Media obsequiousness

Cheerleading or Reporting?

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Article in FAIR by Ricardo Vaz, 2/27/26

Headline:  “Western Gangster Journalism Runs Cover for Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’ in Venezuela”

“US forces launched a military attack against Venezuela on January 3, reportedly killing over 100 people and kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores, who also serves as a National Assembly deputy. . .”

“The brazen act of war has elicited zero dissent from the Western media establishment, no urge to challenge Trump’s return to early 20th century ‘gunboat diplomacy.’ Worse, with the White House pushing to impose a semi-colonial protectorate and plunder Venezuela’s wealth, corporate outlets continue working overtime to normalize US imperialist predations. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/western-gangster-journalism-runs-cover-for-trumps-donroe-doctrine-in-venezuela/

CBS “Balanced” to the Right?

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Article in New York Times byJohn Koblin, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Colbert Says CBS Pulled Senate Candidate Interview”

Subhead: “Stephen Colbert said he had to drop an interview with James Talarico from his Monday broadcast because of new F.C.C. guidance that targeted political interviews on late-night shows.”

“Stephen Colbert said on his late-night show on Monday that his network, CBS, barred him from airing an interview with a Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate race because of new guidance from the Trump administration about equal airtime for political candidates. . .”

“Mr. Colbert pointed to new guidance from the F.C.C. from January, warning media companies that talk shows carried on local broadcast networks were required to offer equal airtime to candidates competing for the same office. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/business/media/colbert-cbs-fcc-talarico-carr.html

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Article in Daily Kos by Emily Singer, 2/17/26

Headline: “How the GOP’s latest media meddling is a major self-own”

“If you wanted a textbook example of the Streisand Effect, look no further than the Trump administration’s meddling in the Texas Senate race.

CBS News refused to air late night host Stephen Colbert’s interview with Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is currently locked in a competitive Senate primary with Rep. Jasmine Crockett. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/17/2369185/-How-the-GOP-s-latest-media-meddling-is-a-major-self-own?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web

Paramount Choosing News?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Paramount is mangling CBS — and CNN may be next”

Subhead:  “Trump’s corruption makes capitulation a media business plan”

“The Tuesday announcement by Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, that it is reopening deal talks with Paramount marks the latest example of President Donald Trump’s corrupt effort to quell dissent by pushing media companies into the hands of his supporters.

“Warner Bros. agreed in December to sell its movie and streaming assets to Netflix and spin off its cable networks, including CNN, into a new entity. But Paramount, owned by David Ellison, the son of megabillionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, is mounting a hostile bid to take over the entire company — and the Ellisons have a powerful ally in the White House. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/paramount-mangling-cbs-and-cnn-may-be-next

Manipulating the News?

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Article in The Guardian by JAne Martinson, 2/14/26

Headline:  “Learn this from Bezos and the Washington Post: with hyper-capitalists in charge, your news is not safe”

Subhead:  “His shameful stewardship of a once great title highlights how much we lose when private interest eclipses the public good”

“. . .Job cuts in an industry that has struggled financially since the internet came into existence and killed its business model is hardly new, but last week’s brutal cull of hundreds of journalists at the Bezos-owned Washington Post marks a new low. . .”

“Why it happened is still baffling, at least for anyone not inside the head of one of the world’s richest men. Marty Baron, the Post’s former editor, highlighted the owner’s “sickening” efforts to curry favour with Donald Trump in a “case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction”. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/14/jeff-bezos-washington-post-news-not-safe

WaPo – Making Someone Happy

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 2/13/26

Headline:  “Like Melania Doc, WaPo Layoffs Are Another Way for Bezos to Suck Up to Trump”

“. . .Bezos—who remains Amazon’s executive chair and its largest shareholder—certainly has incentive to bribe Trump, after experiencing Trump’s wrath in his first term.

“In 2019, amid the Washington Post’s critical reporting on Trump, Amazon lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing deal, an event that unnerved Bezos. He was ‘deeply hurt’ and ‘sat there going: “This is not right,”‘ a person who met with Bezos days later told the Financial Times (3/20/25).

So in 2024, when it looked like Trump might return to the Oval Office, Bezos quietly reached out, and even suggested a running mate for Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/like-melania-doc-wapo-layoffs-are-another-way-for-bezos-to-suck-up-to-trump/

NBC Not Calling Out Lies?

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Article in AlterNet by Carl Gibson, 2/5/26

Headline: “CNN calls out NBC for letting Trump get away with ‘rapid-fire dishonesty’ “

“Earlier this week, President Donald Trump sat down with NBC News reporter Tony Llamas for a wide-ranging interview on multiple subjects. However, Llamas often let the president lie without pushing back. Now, CNN is taking Llamas to task for not doing his job — while debunking Trump’s lies.

In a Thursday article, CNN’s Daniel Dale did a point-by-point fact-check of Trump’s biggest lies, and admonished Llamas for doing little to counter what he called Trump’s ‘rapid-fire dishonesty.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/cnn-nbc-trump-interview/

Both Sides Right at Same Time?

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Article in FAIR by Jim Naureckas, 2/4/25

Headline:  “At NYT, Pretending You Don’t Know Makes You a Real Reporter”

“The New York Times is addicted to bothsidesing. Even when you have examples on video of people being shot down on the street by federal agents, the paper has to pretend there’s a valid case for justifying murder: on the one hand, on the other. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/at-nyt-pretending-you-dont-know-makes-you-a-real-reporter/

Media Tiptoeing Around Murder?

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Article in Common Dreams by Brad Reed, 1/26/26

Headline: “Critics Warn Corporate Media Is Failing in Face of White House Lies About Alex Pretti”

Subhead:  “ ‘There were lies,’ former CNN anchor Jim Acosta said of the Trump administration’s response to Pretti’s death. ‘Lie after lie after lie.’ “

“Two prominent critics warned on Monday that the US corporate media is not being aggressive enough in calling out the Trump administration’s lies about Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident who was slain by federal immigration agents over the weekend.

“Writing on her Substack page, former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan expressed concern that many mainstream media publications were taking a wait-and-see approach in the wake of Pretti’s shooting, even as the Trump administration, Fox News, and other right-wing media websites were pumping out false claims about Pretti brandishing a weapon at federal officials and being a “domestic terrorist.”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alex-pretti-corporate-media

Taking CBS Somewhere

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Article in The New Yorker by Clare Malone, 1/19/26

Headline:  “Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News“

Subhead:  “The network’s new editor-in-chief has championed a press free from élite bias, while aligning herself with a billionaire class more willing than ever to indulge Donald Trump.”

“. . .Weiss’s embrace of a press free from élite bias—what she might call woke politics—has taken her to the top of the media establishment. It has also aligned her with a tech-billionaire class more willing than ever to indulge Trump to protect the sanctity of shareholder value. . .”

“Trump, for his part, was effusive in his praise of Weiss. “I think you have a great new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise,” he said during his sit-down with O’Donnell. . .“

Read the full article at:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/26/inside-bari-weisss-hostile-takeover-of-cbs-news

Do the Media Need Therapy?

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Article in AlterNet by Adam Lynch, 1/23/26

Headline:  “The media has a ‘coping mechanism’ for Trump — and it’s ‘dangerous’: analysis”

Subhead:  “Bulwark Editor Jonathan Last believes he’s uncovered the media’s ‘coping mechanism’ for dealing with a madman, and is warning that it’s deadly and dangerous.”

“ ‘The media tends to treat [President Donald] Trump’s more insane statements as ephemeral, but then turns around and treats his climb-downs as binding,’ said Last. ‘For instance: Trump can say a dozen times that he might run for a third term and the media reports it as ‘Trump said this crazy thing about running again.’ But then Trump gives one interview where he says he won’t run again and the coverage is: ‘Trump rules out third term.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-media-coping-mechanism/