I highly recommend listing to this @onthemedia.bsky.social podcast about media capture. There's some terrific history in there about how we got to this point. 🗃️https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/the-centurylong-capture-of-us-media

Spoke with @jonallsop.bsky.social @newyorker.com about the politics of the Nexstar-Tegna merger -- yes, a "media merger you should actually care about" -- and the dangers for local journalism and democracy as the FCC's Brendan Carr performs for Donald Trump, America's most dangerous channel surfer.

"It's time to put to rest the idea of a benevolent billionaire." @victorpickard.bsky.social @onthemedia.bsky.social @micahloewinger.bsky.social

@victorpickard.bsky.social discusses the capitalistic, oligarchic and authoritarian media capture in the U.S. Unlike the BBC and CBC models, there is a "deeply [read:flawed] American fear that if government gets involved in funding our media, we're on ... a slippery slope towards totalitarianism."

Really great conversation! Definitely give a listen.

Outstanding talk from @rodneybenson.bsky.social at the @miccenter.bsky.social today about his ever-so-timely and important new book, “How Media Ownership Matters.” (video forthcoming.) I urge everyone who cares about the future of media and democracy to read the book!

I really enjoyed speaking with @micahloewinger.bsky.social for @onthemedia.bsky.social about the long history of U.S. media capture. www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

"Who benefits?" That's the question that should be guiding our media policy. Plus I take on the public-funding naysayers with Pig Latin jokes. New Pressing Issues!

We spoke with @victorpickard.bsky.social about his article at Yale's Law and Political Economy Project, “The American Media Polycrisis: Cascading Layers of Capture.” soundcloud.com/user-8304426...

Many reasons to oppose the hyper-consolidation of local TV station ownership that Carr/Trump want. “When local voices are silenced and newsrooms shrink…narrows opportunities for journalists of color in an already-constrained labor market” Important from @thedesk.net thedesk.net/2026/02/lawm...

Let me add a bit to what @jeffsharlet.bsky.social says: US newspaper revenue fell steadily & sharply from 2004 til ~2020, as our research on the US media shows, but seems to have found a bottom in the last 5 years. The decline in f/t journalists followed in lockstep. 1/ gmicp.org/dashboard/

Margaret Sullivan writes: “As media companies become more consolidated, and ever more in the hands of the richest Americans, priorities change radically.… The dominoes of capitulation seem to tumble voluntarily. “The government doesn’t have to formally censor anyone,” wrote Parker Molloy.”

Great to see @sulliview.bsky.social calling on @victorpickard.bsky.social and @parkermolloy.com for the crisis sweeping US media as corporate owners aligned with Trump sell out media independence & core 1st Amendment values to further their own interests.

Corporate media owners care about something other than the preferences and interests of their audiences.

Sharp media analysis from @sulliview.bsky.social — these underlying political-economic relationships explain so much of what’s driving today’s constant media failures.

"Such oligarchic capture is the predictable culmination of what’s essentially a pay-to-play system where the highest bidder takes all. Under this regime, what Americans hear, see, and read is increasingly dictated by a handful of billionaires with their own agendas." lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

This is a good sign!

The polycrisis afflicting our media necessitates a political economic analysis that focuses on ownership, control, and market structure. @victorpickard.bsky.social's newest essay for @lpeproject.bsky.social examines cascading layers of "media capture" and necessary policy interventions.

I have an essay out today that examines and proposes interventions against the cascading layers of "media capture" that lead to this kind of egregious censorship: lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

polycrisis is the perfect framework to understand the mutually causal realtionship between antipress authoritarianism, oligarchism, and journalism's broken political economy. You can't understand the censorship of CBS outside of the context of the absence of robust public media or ownership controls

"Highly concentrated media systems are structurally vulnerable to authoritarian capture… Autocrats needn’t take over newsrooms at gunpoint; instead, they can count on friendly oligarchs to police the media for them." Bang on, @victorpickard.bsky.social. This is a threat we'll face long after Trump.

"Autocrats needn’t take over newsrooms at gunpoint; instead, they can count on friendly oligarchs to police the media for them." Exactly. Very good essay in @lpeblog.bsky.social lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

Today, @victorpickard.bsky.social argues that American media is not experiencing a single crisis, but rather cascading layers of capitalist, oligarchic, and authoritarian capture.

“Jesse Jackson Gave Peace a Chance!” One of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s great legacies is his record, as a man of faith and a presidential candidate, of embracing anti-war movements, advocating for diplomacy over militarism, and working for deep cuts in Pentagon spending in order to fund human needs.

I have an essay out today that examines and proposes interventions against the cascading layers of "media capture" that lead to this kind of egregious censorship: lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

These "capitalism problems" in our media are often the proverbial elephant in the room that no one acknowledges, but I'm cautiously optimistic that's beginning to change: lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

Want to connect the dots on how Trump's fifth column is trying to turn the entire media ecosystem into an extension of the regime? This from @victorpickard.bsky.social is for you. 👇 The American Media Polycrisis: Cascading Layers of Capture -- lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

I have a new @lpeproject.bsky.social essay out that offers a framework for teasing apart three discrete and cascading layers of “media capture” that produce censorship, exclusion, and democratic failure in our information and communication systems. lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

The censorship continues apace.

@victorpickard.bsky.social does not miss

I have a new @lpeproject.bsky.social essay out that offers a framework for teasing apart three discrete and cascading layers of “media capture” that produce censorship, exclusion, and democratic failure in our information and communication systems. lpeproject.org/blog/the-ame...

BREAKING: FBI notifies Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that it won’t provide access to evidence it’s collected on the killing of Alex Pretti by armed and masked federal agents. Perhaps this would be a good time to note that 187 members of Congress are signed on to Impeach Kristi Noem:

These data continue to paint a dark picture about the commercial viability of local journalism. We have plenty of theory and empirical evidence to help explain why these disconnects persist, but public policy has yet to catch up -- another glaring disconnect.

Sonali Kolhatkar is one of the best journalists out there and it was an honor to speak with her about the recent destruction of the Washington Post and what we need to do to create a media system that serves all of us, not just Trump-aligned billionaires. risingupwithsonali.com/how-to-rebui...

YAY @victorpickard.bsky.social a favorite media scholar whose message seems to be breaking through at last.

John Nichols @nicholsuprising.bsky.social offers a serious assessment of the damage done by ICE and what me must do next -- abolish ICE and impeach Noem.

Focusing solely on state overreach misses the other half of the threat to our democracy. @shahrzadshams.bsky.social explores how corporate oligarchy serves as an “abettor and accelerant” of state tyranny—hollowing out higher ed and the media from within. 🧵

Register now to hear Professor @randersenjones.bsky.social discuss her new book "The Future of Press Freedom" March 4 from 12-1:30 p.m. on Zoom. She'll be joined by co-editor @sonjawest.bsky.social and contributors Helen Norton, @ckoningisor.bsky.social, and @victorpickard.bsky.social.

Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones. Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.

easy slogan for the next democratic presidential candidate is “i will reform the corrupt supreme court and repeal citizens united”

In a new paper, Professor @victorpickard.bsky.social argues for a more democratic media system:

a powerful account of what’s happening in Minneapolis from Amna Akbar www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

I would gladly do it pro bono!

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

What we've seen recently with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Washington Post have revealed what should be obvious. Journalism cannot be a toy of the billionaire class if we want an informed public. As @victorpickard.bsky.social has long been saying, we need to take it out of the market.

It's a story of magical thinking in assuming we could ever rely on benevolent billionaires to save journalism. It's also a story of oligarchs turning their backs on democracy and exploiting their media assets to advance class interests. Above all, it's a tragedy for news workers and for all of us.

It's a story of magical thinking in assuming we could ever rely on benevolent billionaires to save journalism. It's also a story of oligarchs turning their backs on democracy and exploiting their media assets to advance class interests. Above all, it's a tragedy for news workers and for all of us.

There was (and remains) a real journalistic opening for a super-robust news operation that isn't doing false equivalence. That's what's needed in the Trump era. That could have been the Post. Except its owner doesn't want that. newrepublic.com/article/2061...

The Post seems to mostly exist now for its opinion and politics pages, which Bezos can use to advance his own agendas.

A DAY FOR GAZA The Nation, as part of its ongoing commitment to cover Gaza, devotes its entire Feb. 3 website to writers, photographers, thinkers who are in or from Gaza. “Collectively, the pieces embody an enduring affirmation of Gaza’s refusal, in the face of the world’s neglect, to be erased.”