News Orgs vs. AI

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Article in UPI by Stephen Feller, 7/9/26

Headline:  “News organizations call for legal sanctions against OpenAI”

“More than a dozen news organizations asked a court to sanction OpenAI for withholding evidence in lawsuits filed against the company for copyright infringement.

“The New York Times, New York Daily News, The Intercept and 14 other news organizations asked a federal court on Thursday for sanctions against the artificial intelligence company for lying about its ability to provide data showing how it has used copyrighted material to train its models.

The companies had sued OpenAI for violating copyright law by using their content to create a secondary product — its AI models — without paying for it, The New York Times and Variety reported. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/07/09/news-organizations-file-sanctions-openai-copyright-infringement/5221783621572/

FCC Decides What is “News”?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 7/8/26

Headline:   “Opinion | ABC reminds the FCC it already ruled ‘The View’ is news”

Subhead:  “ABC argues that if the FCC can decide what qualifies as news, it can also dictate which political candidates programs may interview”

“ABC is stepping up its fight against the Federal Communications Commission.

“In what is shaping up to be an intense battle that could have long-lasting ramifications, Disney’s ABC and the FCC continue to trade blows. It all goes back to ABC’s ‘The View’ and whether it violated what is known as the ‘equal-time rule.’ That’s the rule that says if a TV or radio program talks to someone running for political office, it must offer their opponent the same amount of time. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/abc-the-view-fcc-fight/

Media Monopoly Struggle Continues

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Article in Reuters by Dawn Chmielewski and Jody Godoy 7/8/26

Headline:  “US states could sue next week to block Paramount-Warner Bros deal, sources say”

“U.S. states concerned that Paramount’s  $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will hurt competition could sue to block the deal as soon as next week, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta ​has taken the lead in investigating whether the deal violates U.S. laws against mergers that would unlawfully harm ​competition. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-states-could-sue-next-week-block-paramount-warner-bros-deal-sources-say-2026-07-08/

Courting Defamation?

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Article in Washington Post by Scott Nover, 7/7/26

Headline:  “Judge rules for The Washington Post in $3.8B defamation suit brought by Trump Media”

Subhead:  “The social media company failed to identify convincing evidence that The Post acted with actual malice, a federal judge in Tampa ruled.”

“. . .U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber, who is based in Tampa, wrote in a summary docket entry — known as a minute order — that Trump Media “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that The Post “published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.” Barber granted The Post’s motion for summary judgment and denied one from Trump Media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/07/07/judge-rules-washington-post-38b-defamation-suit-brought-by-trump-media/

No Truthiness for Media?

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Article in Daily Kos by Karandreas, 7/6/26

Headline: “Media Countenance Trump Lies”

“Jim Scuitto, the otherwise estimable CNN reporter, slipped into the lazy mainstream media cubbyhole of allowing Trump sycophants to lie about the economy without any pushback.

“To wit, Stephen Moore, the far right commentator and former Trump advisor was doing a dance to avoid answering questions about Trump’s latest and perhaps largest grift, the billions he made on crypto. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/6/800065965/community/media-countenance-trump-lies/

 

 

Student Media Targeted Now?

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Article in FAIR by Hank Kennedy, 7/6/26

Headline:  “Trump Era Repression Trickles Down to Student Press Censorship”

The Wingspan ran a cartoon in January by Aidan McClaren, comparing modern-day actions of ICE with the Palmer Raids against American radicals in the 1920s and the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The well-known quote from George Santayana appears at the top: ‘Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.’ A bystander observes, ‘Why does this look familiar…?’. . .”

“Within two days, school administrators at Gretna East High School in Omaha, Nebraska, had taken the cartoon off the paper’s website. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/trump-era-repression-trickles-down-to-student-press-censorship/

JD Vance OP-Ed Fireworks

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Article in The Atlantic by Peter Wehner, 7/4/26

Headline: “What J. D. Vance Once Knew”

Subhead:  “Ten years ago, the vice president wrote that one day, voters would realize the truth about Donald Trump. That day has now arrived.”

“. . .In the midst of a social crisis, Vance observed, Trump offered ‘an easy escape from the pain. To every complex problem, he promises a simple solution.’ But, he argued, such promises were a cheap high. ‘He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t. Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.’

“ ‘Trump is cultural heroin,’ Vance wrote. ‘He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/jd-vance-trump-independence-day/687779/

Editor’s Words Still Ring True

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Article in Poynter by Staff, 7/4/26

Headline: “A message about the importance of the free press”

Subhead:  “On America’s 250th birthday, we reprint the words of the late Poynter chairman Eugene C. Patterson”

“Eugene C. Patterson fought Nazis as a tank platoon leader in World War II. He fought for civil rights as a crusading editor at The Atlanta Constitution in the 1960s. He fought for high standards and ethical journalism in all his roles as a newspaper editor, including as CEO and chairman of the St. Petersburg Times. . .”

“He wrote these words, which in 1984 were published in a book by the Society for Professional Journalists. . .” [words are above]

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2026/eugene-patterson-free-press-message/

Rt. Wing Media Worry About Cuba

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Article in Media Matters by Janos Balazs, 7/2/26

Headline: “Right-wing Spanish-language media caution that attacking Cuba won’t be as straightforward as the Maduro raid”

Subhead: “One guest said any potential U.S. military action in Cuba ‘would have to be much larger than Venezuela’ “

“As tensions have risen between the U.S. and Cuba, some Spanish-language right-wing media voices have cautioned that regime change in Cuba won’t be as easy as President Donald Trump’s raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January. While hosts have generally expressed support for such actions, they’ve claimed that the Cuban government is ‘more closed off’ than Venezuela; that former Cuban leader Raúl Castro has ‘the whole army as personal security’; and that ‘there is no Delcy Rodríguez’ in Cuba, referring to the former vice president of Venezuela who replaced Maduro. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/right-wing-spanish-language-media-caution-attacking-cuba-wont-be