Media History

FAIR, 40 Years

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Article in FAIR by Jeff Cohen, 6/12/26

Headline: “Forty Years of Raising Hell About Corporate Media Bias”

“. . .I came up with the idea for FAIR in the mid-1980s, when corporate news outlets were on bended knee for a reactionary, declining, war-mongering president—and when Reaganism was ushering in an era of dangerous media mergers. Thankfully, FAIR is still around to challenge today’s even worse media conglomeration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/forty-years-of-raising-hell-about-corporate-media-bias/

Media Lessons from Civil Rights Era

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Article in The New Republic by Perry Bacon, 6/10/26

Headline:  “What Today’s Media Can Learn From the Civil Rights–Era Black Press”

Subhead:  “Journalism professor Kathy Roberts Forde argues that journalists should lean into values such as promoting democracy instead of hiding between claims of neutrality.”

“Kathy Roberts Forde, a journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says that it’s critical that journalists and media organizations stop pretending that there is a neutral way to cover the news that expresses no underlying values. A “view from nowhere,” the term that journalism expert Jay Rosen uses, is misleading (journalism requires making decisions on what to cover and how) and empowers people who use this neutrality standard to attack all journalism as biased. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/211588/today-media-can-learn-civil-rights-era-black-press

Understand Freedom of the Press

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Article in The Atlantic by Adrienne Lafrance, 6/1/26

Headline:  “Use It or Lose It”

Subhead:  “Freedom of speech, and of the press, can be guaranteed only if Americans exercise their rights.”

“. . .Far too many people behave as though freedom of the press refers only to freedom for professional journalists. But journalists are not in some special category. The right to free press is, like free speech, a basic freedom that applies to all Americans who choose to exercise it. The First Amendment tells the government that it cannot encroach on any American’s right to speak and publish. Freedom of the press is not about the press; it’s about the freedom.. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/07/free-press-first-amendment-rights/687317/

A Lonely Fight at FCC

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Article in AP by Steven Sloan, 5/25/26

Headline:  “Q&A: Anna Gomez is the sole Democrat on the FCC. She has a warning for big media companies”

“. . .Anna Gomez wakes up every morning and checks her phone to see if President Donald Trump has fired her yet.

“For now, she remains the sole Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, where she’s on an increasingly urgent mission to press media companies to more forcefully combat an administration she says is cracking down on free speech. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/fcc-disney-censorship-trump-threats-commissoner-democrat-386b210604373bb19ec6a485b89222b1

Vanishing Ghostly Newsrooms

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 4/30/26

Headline:  “Disappearing before our eyes: One photographer’s passion project of capturing local newsrooms”

“NEW YORK (AP) — If you think the life of a journalist is glamorous, take a look at Ann Hermes’ photograph of Tom Haley from a winter day in Rutland, Vermont. . .”

“Hermes is fascinated by things that evoke a time gone by or are about to pass into history. She has photographed the last Morse code station operating in North America and department store photo booths. Lately, she’s spent a lot of time in newsrooms like Haley’s Rutland Herald. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/newspapers-newsrooms-photographing-media-f0d0939e04bb66f8d340f6f43df5bf5e

Last Correspondent’s Supper?

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Article in Poynter by Kelly McBride, 4/16/26

Headline: “Opinion | The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has always been a cringefest. Trump just makes it obvious.”

Subhead:  “This year’s disaster has been decades in the making”

“The certain awkwardness of President Donald Trump gloating about his presidency in front of a silent press corps at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner — a gala intended to celebrate both free speech and the work of the watchdogs who hold the president accountable — is a trainwreck that should have been averted years ago. . .”

“Journalists and their corporate bosses are going to dress up in gowns and tuxes on Saturday, April 25, and sit down at the Washington Hilton with a man who not only says he despises them, but who repeatedly has used his power to undermine their credibility. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-criticism/

Another Legal Domino Falls?

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Article in The Guardian by Richard Luscombe, 4/13/26

Headline:  “Trump media company drops lawsuit against the Guardian”

Subhead: “TMTG drops defamation claim over report that prosecutors were investigating payments received as possible money laundering”

“Donald Trump’s media corporation has dropped a defamation claim against the Guardian and two other defendants over a report that federal prosecutors were investigating $8m in payments the company received from entities with ties to Vladimir Putin as possible money laundering. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/13/trump-media-guardian-lawsuit

Saving a Community Station

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Article in AP by Jonathan Landrum Jr., 4/9/26

Headline:  “Dave Chappelle helps keep Ohio radio station rooted in hometown with restored building”

“YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (AP) — Comedian Dave Chappelle stood on the front lawn of a newly restored 19th-century schoolhouse Thursday, joining neighbors and local officials as a small-town radio station secured its future in the community he calls home.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked two historic moments: Chappelle’s restoration of the Union Schoolhouse and WYSO’s relocation of its new broadcast facility inside it, bringing together distinct efforts to keep the station rooted in Yellow Springs at a time when local media outlets face mounting challenges. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/dave-chappelle-radio-station-1297aeb70e20d61e5a46481f0b660332

Icon of Radio – Gone.

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 3/20/26

Headline:  “CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era”

“NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, ending an era and blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts. Said longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather: ‘It’s another piece of America that is gone.’. . .”

“Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/cbs-radio-news-bari-weiss-11372c28f9557d0b10e329e6c4be339f

Defender of Public Media

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Article in Mother Jones by Michael Schiller and Reveal Staff, 3/19/26

Headline:  “Mr. Rogers and the Fight for Public Media”

Subhead:  “Take a trip to Mr. Rogers’ real life neighborhood in this special episode that celebrates the life and work of public media’s most famous defender.”

“On the anniversary of Fred Rogers birthday, we take a trip to Mr. Rogers’ real life neighborhood in this special episode that celebrates the life and work of public media’s most famous defender.

“Reveal’s Michael Schiller visits WQED in Pittsburgh for a look back at how Fred Rogers, the host of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, championed public television throughout its decades-long struggle to survive Washington politics.

View the episode at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/mr-rogers-neighborhood-public-media-birthday/