Media Bits and Bytes – December 10, 2024
- Newsroom Leaders! Show Some Spine
- Clock’s Ticking on TikTok
- Where To, MSNBC?
- Public Broadcasters on Thin Ice
- Haaretz Carries On
- Afghan Women Documented in Smartphone-Made Film
- LA Times Owner Gets a Bias Controller
- Digitizing the AIDS Quilt
- Why Bitcoin is Booming
- Claud Cockburn’s Legacy
Newsroom Leaders! Show Some Spine
By Margaret Sullivan
American Crisis
When would-be authoritarians take power, one of the first things they want to do is stamp out independent journalism. We can’t let that happen. I hope that top newsroom leaders — the decision-makers at the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Wall Street Journal, the broadcast networks and others — are clearly communicating to their staffs that they’re not going to knuckle under.
By Ari Paul
FAIR
A federal appeals court ruled that a congressional ban on TikTok can go into effect in the next few weeks. A TikTok ban has been in the works since the first Trump administration. Lawmakers have argued for years that the Chinese government is using the app to spy on Americans by collecting their personal data and to spread propaganda that could be used to influence US elections.
By Eric Berger
The Guardian
The parent company of the channel, Comcast, recently revealed that it would spin off the cable news network. The negative reports about the channel over the last month are just the latest examples of an established US media company struggling to find its footing as people continue to drop cable television packages and instead use streaming services.
Public Broadcasters on Thin Ice
By Max Tani
Semafor
Republicans’ focus on the media has never been remotely this intense. While PBS has found some success on YouTube, NPR’s incomplete digital transformation, declining radio listenership, and high-profile political stumbles have left it weaker than ever. Now there’s greater concern among public radio figures than there has been in years about the future of NPR and public radio broadly.
By Nathan Klabin
The Media Line
Creating a battle line between freedom of speech and the media’s role in political discourse, the Israeli government severed ties with Haaretz on November 24. The newspaper’s official response to Netanyahu’s government stated: “Haaretz will not balk and will not morph into a government pamphlet that publishes messages approved by the government and its leader.”
Afghan Women Documented in Smartphone-Made Film
By Radhika Seth
British Vogue
Bread and Roses is an ode to the unimaginable resilience and solidarity of Afghan women: a rough-and-ready documentary which tells the story of the Taliban entering Kabul and everything that followed. Most of it is made up of footage stealthily recorded by the women themselves, as they attend marches, meetings and rally together with their loved ones.
LA Times Owner Gets a Bias Controller
By Liam Reilly and Jon Passantino
CNN
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and plans to overhaul its editorial board, says he will implement an artificial intelligence-powered “bias meter” on the paper’s news articles to provide readers with “both sides” of a story.
By Maria Peña
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has released a groundbreaking online collection of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt Records, making one of the most poignant symbols of the AIDS epidemic in the United States available to a global audience. The digitized archive is now reunited online with the communal folk art of the quilt panels. These digitized collections will make the Quilt available to everyone.
By Ellen Ioanes and Nicole Narea
Vox
The price of bitcoin surged past $100,000 for the first time on Thursday, continuing a post-election run buoyed by the pro-crypto promise of the incoming Trump administration. Trump has been an ardent cryptocurrency supporter throughout his most recent presidential campaign, and his choices to lead key government agencies related to its regulation reflect that enthusiasm.
By Patrick Cockburn and Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders and Friends
In the Hitler era, a young British journalist quit his job with the prestigious London Times and founded The Week, an independent newsletter that became famous for its scoops and opposition to fascism and to the Western powers that were enabling its rise. He wrote under many pen names, including Frank Pitcairn, but his real name was Claud Cockburn.