Media Turmoil

Who Will be Future Journalists?

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Article in Poynter by Barbara Allen, 2/23/26

Headline:   “Cash-starved and censored, America’s student newspapers are fighting to survive”

Subhead:  “Shrinking budgets and university pressure are squeezing the next generation of journalists”

“Andrew Frazier expected to spend his senior year as the sports editor of The Vista, the student newspaper at the University of Central Oklahoma.

“Instead, he became editor-in-chief of a new student-run publication, The Independent View, after his university said printing The Vista wasn’t worth the $12,000 annual cost. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/educators-students/2026/student-newspaper-challenges-business-censorship/

More CBS Grief?

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Article in The New York Times by Maggie Astor and Benjamin Mullin, 2/23/26

Headline:  “Peter Attia Leaves CBS News Amid Epstein Files Fallout”

Subhead:  “Emails showed that the longevity influencer had provided medical advice to Jeffrey Epstein and had made crude comments about women.”

“The longevity influencer Peter Attia has resigned from his position as a contributor to CBS News, about three weeks after the revelation of his relationship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. . .”

“Dr. Attia was one of several high-profile contributors recently named to CBS News by Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief, . .”

“The controversy over Dr. Attia is the latest setback for CBS News, which has found itself in the headlines since Ms. Weiss took over last year. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/well/peter-attia-cbs-epstein.html

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

Feasting on the Remains?

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Shutterstock

Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 2/22/26

Headline:  “Picking off the Post”

Subhead:  “After The Washington Post’s retreat from local news and sports, rival outlets are racing to fill the void, scooping up displaced talent and capitalizing on the opportunity.”

“In the weeks since The Washington Post largely abandoned its local coverage of its namesake city—gutting its metro team and shuttering its sports desk—a question has hovered over Washington’s media circles: Will another outlet make a serious play for the territory?

“Washington is one of the country’s largest and wealthiest media markets, home to some 6 million residents across the metropolitan area. And in the aftermath of The Post’s sweeping round of layoffs that cut more than a third of the newsroom, a meaningful gap has opened in local coverage. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-local-sports-coverage

Free Speech for All?

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Article in The Nation by Atarah Israel, 2/20/26

Headline:  “Trump’s Threats to Free Speech Aren’t New to Black Journalists”

Subhead:  “Two years after Trump’s infamous invitation to the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention, the organization is adapting and bracing for escalating hostility.”

“. . .NABJ’s decision to invite a hostile actor to a Black advocacy space in the name of journalistic tradition left many professional Black journalists reeling. Almost two years later, in the wake of the Trump administration’s blatant attacks against Black journalists, the decision seems even more incomprehensible. From the federally backed arrests of Georgia Fort, Don Lemon, and Jerome Richardson in January, to Trump’s recent racist social-media post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, the president’s hostility toward Black people, immigrants, and anyone who questions power has been transparent. Even his social-media tribute to Jesse Jackson on Tuesday sparked heated backlash for using the civil rights leader’s death as self-inflating PR fodder. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-free-speech-press-black-journalists-nabj/

Nonprofit Lifeline for Journalism?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Emily Bell and Heatger Chaplin, 2/19/26

Headline: “Profit or Nonprofit? A Debate over Journalism’s Future”

Subhead: “While the newspaper industry continues to contract, nonprofit news outlets have proliferated over the past decade. But dismissing profitable models for journalism is premature. “

“How can journalism survive? Perhaps the question would once have sounded unduly panicked, but it has only grown more pressing over the past twenty years. Between 2004 and 2019, newspapers lost an astonishing 77 percent of their jobs—more than any other industry on record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/profit-nonprofit-debate-journalism-future-amazon-washington-post-bezos-bureau-labor-statistics.php

Media in Crisis?

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Article in Common Dreams by Victor Packard, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Why the US Media Is in Crisis and How to Rescue It”

“What we’re witnessing isn’t a singular breakdown, but discrete and cascading layers of ‘media capture’ by capitalists, oligarchs, and authoritarians that produce censorship, exclusion, and democratic failure.

“From the recent gutting of the Washington Post to the rightward lurch of CBS, the sheer proliferation and variation of media failures and attacks on the press during Trump 2.0 are difficult to grasp. Regulatory bodies have become political weapons. Major news organizations have complied and retreated. Media ownership has consolidated in the hands of a few feckless billionaires. Taken together, these developments endanger our information and communication systems, our First Amendment freedoms, and our democracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-media-crisis

More Gloming Up Media?

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Article in Reuters by Milana Vinn & Dawn Kopecki, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Warner Bros rejects revised Paramount bid, but remains open to a final offer”

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O), opens new tab on Tuesday rejected Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY.O), opens new tab latest $30-a-share hostile bid, but gave the rival Hollywood studio seven days to submit a “best and final” offer to top an existing agreement to sell its businesses including HBO Max and “Harry Potter” franchise to Netflix.

“Paramount informally broached an even higher per-share price of $31, Warner Bros said, apparently enticing the board to the table. But its response to Paramount indicates Warner Bros prefers its deal with Netflix, and the odds of a switch are long. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/warner-bros-rejects-paramounts-revised-offer-gives-studio-week-negotiate-better-2026-02-17/

WaPo – Making Someone Happy

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 2/13/26

Headline:  “Like Melania Doc, WaPo Layoffs Are Another Way for Bezos to Suck Up to Trump”

“. . .Bezos—who remains Amazon’s executive chair and its largest shareholder—certainly has incentive to bribe Trump, after experiencing Trump’s wrath in his first term.

“In 2019, amid the Washington Post’s critical reporting on Trump, Amazon lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing deal, an event that unnerved Bezos. He was ‘deeply hurt’ and ‘sat there going: “This is not right,”‘ a person who met with Bezos days later told the Financial Times (3/20/25).

So in 2024, when it looked like Trump might return to the Oval Office, Bezos quietly reached out, and even suggested a running mate for Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/like-melania-doc-wapo-layoffs-are-another-way-for-bezos-to-suck-up-to-trump/

VOA after De-funding Disaster?

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Article in Washington post by Mark A. Thiessen 2/13/26

Headline:  “Kari Lake is making Trump’s job harder in Iran”

Subhead:  “She has gutted America’s ability to get good information to the Iranian people in a conflict.”

“For a year, Lake has worked tirelessly to cripple the U.S.-backed ‘freedom radios’ — including Voice of America and Radio Farda — that broadcast into Iran to counter regime propaganda. As an unpaid volunteer member of the board of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which operates Radio Farda, I have seen the chaos she’s unleashed up close. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/13/kari-lake-voa-radio-farda-trump-iran-strike-messaging/

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 2/12/26

Headline:  “USA: New funding for USAGM signals sustained bipartisan support for its crucial international journalism”

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes the inclusion of funds for Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the other public media outlets supported by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) in the 2026 appropriations bill signed by President Trump on February 3. The decision sends a strong, bipartisan message that USAGM outlets are vital sources of reliable news worldwide. This funding supports life-saving, critical news reporting in many closed countries where local journalists are attacked for trying to keep the public informed. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-new-funding-usagm-signals-sustained-bipartisan-support-its-crucial-international-journalism