News about the media.
Article in Status by Natalie Korach, 10/25/25
Headline: “Rattled at 30 Rock”
Subhead: “NBC News is reeling from its biggest round of cuts in years, cutting about 150 staffers as it divorces itself from MSNBC and CNBC.”
“On Wednesday morning, NBC News staffers saw a last-minute meeting added to their calendar for 10 a.m. Most immediately knew what the unspecified meeting would be about: layoffs. Staffers across the organization have been dreading cuts for months . . .”
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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvao, 10/13/25
Headline: “Student Journalism Is Fraught, Too”
Subhead: “The dispute over plans for MediaFest, the nation’s largest conference of student journalists, reflects the polarization of the news industry that awaits them.”
“In late July, a group of student-journalism advisers convened on Zoom to discuss a brewing controversy over opinion, reporting, and religion. They were preparing for MediaFest—the nation’s largest conference of student reporters and their mentors, which will take place in Washington, DC, this week. Steven Sandberg, a student media adviser at Oregon State University, had been browsing the event schedule when he came upon a list of speakers slated for a portion of the conference called the “faith track.” “I saw pretty far-right, anti-LGBTQ language,” he said. . .”
Read the full article at:
https://www.cjr.org/feature/student-journalism-mediafest-fraught-religion-faith-reporting.php
Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 10/13/25
Headline: “US news outlets refuse to sign new Pentagon rules to report only official information”
Subhead: “Defense department policy requires outlets to vow not to obtain unauthorized files and restricts access to some areas”
“Several leading news organizations with access to Pentagon briefings have formally said they will not agree to a new defense department policy that requires them to pledge they will not obtain unauthorized material and restricts access to certain areas unless accompanied by an official.
“The policy, presented last month by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been widely criticized by media organizations asked to sign the pledge by Tuesday at 5pm or have 24 hours to turn in their press credentials. . .”
Read the full article at:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/13/defense-department-media-news-rules
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Article in The Washington Post by Scott Nover, 10/13/25
Headline: “News outlets broadly reject Pentagon rules before deadline for signing”
Subhead: “The Washington Post joined the New York Times, Newsmax and CNN in refusing to sign the restrictive new policy.”
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Article in Media Matters by Noah Howe & Pete Tsipis, 10/10/25
Headline: “Right-wing media say Portland is a war zone under siege. On-the-ground coverage paints a different picture.”
Subhead: “Local coverage has highlighted the peaceful nature of protests and the violent response of federal agents”
“Right-wing media claim that Portland’s protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement show a city ‘under siege’ or ‘conquered by antifa,’ but on-the-ground coverage, by both national media outlets and local media outlets, has revealed the opposite.”
“Multiple local broadcast outlets report that protests are relatively small and peaceful, with many demonstrators ‘in pajamas, sharing pastries, throwing a frisbee, and playing board games’. . .”
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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Editors 10/10/25
Headline: “Local TV News Does Good”
Subhead: “Forget about the mergers and buyouts and executive leadership for a while. The local grunts keep breaking news.”
“. . .firestorm ignited by Porter’s [California Governor Candidate] reaction to Watts’s calm, sensible questioning was just one example of what has been a banner couple of weeks for the often overlooked foot soldiers of local television news. At a time when the national conversation about TV news has been dominated by anxiety about mergers and corporate politics and hostile takeovers, it’s reassuring to see the reporters on the ground continuing to do the kind of work that makes them indispensable to the communities they serve.”
Read the full article at:
https://www.cjr.org/laurels-and-darts/local-tv-news-does-good-porter-california-governor-fox.php
Article in Mediaite by Colby Hall, 10/9/25
Headline: “EXCLUSIVE: One-on-One With Mark Thompson — The Man Hired to Save CNN“
“. . .Like every legacy media institution, CNN faces pressures that go far beyond the traditional 24-hour news cycle. Linear television is steadily losing its grip on viewers, cord-cutting accelerates each year, social platforms like TikTok are siphoning attention, and AI threatens to redefine what it means to deliver trustworthy, fact-based news. . .”
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Article in Axios by Sara Fisher, 10/7/25
Headline: “Job cuts in news stabilize while broader media industry struggles”
“News media job cuts are more tempered so far this year, despite a few outlier organizations hit by public funding cuts and looming layoffs tied to consolidation.
“Why it matters: 2024 was a particularly brutal year for the news industry, as outlets raced to cut positions in an attempt to offset a weak ad market and get ahead of business disruptions from artificial intelligence. . .”
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Article in The Guardian by J. Oliver Conroy, 10/6/25
Headline: “Bari Weiss’s ascension to top of CBS News highlights the political winds”
Subhead: “US media giants have bowed before Maga after Trump’s many lawsuits and the Jimmy Kimmel firestorm”
“Paramount Skydance, the newly merged conglomerate which owns CBS News, has hired the journalist Bari Weiss as the network’s editor-in-chief – and acquired the Free Press, the publication Weiss co-founded in 2021 as a challenger to the establishment media, for a reported $150m.
“Weiss has made her career as a center-right critic of progressivism, and the Free Press is a contrarian, loosely conservative and ardently Zionist publication that views itself as a speaker of hard truths and protector of free discourse. . .”
(More articles below) – Read the full article at:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/oct/06/bari-weisss-cbs-news-analysis
Article in Huff Post by Corey Townsend, 10/3/25
Headline: “Maggie Haberman Says Why She Thinks Trump Has Avoided Cameras During The Shutdown”
“On Wednesday, the federal government shut down after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a consensus on health care.line ”
“Maggie Haberman offered a theory on CNN Thursday as to why President Donald Trump has been relatively elusive during the government shutdown.
“During the segment, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked the New York Times journalist why she believed Trump “has not been in front of the cameras. . .”
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Article in The Guardian by Rachel Leingang, 10/5/25
Headline: “How two blond suburban moms gave Democrats an answer to the rightwing media ecosystem”
“. . .Jennifer Welch and Angie ‘Pumps’ Sullivan have risen up the podcast charts, buoyed by Democrats looking to commiserate and find their party’s answer to the bro-filled atmosphere that helped propel Trump’s victory in 2024. . .”
“In early episodes, listeners wrote in to tell them to stay out of politics and use fewer swear words . . .In turn, they started talking about politics more and more. They dropped the ‘dead weight’ of people who only came for entertainment, Welch said.
“ ‘And it turns out, when you believe in something and you defend it vigorously, some people are going to dislike you for your beliefs, and that’s fine, but the people who like you, that turns into love, and you create a community,’ she said.”
Read the full article at:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/oct/05/ive-had-it-podcast-democrats-liberals
Article in The Washington Post by Caroline O’Donovan and Will Oremus, 10/4/25
Headline: “This billionaire Trump ally and his son are building an unprecedented media empire”
Subhead: “Larry and David Ellison’s holdings span movies, TV networks, CBS and soon a stake in TikTok, in a paradigm-shifting portfolio with huge influence.”
“Journalists at CBS News reeled on Friday as they digested news reports that opinion journalist Bari Weiss, a fierce critic of the mainstream media, would become the editor in chief of the straitlaced legacy brand. . .”
Two months earlier, there had been cautious optimism in the Midtown Manhattan newsroom, according to two CBS News staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private information. . .”
“But the newsroom hasn’t heard directly from Ellison since that day, leaving many apprehensive about plans for the network, the two staffers said. The anxiety has been reinforced in recent weeks . . .”
Read the full article at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/10/04/larry-david-ellison-media-trump/