Media Reform

Article in LA Times by By Stephen Battaglio, 11/21/24

Headline: “How Trump’s FCC chief pick could make life more difficult for media companies”

“President-elect Trump’s nomination of Brendan Carr as the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is bringing both hope and fear to the media industry.

“For media executives, the hope comes in the promise of industry consolidation.

“Companies such as Fox Television Stations, Nexstar Media Group, Tegna and Gray Media are eager to buy more TV stations to better compete against deep-pocketed tech firms that are aggressively pursuing viewers and ad dollars. Carr is expected to support revisiting the rule on ownership of TV stations. Brendan Carr answers questions during a hearing.”

“. . . Big media companies are bracing for the possibility that he will do Trump’s bidding when the president-elect threatens retribution against media outlets that are unfriendly to him.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-11-21/how-trumps-fcc-chief-pick-could-make-life-more-difficult-for-media-companies

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Feveb Marid, 11/22/24

Headline:  “The Promise of IndyMedia”

Subhead:  “Twenty-five years after its founding, a much-diminished community journalism organization may still offer a model for the future.”

After the Battle in Seattle in 1999 “. . . posts appeared on a website under the name IndyMedia, reaching more than a million people worldwide.”

“The site was intended to last only as long as the demonstrations. ‘The resistance is global,’ the opening post went. ‘The web dramatically alters the balance between multinational and activist media. With just a bit of coding and some cheap equipment, we can set up a live automated website that rivals the corporates.’ In the twenty-five years that followed, IndyMedia revealed the extent of that promise well beyond its early bloggers’ imaginations, as it grew into a full-fledged open publishing network of activist journalism, with some two hundred community centers and national and global online hubs.”

It still survives as this website:   https://indymedia.org/

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/local-news-indymedia-network-25-anniversary.php

Article  in The Hollywood Reporter by Ales Wepring, 11/7/24

Headline:  “Media’s Crisis Point: It’s Losing Relevance and Scorned In Trump Era. A Reboot May Be Next”

Subhead: “Former President Trump’s decisive victory Tuesday will cause media outlets — particularly those that fashioned themselves as nonpartisan — to rethink their strategies.”

“Former President Trump’s decisive victory Tuesday led to a shockwave that was felt in newsrooms across Washington D.C. and New York. Everyone knew the polls were close and that a Trump win was a strong possibility, sure, but the scale of Trump’s win left one senior producer at a broadcast network stunned: “We are questioning our relevance right now,” they said Wednesday morning.”

“. . . Indeed, there are blaring red warnings signs for traditional media everywhere you look. Ratings for the broadcast and cable news channels saw steep declines in ratings from Nielsen (finals showed an average of 42.3 million people, down from nearly 57 million four years ago), with the lowest ratings in decades. The steepest drop was felt at CNN, which saw its numbers fall below MSNBC for the first election night since that channel launched nearly three decades ago.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/media-crisis-trump-era-1236055073/

Thomas Nast Cartoon

Article in the New York Times by By David Streitfeld, 10/30/24

Hedline:  “Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Billions of Ways to Influence an Election”

Subhead:  “The world’s richest men have their own rocket fleets, their own media and their own schemes to succeed with Donald J. Trump.”

“Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos and other extremely rich people are confronted with unusual opportunities and invisible perils in the tightest, most dramatic, chaotic and highest stakes political battle in modern times. Everyone has a stake in this election, of course, but the very wealthy have so much at stake — or at least think they do — that they are perhaps inevitably trying to shape it, too.”

“. . . Many billionaires now are activists. One reason is there are more of them — the ranks of U.S. billionaires are up 38 percent by one estimate since Mr. Trump first took office in 2016 — and they have even more money. ”

“. . . On Friday, when The Post announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate, Blue Origin’s chief executive, Dave Limp, had a brief meeting with Mr. Trump in Texas. Mr. Bezos did not respond to a request for comment but said in a piece he wrote in The Post on Monday that he knew this “would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision” and that the whole thing was a coincidence.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/technology/jeff-bezos-elon-musk-election.html

Adbusters Media Foundation

Opinion article in the Washington Post by Jennifer Rubin 10/29/24

Headline:  “The U.S. can learn from other countries’ encounters with fascism”

Subhead:  “American voters still have time to heed the warnings from abroad.”

“. . .Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime in Venezuela, Freedom House reports, has become expert in promoting ‘preemptive censorship among reporters’ when it is the media executives ‘who exert pressure on their reporters’ coverage for fear of closure or reprisals.’ ”

“. . . We have seen the same phenomenon in India. The Post reported in 2023 on censorship concerns faced by streaming services including Netflix and Prime Video. (Post owner Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, which owns Prime Video.) “One director who has worked with Netflix and Prime Video said streaming companies didn’t just fear antagonizing the Modi government. They were even more concerned about its right-wing supporters, who might launch mass campaigns calling for boycotts and arrests,” The Post wrote, quoting the director: “What the government has done very smartly is they effectively say, ‘You self-censor stuff.’ There is a gun to your head because at any point of time, it’s so easy to mobilize a bunch of people.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/29/fascist-take-over-guardrails/

Article in Daily Kos by DoctorBeast68 10/24/24

Headline:  “There Must Come a Reckoning for Our Media”

“In two weeks, Americans will decide whether the United States shall continue as a representative democracy and the shining beacon on the hill of freedom and liberty, or will devolve into a corrupt autocratic state where political enemies are jailed or killed and the world’s greatest military will be deployed within our own borders to racially cleanse our nation of immigrants, both legal and otherwise. Those are stark choices.”

“. . . The media cannot escape its culpability in the erosion of democratic norms. There must come a reckoning for those who have failed to stand up for the truth, who have chosen profit over principle, and who have treated this moment of existential threat as merely another news cycle. Journalism is supposed to serve the public, to inform and educate, not to entertain and exploit.

“In fact, while the media sells the story of a close, nail-biting election, the reality on the ground tells a far different story. Polling stations are seeing record turnout, early voting numbers are shattering expectations, and the enthusiasm gap between those who seek to preserve democracy and those who support its destruction is stark. Far from being an evenly split electorate, a majority of Americans clearly understand the gravity of this election and are voting accordingly.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/24/2279113/-There-Must-Come-a-Reckoning-for-Our-Media

Article in Huffington Post by By Michael Arceneaux, 10/4/24

Headline: “Like Foreign Governments, The Media Helps Prop Up NYC Mayor Eric Adams”

Subhead: “One writer claimed Adams would “save New York,” another said he was in their top 5 for the next democratic nominee for president — both ignoring the trail of corruption investigations that followed the New York mayor.”

“. . . According to Shachtman’s reporting, “The coverage was so slanted that the City Hall bureau chief left in part over disagreements with management over the fawning coverage of Adams.”

“It can’t be overstated how much-alleged straw donations from a foreign government used to gain eight figures in matching public funds undoubtedly played a role in Adams’ win in that hotly contested NYC mayoral race.

“Similarly, ridiculous headlines and conservative political tones aside, the New York Post remains an important paper in the city, so it also can’t be overlooked how much the paper’s endorsement and slanted coverage influenced the results of an election determined by less than 7,000 votes. ”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-media-new-york-eric-adams_n_66ff08dee4b03185708eb118