Media News

News about the media.

Local Radio Says Job Sunset

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Article in Tony’s Kansas City, 2/19/25

Headline:  “Kansas City public radio isn’t too optimistic about the future or the local economy . . . In fact, if we are to believe the local NPR affiliate . . .”

LOCAL PUBLIC RADIO IMAGINES EPIC ECONOMIC PERIL THANKS TO MAGA LAYOFFS!!!”

“More serious people remind MANY SIDES that the federal government is the largest employer in the Kansas City metro and the impact of any mass layoffs will be REGIONAL.

“It’s probably worth mentioning that billionaire Elon Musk recently advocating for ‘de-funding’ NPR.”

” . . .’Federal workers in Kansas City whose jobs were eliminated under the Trump administration’s massive budget cuts will have a hard time finding comparable work in the area. Instability in the city’s workforce could lead to a recession.’

“KCUR: Kansas City doesn’t have enough jobs available for all the federal workers getting laid off”

https://www.tonyskansascity.com/2025/02/kcur-predicts-economic-doom-amid-local.html

L.A. Times Anxiety

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 2/11/25

Headline:  “Soon-Shiong’s La-La Land”

Subhead:  “Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is building out a new media venture that has had conversations about partnering with right-wing extremist Candace Owens, Status has learned.”

“Inside the Los Angeles Times, anxiety is running high as demoralized staffers worry about buyouts and the looming threat of layoffs — all while cringing as red-pilled owner Patrick Soon-Shiong embodies the personality of a MAGA clown on social media. But while Soon-Shiong’s attention in the immediate wake of the election was focused on remaking the Times, lately it has been somewhere else entirely. While forcing cost cuts at the newspaper he once promised to breathe new life into, the pharmaceutical billionaire, I’m told, has been directing his focus — and his resources — toward a new media venture.

“Indeed, I’m told that Soon-Shiong has been working over the last few weeks in concert with Republican consultant Eric Beach on building out a new entity that will prominently feature digital-first personalities, many of whom will appeal to the MAGA base”

https://www.status.news/p/patrick-soon-shiong-lat-next

 

Why No Working Class Media?

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Picture from Aeon

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Alissa Quartm=, 2/18/25

Headline:  “America Needs a Working-Class Media”

Subhead:  “Catering to rich audiences is not serving us.”

“n the seven years Kaia Sand edited Street Roots, a publication that serves unhoused people in Portland, Oregon, she would often find herself unsettled by how more mainstream publications covered the lives of poorer Americans. She’d find herself wondering, for instance, what the ‘real estate’ beat—whose very name offended her—had to do with the daily struggles of those she worked with. The 2024 presidential election underscored for her the need for a more class-aware and class-diverse media.

“Freelance reporter Joshua Hunt also looked at media through the lens of his lived experience of economic insecurity—he grew up working-class and Tlingit in Alaska but has recently moved abroad to Japan. Long frustrated with what he perceived as an industry inhospitable to journalists from poorer backgrounds, he recently fired off a tweetstorm about how few ‘editors go looking for working-class journalists.’ . . .”

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/america-needs-working-class-media-end-catering-rich-audiences.php

Upside Down Media

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Article in Raw Story by David Edwards, 2/17/25

Headline:  ” ‘Maybe there is a DEI situation’: Right-wing media hosts speculate on upside-down plane”

“Two right-wing anchors quickly speculated former President Joe Biden’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies could be to blame after a Delta Airlines flight flipped upside down while landing Monday afternoon in Toronto.

” ‘Yeah, breaking news that just happened within the hour: a plane again going from Minneapolis to Toronto — to Toronto Pearson Airport, CP24, a local affiliate, saying about eight people injured,’ Matthew Alvarez announced on Right Side Broadcasting Network.

” ‘. . . [Maybe] it was a situation where the flight should have been diverted and somebody with maybe they’re overworked, maybe too much, you know, maybe there is a DEI situation again,’ Alvarez opined. ‘And I’m not — this is not really against people that are of any kind of look or way they are, right?’ ”

https://www.rawstory.com/plane-crash-2671169829/

Anti-Musk Ads Not Allowed?

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Article in The Hill by Alexaner Bolton, 2/17/25

Headline:  “Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order”

“The Washington Post this week backed out of a ‘Fire Elon Musk’ advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.

“The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with the Post to run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper, as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.”

https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/

Absolutely No Media Conflict!

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Article in Daily Kos by Alix Breeden, 2/17/25

Headline:  “How Trump is paving the way for his failing media company to thrive”

After President Donald Trump’s media company reported major losses in 2024, he now appears to be clearing the way for his business—and bottom line—to succeed.

The Trump Media & Technology Group Corp’s recent 10-K filing listed multiple risk factors for why its platforms—such as Truth Social or the new Truth.Fi—might fail.

One such factor is the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Trump temporarily paused with a Feb. 10 executive order. The FCPA makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials for government contracts.

Per Trump’s executive order, Attorney General Pam Bondi will revise the FCPA to “promote American competitiveness.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/17/2304349/-How-Trump-is-paving-the-way-for-his-failing-media-company-to-thrive?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web

Media Wedgie

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Article in Raw Story by AFP, 2/16/25

Headline:  “Trump vows media will not drive wedge between himself and Musk”

“Donald Trump has mocked what he said were media depictions of Elon Musk as the real power in the White House, saying attempts to drive a wedge between himself and the tech billionaire have failed.

“They do it all the time,” the US president says in excerpts posted Saturday from a Fox News interview to be aired Tuesday.

“Speaking as if in a news anchor’s voice, Trump went on, ‘We have breaking news: Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight…’ ”

 

AP on Burning Bridge

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Article in Committee to Project Journalists by Staff, 2/14/25

Headline:  “CPJ denounces Trump administration’s actions against AP, other retaliation against media”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the White House decision to block The Associated Press (AP) from covering official events after AP’s decision to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally known name, calling the action the latest in an alarming pattern of retaliation against a free press in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s administration.

“The White House barred an AP reporter from covering two official events at the White House following AP’s issuing of widely used style guidelines saying that Trump’s order changing the name to Gulf of America only carried authority in the U.S. and that as a global news agency it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its 400-year-old name “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”

https://cpj.org/2025/02/cpj-denounces-trump-administrations-actions-against-ap-other-retaliation-against-media/

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/13/25

Headline:  “Opinion | From absurd to disturbing as Trump White House bans AP from important media events”

Subhead:  “Reporters are barred from Oval Office news events after The Associated Press refuses to change its style to Gulf of America.”

“It was a story that started off completely laughable and so absurd that no one actually took it seriously. But it has quickly gone from ridiculous to alarming. Very alarming.

“President Donald Trump had this goofy idea of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Why? Because it’s Trump and he does goofy stuff like that. He signed an executive order announcing the change.

“Recognizing just how ludicrous this all was, and wanting to continue calling things by their official, worldwide-recognized name, The Associated Press announced it would continue to call the body of water the Gulf of Mexico. . . ”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/from-absurd-to-disturbing-as-trump-white-house-bans-ap-from-important-media-events/

All News is Fake! Delete it!

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review in The Media Today by Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen, 2/13/25

Headline:  “Fighting the Great Federal Website Purge”

Subhead:  “Journalists, judges, and archivists are keeping government data online.”

“Two weeks ago, when the new administration instructed agencies to scrub content related to ‘gender ideology’ from government websites, federal workers scrambled to comply, temporarily, and in some cases permanently, taking pages offline so that they might be monitored for language related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As reported by Popular Information this week, the National Security Agency is reportedly now executing a purge of pages that contain terms including ‘privilege’ and ‘bias’ — a dragnet that is also affecting ‘mission-related’ work, according to a source and documents. The discussion around so-called ‘banned words,’ as well as the deletion of datasets inconsistent with the administration’s ideology, has left data archivists concerned.

The news media has been busy keeping track of many of the webpages that have gone dark. At the beginning of this month, the New York Times put the number of removed pages at eight thousand; Wired is periodically scanning more than a thousand government domains for their accessibility. Such projects may prove especially useful down the line, not just to the public, but to the media industry itself . . . ”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/trump_administration_website_purge_court_order_cdc.php