Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr made a social media post on March 15 that free speech advocates say will go down in history as a blatant attempt at wartime censorship. Instead of warning consumers about current efforts by billionaire oligarchs to consolidate cable news broadcasters under their control, the FCC chair threatened the broadcasters by suggesting they…
Source
Residents of Iran’s sprawling capital, Tehran, woke up earlier this month to scenes that they could probably imagine only in horror films. Clouds of smoke had shrouded the metropolis of 10 million, toxic rain blended with oil poured down from the sky, and the sun remained invisible through noon on the morning of March 8. Hours earlier, Israel had launched airstrikes on 30 oil facilities in Tehran…
Source
While media executives orchestrate mega-merger deals this winter, media workers are facing a maelstrom of job cuts and anti-union hostility, with old patterns of inequity surfacing in a wave of corporate consolidation and technological disruption. Those two faces of corporate media were in the spotlight earlier this month, when red-clad members of the New York NewsGuild stood passing out…
Source
It’s becoming something of a theme: Two massive companies are fighting to take over another massive company, in a deal that will enrich a variety of shareholders but leave the rest of us worse off. The news that Netflix struck a bid to take over movie powerhouse Warner Bros. earlier this month likely horrified entertainment workers: Two Goliaths of the industry combining is no good for pay…
Source
Consistent with the United States’ continued slide into an economy powered almost entirely by LLM slop, financialization, and ever-pervasive exploitative gambling, “prediction market app” Kalshi “entered into an official partnership” with CNN this week to bring their “data to CNN’s journalism across its television, digital and social channels.” Soon, CNN will run live odds on world events where…
Source