Wounded Public Stations

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Public media is NOT state-controlled media

Article in The New York Times, 9/13/25 by Benjamin Mullin, et. al., 9/13/25

Headline:  “After Trump’s Cuts, ‘Crippled’ NPR and PBS Stations Must Transform”

Subhead:  “Radio and television stations, facing enormous budget holes, are pleading with NPR and PBS to lower their fees as they examine whether to drop national programming altogether.”

“On the windswept prairie of South Dakota, a tribal public radio station is selling off its old records to pay the bills. In Warm Springs, Ore., the NPR affiliate is considering dropping ‘All Things Considered” ‘o focus on tribal issues. . .”

“Some stations are beginning to go off the air, as Congress was warned before it went ahead and eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayer-backed company that supports public media, ultimately shutting it down. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/politics/public-broadcasting-cuts.html

Community Radio Paying the Price

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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?

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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

Media Gulf-Confusion

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Article in NOTUS by Dave Levinthal, 9/11/25

Headline:  “Behind the Apparent Media Blackout Around Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ Name Change”

Subhead: “New internal emails obtained by NOTUS detail confusion at the U.S. Geological Survey and the State Department.”

“Three days after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, a State Department official sent a seemingly exasperated email to Michael Tischler, director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Geospatial Program.

“The problem: How to manage press inquiries ‘left and right’ about Trump’s plan to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.notus.org/donald-trump/gulf-of-america-mexico-name-change-foia-documents

Media Monopolies?

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Article in The New York Times, 9/11/25

Headline: “Paramount Plans Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery”

Subhead: “Any deal would further reshape the media industry, putting CBS News, CNN and two major movie studios under the same corporate umbrella.”

“. . .A merger of the two Hollywood giants would reshape the media industry, putting some of the most renowned news and entertainment brands under the same roof. It would unite two of the biggest movie studios and two of the most influential news networks, CBS News and CNN. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/business/media/paramount-warner-bros-discovery-bid.html

Network on the Edge?

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Adan Piorem 9/11/25

Headline:  “A Tipping Point at CBS News”

Subhead:  “Who would have thought this is the piece that would get me fired?” Bill Owens, the former executive producer of 60 Minutes, said in the screening room. For the past year, CBS journalists have been up against extraordinary pressure.”

“. . .The second Trump administration would deliver an unprecedented level of deference from media leadership to a hostile president. Journalists at CBS News would come under increasing scrutiny. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/cbs-news-redstone-ellison-60-minutes-trump-israel-gaza-tipping-point.php

 

How to Respond to Reporters?

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Article in the New Republic by Greg Sargent, 11/110/25

Headline: “Trump Press Sec Seethes as Epstein Spin Falls Apart in Briefing Fiasco”

Subhead:  “As Karoline Leavitt’s responses to the latest Jeffrey Epstein revelations go awry, a media observer explains why the MAGA disinformation machine’s treatment of this scandal is more unnerving than usual.”

“. . .The upshot: White House spin looked comically awful throughout. Leavitt flashed anger at other points, accusing reporters of ignoring serious crimes and of being dishonest about Trump’s militarization of Washington, D.C. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/200234/trump-press-sec-seethes-epstein-spin-falls-apart-briefing-fiasco

Checkmate, Media!

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Article in Poynter by Ren LaForme & Alex Mahadevan, 9/10/25

Headline: “Gamergate was a warning that the media failed to heed”

Subhead:  “Before QAnon and MAGA, Gamergate pioneered a decentralized playbook for undermining the press”

“In the mid-2010s, loosely organized online movements began spilling into the real world, catching popular culture off guard and leaving many journalists flat-footed in unfamiliar internet territory.

“You know their names. Pizzagate. QAnon. And the most consequential of all, MAGA: a mainstream political movement fueled in part by a fervent online contingent. But before all that came Gamergate, the proving ground where the tactics were tested. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2025/what-was-gamergate-controversy-ethics-games-journalism/

No More Media Gate

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Article in AP by David Bauder, 9/10/25

Headline:  “Graphic video of Kirk shooting was everywhere online, showing how media gatekeeper role has changed”

“. . .For more than 150 years, news organizations like newspapers and television networks have long been accustomed to ‘gatekeeping’ when it comes to explicit content — making editorial decisions around violent events to decide what images and words appear on their platforms for their readers or viewers. But in the fragmented era of social media, smartphones and instant video uploads, editorial decisions by legacy media are less impactful than ever. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/charlie-kirk-video-graphic-online-social-media-6cfd4dfde356b960aeea69c01ea3ec34

CBS “Anti-Woke” Leader?

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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