‘s owner, Jeff Bezos, is the chair of Amazon, a company dependent on electricity-guzzling data centers that invested more than $1 billion in nuclear energy last year. . .”
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https://fair.org/home/washington-post-promotes-nuclear-agenda-tied-to-bezos-investments/
Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 3/30/26
Headline: “Opinion | The FCC chair is openly cheering the weakening of the press”
Subhead: “In a speech, he ticked through defunded outlets, ousted journalists and looming ownership changes — then said the president is ‘winning’ “
“President Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he detests the press, and for the past 10 years has waged a full-scale assault on it.
“He has used fascist tactics, such as calling the media ‘fake news’ and the ‘enemy of the people.’ His attacks include lawsuits, bans and threats. My colleague, Angela Fu, continues to document that assault in Poynter’s Press Freedom Watch — a list that is growing alarmingly longer by the day. . .”
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https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/brendan-carr-mission-accomplished-press-war/
Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffe & Sage Hodil, 3/27/26
Headline: “Right-wing media are calling for ICE to ‘surround the polls’ in midterms”
Subhead: “Right-wing media figures claim Democrats are ‘basically admitting they’re cheating’ by opposing ICE at polling stations. But noncitizen voting is a fake problem and ICE has racially profiled US citizens.”
“Right-wing media personalities are pushing for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be deployed to polling stations during the 2026 midterm elections, claiming it will ‘fix the fraud’ of alleged noncitizen voting and suggesting the only reason Democrats oppose the idea is that ‘they want to cheat’ and ‘protect illegals’ voting rights.’ Department of Homeland Security officials, meanwhile, have put out mixed messaging regarding whether or not the department will consider this course of action.
“In reality, according to experts, instances of noncitizen voting are negligible and the presence of ICE agents at polling stations would be illegal, as it could intimidate voters into staying away and have a ‘chilling effect’. . .”
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Article in Media Matters, 3/26/26
Headline: “Right-wing media accused Trump of ‘obvious’ stock market manipulation”
Subhead: “Right-wing media also suspect someone close to Trump of insider trading, asserting “clearly there’s somebody that had some information”
“Right-wing media figures accused President Donald Trump of manipulating the market after stocks surged following his March 23 social media post claiming that the war in Iran was winding down. Additionally, oil and gas futures purchases spiked just before Trump’s announcement about a seemingly nonexistent ‘resolution’ with Iran, leading some in right-wing media to suggest that people close to the president, or even within Trump’s administration, were guilty of insider trading. . .”
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Article in The Bulwark by Will Somer, 3/23/26
Headline: “Folks, We’ve Got Yet Another Right-Wing Media Payola Scandal”
Subhead: “This one involves Jack Abramoff’s crypto venture!”
“HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST to bribe a Daily Caller writer for positive coverage? It could be cheaper than you think.
“According to a newly unearthed ledger kept by a Washington lobbyist who tracked his payments to conservative bloggers, it took only $500 to buy a story in the publication, which was one of a handful caught in the latest payola scandal. And though the story appeared under the byline of the Caller’s managing editor, prosecutors who unearthed the ledger say it was actually ghostwritten by the company that effectively bought the coverage. . .”
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Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rozsa, 3/23/26
Headline: “Mainstream media is playing a dangerous game: mental health experts”
“President Donald Trump is a habitual liar who may also suffer from serious mental illness, a seasoned journalist argued on Monday — but the mainstream media is too cowardly to call it out.
“ ‘For a while now, I’ve been imploring the leaders of our top news organizations to call out Donald Trump’s derangement,’ wrote Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch and former journalist at The Huffington Post and The Intercept. ‘My argument is simple: It is the central, underlying explanation for everything else they’re covering.’
“Yet, as Froomkin pointed out, ‘They won’t do it. Their arguments: It would appear partisan; We don’t want to take sides; And (more reasonably) we prohibit the use of language associated with mental illness unless a person has been diagnosed as mentally ill. (I wrestle with a variation of this last one myself: How do you call him insane without stigmatizing insane people?)’ . . .”
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