Press Freedom

We Used to Trust the Media

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 8/6/25

Headline:  “Walter Cronkite signed off — and trust in the press steadily eroded”

Subhead: “Once a voice of authority, the decline of trust in the press has mirrored the rise of a more fragmented, polarized media world”

“. . .Cronkite was often cited as “the most trusted man in America.” For millions of viewers, his farewell symbolized the pinnacle of journalistic trust. He was the man they relied on, the one who shaped how they saw the world. But that trust didn’t last forever.

In the four decades since, trust in the media has been in steady decline. Cronkite’s departure is seen in hindsight as one of the last moments when Americans collectively turned to a single, authoritative news source. Whether that’s true or just a convenient fable, there’s no doubt that trust is much lower now. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/walter-cronkite-most-trusted-man-america-poynter-50/

Media Consolidation Threat

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News Release from Free Press by Staff, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Press Freedom Groups Tell FCC: Media Consolidation Poses Grave Threat to Independent News and Information in the United States”

Subhead:  ” ‘Allowing for even more media consolidation poses too great a risk to our democracy, and to the free press on which it depends.’ “

“WASHINGTON — On Monday, 16 leading press freedom groups, civil liberties organizations and labor unions urged the Federal Communications Commission not to move forward with plans to loosen media ownership limits before it fully assesses the negative impacts media consolidation has had and will have on local news and information in the United States.

Earlier this summer, the FCC asked for public comments on changing or eliminating a longstanding rule that limits the size and national reach of giant broadcasters — like Sinclair, Nexstar and Fox Corporation — which already own hundreds of local stations across the country.

“Our chief concern regards the impact further consolidation of media ownership will have on the independence of the nation’s press and the vitality of its local journalism,” wrote the groups, including the NewsGuild CWA, Free Press, Open Markets Institute, Reporters Without Borders-USA, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Project Censored, Writers Guild of America East and Writers Guild of America West, among others. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/press-freedom-groups-tell-fcc-media-consolidation-poses-grave-threat-independent-news-and

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Article in Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Press Freedom Coalition to FCC: Don’t Ditch Checks on Corporate Media Consolidation”

Subhead:  “The 16 groups urge the agency “to uphold its obligation to promote competition, localism, and diversity in the U.S. media.”

“A coalition of 16 civil liberties, press freedom, and labor groups this week urged U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to abandon any plans to loosen media ownership restrictions and warned against opening the floodgates to further corporate consolidation.

“Public comments on the National Television Multiple Ownership Rule were due to the Federal Communications Commission by Monday—which is when the coalition wrote to the FCC about the 39% national audience reach cap for U.S. broadcast media conglomerates, and how more mergers could negatively impact “the independence of the nation’s press and the vitality of its local journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fcc

Captive Media?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 8/5/25

Headline  “Is the US Media Captured?”

Subhead:  “The phenomenon comes in many forms. Experts believe it’s already here.”

“Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, who was born in Romania and today is a leading scholar of democracy, first observed ‘media capture’ two decades ago in Eastern Europe. The press there was not facing active repression. But it was far from free. Governments, she realized, were exercising control through indirect means—collusion and corruption. Captured media, Mungiu-Pippidi wrote in a 2013 paper, ‘trade influence and manipulate rather than inform the public.’

“Other scholars of media capture have since examined the phenomenon in different parts of the world—Mexico, Kenya, Hungary—highlighting government strategies ranging from manipulation of advertising to economic and regulatory pressure to the exploitation of informal relationships with media owners.  . .”

“The US government-funded Center for Independent Media Assistance, part of the National Endowment for Democracy, produced a video in 2019 describing how government cronies buy up struggling media outlets and bring them to heel.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/paramount-la-times-media-capture.php

Lessons From Sudan

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/4/25

Headline:  “Applebaum on Autocracy”

Subhead:  “Anne Applebaum warns that Sudan’s descent into chaos whoushows what happens when institutions fail – and why a free press is essential to prevent America from following the same path”

“Anne Applebaum has spent decades chronicling the rise of authoritarianism and the collapse of democratic norms around the world. In her latest piece for The Atlantic, appearing on this week’s cover, she turned her attention to Sudan, where a brutal civil war has displaced millions of people. . .”

“In a conversation with Status, she explained why Sudan’s tragedy is a warning for the U.S. as it drifts further from the post-war role it has played in geopolitics, with Donald Trump in his second term. Applebaum also discussed the hollowing-out of independent media and why decisions like Paramount’s payout to Trump matter in the slide toward autocracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/anne-applebaum-autocracy-interview

Losing Public Media

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Public media are not state-controlled media

Article in Daily Kos by Eclift, 8/4/25

Headline:  “Mourning the Loss of Public Service Media”

“. . .Following PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was established in an act of Congress. Its mission, along with that of PBS, was to provide quality programming often overlooked by commercial broadcasters. It focused on education, history, culture, nature, science, public affairs, and children’s content. PBS has been going strong all these years, and the thought of losing it is painful. . .”

“In July the Trump administration declared that it was ending funding for CPB, which funds PBS and NPR. The Senate passed the measure supporting that goal immediately. Followers of public broadcasting, editors, and journalists were stunned, and deeply troubled, at the thought that over a billion dollars, which had been appropriated by Congress for two years, would disappear. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/4/2336835/-Mourning-the-Loss-of-Public-Service-Media?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Authoritarians Hate Free Speech

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Daniel Golden, 8/4/25

Headline:  “Joseph McCarthy’s War on Voice of America”

Subhead:  “A largely forgotten campaign of harassment and persecution from the 1950s that still echoes today.”

“In nationally televised hearings, Senate Republicans denounce Voice of America. They accuse the government’s international broadcasting arm of harboring saboteurs, misspending taxpayer funds, condoning anti-Semitism, compromising security by relying on foreign-born workers, and denigrating the country it is supposed to serve. . .”

“These hearings that gripped the country were not part of the Trump administration’s recent campaign against VOA. They took place in 1953, and the committee chair running them was none other than Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, then at the peak of his power. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/joseph-mccarthy-voice-of-america.php

Where Legacy Media Dare Not Go

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Article in Comic Sands by Amelia MAvis Christnot, 7/28/25

Headline: ” ‘South Park’ Creators Reveal How They Got Uncensored NSFW Joke About Trump On Air”

“While speaking at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed how they were able to expose MAGA Republican President Donald Trump’s alleged micropenis on the season 27 premiere of their Comedy Central cartoon.”

“The much-anticipated return of South Park—after a two-year hiatus—took on the show’s bosses at Paramount over the decision to settle a frivolous lawsuit with Trump over a CBS News 60 Minutes episode for $16 million. The move was criticized as both extortion by Trump and a bribe by Paramount to secure FCC approval for their deal with Skydance Media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.comicsands.com/stone-parker-uncensored-penis

Journalistic Values Kaput?

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Article in The New Republic by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian, Stephen Henriques, 7/28/25

Headline: “The “Tiffany Network” Shatters as Paramount-CBS Sells Its Soul Cheap”

Subhead: “The new, post-merger head of CBS donated to Biden—but apparently wants to make Bari Weiss a network star. How worried should we be?”

“The sellout of the Columbia Broadcasting System’s journalistic values to commercial interests was foreshadowed in 1976, in Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s dark comedy satire Network; in James Brooks’s 1987 romantic comedy Broadcast News; and in Michael Mann and Eric Roth’s 1999 drama The Insider, explicitly calling out the revered CBS. However, it was insider Shari Redstone who completed the dreaded desecration last week.

“Surely the capitulation to President Trump by Redstone, controlling owner of Paramount-CBS, to secure Federal Communications Commission clearance to sell her dwindling media empire to David Ellison of Skydance and Redbird Capital was a moment of tragic irony. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/198492/paramount-cbs-sells-soul-trump-cheap

Last One to Leave News Room, Turn Out the Light.

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Article in Poynter by Sophie Endrud, 7/28/25

Headline:  “The tragedy of local news hits the stage in ‘The Last American Newspaper’”

Subhead:  “Ken Tingley, former managing editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., adapted his memoir into a two-hour play for Adirondack Theatre Festival”

“Over the weekend, the plea to save local news entered a new stage — the theatre.

“In four sold-out staged readings at the Adirondack Theatre Festival from July 25-27, Ken Tingley presented “The Last American Newspaper,” a play adapted from his memoir about The Post-Star in Glens Falls, New York.

“I think it’s a great message, and I think a lot of people believe in newspapers, love their newspapers and miss their newspapers,” he said. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/last-american-newspaper-local-news-theater-play/

 

Unlikely Free Press Ally?

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Article in The Guardian by Jane Martinson, 7/28/25

Headline:  “Murdoch v Trump: why the flawed media titan could be the final protector of press freedom”

Subhead:  “His companies may have hacked phones and broadcast lies, but Murdoch appears ready to battle the president to uphold editorial freedoms”

“. . .More than two decades later, is the crisis in the US media, one in which everything seems about to be lost, motivating Murdoch to take on the most powerful man in the world? It is as good a reason as many of those given over the past week for the fact that the billionaire whose Fox News channel has acted as a Trump cheerleader throughout is now, alone among US media titans, preparing to do battle in the courts.

“Trump’s onslaught on the US media – withdrawing federal funds, banning reporters and launching multi-billion-dollar lawsuits – has led once-renowned defenders of media freedom such as the Washington Post, ABC News and CBS to crumple, either changing their editorial policies or agreeing to apparently frivolous settlements . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/28/rupert-murdoch-donald-trump-press-freedom