Media obsequiousness

CBS – What Me Worry?

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Article in Daily Beast by Janna Brancolini, 4/13/26

Headline:  “MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Accused of Not Caring About Top Show”

Subhead:  “The embattled ‘CBS Mornings’ just experienced its worst quarter ever.”

“CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss has been accused of dragging her feet in filling a key role at the network’s flailing morning show.

‘Weiss tapped former CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil to helm the network’s newly revamped MAGA-friendly CBS Evening News broadcast starting in January.

“Since then, both shows have struggled to attract viewers, with CBS Mornings experiencing its lowest-rated quarter on record. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-curious-cbs-boss-bari-weiss-accused-of-not-caring-about-top-show/

How to Flatter Yourself in the Media

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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. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ai-techonology-business-and-programming-network-podcasts/

WAPO and Nuclear Option

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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. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/washington-post-promotes-nuclear-agenda-tied-to-bezos-investments/

Objectivity or Bias?

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Article in popular Resistance by Chris Hedges and Ahmed Eldin, 3/6/26

Headline:  “Chris Hedges Report: The Media’s Capitulation to Power”

Subhead:  “The propagandistic purpose the corporate media serves in the age of the American-Israeli project of genocidal colonialism.”

Ahmed Eldin: “They think they can justify their biased coverage under the guise of objectivity in 2025 when people are getting information right from the source. And whether that information is framed in a conventionally journalistic way, which some people would say is like, this view from nowhere where you don’t put your own identity into the story. I mean, look, let’s be real. Journalism is changing for better or worse. Storytelling is changing. . .”

Chris Hedges: “I want to talk about objectivity because that is, that’s a trope. Objective truth is not what they print. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://popularresistance.org/the-medias-capitulation-to-power-w-ahmed-eldin/

Trust the Media?

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Article in The Hill by Bernard Goldberg, 3/6/26

Headline: “With media distrust at an all-time high, journalists must do some soul-searching”

“Just about every day a new poll drops — and when it shows how unpopular President Trump is, the so-called mainstream media can’t wait to blast it across the screen. Breaking news! Flashing graphics! Panels of experts nodding gravely.

“Bad news for the president is good news for liberals — whether they’re in the media or just watching it.

“But there’s one poll the media treats like it has a contagious disease. It comes out every year from Gallup. And it measures something inconvenient: trust in the media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/opinion/5769193-media-trust-erosion-journalism/

Ice & Media Databases

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 3/5/26

Headline:  “Journalists push back against parent companies’ contracts with ICE”

Subhead:  “Some reporters at Law360 and Reuters are raising concerns about ICE’s use of their companies’ databases in immigration raids”

“More than 200 journalists at Law360, a legal news outlet, and its sister publications have signed a letter demanding that their parent company RELX drop its contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

“The letter, which was signed by more than 80% of the union representing editorial staff at Law360 and regulation news site MLex, states that the $22.1 million contract “raises imminent human rights concerns” given recent actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within DHS. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/law360-reuters-newsrooms-letter-against-ice-dhs/

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