Some Support for Indigenous Media


Article in Indian Country Today by Loris Taylor, 8/19/25

Headline:  “Gratitude in crisis: a spark for sustainable Indigenous media resilience”

“On August 4, 2025, Native Public Media and the Public Media Company made an appeal to foundations in support of vulnerable public media stations following the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by Congress. On August 19, 2025, the Knight Foundation, Pivotal, MacArthur, Ford, Schmidt Family, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations stepped forward in a powerful display of solidarity, announcing an infusion of $36.5 million in emergency funding to safeguard public media stations, especially those serving rural, Indigenous, and underserved communities, from imminent closure after steep federal cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.. .”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/opinion/gratitude-in-crisis-a-spark-for-sustainable-indigenous-media-resilience/

News Channel Clucked Too Much?

Update below:

Article in Status by Jon Passantino, 8/18/25

Headline:  “Plucking MSNBC’s Feathers”

Subhead: “After nearly 30 years, MSNBC is dropping its name to become MS NOW a rebrand that sparked tension with NBCU and weeks of behind-the-scenes debate”

“On Monday morning, a little after 9 a.m. ET, Joe Scarborough delivered an unexpected jolt to MSNBC’s viewers. “We have breaking news as it pertains to our network: This morning, a new name of the network, the ‘Morning Joe’ host announced. ‘By the end of the year, we will become MS NOW, which stands for my source for news, opinion, and the world.’ The surprise decision unsurprisingly drew instant cheers from Scarborough, who hailed the network’s bold new logo as ‘very sporty,’ and cheered the name change as proof that ‘we’re independent.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/msnbc-new-name-rebrand-ms-now

– – – – –

Article in Daily Dot by Jamie Jirak, 8/19/25

Headline:  MSNBC is officially changing its name to MS Now, and the internet reacted as you’d expect: with memes and conspiracy theories”

Subhead:  “ ‘It’s not shocking, but it is noteworthy.’ “

“. . .Why is MSNBC changing its name?

“According to the announcement, the name change is happening due to a move to a new media company called VERSANT. MS NOW will no longer be a part of NBCUniversal and NBCNews. Instead, they will be under the same umbrella as CNBC, Golf Channel, GolfNow, and SportsEngine. . .”

“Unsurprisingly, people have a wide range of thoughts about this news. People have taken to social media to share their feelings and make some clever jokes about MS NOW. With name changes becoming increasingly common, some people just aren’t having it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailydot.com/viral-politics/msnbc-changing-name-to-ms-now/

When a Reporter Becomes a Mouthpiece for a Tyrant

Article in The Guardian by John Banville, 8/7/25

Headline:  Interviewing Hitler by Richard Evans review – the most unethical journalist in history”

Subhead:  “George Ward Price, the Mail’s star reporter, landed a series of scoops in the 1930s. But who was he really working for?”

“. . .His greatest triumphs came in the 1930s, when he courted the Nazis zealously, in particular Hitler, who in Linz, on the evening after the German annexation of Austria, ‘greeted him with a smile. ‘Well, Ward Price,’ he said. ‘Always there!’

“Ward Price’s reporting came in for serious criticism, including from Winston Churchill, who declared on meeting him: ‘I see that you’ve been over in Germany again, shaking the bloodstained hands of your Nazi friends.’ . . .”

Interviewing Hitler: How George Ward Price Became the World’s Most Famous Journalist by Richard Evans is published by The History Press

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/aug/07/interviewing-hitler-by-richard-evans-review-the-most-unethical-journalist-in-history

We Used to Trust the Media


Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 8/6/25

Headline:  “Walter Cronkite signed off — and trust in the press steadily eroded”

Subhead: “Once a voice of authority, the decline of trust in the press has mirrored the rise of a more fragmented, polarized media world”

“. . .Cronkite was often cited as “the most trusted man in America.” For millions of viewers, his farewell symbolized the pinnacle of journalistic trust. He was the man they relied on, the one who shaped how they saw the world. But that trust didn’t last forever.

In the four decades since, trust in the media has been in steady decline. Cronkite’s departure is seen in hindsight as one of the last moments when Americans collectively turned to a single, authoritative news source. Whether that’s true or just a convenient fable, there’s no doubt that trust is much lower now. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/walter-cronkite-most-trusted-man-america-poynter-50/

Rural Public-Media Freefall


PUBLIC MEDIA ARE NOT STATE-CONTROLLED MEDIA

Article in The Daily Beast by Ben Sheehan, 7/23/25

Headline:  “What Trump’s PBS and NPR Funding Cuts Really Mean For America”

Subhead:  “Millions of Americans understand the value of public media—it makes us more informed and keeps us safe.”

“. . .American public media, as we know it today, has been a decades-long project. The government began funding it in 1967 through the nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which then gave money to the Public Broadcasting Service (founded in 1969), National Public Radio (founded in 1970), and other nonprofits.  Until now.

“Last week, Congress voted to kill CPB’s funding for 2026 and 2027. Every Democratic representative and senator voted to maintain the funding as did Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick and Mike Turner in the House, and Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins in the Senate. Every other Republican voted to cut it. . .”

“Then what happens?

“For starters, local news coverage would decline further. (To be clear, it’s already in a state of freefall.) PBS and NPR affiliates, in many cases, are the best local news option. It’s not ‘woke’ programming that will die from these cuts, but oversight of your county, city, town, and neighborhood. Of your sheriff, district attorney, county executive, mayor, city council and school board—the people with the most impact on your day-to-day life. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-trumps-pbs-and-npr-funding-cuts-really-mean-for-america/

A Media Icon Has Died

“Democracy Now” photo – Public media is NOT state-controlled media

Article in Common Dreams by Steven Harper, 6/30/25

Headline:  “A Personal Tribute to Bill Moyers, Who Never Stopped Pushing”

Subhead: “I would never claim to be an heir to Bill Moyers’ legacy, but I am among the millions of ordinary Americans for whom he was a powerful source of inspiration:

“A partial summary of Bill Moyers’ impressive life fills entire pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post—treatment reserved for royalty and rock stars. Bill was both.

“In those pages you’ll read about his illustrious political career as President Lyndon Johnson’s special assistant, press secretary, and key architect of the “Great Society”—a collection of programs that are now in danger, including the War on Poverty that produced Medicare, Medicaid, the Food Stamp Act, and the Economic Opportunity Act; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965; and more.

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/bill-moyers

– – – – –
Article in The Washington Post by Fred A. Bernstein, 6/26/25

Headline: “Bill Moyers, eminence of public affairs broadcasting, dies at 91”

“He was White House press secretary under Lyndon B. Johnson and Newsday publisher before becoming an acclaimed television journalist, mostly for PBS.”

“Bill Moyers, who served as chief White House spokesman for President Lyndon B. Johnson and then, for more than 40 years, as a broadcast journalist known for bringing ideas — both timely and timeless — to television, died June 26 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 91. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/06/26/bill-moyers-lbj-pbs-broadcasting-dead/

– – – – –

Article in Democracy Now by Staff: 6/26/25

Headline:  “Remembering Bill Moyers: Public Broadcasting Legend Dies at 91”

“The legendary journalist Bill Moyers has died at the age of 91. In the 1960s, Moyers was a founding organizer of the Peace Corps and served as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson. . .”

“In 2011 Bill Moyers said on Democracy Now: ‘I think this country is in a very precarious state at the moment. I think, as I say, the escalating, accumulating power of organized wealth is snuffing out everything public, whether it’s public broadcasting, public schools, public unions, public parks, public highways. Everything public has been under assault since the late 1970s, the early years of the Reagan administration, because there is a philosophy that’s been extant in America for a long time that anything public is less desirable than private. . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/26/remembering_bill_moyers_public_broadcasting_legend

Impact of no VOA on N. Korea

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 6/26/25

Headline:  “A Secret Program Allowed VOA to Broadcast Television into North Korea. Now It’s Gone.”

Subhead:  “How the Trump administration undermined its own strategic position.”

“The mission of Voice of America, to “tell America’s story to the world,” is hard to fulfill when you’re broadcasting into the void of North Korea. For decades, VOA’s Korean service struggled to meet its mandate . . .”

“Then, in January of 2023, after a decade of difficult negotiations, VOA reached an agreement with the South Korean government to use state-controlled broadcast towers along the border to send a TV signal deep into the North. . . .”

“But the demise of VOA’s Korean service—along with the USAGM-funded Radio Free Asia, whose programming also targeted North Koreans—means that information-starved North Koreans now have less access to independent news about what is happening in their country and around the world. . .’

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/trump-lake-secret-program-voice-of-america-north-korea-tv-broadcast-gone.php

Opposing Defunding Public Media


Public media is not state-controlled media

Article in Free Press by Staff, 6/25/25

Headline: “Republican and Democratic Senators Denounce Trump’s Move to Silence Public-Broadcasting Stations Essential to Many Rural States”

Subhead:  “A Senate Appropriations Committee hearing reveals growing concerns over a Trump scheme to end federal funding for popular NPR and PBS programming.”

“WASHINGTON — During a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, both Republican and Democratic senators expressed deep reservations about President Donald Trump’s plans to claw back more than a billion dollars in already-approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Many GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), said the cuts would harm programming that is important to them and their constituents . . . McConnell said the president’s entire rescission process was ‘unnecessarily chaotic’ and ‘counter-productive.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/republican-and-democratic-senators-denounce-trumps-move-rescind-public-media-funding

Old Media Blowing in the Wind?


Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop 6/24/25

Headline:  “Old Media Meets New on Primary Day in New York”

Subhead:  “Is the race between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani a proxy for changes in our media environment?”

“. . . If old media is now irrelevant in shaping voter perceptions, someone seemingly forgot to tell the Mamdani supporters (and others) who have criticized coverage of the candidate in major outlets, particularly when it comes to his positions on Israel. (Writing for In These Times earlier this month, Adam Johnson accused the Times of trying to manufacture tension between Mamdani and Jewish voters when he was not polling notably badly with that group; Lach, of The New Yorker, wrote yesterday that ‘outlets like the New York Post and the Free Press have tried to make him a bogeyman,’ though Lach allowed that ‘part of the reason that reporters have kept asking Mamdani about Israel is because his answer isn’t very convincing.’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/old-new-media-new-york-primary-cuomo-mamdani-brad-lander.php

– – – – –

Article in AP by David Bauder, 6/24/25

Headline:  “Life on the other side: Refugees from ‘old media’ flock to the promise of working for themselves”

“Six months ago, Jennifer Rubin had no idea whether she’d make it in a new media world. She just knew it was time to leave The Washington Post, where she’d been a political columnist for 15 years.

The Contrarian, the democracy-focused website that Rubin founded with partner Norm Eisen in January, now has 10 employees and contributors like humorist Andy Borowitz and White House reporter April Ryan. Its 558,000 subscribers also get recipes and culture dispatches.

“In the blink of an eye, Rubin became a independent news entrepreneur. ‘I think we hit a moment, just after inauguration, when people were looking for something different and it has captured people’s imaginations,’ she says. ‘We’ve been having a ball with it.’

YouTube, Substack, TikTok and others are spearheading a full-scale democratization of media and a generation of new voices and influencers . . .”

read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/new-media-mainstream-substack-youtube-influencers-076dfb132475aa42c3e4ebe81f63eb9a

Legacy Media Ethnic Cleanse?


Article in Media Matters by John Knefel. 6/13/25

Headline:  “Mainstream media ignore Trump’s planned Office of Remigration, a term for ethnic cleansing”

Subhead:  “Far-right figures have used “remigration” as a way of discussing forced relocation to create a white ethnostate”

“Mainstream media outlets almost entirely ignored news that the Trump administration is reportedly reorganizing the State Department to include a new ‘Office of Remigration.’  ‘Remigration’ is a term long used by far-right extremists to describe ethnic cleansing.

“Axios wrote that “liberal and moderate critics in Europe say ‘remigration’ has historically been used as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing’ . . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/mainstream-media-ignore-trumps-planned-office-remigration-term-ethnic-cleansing