From a @columjournreview.bsky.social interview with actor and free press activist John Cusack. www.cjr.org/the-intervie... "...not as a commercial interest to be protected, but more as a democratic function to be preserved. And that distinction is important." Very important. Too often Ignored.

This guy is one of a kind. If you don't have him on your radar you should fix that. Instead of gazing with wonder at the denialism five years later, he's warning the polity. Possibly the most valuable news anchor in the country. Kyle Klark at 9News Denver.

It's a good question. Will CBS News still be valuable in a "ruined" state? One way it could be is obvious. Be nice to him and get what you need for your empire. But Trump reads the ratings. If viewers are quiting the Ellisons are weak.

At the @status.news newsletter that I read daily, they're saying... "A chaotic on-air rollout, cringe social media posts, and MAGA-friendly editorial choices have turned Tony Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” debut into a source of embarrassment and growing alarm inside the network’s newsroom.

Five years ago today, we named specific Coloradans who stoked election rigging claims and tried to overthrow the election. “What those Coloradans did, leading up to today’s insurrection, is on them. Whether the rest of us on Colorado remember what they did, is on us.” This aired Jan 6, 2021.

"Tony Dokoupil’s ‘CBS Evening News’ Debut Is an Inauspicious Sign of Where CBS News Is Headed." By Daniel D'Addario in Variety. variety.com/2026/tv/colu... "...an anchor whose ambitious ability to see which way the wind blows has so far outstripped his broadcasting talent." A recommended critique.

You may find the answer by digging deeply into the appeal of a single model: Ideology on the left, ideology of the right, professional journalism calling balls and strikes in the happy middle. pressthink.org/2010/06/clow... In the competition for "influence" that was the plan. Now it's in ruins.

"The Pentagon's officially approved 'press' corps hasn’t reported a single story of importance since it was created, said Paul Farhi at that other site. Brian Stelter: Traditional media have done the reporting despite lacking physical access to the Pentagon. view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/176...

My new look, courtesy of Columbia Journalism Review, via The 11th Hour on what was then MSNBC. This image served as we used to call "the art" for this podcast. bsky.app/profile/colu... Topic: "The internet that promised so much: what went wrong..."

This post by JA Westenberg is so good. And it's forcing me to look again at my own site, PressThink. "The Case for Blogging in the Ruins." www.joanwestenberg.com/the-case-for... "Most blogs are abandoned after three posts," she writes. The ones that persist have these things in common:

From Jon Passantino, executive editor of @status.news [paywall, sorry]

CBS News says it wants to break away from the insiders, academics and other elites from whom we hear too much. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

No one bats an eye at this, but it has always been a curiosity of mine how CBS, NBC, and ABC offer essentially the same news product. They might occasionally depart from one another in editorial judgment, but the standards and practices do not vary much, and the talent is interchangeable... 1/2

No one bats an eye at this, but it has always been a curiosity of mine how CBS, NBC, and ABC offer essentially the same news product. They might occasionally depart from one another in editorial judgment, but the standards and practices do not vary much, and the talent is interchangeable... 1/2

"Tony Dokoupil: Don't just trust me. Make me earn it." www.cbsnews.com/news/tony-do... From the new anchor for CBS News, who doesn't even try to assert that legacy media is more trusted. via @bgrueskin.bsky.social

Still a must, if you have not read it yet.

An absolute must to read and ponder. Right through to the end. By Spencer Ackerman. "Weiss simply has no idea what it took to report this story, and even less about the value of what her reporter delivered. Ellison would not have installed someone who did." www.forever-wars.com/watching-bar...

I am going to try this again. Read legal journalist Chris Geidner's reply to Jan Crawford of CBS News, whose "shocking statement" was interpreted by many as "going after her colleagues who cover the Supreme Court." www.lawdork.com/p/jan-crawfo... Then consider what else is happening with CBS .

"On Face the Nation, CBS News's chief legal correspondent went after Supreme Court critics as 'dangerous.'" www.lawdork.com/p/jan-crawfo... "And yet, her court defense was completely lacking in specifics." Everyone should read legal journalist Chris Geidner's reply to Jan Crawford of CBS News.

This podcast extends two key concepts in my vocabulary as a critic. “The People Formerly Known as the Audience” (PressThink, June 2006) archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/p... and... "There are no masses, there are only ways of seeing people as masses." (Raymond Williams, at 22:07

We have already had some great episodes of this new #Journalism2050 podcast - this is one of my favorites so far with @jayrosen.bsky.social - the internet that promised so much, what went wrong, and where do we go now

Formula for me to become a regular listener to a podcast: Expert who will make me smarter (often means rounder) on the subject... goes deep for 90 minutes or more... host excells at drawing out the guest but also has a strong POV... still an audio product even if dragged on to youtube... Yours?

The Post was around 50% as deranged in its de Blasio coverage, but he didn’t come into office with the massive outside force that Mamdani is bringing. Gonna be a test of the paper’s influence; it beats him up every second but he’s got a posse saying “shut the fuck up.”

Via Richard Tofel‬: "What it’s like getting comments these days from the regime in Washington." "Comments" in this context means giving the people involved in a news story the chance to respond before publication. link.propublica.net/view/5f0a0ac... Here's a case I found particularly creepy:

"One Word Describes Trump" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... I missed this on its first trip around, then saw it on the "most popular with readers" list for 2025. Recommended, despite the cheesy headline. Especially valuable if you have ever compared him to a mob boss. [Gift link]

Why is this currently on the front page of nytimes.com? (For me, at least. Placement might be different for you...)

Normally, I would keep this private. But I make an exception. 2025 was the worst year of my personal and public lives.

From @parkermolloy.com at New Republic. newrepublic.com/article/2047... I'd go a bit further. The system needs no conspiracy to function. It just needs everyone to understand the direction things are going in. Bari Weiss was put there not to protect a legacy, but to align its politics differently.

Discuss: "The segment was pulled three hours before the broadcast, a highly unusual last-minute change. The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

From a Columbia Journalism Review interview with former Vox Media executive Liz Kelly Nelson. She explains — clearly — why some of her best journalists were leaving Vox to set up their own practices. www.cjr.org/the-intervie... So clearly that she eventually joins them... Read on:

As some of you know, I recently put my 1986 PhD dissertation online. "The Impossible Press" is the title. pressthink.org/2025/10/jay-... Here's a section — 39 years old — on news and what today we call "narrative," or, more pointedly, "the" narrative. pressthink.org/j/rosen-arch...

As some of you know, I recently put my 1986 PhD dissertation online. "The Impossible Press" is the title. pressthink.org/2025/10/jay-... Here's a section — 39 years old — on news and what today we call "narrative," or, more pointedly, "the" narrative. pressthink.org/j/rosen-arch...

Once in a while you win one. “The board determined, after careful review, that Sinclair’s offer was not in the best interests of Scripps and our shareholders as well as our employees and the many communities and audiences we serve in the United States." coloradomedia.substack.com/p/colorado-t...

The odds, I thought, were slim that any columnist could make sense of it all, not because there was too much in his speech, but because there was almost nothing. Certainly nothing that belonged on TV. But Zack is right. "The fact that they needed to try such a desperate move at all is notable."

"Breaking precedent, networks interrupt prime time for Trump political diatribe." popular.info/p/breaking-p... I wouldn't mind the networks prime timing his talking points if they explained what they're doing. Just say, "'ordinarily we wouldn't, but we have changed." Or better: he has changed us.

Oral language Writing Alphabet Printing press Photography Telegraph Telephone Phonograph Cinema Radio Television Computer Internet When I was a grad student in the Media Ecology progam at NYU we studied all of these— in order. Then we tried to describe their effects. pressthink.org/2025/10/jay-...

When I was on CNN's northeast desk, the first job at 6a every morning was to read the local papers. That guided some of what the massive CNN machine followed every day. When those papers die, CNN doesn't hire new regional reporters. What you get instead is more panel shows, more punditry.

Once a decade, the BBC is subject to government review. This time: "Government considers advertising or subscription model for BBC." www.bbc.com/news/article... It's hard to overstate the difficulty and importance of the coming rethink, which has no parallel in the U.S. media. Here's some of it:

'Reporters were dissuaded from pursuing political or controversial topics and instead encouraged to focus on human interest stories." apnews.com/article/trum... One of the clearest examples yet of Orbánization in our media sector.

In case it's eluded you, here's my Best Journalism Linkers list. "The top 40 or so BlueSky accounts most likely to give good link about journalism and its struggles." I use it to keep track of what's being reported about both the media industry and the journalism world. bsky.app/profile/jayr...

If you're not for "both sides do it" journalism and you're weary of "symmetrical treatment of asymmetrical facts," what's the alternative? One answer is point-of-view journalism plus a very high standard of verification, as @gregsargent.bsky.social demonstrates here. newrepublic.com/article/2041...

Agreed. www.cjr.org/opinion/vikt...

In case you have never seen this.

Yesterday I put online my PhD dissertation from 1986, "The Impossible Press." pressthink.org/j/rosen-arch... It's the history of an idea. The idea of a public informed by the press, and thus able to make good decisions. Where does that notion come from? And does it still apply? 1/

Personal news, but I hope it's of interest to some. With the help of web developer @jamditis.bsky.social I now have a permanent home for my PhD dissertation from 1986. Its title is "The Impossible Press," and anyone can read it. Start here with my blog post: pressthink.org/2025/10/jay-... 1/

A media mogel with important merger business before the FCC says he has "great conversations" about it with Trump, while Trump for his part speaks openly about the kind of ownership he wants to see at CNN, a news network he detests. And it's just another day in our Orbanization. Via @status.news

"Readers are not asking the Times to print propaganda or stump for Democrats. In my view, they simply want the Times to be more clear-eyed and honest about the depth of the crisis this country currently faces." — @froomkin.bsky.social Sad but accurate, Dan. presswatchers.org/2025/12/new-...

One thing I've learned as a media critic involves scale. The tools of criticism work within certain boundaries like the metaphor in use here: five-alarm fire. Our imaginations can handle that. The PR team will respond. "I'm running my ideas for CNN past the president" is too huge to be criticizable.

"This post is about an evergreen but newly urgent topic: How mainstream media in general, and the New York Times in particular, ‘frame’ the political news." —@jfallows.bsky.social Read the rest here: fallows.substack.com/p/here-today...

Yep. I have a term for it. Used in this way, "some say" and "critics say" are signals warning us that what comes next is not truth-seeking but refuge-seeking behavior. "Depends on you ask" operates in similar fashion.