TV News LIES

If you only just started paying attention to the inner workings of the media industry, you might think America’s information environment transformed overnight.

In the past few months, a president extracted settlements from media giants as his apparatchiks vowed state retribution against his opponents – all as they defunded public media at a time when the president’s biggest boosters own the algorithms that decide what information is amplified and suppressed.

Meanwhile, media companies are merging into ever-larger behemoths, some have muzzled White House critics as their companies seek presidential favors, and the White House is reportedly brokering a deal to hand yet another social media platform over to his billionaire allies.

And now, a media industry billionaire has placed CBS News under the control of the conservative provocateur Bari Weiss, who is empowered to shroud her culture war and oligarch-friendly economics in what she calls “journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual”.

But as abrupt as this Orwellian turn may seem, it is no sudden pivot – it is instead the culmination of a scheme launched a half-century ago by some of America’s most influential power brokers, as our new book Master Plan exposes. Sketched out in never-before-reported documents, this plot aimed to destroy accountability journalism and make news outlets into champions rather than adversaries of power.

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A video editor and producer for Chicago’s WGN television station was arrested by masked federal agents on Friday morning, and later released, during an Ice raid on the city’s North Side, as shown in videos shared widely on social media.

Videos show Debbie Brockman being violently forced to the ground by two agents before she is handcuffed and put in a van. A local resident filming the incident asks her name while she is face-down on the street being handcuffed.

“Debbie Brockman,” she replies. “I work for WGN. Please let them know.”

In another video, onlookers shout at the agents and call them “fascists”, telling them to “get out of our neighborhood, get out of our city”. The agents get in the van and scrape the side of another car, whose driver is still inside, as they speed off, tearing off part of its bumper.

A homeland security official said Brockman stood accused of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer by throwing objects at a vehicle.

The incident took place in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood, as immigration agents – at the behest of Trump officials – have been scouring the city for people to deport.

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With days left before journalists covering the Pentagon must sign on to a new set of guidelines to retain physical access to the department, major US news companies – and organizations representing their interests – remain concerned about specific policies they fear will stifle independent reporting on the Pentagon.

The Trump administration has been accused of preparing to impose severe limitations on the ability of journalists to cover the Pentagon and publish information that had not been officially approved for release.

An “in-brief for Media Members” that updated an earlier set of policies, released last month, drew strong condemnation from media companies and groups advocating for press freedom. On Monday, the Pentagon sent out a revised version.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon Press Association, which said it has been “cautious” in communicating about the policy as it worked behind the scenes, said the changes made – including an acknowledgment that signees may not “agree” with the policies – are not sufficient.

TVNL Comment:  If news organizations bend a knee to the Pentagon, we're totally doomed.  Someone has to stand up and be an American. The press is protected by the First Amendment.  Stand tall, don't fall. Please.

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If you’re old enough to have admired CBS in its heyday, watching its decline has been painful.

Decades ago, it was dubbed the Tiffany Network – home of the great journalist Walter Cronkite (“the most trusted man in America”), and innovator of the top-flight magazine program, 60 Minutes.

Even outside its news division, the network was a place where the variety-show host Ed Sullivan could break down racial exclusion by inviting outstanding Black entertainers to his Sunday night program; that was controversial in an era of intense racial turmoil. The CBS news department had some of the best journalists in the nation, and the corporation itself exuded a sense of public mission.

But on Monday, when Bari Weiss was named editor-in-chief of CBS News, it was the latest turn in the network’s confounding departure from its roots.

Given her lack of experience in news, “placing Weiss at or near the helm of a television news division makes no more sense than it would have, a generation ago, to have given such a role to William F Buckley of the National Review or Victor Navasky of The Nation,” wrote Richard Tofel, an astute media observer, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and ProPublica, mentioning conservative and liberal opinionators of their era.

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Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers raided more than a dozen boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, blocked the ships’ communications, and abducted over 400 volunteers from 47 countries, including American labor leader Chris Smalls, according to the Global Sumud Flotilla.

During the raid, Israeli forces attacked volunteers with water cannons and doused them with “skunk water,” according to a press release issued by the flotilla. The volunteers were reportedly taken to the large naval vessel, the MSC Johannesburg, but the lawyers representing the volunteers have been given “minimal updates,” as per the press release.

“This is an unlawful abduction, in direct violation of international law and basic human rights,” the group said, adding that “intercepting humanitarian vessels in international waters is a war crime.”

[D]enying legal counsel and concealing the fate of those seized compounds that crime,” the group continued.

The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail in August, carrying volunteers from more than 40 countries on dozens of civilian boats filled with humanitarian aid for Gaza, including baby formula, medicine, and prosthetic limbs. As a result of Israel’s genocide, Gaza has the largest population of child amputees per capita in the world. On its journey to Gaza, the flotilla was attacked several times.

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Federal agents grabbed and shoved journalists in a hallway outside a New York City immigration court on Tuesday, sending one to the hospital in the latest clash between authorities enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and members of the public seeking to observe and document their actions.

A visual journalist identified as L. Vural Elibol of the Turkish news agency Anadolu hit his head on the floor at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pushed one journalist off a public elevator and shoved another journalist to the floor, according to video and witnesses.

A bystander held Elibol’s head and a nurse treated him until an ambulance arrived, witnesses said. Video showed him in a neck brace as paramedics wheeled him out of the building on a stretcher. The other journalists, amNewYork police bureau chief Dean Moses and Olga Fedorova, a freelance photographer whose clients include The Associated Press, were not seriously injured.

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