Paramount Choosing News?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 2/17/26

Headline:  “Paramount is mangling CBS — and CNN may be next”

Subhead:  “Trump’s corruption makes capitulation a media business plan”

“The Tuesday announcement by Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, that it is reopening deal talks with Paramount marks the latest example of President Donald Trump’s corrupt effort to quell dissent by pushing media companies into the hands of his supporters.

“Warner Bros. agreed in December to sell its movie and streaming assets to Netflix and spin off its cable networks, including CNN, into a new entity. But Paramount, owned by David Ellison, the son of megabillionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, is mounting a hostile bid to take over the entire company — and the Ellisons have a powerful ally in the White House. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/paramount-mangling-cbs-and-cnn-may-be-next

Manipulating the News?

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Article in The Guardian by JAne Martinson, 2/14/26

Headline:  “Learn this from Bezos and the Washington Post: with hyper-capitalists in charge, your news is not safe”

Subhead:  “His shameful stewardship of a once great title highlights how much we lose when private interest eclipses the public good”

“. . .Job cuts in an industry that has struggled financially since the internet came into existence and killed its business model is hardly new, but last week’s brutal cull of hundreds of journalists at the Bezos-owned Washington Post marks a new low. . .”

“Why it happened is still baffling, at least for anyone not inside the head of one of the world’s richest men. Marty Baron, the Post’s former editor, highlighted the owner’s “sickening” efforts to curry favour with Donald Trump in a “case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction”. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/14/jeff-bezos-washington-post-news-not-safe

Another One Bites the Dust

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Article in Mediaite by Sarah Rumpf, 2/16/26

Headline:  ” ‘Another Black Eye for Bari’: Insiders Dish on What Drove Anderson Cooper to Quit 60 Minutes“

“. . .Cooper, who also anchors his AC360 show weeknights on CNN and is a correspondent for the cable news network, has been a correspondent with 60 Minutes for nearly two decades, winning four Emmys and numerous other accolades for his reporting. . .”

“His departure from 60 Minutes — first reported by Lachlan Cartwright at Breaker — comes after a tumultuous year on the venerated television program, after several longtime staffers left, network brass pushed through a controversial settlement with President Donald Trump in order to help pave the way for CBS’s parent company Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/another-black-eye-for-bari-insiders-dish-on-what-drove-anderson-cooper-to-quit-60-minutes/

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 2/16/26

Headline: “Cooper’s Final Minutes”

Subhead: “While Anderson Cooper cited the desire to spend more time with family as he announced his exit from “60 Minutes,” Status has learned that deeper issues at the Bari Weiss-led network played a role in his stunning departure.”

Read the article at:

https://www.status.news/p/anderson-cooper-60-minutes-bari-weiss

Media Unmasking ICE?

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Article in Media Matters by Reed McMaster & Isabella Sherk, 2/12/26

Headline:  “Right-wing media’s claims that ICE agents need to be masked for safety fall apart”

Subhead:  “Right-wing media have argued for months that immigration officers and their families are in danger of being doxed, assaulted, and even murdered if agents don’t wear mask”

“Right-wing media have claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents are in danger of being “doxed” and even murdered if they are unable to conceal their identity. New reporting shows that working in immigration enforcement is actually safer than being a civilian, and there are no recorded incidents of agents being doxed. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-medias-claims-ice-agents-need-be-masked-safety-fall-apart

CBS Still Shrinking

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 2/13/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Buyouts signal growing fracture inside CBS News“

Subhead:  “Recent departures sharpen scrutiny of Bari Weiss’ vision”

“Unrest continues at CBS News.

“As I linked to in the newsletter earlier this week, the New York Post’s Alexandra Steigrad reported that about a quarter of ‘CBS Evening News’ staffers eligible for buyouts have chosen to take them ahead of possible impending layoffs under new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/buyouts-layoffs-cbs-news-bari-weiss/

More Media Targets!

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Article in Washington Post by Will Oremus, 2/13/26

Headline:  “Trump’s campaign against ‘left-wing’ media finds a new target: Apple News“

Subhead:  “Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a letter to Apple that he’s “not the speech police” but warned the company that its choice of articles could violate the law.”

“Apple News, the popular newsreader app that comes installed on every iPhone, is the latest media property to be warned by a regulator appointed by President Donald Trump over charges of liberal bias.

“On Wednesday, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to Apple chief executive Tim Cook expressing concern about ‘reports that Apple News has systematically promoted news articles from left-wing news outlets and suppressed news articles from more conservative publications.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/12/apple-news-bias-ftc-ferguson-letter/

Reporter – Obliteration or Obfuscation?

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Article in Mediaite by Karen Wilkens, 2/13/26

Headline:  “Reporter Corners Trump on What’s Left to Bomb If He ‘Totally Obliterated’ Iran’s Nuclear Sites”

“In a Friday appearance before reporters from the tarmac at Fort Bragg, President Donald Trump was questioned on what’s left to bomb in Iran if he truly ‘totally obliterated’ the country’s nuclear sites as he’s previously claimed.

“The off-camera reporter cited Trump’s speech after last June’s military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, in which he deemed the bombings a ‘spectacular’ success that had ‘completely and totally obliterated’ their targets.

“ ‘What’s left to go after?’ questioned the reporter. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/reporter-corners-trump-on-whats-left-to-bomb-if-he-totally-obliterated-irans-nuclear-sites/

WaPo – Making Someone Happy

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Article in FAIR by Pete Tucker, 2/13/26

Headline:  “Like Melania Doc, WaPo Layoffs Are Another Way for Bezos to Suck Up to Trump”

“. . .Bezos—who remains Amazon’s executive chair and its largest shareholder—certainly has incentive to bribe Trump, after experiencing Trump’s wrath in his first term.

“In 2019, amid the Washington Post’s critical reporting on Trump, Amazon lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing deal, an event that unnerved Bezos. He was ‘deeply hurt’ and ‘sat there going: “This is not right,”‘ a person who met with Bezos days later told the Financial Times (3/20/25).

So in 2024, when it looked like Trump might return to the Oval Office, Bezos quietly reached out, and even suggested a running mate for Trump. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/like-melania-doc-wapo-layoffs-are-another-way-for-bezos-to-suck-up-to-trump/

VOA after De-funding Disaster?

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Article in Washington post by Mark A. Thiessen 2/13/26

Headline:  “Kari Lake is making Trump’s job harder in Iran”

Subhead:  “She has gutted America’s ability to get good information to the Iranian people in a conflict.”

“For a year, Lake has worked tirelessly to cripple the U.S.-backed ‘freedom radios’ — including Voice of America and Radio Farda — that broadcast into Iran to counter regime propaganda. As an unpaid volunteer member of the board of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which operates Radio Farda, I have seen the chaos she’s unleashed up close. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/13/kari-lake-voa-radio-farda-trump-iran-strike-messaging/

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 2/12/26

Headline:  “USA: New funding for USAGM signals sustained bipartisan support for its crucial international journalism”

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes the inclusion of funds for Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the other public media outlets supported by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) in the 2026 appropriations bill signed by President Trump on February 3. The decision sends a strong, bipartisan message that USAGM outlets are vital sources of reliable news worldwide. This funding supports life-saving, critical news reporting in many closed countries where local journalists are attacked for trying to keep the public informed. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/usa-new-funding-usagm-signals-sustained-bipartisan-support-its-crucial-international-journalism

Authoritarians Always Attack Media

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Article in Common Dreams by Stephen R. Weissman, 2/12/26

Headline:  “Don Lemon’s Travail Is a Warning of Rising Authoritarianism; I Would Know”

Subhead:  “My experience as a university professor in Congo demonstrates that repressive governments may go after a variety of observers sympathizing with militant protesters by purveying false or distorted reports of their actions. . .”

“Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is under federal indictment for participating in a Minnesota protest group’s obstruction of a church service. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. News of his prosecution took me back more than five decades to when I was a young university professor in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). At that time, President Mobutu Sese Seko’s government threatened to arrest me for my alleged involvement in student disruptions.

“In both cases, increasingly authoritarian governments decided to clamp down on independent observers—journalists or others—who sympathized with community activists. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/don-lemon-authoritarianism