Portside

1. Programming a Time of Monsters
2. Running Afoul of the FTC
3. Columbia U vs Student Journalists 
4. Disney/ABC vs The View
5. Google’s 2025 Developer Conference
6. Shame, CBS
7. Shame, PBS
8. Netflix Saves Sesame Street
9. Saving Public Media
10. A Comic Art Statement on Gaza

Programming a Time of Monsters

By Ron Salaj
Verso

In AI-driven labor management, algorithmic oversight tracks workers in warehouses with biometric precision, predictive policing systems disproportionately target marginalized communities, and automated hiring platforms reinforce historical patterns of exclusion. 

Running Afoul of the FTC

    • Putting the Screws to Media Matters   By Liam Reilly, CNN

    • Meta Monopoly   By Noor Bazmi, Cryptopolitan
 

Columbia U vs Student Journalists 

By Meghnad Bose and Anna Oakes
Columbia Journalism Review

For the student journalists, the suspensions, even if temporary, are the latest administrative attack on the freedom of the student press as it reports on an embattled university witnessing protests for Palestine and facing a $400 million cut in federal funding from the Trump administration.

Disney/ABC vs The View

By Edith Olmsted
The New Republic

Disney and ABC News are attempting to alter the scope of The View to decenter politics, following increased scrutiny from President Donald Trump. According to multiple sources, ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic had met with the executive producer of the daytime talk show, as well as the panel of hosts, to ask them to tone down their discussion of politics.

Google’s 2025 Developer Conference

By Kyle Wiggers and Karyne Levy
TechCrunch

Google I/O 2025, Google’s biggest developer conference of the year, showcases product announcements from across Google’s portfolio. We’ve got plenty of news relating to Android, Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, and — of course — Google’s AI-powered chatbot, Gemini.

Shame, CBS

By Margaret Sullivan
American Crisis

Donald Trump sued the network for defamation — a whopping $20 billion worth — over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris during last year’s presidential campaign. But rather than standing firm on its principles and defending its practices, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, has been busy negotiating with Trump’s people.

Shame, PBS

By Anthony Kaufman
Documentary

Twelve days before Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) was set to broadcast on April 15 across PBS stations nationwide as part of its strand American Masters, the filmmakers were told that a 90-second sequence—which shows the famous artist discussing an anti-Trump cartoon he created for the 2017 Women’s March newspaper—would be cut from the documentary.

Netflix Saves Sesame Street

By Alex Weprin
The Hollywood Reporter

The streaming giant has inked a deal with Sesame Workshop for new episodes of the long-running children’s show, just months after Warner Bros. Discovery opted not to renew. [From 1994, here’s Joe Pesci as Ronald Grump.]

Saving Public Media

By Victor Pickard
The Nation

The US public media system is under a multi-pronged attack from a hostile government. Now is an opportune moment to reflect on why we created public media in the first place—and why it’s still needed today. 

A Comic Art Statement on Gaza

By Tom Sandborn
The Tyee

Esteemed cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco have created a masterpiece of nightmare colour and imagery. Appearing in the Guardian and then in the New York Review of Books, the two place their comic book avatars in the ruins and carnage of Gaza, and explore a conversation they had previously conducted about the tragedy.