Article in Raw Story by Matthew Chapman, 8/11/26
Headline: ” ‘Be prepared’: MAGA-friendly media giant warned over sketchy merger”
“Democrats are gearing up to grill Paramount Skydance over its blockbuster $110 billion bid to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery — a merger that would put CNN under the thumb of the same MAGA-friendly executive who has overseen the controversial hollowing out of CBS. . .”
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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 8/11/26
Headline: “Opinion | Trump’s FCC is poised for a further shift to the right”
Subhead: “Trump’s latest nominee could give Republicans enough votes to conduct business without the commission’s lone Democrat”
“In a move that could further politicize the Federal Communications Commission, President Donald Trump has nominated Danielle Thumann Severs, a longtime aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, to fill one of the agency’s two vacant seats.
“Axios’ Sara Fischer writes, ‘If confirmed by the Senate, Thumann Severs would make it much easier for the Republican-led FCC to hold and pass votes unilaterally without any Democratic friction’. . .”
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https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/trump-nominated-danielle-thumann-severs-fcc/
Article in Media Matters by Jack Winstanley, Gideon Taaffe & Hanne MacDonald, 8/11/26
Headline: “Right-wing media’s affordability burrito brawl”
Subhead: “After a post complaining about a $20 burrito went viral, some right-wing figures accused those dismissing concerns about affordability of “giving the finger to voters” and driving them ‘into the arms of the socialists’ ”
“Last week, Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet’s post about a college student noting the high price of a burrito sparked a debate among conservative commentators over whether food affordability is a real issue for voters.
“While some dismissed concerns over an expensive burrito, advising those complaining to ‘cry me a river’ and cook food at home, other right-wing personalities noted such responses were equivalent to ‘giving the finger to voters’ and accused those commentators of “trying to gaslight us into being happy that it’s unaffordable.”
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Article in Media Matters by Jack Winstanley & Zachary Pleat, 8/10/26
Headline: “Right-wing media have been arguing for decades that fewer Americans should have the right to vote”
Subhead: “Repealing the 19th Amendment, disenfranchising welfare recipients, and requiring a civics test — right-wing media are full of ideas about how to restrict voting “
“. . .President Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress the vote have a significant ideological precedent. For decades, right-wing media have advocated restrictions on voter eligibility, laying the groundwork for Trump and his allies to undermine the upcoming midterms and push for policies that would make it harder for some Americans to vote. . .”
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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 7/8/26
Headline: “FCC scraps limit on local TV ownership in win for media conglomerates”
Subhead: “The 2-1 vote along party lines repealed ‘national cap’ that served as a key check on consolidation of the TV industry”
“In a historic vote on Thursday morning, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines to overturn a key check against the consolidation of the television industry, throwing out a rule that prevented any one company from owning stations that collectively reach more than 39% of all US TV households.
“The vote is a win for television conglomerates that aim to expand their reach across the country, particularly conservative-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar. . .”
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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/aug/06/fcc-overturns-limit-local-tv-ownership
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Article in Common Dreams by Timothy Karr, 8/6/26
Headline: “Free Press Plans to Take Carr to Court in Response to Thursday’s Unlawful Decision to Eliminate a Vital Limit on Media Consolidation”
“. . .Free Press and allies plan to appeal this unlawful decision in court.
“Congress enshrined the national ownership cap in federal law; it prohibits a single company from owning TV stations that reach more than 39 percent of the national broadcast audience. The FCC does not have the power to get rid of this limit, but Chairman Brendan Carr decided to move ahead. . .”
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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 8/5/26
Headline: “Opinion | David Ellison broke months of silence on CNN’s future. His biggest critics won’t be reassured.”
Subhead: “The Paramount CEO explained his vision for CNN and CBS News in a New York Times essay — but left key concerns unanswered”
“For months, the biggest media story has been Paramount’s attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $111 billion. . .”
“There is another concern: that Paramount, which already owns CBS News, would also take control of CNN and, many fear, shift the network to the right because of Paramount CEO David Ellison’s evidently cozy relationship with President Donald Trump. . .”
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https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/david-ellison-cnn-nyt-op-ed/
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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 9/5/26
Headline: “Ellison defends Paramount merger, argues he can ‘be trusted as a steward of CNN“
“Media executive David Ellison is defending Paramount’s bid to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery and defending himself against accusations of implementing political bias at his media properties. . .”
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https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6007503-media-exec-denies-political-bias/
Article in Media Matters by Tyler Monroe & Kayla Gogarty, 8/3/26
Headline: “Fox News and podcasters in the right-wing media ecosystem bury recent reporting on alleged domestic abuse by Ohio GOP Rep. Max Miller”
Subhead: “The Benny Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Megyn Kelly Show, Steve Bannon’s War Room, The Ben Shapiro Show, Loomer Unleashed, Tim Pool Daily Show, and Timcast IRL all ignored the story”
“The right-wing media ecosystem has largely buried recent reporting detailing reports of alleged domestic abuse by Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), with Fox News spending just 4 minutes discussing the story and several popular podcasters ignoring it completely. . . ”
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Article in Status by Natalie Korach. 8/2/26
Headline: “The Post’s Opinion Parting”
Subhead: “Days before his abrupt exit from The WaPo, Adam O’Neal was privately boasting that he had pushed the Opinion section further to the right—raising new questions about what really drove his departure.”
In the days leading up to his shocking exit last week, Adam O’Neal gave no indication he was on his way out as The Washington Post’s Opinion editor. In recent private conversations, Status has learned, he struck precisely the opposite tone, sounding triumphant and boasting that he had pushed the paper’s storied opinion section further to the right. . .”
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https://www.status.news/p/adam-oneal-washington-post-opinion-exit
Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Miranda Green, 7/30/26
Headline: “How a Network of Pink-Slime News Sites and Conservative Activists Went After Campus DEI”
Subhead: “Using FOIA requests and hidden-camera videos, the groups targeted universities, leading to the firing of faculty and staff.”
“In February of 2025, as college students across the country settled into their spring semesters, administrators at four major public universities in the Midwest received public records requests about their policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. . .”
“The requests, from sites owned by a paid partisan network called Metric Media, were part of a strategic, ongoing effort to expose and castigate public universities for teaching with an eye on diversity. . .”
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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel, 7/29/26
Headline: “The growing MAGA media despondency over the Iran war quagmire”
Subhead: “Benny Johnson once called to rebrand the Strait of Hormuz in the US’s image, but now he has acquiesced to Iranian control over the crucial waterway”
“As President Donald Trump’s war on Iran extends into its sixth month, some figures on the right are recalibrating their messaging from an original demand for maximalist victory to something much more modest.
“Although the war has created some fractures in right-wing media, at the outset of the conflict it had no shortage of boosters — either Iran hawks or MAGA hacks. Now, as the Iranian government has survived months of bombing and operationalized its previously unrealized control of the Strait of Hormuz, some of those pundits are scaling back their ambitions. . .”
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https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/growing-maga-media-despondency-over-iran-war-quagmire