Rodney Benson

My heart goes out to the CNN journalists. But what can be done to support them beyond expressions of moral support? How can journalists at other news outlets and diverse publics provide concrete support? What forms of collective action can we imagine and implement?

Kudos to you @micahloewinger.bsky.social & to the always insightful @victorpickard.bsky.social for this super-informative dialogue on US media in historical & global context. And it's not just about how we got here, it's also about what we need to do next to keep journalism's civic mission alive.

Le Monde Group: Press releases from the Independence Pole and the Fund for the Independence of the Press The Le Monde Group's Independence Pole welcomes the acquisition by the Fund for the Independence of the Press of Xavier Niel's holding company NJJ Presse, which, via Le Monde Libre, controls the major...

Trying to find something - here is the link to Le Monde in English (and I can also send you by email) www.lemonde.fr/en/about-us/...

Yes! @jayrosen.bsky.social - Bezos should follow the example of fellow billionaire Xavier Niel, previous sole owner of Le Monde, who moved his capital into an independent endowment. Check out: www.thewrap.com/le-monde-acq...

Le Monde Acquired by Press Protection Endowment Fund The fund “has a general interest mission to defend freedom of opinion and expression in France,” and protect editorial independence

The challenge for a new Wash Post (if Bezos could be convinced to part w/ it) or for a startup competing w/the Post is to combine independence w/ scale. That's where the Phil Inquirer (Lenfest Institute) or Le Monde (w/ an endowment owner) provide the best models See www.thewrap.com/le-monde-acq...

Exactly! This is the threat of "economic instrumentalism" that I and my colleagues describe in our book How Media Ownership Matters: use of a media outlet to promote or protect an owner's business interests. It's why we need trust or endowment ownership like at The Guardian, Le Monde, Phil. Inquirer

This is the threat of "economic instrumentalism" that I describe w/ colleagues in our 2025 book How Media Ownership Matters: the use of a media outlet to promote or protect an owner's business interests. It's why we need alternative forms of nonprofit ownership. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Washington Post cuts reignite concerns over Bezos ownership The Post's financial struggles predate Lewis' tenure, but have been compounded by a series of unforced errors over the past two years.

'In his Post ownership early years, Bezos was seen as a steward of quality journalism. But he has carefully shifted his public tone in the Trump era. This shift is the fundamental risk of news outlets being bought by individuals w/ business interests outside of news.'
www.axios.com/2026/02/05/w...

Thank you @froomkin.bsky.social for this much needed parsing of which news organizations are speaking truth to power and which are buckling, under the phony pretense of both-sideism

What the dissolution of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting means. The parent organization of NPR and PBS, already defunded, is shutting down—and claims that’s for the best. But there are dangers ahead.

I was interviewed at CJR about the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Along with the excellent @rodneybenson.bsky.social.

Glad to see our findings in How Media Ownership Matters confirmed and extended - will read this closely ! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Looks fascinating and definitely worth checking out !

Thanks @lisafung.bsky.social ! I’m glad you liked it!

Can nonprofit news mix with local TV? A Pennsylvania partnership aims to find out “This is a nut that no one else in the country has cracked — how to translate what nonprofit newsrooms are doing for commercial TV.”

“This is a nut that no one else in the country has cracked — how to translate what nonprofit newsrooms are doing for commercial TV.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/can-...

Defunding Big Bird: The Politics and History of Public Broadcasting. A Conversation with Josh Shepperd. - Then & Now In this episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic welcomes Professor Josh Shepperd, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Director of the Libra...

I enjoyed talking to UCLA's Luskin Center for History and Policy podcast "Then and Now" about the origins and possible future of public media. Thanks to Ben Zdencanovic.

So true - all of it!

‘No One in Public Media Is Safe’: KQED Layoffs Underscore Peril of Federal Defunding | KQED The Bay Area station is cutting 15% of its staff and bracing for the loss of federal support — a sign, experts say, of deeper problems in U.S. public media’s fragile funding model.

As I told the reporter, KQED's announced [layoffs] make "it clear that no one in public media is safe. The threat to public media funding affects even the largest & strongest outlets.” Excellent article w/additional comments from @victorpickard.bsky.social & Nik Usher, www.kqed.org/news/1204866...

Trump’s victory over PBS and NPR ‘bias’ will be ‘devastating’ for rural areas, station leaders say | CNN Business Public TV stations will be “forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said Thursday, after the Senate approved a bill canceling all the federal funding for the...

So much for multi-year funding, staggered terms for CPB board members, an organizational home as an independent nonprofit. These carefully designed protections could not stop a power-grabbing President and a sycophantic Congress. Not a great day for US democracy. www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/m...

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert face uncertain futures "They have to have what it takes to succeed independently, but not if it relies on old structures," one expert told Newsweek.

Unfortunately, part of my prediction is already coming true: "In a future company controlled by Skydance, it's easy to imagine that Stewart's and Colbert's shows could be short-lived."
www.newsweek.com/jon-stewart-...

Public Media Defenders Mobilize as Senate GOP Set to Gut Over $1B in Funding This is a coordinated, authoritarian attempt to silence dissent and dismantle the public good,” said Our Revolution.

The Senate is on the verge of stripping more than a billion dollars from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which could decimate local news stations. Defenders of public media have mobilized to stop the bill, which strips more than $1.1 billion from the CPB, which includes cuts to NPR and PBS.

Can Public Media Survive Trump? Government-backed institutions sometimes stand up more strongly to authoritarianism than their commercial counterparts.

Government-backed institutions sometimes stand up more strongly to authoritarianism than their commercial counterparts.

Partisan battle lines form over Trump's plan to defund NPR & PBS Senate Democrats warn Trump plan to wipe out public broadcasting funding will shut down stations, eliminate essential services. But House GOP scheduled to vote to clawback $1.1 billion next week.

As GOP congressional leaders are vowing to move full steam ahead to approve Trump's request to eliminate federal funding for public media for the next two years, a group of 29 Senate Democrats are warning the broadcast outlets should be "protected, not decimated."

Our new book measured partisan slant in 21 US news outlets. NPR had a 1.0 index score (perfectly balanced), compared to Fox (1.6, imbalanced for the right) and WashPost (1.4, for the left). PBS was in the center of our sample (1.2). We find US public media are less “biased” than other media.

Trump Handed Huge Loss in Fight to Shut Down Voice of America Donald Trump signed an executive order eliminating the critical news source.

BREAKING: A US district judge just ruled that Trump's effort to dismantle Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia and Middle East is likely illegal.

Judge ordered the White House “to take all necessary steps" to restore these outlets to their former (pre-Trump EO) status.

#SoMuchLosing

Woah

Deciding What’s News set the research agenda for the sociology of news (& for the production of culture writ large) for a generation. A landmark work, a truly great scholar. Herb always made time for junior scholars. His surprise emails commenting on some recent article he had read were legendary.

Donald Trump *personally* caused the crisis in confidence in US bonds, the approx 10% slide in the S&P 500 in the last month, and the unfolding collapse of international tourism to the United States. Leaving aside everything he did before, he should be the biggest pariah ever to hold the office.

A Call for Constructive Engagement | AAC&U A Call for Constructive Engagement

The presidents of 200 US colleges declare:

"As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education."

Good!

www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

Who owns the media? Does it matter who funds and owns the media? Alan and Lionel are joined by professor and author Rodney Benson to discuss

Thank you @arusbridger.bsky.social & @lionelbarber.bsky.social for discussing How Media Ownership Matters (Oxford, just out) - especially its finding of high quality public affairs coverage by US, Swedish & French public & civil society/nonprofit outlets
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/podcasts/med...

Great reminder @timkarr.bsky.social but I found very convincing @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social ‘s argument that Trump ultimately only responds to institutional power - eg when Harvard stood up to him or if and when major companies or business leaders push back