Media Turmoil

WaPo = CBS Future?

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Article in Daily Kos by Lisa Neeham, 2/9/26

Headline: “Washington Post chief’s firing should terrify new regime at CBS News”

“Will Lewis is out at The Washington Post. Since he was a fancy ‘chief executive,’ his departure is being reported with the genteel framing of him ‘stepping down,’ even though it is very evident that Post owner Jeff Bezos sent Lewis packing.

“Ostensibly, Amazon billionaire Bezos felt that Lewis didn’t handle the complete decimation of the newspaper with enough gravitas and was instead partying in San Francisco at Super Bowl-related events. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/9/2367949/-Washington-Post-chief-s-firing-should-terrify-new-regime-at-CBS-News

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/9/26

Headline: “Opinion | The Washington Post just experienced a week that will live in infamy”

Subhead:  “The week’s upheaval ended with CEO Will Lewis stepping aside after being missing in action as the newsroom was cut”

“What a bizarre week at The Washington Post. Bizarre and puzzling and heartbreaking — not necessarily in that order.

It started last Wednesday with massive layoffs in what former editor Marty Baron called one of the “darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.” Another former star reporter, Ashley Parker, called it a murder.

The week ended in startling fashion on Saturday when publisher and CEO Will Lewis abruptly resigned in a short (less than 100 words) note to staff. He said it was the “right time” to step away. . .:

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/washington-post-layoffs-will-lewis-gone/

For Post, What’s Next?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Siddhartha Mahanta, 2/6/26

Headline:  “What the Post Cuts Will Do”

“Yesterday, hundreds of Washington Post journalists and supporters amassed in below-freezing temperatures outside the paper’s K Street headquarters to take part in a rally held by the Washington Post Newspaper Guild and the Washington Post Tech Guild. A veteran Post staffer said it was larger than any walkout or picket he’d seen in his time there. The day before, during a Zoom call with staff, Post leadership had announced sweeping cuts, . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/what-the-washington-post-cuts-will-do-layoffs-business-of-news-jeff-bezos.php

WaPo – Round and Round. . .

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 2/5/26

Headline:  “Mass layoffs fuel fears of ‘death spiral’ at Washington Post”

Subhead: “On Wednesday, storied newspaper axed nearly one-third of company after earlier unpopular moves by owner Jeff Bezos”

“Under Marty Baron, the Washington Post won 11 Pulitzer prizes and expanded its newsroom to house more than 1,000 journalists. The storied newspaper’s future is now in question, according to its former executive editor.

“The aspirations of this news organization are diminished,” Baron told the Guardian in an interview. ‘I think that’ll translate into fewer subscribers. And I hope it’s not a death spiral, but I worry that it might be.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/05/mass-layoffs-washington-post

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/5/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Inside one of the ‘darkest days in the history’ of The Washington Post“

“That’s how Ashley Parker, a staff writer for The Atlantic and former star reporter at The Washington Post, described what happened at the Post on Wednesday.

“A third of the Post’s staff — about 300 journalists — was laid off. Nearly all departments were affected. The sports and books desks were pretty much eliminated. The foreign desk was gutted. . .”

“And so Parker wrote, “Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, and Will Lewis, the publisher he appointed at the end of 2023, are embarking on the latest step of their plan to kill everything that makes the paper special. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/why-did-the-washington-post-layoffs-happen/

Cooked Medium or Well-Done?

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 2/3/26

Headline: “Netflix, Warner Bros Discovery execs grilled by Senators over megamerger”

“Executives for entertainment giants Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday faced a grilling from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with senators raising concern about a planned megamerger between the two companies that would create one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. . .”

“Critics of the deal say it would harm competition in the entertainment production and film industry, giving Netflix too much control of the way millions of people in the U.S. and abroad see the world. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/media/5721455-netflix-warner-brothers-merger-hearing/

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 2/4/26

Headline:  “Free-Expression Groups and Creative Labor Unions Call on the Senate to Protect Free Speech and Root Out Corruption in Review of Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover”

“On Tuesday, 11 civil-rights, free-expression, consumer-protection and creative professional organizations and unions called on the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights to prioritize free speech and investigate corruption in its review of the competing bids from Netflix and Paramount Skydance to take over Warner Bros. Discovery. . .”

“ ‘We request this subcommittee’s diligent oversight to ensure careful application of antitrust law, uphold the First Amendment, and guarantee this process is free of corruption and abuse.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/free-expression-groups-and-creative-labor-unions-call-senate-protect-free-speech-warner-bros-merger

Down the Drain?

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Article in UPI by Mike Heuer, 2/4/26

Headline:  “The Washington Post fires nearly a third of its news staff”

More than 300 reporters and others are being let go from The Washington Post amid financial troubles, the Jeff Bezos-owned company announced on Wednesday.

“The firings amount to about a third of the total workers at the award-winning newspaper that once broke the Watergate break-in and other important news events. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/02/04/washington-post-firings/4841770239709/

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Amos Barshad & Siddhartha Mahanta, 2/4/26

Headline:  “A Dismantling of the Washington Post”

Subhead:  “Our leadership destroyed our brand.”

‘In a staffwide call with employees Wednesday morning, Matt Murray, the executive editor of the Washington Post, and Wayne Connell, the paper’s chief human resources officer, announced sweeping staff cuts. ‘Every department across the newsroom will be impacted to some degree,’ Murray said, in a recording of the call shared with CJR. The sports department and books section will be closed; Post Reports, a politics podcast, will be suspended. The paper’s international footprint will shrink. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/news/layoffs-dismantling-washington-post-bezos-murray.php

Journalists Now, Who’s Next?

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Article in The Guardian by Theodore J. Boutrous Jr & Katie Townsend, 2/2/26

Headline:  “We are witnessing a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration’s attacks on the press and a clear threat to first amendment freedoms”

“. . .It is unprecedented for the justice department to invoke these laws to punish journalistic activity, and there is no basis for doing so that would be consistent with the first amendment. Indeed, before the indictment, a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota had refused to sign an arrest warrant for Lemon. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/02/don-lemon-georgia-fort-arrest-first-amendment

Is Bezos Breaking WaPo?

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Article in The Guardian by Margaret Sullivan 2/2/26

Headline:  “Is Jeff Bezos going to destroy the Washington Post? It sure looks like it”

Subhead:  “He has the chance to be the steward of a national treasure, but he’s blowing it”

“. . .I worked on staff at the Post for six years, until 2022, as its media columnist, after admiring the paper for decades; it was an inspiring place to work, and I got to know its readership and its staff from the inside.

“It breaks my heart to see what’s happening now, and has been happening for more than a year.

As a major round of newsroom layoffs is threatened – losses that would further weaken an already decimated staff – Bezos is doing what should be unthinkable. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/02/jeff-bezos-destroy-washington-post

Journalists – Ferguson to Minneapolis

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Article in Poynter by Kristen Hare, 1/28/26

Headline:  “For journalists who covered Ferguson, the news from Minneapolis feels ‘uncomfortably familiar’ “

Sybhead:  “Journalists who covered Ferguson reflect on what they learned — and what feels different — as unrest unfolds again in Minnesota”

“In the summer of 2014, a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. As journalists began getting arrested, Poynter sent me back to the city — where I’d spent five years reporting — to cover what was happening. . .”

“Still, while compiling a list of newsrooms in Minnesota to follow for nuanced, accountable, community-centered reporting, I’ve been thinking a lot about the journalists I met more than a decade ago in Ferguson. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/local-news/2026/from-ferguson-to-minneapolis-what-journalists-learned-covering-protests/

 

WaPo Twisting Slowly. . .

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Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 1/28/26

Headline: “The Post’s Audience of One”

Subhead:   “As Jeff Bezos continues to snub The Washington Post, the mood inside the newsroom has darkened—though staffers are pressing on with not only public, but behind-the-scenes appeals to the billionaire, Status has learned.”

“Over the past several days, as reports about The Washington Post’s looming layoffs have reverberated throughout the industry, staffers on the newspaper’s sports desk have quietly begun receiving phone calls from the section’s leadership. In the private conversations, according to people familiar with them, management has all but encouraged journalists to start looking for jobs elsewhere. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-staffers-cuts-jeff-bezos-campaign

CBS Turning on Trump?

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Article in The Daily Beast by Laura Esposito, 1/26/26

Headline: “MAGA-Curious CBS Boss’ Outlet Calls Out ICE Barbie ‘Lies’ “

“Even CBS News’ new, controversial editor-in-chief couldn’t look away from the killing of yet another U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.

“Bari Weiss’s anti-woke Substack, The Free Press, broke ranks with the Trump administration in a blistering editorial that slammed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s defense of a border patrol agent who fatally shot VA nurse Alex Pretti, 37. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-curious-cbs-boss-outlet-calls-out-ice-barbie-lies/