Media News

News about the media.

We Need More Media Consolidation?

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Article in LA Times by By Stephen Battaglio, 11/21/24

Headline: “How Trump’s FCC chief pick could make life more difficult for media companies”

“President-elect Trump’s nomination of Brendan Carr as the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is bringing both hope and fear to the media industry.

“For media executives, the hope comes in the promise of industry consolidation.

“Companies such as Fox Television Stations, Nexstar Media Group, Tegna and Gray Media are eager to buy more TV stations to better compete against deep-pocketed tech firms that are aggressively pursuing viewers and ad dollars. Carr is expected to support revisiting the rule on ownership of TV stations. Brendan Carr answers questions during a hearing.”

“. . . Big media companies are bracing for the possibility that he will do Trump’s bidding when the president-elect threatens retribution against media outlets that are unfriendly to him.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-11-21/how-trumps-fcc-chief-pick-could-make-life-more-difficult-for-media-companies

Internet and Right-Wing Media

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Article in Axios by Shannon Vavra, Sara Fischer, 11/23/24

Headline: “The recent explosion of right-wing news sites”

“Axios mapped the launch date of 89 news websites over the past quarter century. The data shows there has been an explosion of right-leaning news sites, coinciding with the rise of the Tea Party and alt-right movements beginning in 2010. Many of these sites, in turn, were instrumental in spreading pro-Trump news during the 2016 elections”

“Why it matters: According to experts, digital technology has made it easier to exploit the political divisions that have always existed. . . .’The technological, regulatory, and media space has shifted into one in which this is profitable, and profit is the driving force.’ ”

https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/the-recent-explosion-of-right-wing-news-sites-1513300575

A Future for Independent Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Feveb Marid, 11/22/24

Headline:  “The Promise of IndyMedia”

Subhead:  “Twenty-five years after its founding, a much-diminished community journalism organization may still offer a model for the future.”

After the Battle in Seattle in 1999 “. . . posts appeared on a website under the name IndyMedia, reaching more than a million people worldwide.”

“The site was intended to last only as long as the demonstrations. ‘The resistance is global,’ the opening post went. ‘The web dramatically alters the balance between multinational and activist media. With just a bit of coding and some cheap equipment, we can set up a live automated website that rivals the corporates.’ In the twenty-five years that followed, IndyMedia revealed the extent of that promise well beyond its early bloggers’ imaginations, as it grew into a full-fledged open publishing network of activist journalism, with some two hundred community centers and national and global online hubs.”

It still survives as this website:   https://indymedia.org/

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/local-news-indymedia-network-25-anniversary.php

 

Media Climate Depresses People

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Article in the New Republic by Heather Souvaine Horn, 11/22/24

Headline: “How to Make Your Daily Media Consumption Less Depressing
A guide to postelection “takes” for climate-concerned readers”

“Climate-concerned readers and voters are in a tough spot. They don’t have the postelection coping options – escapism, despair, biding one’s time till the next election – open to some other people. The Biden administration’s climate policy”

“. . . If we are truly in an all-hands-on-deck moment (I think that we are), and if, as numerous experts have emphasized, every fraction of a degree of warming matters, then postelection analyses and prescriptions that don’t offer some discernible and actionable kernel of wisdom, lighting (however dimly) one plausible path forward, are pointless, and can be discarded without further ado.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/188694/climate-democrats-election-reading

Economic Reporting in Conservative Media

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Article in FAIR by Conor Smyth, 11/20/21

Headline:  “It’s the Economic Reporting, Stupid”

“Conservative media, unsurprisingly, appears to be a major culprit in the miseducation of the American public, with people whose primary media source is conservative media registering lower familiarity with reality than those who stuck mainly to other media sources. (Reliance on social media, too, was associated with less knowledge of basic facts.)

“But even among those who primarily get their news from the more general category of cable/national newspapers, a third didn’t realize that inflation had declined over the past year. Voters’ lack of knowledge, therefore, cannot simply be laid at the feet of the conservative press. Corporate outlets more broadly must share the blame.”

https://fair.org/home/its-the-economic-reporting-stupid/

Conservative Media Extremists in Ascendance

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Article in Media Matters by Staff, 11/19/24

Headline: “On MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, Angelo Carusone explains the role extremists in conservative media are playing in the Trump transition”

“ICOLLE WALLACE (HOST): At a time when global tensions are high, the war in Ukraine is intensifying, Donald Trump’s decision to tap Tulsi Gabbard as his incoming Director of National Intelligence is raising alarms, as you heard there. New reporting uncovers how she has become a favorite among the state media, of one of America’s adversaries, Russia.

“That’s according to The New York Times, which reports, “In Russia, the reaction to her potential appointed has been gleeful, even if Putin’s government remains weary of American policies, even under a second Trump administration. ‘The CIA and the FBI are trembling,’ a Russian newspaper wrote on Friday in a glowing profile of Ms. Gabbard, noting positively, that Ukrainians consider ‘an agent of the Russian state.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/msnbcs-deadline-white-house-angelo-carusone-explains-role-extremists-conservative

On the Media Roller Coaster – Resist or Comply?

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Article in Mother Jones by David Corn, 11/20/24

Headline:  “The Media and Trump: Not Resistance, But Not Acceptance”

“. . . My hunch is that a line will form across the media landscape between those entities that cover the Trump crowd in a relatively normal fashion—What is the president thinking? What are his advisers telling him? What is happening between the White House and Congress? What’s the latest palace intrigue? Who’s invited to the state dinner? What do the polls say?—and those who view as the overarching story the profound threat of authoritarianism posed by Trump and his henchmen and henchwomen. Do the usual political stories matter as much if Trump moves ahead with plans to deport millions and to place in power assorted extremists? Or if he moves to undermine democracy?”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/donald-trump-robert-kennedy-jr-media-press-accommodationist-sanewashing/

 

TV Networks Not Valuable Now?

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Article in MSN by Peter Kafka, 11/20/24

Headline: “Comcast doesn’t want its cable TV networks anymore”

“Cable networks used to be incredibly valuable. But in the streaming and cord-cutting era, they’re in decline.

“That’s why Comcast is ditching almost all its cable networks into a new stand-alone company.
It would like to persuade other cable-TV owners to join in.

“One of the country’s biggest cable TV companies doesn’t want its cable networks anymore. Would you like them?

“That’s the pitch Comcast is making Wednesday as it announces plans to split off almost all its cable TV networks into a new company. It’s the same pitch Comcast floated as a possibility back in October, and most of the details are the same.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/ar-AA1uqTTV

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Article in Slashdot by BeauHD, 11/20/24

Headline: “Comcast Spins Offf Cable Networks”

“Comcast plans to spin off several of its cable TV networks into a standalone company as it shifts focus to streaming and other profitable ventures like Peacock, theme parks, and broadband services. The Associated Press reports:

“Those one-time stars for Comcast’s NBCUniversal cable television networks include USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel, as well as CNBC and MSNBC. Movie ticketing platform Fandango and the Rotten Tomatoes movie rating site would also become part of the new company. Peacock will remain with Comcast, as will Bravo, which provides significant content for the Peacock streaming service.”

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/11/20/2142254/comcast-spins-off-cable-networks

New FCC Head Proposed

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Article in Slashdot by Msmash, 11/18/24

Headline:  “Trunp Picks Carr to Head FCC to Fight ‘Censorship’ Cartel’ ”

“Donald Trump has named FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to chair the U.S. communications regulator when he takes office in January 2025, citing Carr’s stance against what Trump called ‘regulatory lawfare.’ Carr, a lawyer and longtime Republican who has served at the FCC under both Trump and Biden administrations, has emerged as a vocal critic of major social media companies’ content moderation practices.

” ‘Humbled and honored’ by the appointment, Carr pledged on X to ‘dismantle the censorship cartel.’ As the FCC’s senior Republican commissioner, Carr has advocated for stricter oversight of technology companies, pushing for transparency rules on platforms like Google and Facebook.”

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/11/18/1445208/trump-picks-carr-to-head-fcc-with-pledge-to-fight-censorship-cartel

Looking for White House Job? Apply at Fox News

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Watch your chickens!

Article in Media Matters Written by Media Matters Staff, 11/18/24

Headline:  “Donald Trump is using Fox News as a staffing agency”: Matt Gertz discusses with On The Media the revolving door between Fox and the second Trump administration”

“GERTZ: This is how Trump gets his news. This is how his worldview is changed. It’s one segment at a time.

“GLADSTONE: He has a certain set of skills, certainly as a Fox News host, right? But secretary of defense needs a different set of skills.

“GERTZ: Right. The set of skills that you need for being a Fox News host is understanding how to push the buttons of the MAGA faithful. And the way that Fox hosts traditionally do that is by making those viewers afraid, making those viewers angry.

“GLADSTONE: You’ve also noticed that this revolving door also works the other way. Several Trump staffers signed on with Fox News after Trump left office.

“GERTZ: During or after his term, yes. Tom Homan was previously the head of ICE. After he retired from ICE in summer of 2018, he got a job at Fox News. He would denounce Democrats for standing against Trump’s border policies. He would call for evermore draconian measures. He would say the things that Donald Trump wanted to hear.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/donald-trump-using-fox-news-staffing-agency-matt-gertz-discusses-media-revolving-door