Corporate Media

CNN Moving Closer to the Edge

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 6/16/26

Headline:  “The CBS-CNN Courtship”

Subhead:  “Behind the scenes, Status has learned that top executives at CNN and CBS News have quietly convened for meetings as Paramount moves closer to acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, uniting the two news operations.”

“A few weeks ago, as CBS News and   inched closer to a corporate marriage, top executives from the two news organizations and their parent companies convened for an introductory meeting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-cnn-merger-bari-weiss-mark-thompson-paramount

Local Stations – Exploding Prices?

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Article in Media Matters by Zachary Pleat & Gideon Taaffe, 6/15/26

Headline:  “Sinclair’s national programs offer a Trump-friendly spin on his costly oil and gas prices, while local broadcasts show harm to Americans”

Subhead: “Local stations — including some owned by Sinclair — have been at the forefront of documenting American pain at the pump”

“Americans are feeling pain at the pump and elsewhere thanks to the ongoing surge in oil and fuel prices from President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, and local television news stations have been at the forefront of documenting that pain, with even some local stations owned by the right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group airing such coverage. Sinclair’s national programming, however, has often applied a Trump-friendly spin while discussing high gas prices, downplaying the increases and suggesting they’ll be short-lived. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fuel-files-rising-gasoline-oil-and-fertilizer-prices/sinclairs-national-programs-offer-trump

60 Minutes Losing its Glow?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 6/12/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Will we recognize the country’s most-watched news program after this overhaul?”

Subhead: ” ’60 Minutes’ is at a crossroads, and some wonder how — and if — the show will recover from recent changes”

“. . .This past season, the show had seven people introduce themselves: Anderson Cooper, Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim. All of them, superb journalists.

That number is now down to four. Cooper left the show on his own accord after the season, saying his schedule had become too busy and that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Vega and Alfonsi were fired by CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, who also fired the show’s executive producer, Tanya Simon, and replaced her with Nick Bilton, who has no real experience in TV news. . .”

Read the full article at

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/will-60-minutes-be-recognizable-new-york-knicks-win/

Media and 2020 Election

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Article in AlterNet by D. Earl Stephens, 6/10/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Veteran reporter tells complicit media to ‘go to hell’ “

“As the smoke finally started to clear following Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, and Donald Trump’s violent attack aimed at overthrowing our government just two months later, I wrote a piece castigating our disintegrating working press in the United States.

“The thrust of my write was this: If you were addressing ANY Republican about ANYTHING, your first question simply had to be, “Do you believe Donald Trump lost the 2020 election?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/complicit-media-trump/

Press Freedom Groups Warn

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Article in The Wrap by Josh Dickey, 6/2/26
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Headline:  “Next After ’60 Minutes’ Amid ‘Existential Threat’ of Paramount Merger”

Subhead: “The coalition of nine journalism advocacy groups calls the ’60 Minutes’ firings ‘a grotesque effort … to appease a sitting president’ “

“A group of nine press freedom advocacy groups on Tuesday warned that the impending Paramount merger with Warner Bros. represents an ‘existential threat to the free press, independent media and free speech,’ suggesting CNN will be the next to suffer the drastic firings and turmoil that ‘60 Minutes’ has been going through in recent days. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/press-freedom-groups-paramount-merger-threat-cnn-60-minutes/

Mickey Media Standing Up!

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Article in Slate byLizzie O’Leary 6/2/26

Headline:  “Disney Finds Its Spine”

“In normal times, in a normal Federal Communications Commission, Anna M. Gomez’s job might be described as wonky. But now is not that time.

“A large part of my role is to call out this administration’s abuses of the First Amendment, particularly when it chooses to weaponize the FCC in trying to shut down any voices that it doesn’t like,” said Gomez. “And we see this constantly, there is a constant infringement on the free press and on the First Amendment and on the rights of viewers and listeners to see and hear what they want to see. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://slate.com/business/2026/06/fcc-disney-abc-renewal-lawsuit-brendan-carr.html

Media – Murder, She Wrote?

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 6/1/6

Headline: “60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley accuses Bari Weiss of ‘murdering’ show”

Subhead: “Pelley reportedly rebuked CBS ousting show’s executive producer, executive editor and two top correspondents”

“Scott Pelley, a veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, called out CBS News management in a heated meeting on Monday morning, attacking the network’s decision on Thursday to fire the show’s executive producer, executive editor, and two fellow correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as part of a broader overhaul of the show, sources tell the Guardian. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/01/60-minutes-scott-pelley-cbs-bari-weiss-cuts

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Article in The Washington Post by Scott Nover & Liam Scott, 6/1/26

Headline: ” ‘It was cruel’: Scott Pelley confronts new ‘60 Minutes’ boss in fiery meeting”

Subhead: “The veteran correspondent demanded answers on fired staff and the new executive producer’s qualifications for the job.”

“In a Monday-morning meeting, veteran ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley ripped into his new boss, Nick Bilton.

“ ‘What qualifies you to be in this position?’ Pelley demanded. . .”

“It was a hostile greeting for Bilton during his first meeting with the full ’60 Minutes’ staff since the technology journalist was announced Thursday as the show’s new executive producer. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/06/01/scott-pelley-confronts-new-60-minutes-boss-nick-bilton-fiery-meeting/

Podcast to Media Control in “60 Minutes”

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Article in Daily Beast, 5/28/26

Headline:  “New ‘60 Minutes’ Producer’s Cringe Side Hustle Revealed”

“. . .Tech columnist Nick Bilton was tapped by   far more controversial editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, to sit at the helm of the network’s flagship newsmagazine show on Thursday—a move that sent shockwaves through CBS and beyond. The 49-year-old replaced Tanya Simon, a producer at the program for nearly 30 years, in one of Weiss’s boldest moves yet since coming aboard the network in October.

Weiss told The New York Times that she chose Bilton largely for his storytelling across multiple platforms, which apparently includes podcasting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nick-biltons-cringe-side-hustle-revealed/

World Burning? No News Here.

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Article in Media Matters by Evlondo Cooper, 5/27/26

Headline:  “How broadcast TV news covered environmental justice in 2025”

“Environmental justice coverage — reporting that connects the harmful effects of pollution, environmental hazards, or policy decisions to socially marginalized communities — remained nearly absent from corporate broadcast TV news last year, even as environmental risks and pollution exposure affected communities across the country. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-news-covered-environmental-justice-2025-0

Reporting Torture Gets You Fired?

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Article in   by Michael M. Grynbaym, 5/27/26

Headline: “60 Minutes’ Journalist Who Accused CBS of Political Meddling Loses Her Deal”

Subhead: “Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison was pulled abruptly in December, said that CBS News and its top editor, Bari Weiss, had let her contract expire.”

“CBS News declined to renew its contract with the “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, six months after her segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly by the news division’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/business/media/cbs-sharyn-alfonsi-bari-weiss.html