Links

Political Threat to Licenses

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Article in Free Press by Staff, 9/10/26

Headline:  “Latest Kimmel Censorship Is Part of the Trump FCC’s Lawless Crusade Against a Free Press”

“On Wednesday’s broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel told viewers that ABC would not air his scheduled interview with James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee from Texas.

Kimmel indicated that the broadcast cancellation of the interview is a result of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s ongoing campaign against ABC. After President Trump repeatedly demanded that ABC lose its broadcast licenses over Kimmel’s jokes, Carr retaliated by forcing all ABC broadcast stations into a highly unusual early license-renewal process. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.freepress.net/news/latest-kimmel-censorship-part-trump-fccs-lawless-crusade-free-speech

Fighting Authoritarian Media Control

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin, 9/10/26

Headline: “The Fight to Save Journalism in Georgia”

Subhead: “How independent media organizations are standing together against an authoritarian government.”

“In Georgia, since a new party took power in 2024, founded by a billionaire oligarch with links to Russia, journalists are facing unprecedented attacks. All sorts of repression have become more common: physical assaults, arrests, arbitrary fines, suspensions of accreditation, and more. But perhaps the most devastating blow was less direct. After the government clamped down on all foreign funding and grants to Georgian organizations, citing them as examples of malign foreign interference, many independent media outlets lost as much as 90 percent of their budgets. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/kicker/the-fight-to-save-journalism-in-georgia-zeg-tbilisi-sinatle-chai-khana-lights-must-stay-on-antadze-bakradze.php

Some Rt. Media Questioning . . .

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Article in Media Matters by Sage Hodil, Hanne MacDonald & Reed McMaster,9/11/26

Headline:  “Why are some right-wing media figures pouring cold water on Trump’s sudden call to send Americans $5,000?”

Subhead: “While some call it ‘bold,’ others in right-wing media are saying that Trump’s $5,000 midterm idea is ‘flagrant bribery’ that ‘would simply be inflationary'”

“Right-wing figures are divided on President Donald Trump’s claim during his September 9 speech at the GOP midterm convention that the government will send $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans maintain control of Congress, with some arguing ‘we can’t afford’ the ‘inflationary’ payments and equating them to ‘flagrant bribery,’ while others claimed Trump’s plan is ‘creative’ and ‘a bet on the future.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/why-are-some-right-wing-media-figures-pouring-cold-water-trumps-sudden-call-send-americans

Newsroom AI Casualties

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Article in The Wrap by Tess Patton, 9/10/26

Headline:  “McClatchy Guts Newsrooms Nationwide Months After Controversial Push to AI”

Subhead: Papers in Miami, Kentucky and the Pacific Northwest saw as much as 30% of their staff cut on Thursday”

“McClatchy Media hit its newsrooms nationwide with significant layoffs on Thursday, with some newspapers gutted by a third of their staff.

“The layoffs came just months after the company’s push into AI with a controversial editorial tool that led to widespread revolt among staffers, as previously reported by TheWrap.

“The 168-year-old newspaper owner houses Pulitzer Prize-winning local outlets like the Bee, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer, among many others. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/mcclatchy-newspapers-layoffs-ai-tool/

Fox – See-No-War

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Article in Daily Kos by Oliver Willis, 9/10/26

Headline:  “Trump’s war in Iran is over—at least according to Fox News“

“President Donald Trump’s months-long war in Iran has cost lives and economic stability. But Fox News has a solution to the problem: Just stop talking about it.

“Media Matters for America analyzed coverage of the war between March and August and discovered that, as things got worse for the United States, Fox stopped airing stories about it.

“The decline was especially noteworthy on Fox’s evening shows, which are hosted by some of the network’s marquee names. Across “The Five,” “Hannity,” “The Ingraham Angle,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” and “Gutfeld!,” coverage of the war fell by 78%. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/10/800096520/media/trumps-war-in-iran-is-over-at-least-according-to-fox-news/

FCC Meddles in Broadcast Content

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Article in Meidasnews by Brett Meiselas, 9/9/26

Headline:  “Kimmel Says Trump FCC Threats Forced Talarico Interview Off TV

Subhead:  “The ABC host says his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico will be relegated to YouTube after threats from Trump’s FCC, months after Stephen Colbert’s Talarico interview was similarly kept off broadcast television.”

“Jimmy Kimmel says his upcoming interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on ABC, pointing the finger directly at President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission and its threats against the network and its affiliates.

“During his Wednesday night monologue, Kimmel announced that Talarico would appear for an interview Thursday, but viewers won’t actually be able to watch it on broadcast television. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://meidasnews.com/news/kimmel-says-trump-fcc-threats-forced-talarico-interview-off-tv

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 9/10/26

Headline:  FCC commissioner: Kimmel’s ‘self-censorship’ shows Trump’s bid to ‘control’ media working

“The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) lone Democratic commissioner is pointing to ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s decision not to broadcast an interview with Texas Senate nominee James Talarico (D) as evidence of what she called the Trump administration’s attempts to stifle free press. . .

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6082338-fcc-commissioner-censorship-jimmy-kimmel-abc/

Censoring Information From Military

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Article in The Atlantic by Erik Slavin, 9/9/26

Headline: “The Inside Story of What Happened at Stars and Stripes“

Subhead: “For generations, the newspaper has served American military families. That work must continue. And it must remain editorially independent.”

“. . .Uniformed military leaders have not lost the means to analyze and act on useful journalism. But publicly denouncing the reporting or the news outlet makes it far less likely that they will. Attacking people for telling the truth creates a chilling effect for truth tellers—including those who are themselves in the military.

“The best journalism unearths information that complex bureaucracies overlook or suppress, intentionally or not. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/pentagon-military-newspaper-independence-supression/688547/

Media Cover Up Voter Suppression?

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Article in AlterNet by Thom Hartmann, 9/8/26

Headline: “The dark electoral secret the media has hidden for 50 years”

“For over 50 years, our media has been covering up Republican voter suppression efforts. This year, though, they’re getting so obvious that it’ll be interesting to see if they continue to whitewash the practice. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/long-lines-voting/

Rt. Media, No Rage at Machines

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Article in FAIR by Ari Paul, 9/9/26

Headline:  “Repeat After Media: Data Centers Are Wonderful and Good”

“If you follow conservative media and Republican politicians, you could be convinced that any opposition to AI data centers is not due to their sprawling footprint, greed for electricity or insatiable need for cooling water. Rather, it’s the result of a Chinese Communist plot. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/repeat-after-media-data-centers-are-wonderful-and-good/

Fox Falling into Iranian Sinkhole?

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Article in Media Matters by Matt Gertz, 9/9/26

Headline:  “Iran coverage collapsed this summer on Fox News’ evening “opinion” shows”

Subhead:  “No war but the culture war: Network stars’ references to socialism, WNBA, Fauci, now swamping Iran”

“Six months into the war Donald Trump launched against Iran, the campaign ‘has deteriorated into a quagmire of the president’s own making with no clear goals, no obvious strategy and no end in sight’. . .”

“But on Fox News — the MAGA propaganda network that urged Trump to attack Iran in the first place — some of his most devoted allies have all but completely stopped talking about it. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/iran-coverage-collapsed-summer-fox-news-evening-opinion-shows