Media Politicize

Billionaires Buy the Media

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Article in The Guardian by Robert Reich, 11/13/25

Headline:  “Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back”

“The richest man on Earth owns X.

“The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS, and could soon own Warner Bros, which owns CNN.

“The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

“The fourth-richest man owns the Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

“Another billionaire owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

“Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic – some might say sinister – reason. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/13/trump-media-ultra-rich-democracy

Frenemies in the Media

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Article in Media Matters by Jack Wheatley & Gideon Taaffe, 11/11/25

Headline:  “Following Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, fault lines have emerged as right-wing media battle over the future of MAGA”

Subhead:  “Some in MAGA media have tried to distance their movement from Fuentes and his ideas while others have suggested the white nationalist streamer is ‘mainstream now’ “

“Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has precipitated a right-wing media struggle over the future of the MAGA movement.

“While many traditional right-wing media figures criticized Carlson for platforming Fuentes and not pushing back strongly enough on his rhetoric, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts posted in support of Carlson, calling the former Fox host’s detractors a ‘venomous coalition” and Carlson a “close friend” to The Heritage Foundation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/nick-fuentes/following-tucker-carlsons-interview-nick-fuentes-fault-lines-have-emerged-right-wing

 

 

Kansas Newspaper Police-raid Update

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Article in AP by John D. Hanna and Heatber Hollingsworth, 11/11/25

Headline:  “Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million over law enforcement raid on a small-town newspaper”

“TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom, the paper’s editor said Tuesday.

Marion County was among multiple defendants in five federal lawsuits filed by the company that publishes the Marion County Record, its publisher, the estate of his late mother Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner, employees of the paper and a former Marion City Council member whose home also was raided. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-newspaper-raid-press-freedom-c18f46a215908198335ca6f608c3360b

 

Yelling at the Media Cloud?

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Article in The New Republic by Greg Sargent, 11/10/25

Headline:  “Angry Trump Snaps at Media as Brutal New Data Shows Size of GOP Losses”

Subhead:  “As Trump seethes at journalists amid the release of striking new analyses of the election, a reporter who covers Congress details how Republicans are barred from acknowledging Trump’s unpopularity—a dangerous place to be.     Donald Trump vehemently talks to media”

“Under questioning from reporters about last week’s GOP losses, President Trump seethed that worsening inflation on his watch—a driver of the outcome—is nothing but a Democratic ‘con.’ . . Then, when a reporter raised facts contradicting him, he snapped in anger, because only the despot says what reality is. . . .”

Read the full article at:

http://Read the full article at: https://newrepublic.com/article/202914/angry-trump-snaps-media-brutal-new-data-shows-size-gop-losses

BBC Brouhaha

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Article in The Guardian by Michael Savage, 11/10/25

Headline:  ” ‘Make no mistake – this was a coup’: the extraordinary downfall of the BBC’s top bosses”

Subhead:  “The whirlwind that started when Deborah Turness came under attack at a board meeting is part of a wider political story, some say”

“. . .The departures of Davie and Turness leave the BBC exposed and rudderless as it enters crucial talks over its future and the licence fee. . .”

“The episode has also left everyone wondering whether running the BBC is even possible in a politically hostile environment. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2025/nov/10/make-no-mistake-this-was-a-coup-the-extraordinary-downfall-of-the-bbcs-top-bosses

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Article in UPI, by Allen Cone, 11/10/25

Headline:  “Trump threatens $1 billion lawsuit against BBC over video of speech”

“. . .Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brit, wrote a letter to the British-based outlet demanding a retraction of a BBC Panorama documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit of ‘no less’ than $1 billion.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/11/10/Trump-threatens-lawsuit-Jan-6-speech/5861762799135/

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 11/10/25

Headline:  “BBC resignations over a Trump speech edit show the high cost of editorial mistakes in a polarized era”

Subhead: “A sloppy edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech sparked two BBC resignations and a reminder that even small errors can fuel big narratives”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2025/bbc-resign-director-tim-davie-ceo-deborah-turness/

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Article in The Guardian by Geraldine McKelvie, 10/8/25

Headline:  ” ‘BBC ‘100% fake news’, says Donald Trump’s press secretary”

Subhead:  “Comments by Karoline Leavitt follow allegations that Panorama documentary misled viewers with its editing of a Trump speech”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/08/bbc-100-fake-news-says-donald-trumps-press-secretary

Full Mental News?

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Article in AlterNet by Robert Reich, 11/6/25

Headline:  “The media once again misses the real news about Trump’s rapid mental decline “

” ‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT’ . . .”,  according to Pollsters,’ Trump posted after Tuesday’s blowout, not naming the pollsters.

“Yet the media obediently repeated Trump’s words, as if they were news.

“They aren’t news. They’re postures. His words and thoughts add nothing to our understanding of anything. Yet the media reproduces them as if they did.

“He says whatever happens to be in his brain at the moment. He posts about whatever annoys him at the moment. He constantly changes his mind. His brain wanders in ways that cause many to question whether he — who will be 80 in June, and whose family has a history of dementia — is all there. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-mental/

The Enemy Media

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Article in The guardian by Betsy Reed, 11/6/25

Headline:  “In his first term, Donald Trump called journalists the enemy. This time around, he’s treating us like one”

“From Hungary to Russia, authoritarian regimes have made silencing independent media one of their defining moves. Sometimes outright censorship isn’t even required to achieve this goal. In the United States, we have seen the administration apply various forms of pressure on news outlets in the year since Trump’s election. One of my great disappointments is how quickly some of the most storied US media organizations have folded . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/05/trump-journalists-enemy

Big Brother WaPo Now?

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Article in The New Republic by Michael Tomasky, 11/3/25

Headline:  “The Washington Post Has Become Right-Wing Even Faster Than I Thought”

Subhead:  “It’s not going to happen. It’s happening: The mainstream media is becoming right-wing. What are wealthy liberals going to do about it?”

“I almost wrote a column about The Washington Post’s new but increasingly clear editorial slant last week after I read the editorial headlined ‘In defense of the White House ballroom.‘ That’s the kind of headline, opening with ‘in defense of,’ that might be tongue-in-cheek; a bit catty. But no, it was a dull, moronic, straightforward defense of the president of the United States crushing to dust one-third of a building of singular historic importance that is owned by the American people, and doing so while not merely ignoring but saying a colossal fuck you to the rules and procedures that normally govern such changes. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/202581/washington-post-right-wing-bezos

CBS News – “Lotta Money”

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 11/3/25

Headline:  “CBS News heavily edits Trump 60 Minutes interview, cutting boast network ‘paid me a lotta money’ “

Subhead:  “Trump said Paramount’s sale to David and Larry Ellison was ‘greatest thing that’s happened in a long time’ for free press”

“. . .The edits are notable because, exactly one year before Trump was interviewed by O’Donnell at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday he had sued CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to help her chances in the presidential election.

While many legal experts widely dismissed the lawsuit as ‘meritless’ and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, CBS settled with Trump for $16m in July. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/03/trump-cbs-60-minutes-interview-edited

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Article in Mediaite by Sean James, 11/2/25

Headline:  ” ‘Paid Me a Lotta Money!’ Trump Takes Victory Lap Over ’60 Minutes’ — In Part of Interview That Didn’t Air Live On ’60 Minutes’ “

“One part of President Donald Trump’s 60 Minutes interview on Sunday that did not air live: The president gloating that CBS paid him millions of dollars to settle his lawsuit against the program for its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris last year. . .”

He also complimented Bari Weiss, the new head of CBS News, and said he believed she will do a good job leading the news operation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/paid-me-a-lotta-money-trump-takes-victory-lap-over-60-minutes-in-part-of-interview-that-didnt-air-live-on-60-minutes/

This Week – The West Wing!

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Article in the Washington Post by By Scott Nover and Andrew Jeong, 11/1/25

Headline:  “White House restricts media access in key area of the West Wing”

Subhead:  “The move limiting free press access to Room 140, which houses the offices of the press secretary and other staff, was said to be based on national security.”

“The White House said Friday that reporters could no longer access an area in the West Wing known as ‘Upper Press’ that houses the offices of key communications staff members, triggering pushback from White House correspondents, who said the move would hurt the press’s ability to cover the president. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/31/white-house-media-access-west-wing/