Media

[ZoWie]

Warners changes owners every 10 years. No one can keep up. They lost me somewhere around Commcast Time Warner CNN AOL. That was at least three mergers ago.

Universal is a theme park. Disney is multiple theme parks and cruise vacation packages, and they make so much more money than the movies that the head of that division was just put in charge of the studios too. Columbia is more or less gone. Remnants come and go. MGM is a casino operator, the lot is now Sony Pictures, whoever they are. The other Culver City lot is now Amazon Studios, yes owned by trump's buddy. Fox is a dish farm, with rental stages next to an upscale high rise development where the back lot used to be. Paramount is still called that, but the owner changes every few years.

All the good Olympic coverage is now on streaming, with far fewer commercials and far less fireside chatter about how many medals the US has.

Brave new world.

[ap215]

Brendan Carr’s Abuse Of FCC ‘Equal Opportunity’ Rule Completely Blows Up In His Face

Yesterday we noted how CBS fecklessly tried to prevent Stephen Colbert from broadcasting an interview with Texas Democratic State Representative James Talarico. Which, as you’ve probably already seen, resulted in the interview on YouTube getting way more viewers than it would have normally, and Texas voters flocking to Google to figure out who Talarico is:

In short, Brendan Carr’s continual threats and unconstitutional distortion of the FCC’s “equal opportunity” rule (also known as the “equal time” rule) resulted in a candidate getting exponentially more attention than they ever would have if Brendan Carr wasn’t such a weird, censorial zealot.

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/18/bre ... -his-face/

[ap215]

The View is up next

Ana Navarro Slams ‘Outdated’ Equal-Time Rule as ‘The View’ Faces FCC Investigation

Ana Navarro ripped the FCC’s equal-time rule as “outdated” and “selective” as her talk show, “The View,” faced a probe from the government agency.

Hours after FCC chairman Brendan Carr confirmed Wednesday that his agency was taking “enforcement action” against “The View” over its interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, Navarro issued a scathing rebuke on “CNN Newsnight,” in which she suggested this political move could come back to haunt Republicans.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ana ... 07979.html

[ZoWie]

Funny that they never enforce equal time when Democrats are president. Faux and its many imitators blab propaganda all day and their penalty is that they get to sell more ad time.

[ZoWie]

This week's strike on Fairfax, in a part of LA where you drive past a new one every week and give 'em a few honks, is at the WGAw. Not the WGA picketing someone, but someone picketing the WGA with signs about a broken contract.

I had already thrown away this week's Variety unread, but I found out online that the staff at the union office, an impressive building right down from what used to be CBS Television City before that closed, was on strike against the union itself. They even had the same giant inflated rat they'd used at the pickets when everyone had gone on strike about royalties and AI compensation.

Further proof that the best show in LA is by the people who make the shows.

[ap215]

Hello GOP propaganda on CNN

Netflix bows out of Warner Bros. auction, Paramount to claim the prize

Netflix bowed out of the Warner Bros. Discovery sweepstakes Thursday, conceding the prize to Paramount Skydance.

The move came after Warner Bros. Discovery switched gears, announcing that Paramount Skydance's revised bid had topped the one on the table from Netflix.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/n ... ocialshare

[ZoWie]

I solved the problem with GOP cheerleading on CNN. I switched to MSNOW. Since they were banished from 30 Rock and went indie they've been all anti-Trump all the time. Of course that makes you crazy too since we seem powerless to change it. Lately mostly I watch sports, until that's gone, which it will be in 10 years at the rate the business is changing.

[ap215]

SNL Under Fire for ‘Disgusting’ Tourette Sketch After BAFTA Slur Controversy

Saturday Night Live is facing backlash online for what users have branded a “disgusting” and “shameful” sketch over the weekend that depicted celebrities explaining off their past controversies as symptoms of Tourette syndrome, mocking last week’s BAFTA slur incident.

The segment, which was cut from the NBC broadcast due to time constraints and later released online, featured cast members playing celebrities, including Mel Gibson, Armie Hammer, Bill Cosby, and Kanye West, claiming they have Tourette syndrome as an excuse.

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/snl-u ... ntroversy/

[ap215]

I hope if we win The Gavel back they'll investigate and impeach Brendan Carr and Hegseth and look into the oligarchs who have taken over The Media

Hegseth blasts CNN: ‘The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted CNN Friday morning for its coverage of the Iran war, exclaiming that the “sooner” Paramount CEO David Ellison “takes over that network, the better.”

“Fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage,” Hegseth said during the press briefing at the Pentagon.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5782 ... -cnn-iran/

[ZoWie]

The oligarchs took over the media when the Democrats still had the majority and the presidency. It's probably why they took over the media, though before Internet and AI it was also the big financial cash cow.

Attempts to rescue mainstream media will be futile. What's done is done. The truest words ever said in US politics were, "Don't hate the media, become the media." We have access to the same tools the media use, thanks to Internet. We can now do things with cell phones that I had to get a graduate degree and employment in one of the world's most inaccessible industries to do. Now every 12 year old walks around with these tools. Use them.

I doubt that trump knows where the Strait of Hormuz is. Back in the real world, everyone knew the strait would be closed if war broke out. They're lying if they say they didn't. It's why the Dow collapsed on the first day, then it went back up when people believed the propaganda that Iran wouldn't do it this time, then it collapsed again a couple of days ago when Iran mined it and started sending naval assets.

[ap215]

Pentagon tightens controls over Stars and Stripes after calling it "woke"

The Defense Department has begun to exert greater control over Stars and Stripes, weeks after a top spokesman accused the independent military newspaper of focusing on "woke distractions."

The Pentagon announced what it calls "modernization" changes this week, in a memo dated March 9 and effective immediately, according to a copy seen by NPR and first reported by Stars and Stripes on Friday. It's the latest effort by the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to apply extraordinary limits on journalists covering the agency.

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/14/nx-s1-57 ... ng-it-woke

[ZoWie]

We had government controlled media in Viet Nam. Why do you think there was an alternative press in the first place? The big established media would talk about how we're winning, year after year, until we finally lost.

The question is stark, but it cannot be ignored: How badly do you want your country back?

[ap215]

FCC Enforcement Chief Offered to Help Brendan Carr Target Disney, Records Show

A senior Federal Communications Commission official overseeing ABC-owned California stations privately offered to assist FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s campaign last year against the Walt Disney Co. and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, according to internal emails obtained by WIRED.

WIRED has made this article free for all to read because it is primarily based on reporting from Freedom of Information Act requests. Please consider subscribing to support our journalism.

On September 17, Carr threatened Disney with regulatory action regarding the Jimmy Kimmel monologue about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, prompting major station affiliates to drop the broadcast and forcing ABC to temporarily suspend the show.

https://www.wired.com/story/fcc-enforce ... ords-show/

[ZoWie]

CBS Radio News shutting down after Trump buddies merged it with Paramount et al.

BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn439d9pqpvo

CBS News has said it is shutting down its radio service after nearly 100 years, in a fresh round of layoffs.

[...]

Ellisons' earlier takeover of Paramount was approved by the Trump administration this summer, after Paramount agreed to pay $16m to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over a 60 Minutes interview.

Ellison then hired former New York Times opinion writer, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News last October, as part of what he said was an effort to modernise content at Paramount and make CBS the "most-trusted name in news".

Weiss, who has criticised broadcast media for becoming too partisan and liberal, had previously said she aims to change editorial decision-making at CBS.

----
The question I asked above remains relevant: How badly do you want your country back?

[ap215]

She's might as well resign now The Ellison's and The GOP controlling the media are a nightmarish colossal joke

Kara Swisher says she refuses to work for Paramount if it takes over CNN

Journalist Kara Swisher on Monday said she will leave CNN if Paramount buys Warner Bros. Discovery and takes over the network.

“I don’t think they’ll be good owners, I don’t,” she told reporter and Syracuse University professor Margaret Talev at an awards ceremony. “I think they’ve already shown several times, including editorial choices … that they have no interest in journalism. And I refuse to work for an organization that doesn’t respect journalists.”

https://thehill.com/media/5798195-kara- ... -cnn-exit/

[ZoWie]

That game was lost when Murdoch became a phenomenon. That was several classist presidents ago.

[ap215]

Carr Blares the Horn

On Friday afternoon, Brendan Carr took the stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, where thousands of MAGA faithful gathered to cheer on the movement’s right-wing agenda. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission sat on a comfortable white chair in front of the crowd and bragged about Donald Trump’s dismantling of media outlets and the journalists who have lost their legacy platforms.

"Look at the results so far," Carr declared. "PBS, defunded. NPR, defunded. Joy Reid, gone from MSNBC. Sleepy-eyes Chuck Todd, gone. Jim Acosta, gone. John Dickerson, gone."

https://www.status.news/p/brendan-carr- ... -trump-fcc

[ZoWie]

The GOP didn't take over the media on their own. They had the oligarchy to back them financially. The oligarchy is mostly the result of Big Tech, which we all embraced at the start because it looked like a good idea at the time. Careful what you wish for.

[ap215]

But don't be surprised if and when The U.S. Supreme Court sides with Trump on this issue

Judge blocks Trump's executive order to end federal funding for PBS and NPR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing the First Amendment, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, two media entities that the White House has said are counterproductive to American priorities.

The operational impact of U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss' decision was not immediately clear — both because it will likely be appealed and because too much damage to the public-broadcasting system has already been done, both by the president and Congress.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/jud ... bs-and-npr

[ap215]

Why one Las Vegas newspaper just stopped printing its rival

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Friday that it will no longer print its rival the Las Vegas Sun for the first time in decades, sharpening a legal dispute over the nation’s last joint operating agreement stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers.

Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal said in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms, and is free to produce its own newspaper.

https://wtop.com/trending-now/2026/04/l ... newspaper/

[ZoWie]

I have to agree. What's the point of spending big bucks killing trees, paying unionized staff, and printing thousands of daily paper inserts when one underpaid nerd at a keyboard can get more exposures? The New York Times proves that newspapers aren't dead, but episodes like this one prove that failed ones are pushing up virtual daisies.