NewsTrust - Media Ownership - Most Recent Stories

Being a Democracy Hating, Corporate Power-Defending Newspaper Owner Runs Deep in the Koch Family

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Yasha Levine - May. 19 (Opinion) - There’s a rumor going around that the Koch brothers are interested in buying up the Tribune Company, which includes the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun… And there’s a lot of speculation about what would happen if they did. Some worry, and rightly so, that the Kochs—whose combined wealth makes them the biggest billionaires on the planet—would integrate the Tribune Co. with the rest of their free-market thinktank-industrial complex, and turn its newly acquired news media property into a gigantic business propaganda machine. Half the reporters at the Los Angeles Times even took a vote saying they’d quit if the Kochs bought the paper

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Climate change hurts women. Wall Street Journal sneers. - Grist

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By John Upton - May. 02 (News Report) - Women in the developing world, many of whom work in agriculture, are vulnerable to climate change. Apparently the idea of girls being sold off into early marriage and women being pushed into prostitution is fucking hilarious.

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The Right Wing Cult Machine Exposed

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Thom Hartmann - Apr. 28 (Opinion) - a cult is a group or sect bound together by adoration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc. A cult promises you redemption. It tells you that if you do what it says, and as it believes, you will be protected from the evil people that are out to get you and the rest of society. A cult purges the non-believers. And it actively tries to vilify all those who are not part of the cult

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Koch Brothers Making Play for Tribune's Newspapers

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Amy Chozick - Apr. 21 (News Report) - Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo. They laid out a three-pronged …

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Will Americans Be Able to Watch Al Jazeera America?

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Jan. 04 (News Analysis) - The New York Times editorial (1/4/13) in support of Al Jazeera included a funny line: Many American policy makers and cable companies have had doubts about the impartiality of Al Jazeera, which is owned and financed by the emir of Qatar. Of course, cable companies happily carry Fox News, which is no one's idea of impartial.The same could be said of liberal MSNBC (which is a lot cheaper to customers). So the problem isn't that American TV viewers might be subjected to news with a point of view. It's news with what many elites might consider the wrong point of view that is the problem.

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Al Gore’s ‘Current TV’ Debacle

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Consortiumnews.com - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - Al Gore’s soon-to-be-defunct Current TV should serve as a case study for American progressives on how not to construct a media outlet. It was a failure in nearly all respects, with possibly its only lasting contribution the fact that its sale to Al Jazeera may finally give that important media voice from the Islamic world a foothold in the United States.

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Welcome to America, Al Jazeera

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Rory O'Conner - Jan. 03 (News Report) - some media observers have questioned whether Al Jazeera has, as Stelter phrased it, "The journalistic muscle and the money to compete head-to-head with CNN and other news channels in the United States." What a joke! The last time I checked, Sheikj Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar, had more money than Allah. And really, how much "journalistic muscle" does one need to compete with CNN these days -- not to mention the braying heads of such opinionated and politicized putative "news channels" as Fox or MSNBC? Judging from their most recent efforts -- such as completely misreporting the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, for example -- what little journalism is being practiced at outlets such as CNN and Fox these days is, shall we say, far from muscular!

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Time Warner Cable Drops Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Michael Calderone - Jan. 03 (News Report) - Some media observers interpreted the move as motivated by politics. "Time-Warner cable shows abject political and journalistic cowardice by dropping Current because of Al Jazeera deal," tweeted Dan Gilmor, a technology writer and founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University.

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Ex-Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC's Unrelenting, Anti-Diversity Push for Media Consolidation

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 14 (Interview) - Former Federal Communications Commission Chair Michael Copps joins to discuss the growing opposition to the FCC's effort to weaken media ownership rules and clear the way for greater media consolidation. Last month, Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski circulated a plan to relax a longstanding ban that prevents the owner of a television broadcast station from also owning a newspaper in the same town or city. The move has drawn harsh criticism from public interest groups and lawmakers. Copps, who was the longest serving FCC commissioner in the agency's history, now leads the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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How Close Is Rupert Murdoch to Owning the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune?

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Alyssa Figueroa - Dec. 02 (News Analysis) - As the Tribune Co. emerges from bankruptcy, Murdoch’s News Corp. executives held talks with the company’s debt holders about acquiring the major papers. So what’s the Federal Communications Commission to do? Apparently, propose an order that weakens the exact rule that would have stood in the way of Murdoch’s desired acquisition.

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The Right-Wing Media Bubble Cocoons Republicans from Adapting to the New Political Landscape

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Nov. 29 (News Analysis) - Republicans are responding to their recent losses not by moderating their rhetoric or rethinking their policy preferences, but by retreating deeper into the conservative bubble -- and hardening it lest any objective reality intrude.

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CEO Evening News?

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Nov. 26 (News Analysis) - The CBS Evening News has decided the best way to inform viewers about the impending "fiscal cliff" is to let corporate CEOs affiliated with the Fix the Debt campaign recommend cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

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Fox News Interview Ends Abruptly After Guest Attacks Network

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Rebecca Shapiro - Nov. 26 (News Report) - A Fox News interview ended rather abruptly on Monday after a guest took not one but two jabs at the network hosting him.

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Defeated Right-Wing Media Wage War On Voters

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Eric Boehler - Nov. 11 (News Analysis) - Having spent the last four years smearing and denouncing the president with every passing breath on the radio and on Fox News, Hannity was faced with the humiliating reality that most voters paid him no mind. "Americans, you get the government you deserve," the talker told listeners yesterday, his words dripping with contempt.

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How Fox News Created a New Culture of Idiots

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Aaron James - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue

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Newsweek Ending Print Edition, Going All-Digital In 2013

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jack Mirkinson - Oct. 18 (News) - Newsweek is ending its print edition and transitioning to an all-digital format by the end of 2012, editor Tina Brown announced on Thursday. The magazine has been in print since 1933. In a note, Brown wrote that the economics of print had ceased to make

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A Test for the Right’s Machine

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Sep. 09 (Opinion) - The Right’s imposing media/political machine is facing a tough test. Can it put an unappealing Republican in the White House by using false propaganda and by systematically suppressing the votes of minorities? The outcome may define the future of American democracy, says Robert Parry.

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Jon Stewart Rips Murdoch's Leveson Inquiry Hearings On "The Daily Show" (VIDEO)

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Apr. 27 (Comedy News) - News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has been testifying before the Leveson Inquiry this week to determine whether he used his media entities to illegally influence the British government. Aside from admitting that he "failed" in handling the News of the World properly, Murdoch seems apt to deny all accountability in regards to the scandal, so on Thursday night's "Daily Show" Jon Stewart took a moment to put him in his place.

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10 Repulsive Fox News Employees Who Should Be Fired

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Mark Howard - Feb. 16 (News Analysis) - This past week presented a revealing lesson in contrast as to how different media enterprises deal differently with anchors and other editorial personnel who fail the test of principles that ought to govern all journalists.

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Why Americans Are Stupid: Part II

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - Feb. 14 (News Analysis) - See if you can guess which cover TIME presented to US readers and which was presented to European readers?

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New Report Shows Big-Money Politics and Broadcast Media Are Undermining Democracy

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FreePress.net - Jan. 26 (Special Report) - On Thursday, Free Press released Citizens Inundated, a report that follows the money trail from big-spending political donors to the bank accounts of the nation's largest broadcast companies.

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Wikipedia, Reddit To Shut Down Sites Wednesday To Protest Proposed Stop Online Piracy Act

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 17 (News Analysis) - Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia and sixth most visited site in the world, will join websites like the content aggregator Reddit to "go dark" on Wednesday in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its companion bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are currently being debated in Congress. "What these bills propose are new powers for the government and also for private actors to create, effectively, blacklists of sites that allegedly are engaging in some form of online infringement and then force service providers to block access to those sites," says Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "What we would have is a situation where the government and private actors could censor the net."

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“Internet Censorship Affects Everybody”: Rebecca MacKinnon on the Global Struggle For Online Freedom

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 17 (News Analysis) - As protests mount against two controversial internet anti-piracy bills moving through Congress, we speak with Rebecca MacKinnon, author of the forthcoming book, “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.” “If we want democracy to survive in the internet age, we really need to work to make sure that the internet evolves in a manner that is compatible with democracy,” MacKinnon says, “And that means exercising our power, not only as consumers and Internet users and investors, but also as voters to make sure that our digital lives contain the same kind of protections of our rights that we expect in physical space.” She argues that for every empowering story of the internet's role, there are many more about the quiet corrosion of civil liberties by companies and governments. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Media Consolidation – The Illusion of Choice

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

owni.eu - Jan. 16 (Special Report) - How much choice does the mainstream US media really offer? An infographic laying out the extent of media consolidation in the US, where just six media giants control 90% of all TV, news, radio and film.

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Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 12 (Interview) - Michael Copps served two terms with the Federal Communications Commission. Now the staunch supporter of an open internet and opponent of media consolidation has retired. In a wide-ranging discussion, he examines the FCC's key accomplishments and failures of the past decade. Copps argues broadband is "the most opportunity-creating technology perhaps in the history of humankind," and laments that the United States still lacks a national broadband infrastructure. He says the FCC has yet to address a lack of diversity in media ownership, noting that "owning a station has a lot to do with the kind of programing that is going to be on that station." Regarding the future of journalism, Copps calls on the FCC to make access to quality journalism a "national priority," saying, "the future of our democracy hinges upon having an informed electorate."

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