Public Media

Covering a Local Disaster

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 7/24/26

Headline:  “When the Boundary Waters burned, local journalists answered the call”

Subhead:  “As wildfires spread through one of America’s most cherished wilderness areas, small Minnesota newsrooms became essential for residents and visitors”

“. . .The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness spans more than 1 million acres of forests, glacial lakes and streams in northeastern Minnesota. It is one of the nation’s most cherished wilderness areas. . .”

“As firefighters battled the blazes in an area that is already hard to access, local journalists mobilized to provide their audiences with up-to-date information. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/boundary-waters-wildfires-local-journalism-minnesota/

 

Radioactive Magazine for 7/14/26

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Lenny Bruce

Interview by Spencer Graves 7/14/26 on KKFI-FM

Headline:  George Carlin’s and Lenny Bruce’s Legacy on Censorship

“Tuesday’s episode of Radioactive Magazine features an interview with Robert Corn-Revere, a leading First Amendment attorney and Chief Counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). . .”

“. . .a discussion of the US Supreme Court decision in FCC v. Pacifica (1978), which saw WBAI in NYC fined for airing George Carlin’s famous ‘Seven Dirty Words’ in 1973. Roughly 9 years earlier, comedian Lenny Bruce was found guilty of obscenity in New York for a comedy routine in an adults-only night club. Corn-Revere helped secure a posthumous pardon for Bruce from New York Governor Pataki, and more recently Corn-Revere named his two dogs ‘Lenny’ and ‘Bruce’.

Listen to the episode at:

Radioactive Magazine airs Tuesdays at 6:PM CST on KKFI 90.1 FM, streaming live at http://kkfi.org

Handling Reporting Mistakes

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Article in The Atlantic by Charlie Warzel, 6/30/26

Headline:  “A Tough Day for NPR“

Subhead:  “Are there any lessons to the newsroom’s Supreme Court error?”

“It was all a ‘misunderstanding.’ That’s the word that NPR Editor in Chief Thomas Evans used to describe why, today, the outlet erroneously published a report by the veteran Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. . . In the story, Totenberg attributed her reporting to the Court itself, not to an anonymous source. Minutes later, the Supreme Court’s public-information office said that the Court had not made any such announcement.

“NPR, to its credit, quickly retracted the story, issued a correction, and apologized. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/npr-alito-supreme-court-retraction/687750/

FAIR, 40 Years

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Article in FAIR by Jeff Cohen, 6/12/26

Headline: “Forty Years of Raising Hell About Corporate Media Bias”

“. . .I came up with the idea for FAIR in the mid-1980s, when corporate news outlets were on bended knee for a reactionary, declining, war-mongering president—and when Reaganism was ushering in an era of dangerous media mergers. Thankfully, FAIR is still around to challenge today’s even worse media conglomeration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/forty-years-of-raising-hell-about-corporate-media-bias/

Community Media Pioneer Dies

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Article in Democracy Now! by Staff, 5/29/26

Headline:  “Philadelphia Community Access Media Founder Gretjen Clausing Dies at 61”

“Gretjen Clausing, the founding executive director of Philadelphia Community Access Media, has passed away at the age of 61. Clausing dedicated decades of her life advocating for public access to the media and freedom of expression and was actively involved in national campaigns in support of community media and local journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/29/headlines/philadelphia_community_access_media_founder_gretjen_clausing_dies_at_61

Next Stop, Fernwood 2night?

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Article in Poynter by Tom JJones, 5/26/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Stephen Colbert said he’d return to public access TV. Then he actually did it.”

Subhead:  “One day after ending his 11-year run on CBS, Colbert resurfaced on a quirky Michigan community access show with Jack White, Jeff Daniels and Eminem”

“Stephen Colbert is already back on TV.

Well, for a moment he was. Just a day after he wrapped up his 11-year run as host of CBS’s “The Late Show,” Colbert made a guest appearance on “Only in Monroe,” a community access show broadcast in southeast Michigan. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/stephen-colbert-public-access-return/

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Article in Mother Jones by Anna Merlan, 5/23/26

Headline:  “Stephen Colbert Escaped Late Night and Immediately Started Having Fun”

Subhead:  “A gloriously deadpan and silly public access appearance after an ‘excruciating’ 23 hours off-air.”

“In a delightful Easter egg for fans of Stephen Colbert, local television, or the improbable combination of the two, following Colbert’s last-ever Late Show, he popped up the following day as the guest host of ‘Only in Monroe,‘ a public access show in Monroe, Michigan. Colbert presented an hour of local news, assisted, sort of, by his ‘volunteer musical director,’ a deadpan Jack White hunched over a reel-to-reel tape deck with headphones clamped over his ears.

“ ‘It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV,’ Colbert declared. ‘So I am grateful to be here on Monroe Community Media before they are also acquired by Paramount.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/stephen-colbert-escaped-late-night-michigan-public-access-and-immediately-started-having-fun/

Women Silenced in Major Media

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Interview by Spenser Graves, on Radio Active Magazine airs Tuesday, 5/2/26

“Next Tuesday’s Radio Active Magazine features in interview with U Mass Amherst Communication professor Allison Butler on ‘How women are centered and silenced in the major media’.  She has a new book titled, ‘How women are centered and silenced in pop culture’. . .”

A video of the43-minute interview with her is available with the  podcast to air on Tuesday.  Also airs on Pacifica.

Listen live to the episode at on Tuesday, 6:00 PM at:

Blowing Other Stuff Up Besides Media?

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Article in The Washington Post by Scott Nover, 5/11/26

Headline:  “Trump taps embattled media czar Kari Lake as ambassador to Jamaica”

Subhead:  “Lake was tasked with dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America, and became embroiled in contentious legal battles.”

Kari Lake, the embattled Trump administration official tasked with dismantling the government’s global media outlets, has been nominated as the next U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, according to a list of nominations the White House sent to the U.S. Senate on Monday. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/11/kari-lake-jamaica-trump/

Journalist Awards

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Article in Poynter by Jennifer Orsi, 4/27/26

Headline: “Here are the winners of the 2026 Poynter Journalism Prizes”

Subhead: “Poynter contest honors journalism excellence across 12 categories, from local accountability to climate change to First Amendment issues”

“The Poynter Institute announced the winners and finalists for the 2026 Poynter Journalism Prizes Monday, honoring journalists and news organizations across platforms for exceptional work in 12 categories for writing, reporting, innovation and leadership. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/here-are-the-winners-of-the-2026-poynter-journalism-prizes/

Censoring Past Media Too?

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson 4/22/26

Headline:  “The Wayback Machine Has Been the Best Archive for Preserving Our Digital Lives”

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Lia Holland on the Internet Archive”

“Janine Jackson: A recent report by Wired‘s Kate Knibbs leads with the contradiction: USA Today published a story recently on how ICE is misinforming about its detainment policies, a case that the paper built on data from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, a nonprofit digital library that preserves webpages.

“At the same time, USA Today bars the Wayback Machine from archiving its work. Along with outlets like the New York Times, the paper is trying to block the Internet Archive project from doing their job of preserving reporting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/the-wayback-machine-has-been-the-best-archive-for-preserving-our-digital-lives/