Media News

News about the media.

Snipping at CBS?

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 2/12/26

Headline:  “The Coming CBS News Cuts”

Subhead:  “As CBS News staff quietly brace for another round of layoffs, Status has learned key new details about the cuts executives are planning behind the scenes.”

“Last month, when Bari Weiss hosted her inaugural town hall with CBS News staffers, one topic was clearly on the minds of her anxious workforce: the prospect of more layoffs. CBS News had already made cuts in October as part of a broader workforce reduction at parent company Paramount. Dozens of staffers—though fewer than 100—were affected by that round.

“ ‘Are there more CBS News cuts coming?’ a CBS News staffer asked the new editor in chief at the town hall.

“Weiss did not answer directly. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-layoffs-bari-weiss

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

Playing a Game With The Media

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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/

Has Concepts of the News?

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Article in The New Republic by Alex Shephard, 1/30/26

Headline: “What Bari Weiss Doesn’t Get About CBS News”

Subhead: “Her plan to focus on ‘scoops of ideas’ will only make the news network’s offerings more like (pretty much) everything else in media.”

“At an all-staff meeting on Tuesday, CBS News’s editor in chief Bari Weiss—perhaps the record-holder for the fastest the word embattled has ever been appended in front of a new job title—laid out her vision for the network she had taken the reins of only a few weeks earlier. . .”

“With her new charges in attendance, Weiss finally revealed her vision board for the future of CBS News, and the watchword is ‘scoops.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/205904/bari-weiss-scoops-cbs-news

Was She Wrong on Epstein Suicide?

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Article in AlterNet by Carl Gibson, 1/29/26

Headline: “Epstein reporter reveals ‘one of the most suspicious aspects’ of his death”

“Before he died in prison, convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein was reportedly attacked in his cell, extorted by his cellmate and slipped a handwritten note into a book.

That’s according to Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown, who initially broke the story that led to the first arrests of Epstein and his chief accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. In a Thursday post to her Substack entitled “Why I don’t believe Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself (Part 2),” Brown delved into Bureau of Prisons records about an apparent suicide attempt that took place not long after he arrived at New York City’s Metropolitan Corrections Center in the summer of 2019. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/epstein-reporter-suspicious/

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