Fox Not Covering Gift-Wrapping?


Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 9/22/25

Headline:Fox averts its eyes from former employee Homan reportedly receiving a bag of cash”

Subhead: Fox News has yet to address on-air the recent reports that White House border czar Tom Homan, while working as a contributor for the network in September 2024, accepted a bag of cash from undercover FBI agents as part of a corruption investigation which was subsequently closed under the Trump administration.”

“In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/fox-averts-its-eyes-former-employee-homan-reportedly-receiving-bag-cash

Shots at the Media


Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taaffe. et. al., 9/18/25

Headline:  “How right-wing media sow distrust and confusion around vaccines and science”

Subhead: “As Florida ends school vaccine requirements and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership comes under fire, the right has repackaged anti-science talking points as well-meaning skepticism”

“Amid the rise of the so-called ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement, right-wing media figures have employed a variety of tactics that sow doubt and confusion around vaccine efficacy and science more broadly. These efforts to capitalize on existing distrust of public health institutions and pharmaceutical companies have gained renewed momentum following Florida’s elimination of vaccine requirements for schools . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/how-maha-media-sow-distrust-and-confusion-around-vaccines-and-science

One Party, One Media

 

Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 9/19/25

Headline: “As Ellison Buys Out TikTok, US Moves Toward One-Party Media”

Larry Ellison, founder of the software firm Oracle, is the second-richest billionaire in both the US and the world, and for a brief moment was No. 1 in the world (AP, 9/11/25). . .”

“Former CBS Evening News star Dan Rather (Hollywood Reporter, 9/15/25) said Americans “have to be concerned about the consolidation of huge billionaires getting control of nearly all of the major news outlets. . .”

“Rather and others are right that the Ellison duo taking over both CBS and CNN, as well as controlling a major social media network like TikTok, would be dangerous for democracy. And given their closeness to the Trump regime, that seems to be the point.”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/as-ellison-buys-out-tiktok-us-moves-toward-one-party-media/

Media in a Sea of Scandal


Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 9/1625

Headline:  “Another massive Trump corruption scandal for right-wing media to bury”

Subhead:  “How many orders of magnitude worse is Trump’s corruption than various Hunter Biden claims the right said justified his father’s impeachment: An investigation”

“. . .It goes without saying that the volume of coverage right-wing media outlets give to these shady deals won’t be proportionate — or even inversely proportionate — to what they provided for those Biden stories. Indeed, when House Democrats issued a report last year showing that China directed millions of dollars straight to Donald Trump’s businesses during Trump’s first term, Hannity promptly excused him and moved on. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/another-massive-trump-corruption-scandal-right-wing-media-bury

Media Rhetoric Causes Violence


Article in Raw Story by Tom Hartmann, 9/14/25

Headline:  “Opinion | This abject media cowardice only makes violent GOP rhetoric worse”

“As a guy who regularly gets death threats because of my media presence, I shouldn’t have to say that killing people — or even threatening them — for their politics is wrong. But here it is, for the record: nobody in America should die for their politics.

“. . .These are indeed very, very dangerous times. And the political rhetoric coming out of 1500 rightwing hate-radio stations, Republican politicians, and billionaire-funded hard-right-biased-social-media-algorithms is at the center of the crisis. . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/2673989140/?utm_source=opinion

Silencing Reporters Silences Us


Article in The Guardian by Edward Helmore, 9/14/25

Headline:  “How the US right wing is taking over news media and choking press freedom”

Subhead:  “Takeover of broadcast companies by Donald Trump’s allies is harbinger of media capitulation to authoritarian leanings”

“The US right has appeared to increase its influence on mainstream media in America in recent weeks, especially in television news which has been a major target of the Donald Trump administration. . .”

“The moves deepened concerns among many US media critics and observers of authoritarianism that press freedoms in the US were undergoing capitulation to the Trump administration’s rightwing authoritarian leanings. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/14/rightwing-news-media-journalism

Community Radio Paying the Price


Article in Indian Country Today by South Dakota Searchlight, 9/12/25

Headline:  “high cost for public media and rural America”

Subhead:  “Republican Mike Rounds’ vote was critical in cancellation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds”

“. . .as with many interactions with Trump, it was more transactional than genuinely moral or fairly reciprocal. A deal, in other words. But a very bad deal for rural Americans, it turns out.

“For the president’s end of the deal, he wanted Rounds to vote “yes” in the Senate on a bill to cut $9 billion in previously congressionally approved funding that included $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. . . ”

Read the full article at:

https://ictnews.org/opinion/trump-endorsement-of-south-dakota-senator-comes-at-a-high-cost-for-public-media-and-rural-america/

MAGA Media Hate Trans-People?


Article in Common Dreams by Stephen Prager, 9/12/25

Headline:  ” ‘WSJ, Media Outlets Slammed for Spreading Feds’ False Claim That Kirk Shooter Expressed ‘Transgender Ideology’ “

Subhead:  “ ‘What a truly disgusting week for American journalism,’ said one transgender writer.”

“The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets are facing widespread criticism after publishing a false report that the assassin who shot right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah this week had left behind symbols of ‘transgender ideology’ at the scene of the crime. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/charlie-kirk-2673989947

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Article in The Verge by Elizabeth, Lopatto, 9/12/25

Headline:  “The WSJ carelessly spread anti-trans misinformation”

“While I generally respect The Wall Street Journal, every once in a while it sees fit to remind me that it is, in fact, owned by Rupert Murdoch. This time, it printed something dangerously close to anti-trans blood libel in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shooting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theverge.com/politics/777630/wsj-trans-misinformation-charlie-kirk

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taafe, et. al., 9/12/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media rushed to blame killing of Charlie Kirk on trans people”

Subhead: “Authorities pushed back on unverified claims that the alleged shooter’s ammunition was inscribed with ‘transgender ideology’ ”

“. . . Some media figures seized on the scant reporting as key evidence of the suspect’s motivations, with right-wing commentators and outlets claiming the killer was a ‘leftist Trans radical,’ labeling the killing an act of ‘trans terrorism,’ and calling for the ‘trans movement’ to be labeled ‘as a terrorist movement’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/right-wing-media-rushed-blame-killing-charlie-kirk-trans-people

CBS “Anti-Woke” Leader?


Article in The Guardian by David Klion, 9/10/25

Headline:  “Disgruntled NYT journalist to ‘anti-woke’ power grab: how far can Bari Weiss go?”

Subhead: “After leaving the New York Times, she turned her Substack into an unshakable pro-Israel voice. Now as Paramount eyes acquisition of her company, Weiss is poised to become Trump’s ally among media elites”

“. . .But one of the most buzzed-about aspects is Paramount’s possible acquisition of the Free Press, the digital media company founded by Bari Weiss as a Substack newsletter in 2021, and Weiss’s potential new role steering CBS’s editorial slant. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2025/sep/10/bari-weiss-cbs

CBS Watchdog Has Master?

Article in FAIR by Saurav Sarkar, 9/9/25

Headline: “CBS Drifts Further Toward Right-Wing State Television”

“After Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (X, 8/31/25) complained that several minutes of her August 31 Face the Nation interview had been ‘shamefully edited…to whitewash the truth,‘ CBS News announced that its flagship Sunday morning program will no longer edit its interviews, except for ‘legal or national security’ reasons (AP, 9/5/25). . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/cbs-drifts-further-toward-right-wing-state-television/

– – – – –

Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 9/9/25

Headline:  CBS’ Conservative Cop”

Subhead:  “David Ellison’s new CBS News ombudsman tried to erase parts of his digital trail – but a Status review of what remains reveals him to be a Trump-supporting advocate”

“Donald Trump ‘is the ultimate outsider.’ He’s a “bold businessman who asks uncomfortable questions that typical policymakers are too squeamish to ask. People may dislike Trump’s methods, but they should appreciate his clarity about power dynamics.’ . . .”

“Those words aren’t from Fox News host Sean Hannity’s nightly sycophantic monologue. They come from Kenneth Weinstein, who lavished Trump with praise in a column published this summer. On Monday, David Ellison’s Paramount named Weinstein the new ombudsman of CBS News. . .”

Read the article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-ombudsman-kenneth-weinstein

– – – – –

Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 9/9/25

Headline:  Opinion | Paramount named an ombudsman to oversee CBS News. Who is he?

Subhead:  “The new ombudsman, Kenneth Weinstein, steps into a role created to safeguard fairness, though political questions linger”

“. . . On the surface, an ombudsman should be a welcome addition to any network newsroom, which should be practicing fair and honest journalism free of bias.

“But this particular announcement came off as a bit suspicious. It has been seen as a way to placate President Donald Trump, whose FCC had to sign off on the sale. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/cbs-ombudsman-kenneth-weinstein-who/