Media Reform

New Media Companies

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 12/23/26

Headline:  “A CBS News personality is starting his own media company – but keeping his day job”

Subhead:  “David Begnaud is launching an independent media company using the beehiiv platform while remaining a contributor at the network”

“As media jobs disappear and the industry shifts even further to a focus on individual personalities, rather than global brands, many journalists are choosing to leave stable jobs and strike out on their own by starting paid newsletters on platforms such as Substack and beehiiv. . .”

“On Monday morning, the longtime CBS News personality David Begnaud announced that he would be keeping his day job as a contributor while starting an independent media company called Do Good Crew . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/23/cbs-news-david-begnaud-beehiiv

Students Fill Gap of Local Coverage?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty & Carolina Abbot Galvao, 12/2/25

Headline:  “How Students Are Trying to Save Local News”

Subhead:  “Across the country, university programs are filling gaps in the coverage.”

At twenty-one, just after her graduation from the University of Vermont, Holly Sullivan became the editor of the Winooski News, the sole paper in Vermont’s smallest city—spanning a mile and a half, with about eight thousand residents who speak more than thirty languages. In the course of a few months, Sullivan went from being a student to editing articles and a newsletter that serve the area at large, written entirely by university students.

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/how-students-are-trying-to-save-local-news.php

FCM Meeting & Potluck

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The regular meeting of Friends of Community Media will be held at 5 PM CST on Saturday 11/22/25 at 3707 Pennsylvania Avenue.  A potluck (hot dogs / beverages provided) will follow later  with a possible film about the media / backyard fire.

For more information / inquiries, email to savethemedia@cs.com

Media Literacy – Important to Everyone

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Article in Poynter by Renata Salvini & Brittani Kollar

Headline:  “A journalist in Brazil is showing seniors how to outsmart misinformation, one WhatsApp message at a time”

Subhead:  “Through hands-on workshops, Talita Rosa is proving that media literacy can empower people of any age”

“The International Center for Journalists’ (ICFJ) Disarming Disinformation initiative is a three-year program, supported by the Scripps Howard Foundation, that aims to slow the spread of disinformation through multiple programs such as investigative journalism, capacity building and media literacy education. ICFJ partnered with MediaWise from the Poynter Institute to develop and deliver media literacy programming. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/media-literacy/2025/a-journalist-in-brazil-is-showing-seniors-how-to-outsmart-misinformation-one-whatsapp-message-at-a-time/

 

Free Speech – or No Speech?

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Mario Savio Free Speech Movement – Bettman via Getty Images

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 9/22/25

Headline:  “Freedom And/or Speech”

Subhead:  “The boundaries of free speech have always been contested. That’s not what’s going on this time.”

“. . .Trump’s recent rhetoric about ‘illegal’ coverage and all the rest is, on one level, very scary. But for those interested in protecting their First Amendment rights—including, hopefully, the entirety of the press—it might also be preferable to the alternative: namely, the arbitrary and opaque cranking of oppressive bureaucratic machinery. Trump’s threats are so explicit that news organizations have no excuse but to identify them for what they are. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/freedom-andor-speech-douthat-kilroy-disney-kimmel-censor-abc-trump.php

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 9/22/25

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump’s escalating war on speech raises a chilling question: Where does it end?”‘

“. . . CNN’s Brian Stelter summed it up really well in his ‘Reliable Sources’ newsletter by writing, “Imagine we’re all stuck in an elevator together. The elevator is only moving in one direction — downward. Every time the doors open, we’re at some new, lower level. No one knows how to reverse course. No one knows what awaits us at the very bottom.’

“I’ll add this: No one knows where the very bottom is. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/trump-attacks-free-speech-jimmy-kimmel-abc-fcc-press-freedom/

Some Media Like Deporting Citizens?

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Article in Media Matters by Jason Campbell, 8/25/25

Headline:  “As mass deportation intensifies, right-wing media expand their aim to include American citizens”

Subhead:  “MAGA volk: Right-wing media personalities are expanding their hostility toward undocumented immigrants and now are targeting naturalized and native-born citizens in an assault on American identity”

“Since its inception, the MAGA movement has focused energy on trying to purge the United States of people who do not have legal status in the country. The Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts accelerated this summer after passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, alongside the opening of new migrant detention centers. Now, MAGA media are extending that hostility toward immigrants to take aim at naturalized and native-born citizens in an assault on American identity itself. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/maga-trolls/mass-deportation-intensifies-right-wing-media-expand-their-aim-include-american

Acceptable Media Bias?

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Article in The New Republic by Perry Bacon, 8/22/25

Headline:  “The Media Should Be Biased—Against Authoritarianism”

Subhead:  “UMass Amherst journalism historian Kathy Roberts Forde says the news media has helped both entrench and erode authoritarianism in the U.S. in the past and should lean into its pro-democracy history now.”

“The news media has a powerful role in democracy, even if it often doesn’t acknowledge that, says Kathy Roberts Forde, a journalism historian who teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. . .”

“Forde argues that today’s Republican Party is using some of the authoritarian tactics that were employed in the American South in the twentieth century and by autocratic leaders abroad today. So she argues journalists can and should make those connections, even if that leads to Republicans attacking them as biased. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/199471/media-biased-against-authoritarianism

 

Watching the Press

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Article in Poynter by Ren LaForme, 8/21/25

Headline: “Join Poynter in keeping a close eye on press freedom”

Subhead: “Our new Press Freedom Watch project tracks federal actions that undermine America’s free press”

“A free press is a cornerstone of American democracy. It informs citizens, holds leaders to account and upholds democratic principles. But after decades of relative freedom, the U.S. press now faces a coordinated series of federal actions that is unmatched in recent decades.

“President Donald Trump and his administration have taken concrete steps since January to limit press freedom. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/press-freedom-watch-trump-federal-actions/

Ethics for Reporters?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Gerstein & Margaret Sullivan, 8/21/25

Headline:  “Thirteen Journalists on How They Are Rethinking Ethics”

Subhead: “We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, “fake news,” AI, and industry decline.”

“. . .This summer, the two of us—Margaret Sullivan and Julie Gerstein, of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University—have been exploring, in a series of pieces with CJR, whether those ethics are sufficient for journalists in the modern moment. Whether, in the face of artificial intelligence, “fake news,” eroding protections for sources, and the weakening of their business model, journalists should adjust their core tenets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/thirteen-journalists-on-how-they-are-rethinking-ethics-newsroom-leaders-ethicists-trump-fake-news-ai.php

Clean Money for Nonprofit Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Julie Bernstein & Margaret Sullivan, 7/7/25

Headline:   “For Nonprofit Newsrooms, Ethical Funding Is Essential”

Subhead:  “How outlets are updating their strategies to protect editorial independence.”

“As advertising revenue for small news organizations dries up, donor money from foundations is playing a bigger role. This relationship presents some new ethical questions for journalists: Who should newsrooms accept money from? On what terms? And how should they disclose that relationship to the public? In considering these questions, we were reminded of an incident that happened at PBS in 2013, when the broadcaster announced ‘Pension Peril,’ a two-year series on a crisis in public employee retirement benefits. The series ran during PBS NewsHour Weekend and was spearheaded by its flagship New York station, WNET.   “However, PBS failed to disclose that the series was funded with a 3.5-million-dollar grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, founded by John Arnold, a billionaire hedge-funder with a history of involvement in pension policy reform. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/nonprofit-newsrooms-ethical-and-sustainable-funding.php