John Avlon: “This was the year when public broadcasting was gutted and hyper-partisans prospered, when the First Amendment was exhaustively praised and opportunistically abandoned. It was the year when media capture came to America.”

“Before 2025, ‘media capture’ was a term used exclusively overseas, describing the compromise of a free press to curry favor with the regime in power. Sometimes this happened through threats and intimidation, greased by partisan group think. Other times, the cudgel was money: wealthy administration allies would buy independent news organizations and neuter them to fall in line with the state-backed version of facts.”

“Hungary is often cited as a prime example of media capture — and so it seemed notable that Hungary’s elected autocrat Viktor Orban was repeatedly praised by Donald Trump and Republicans during the 2024 election. It was a clear sign of intent.”

President Trump, on Truth Social:

“If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!”

“CBS News’ new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for the broadcaster as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures,“ Axios reports.

“The masthead is meant to drive a more streamlined hierarchy and set of processes across show and news gathering teams that are intended to prevent disparate editorial procedures and standards.”

President Trump called the New York Times “a serious threat to the national security of our nation” in a late night post.

Wrote Trump: “The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation. Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”

“Archivists have saved and uploaded copies of the 60 Minutes episode new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ordered be shelved as a torrent and multiple file sharing sites after an international distributor aired the episode,” 404 Media reports.

“The moves show how difficult it may be for CBS to stop the episode, which focused on the experience of Venezuelans deported to El Salvadorian mega prison CECOT, from spreading across the internet.”

Robert Reich: “I’m old enough to remember when CBS News would never have surrendered to a demagogic president. But that was when CBS News — the home of Edward R. Murrow (who also revealed to America the danger of Joe McCarthy) and Walter Cronkite — was independent of the rest of CBS. And when the top management of CBS felt they had independent responsibilities to the American public.”

“America can survive without a 60 Minutes it can trust, just as we can survive without trustworthy editorial pages of the Washington Post. But at some point, as Trump continues to repress criticism of him and his regime, American democracy is compromised beyond repair.”

Franklin Foer: “This is one of those moments in Donald Trump’s presidency when an event that would otherwise be recognized as a death knell for democracy somehow fails to elicit the outrage it deserves.”

“Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN, whose coverage Trump views as hostile to his administration. So he is abusing the government’s merger-approval power in order to insist that the next owner of the venerable outlet mold its journalism to his liking. Such coercion isn’t just the product of Trump’s brazen indifference to procedural restraints; it’s possible because the underlying business of the media has become terrifyingly vulnerable to coercion.” 

Paramount amended its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery with billionaire Larry Ellison agreeing to personally guarantee $40.4 billion of equity financing for the deal and publish records related to the family trust that backstops it, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Inside 60 Minutes, where journalistic independence is sacrosanct, “people are threatening to quit” over the network killing a story the White House did not like, Brian Stelter reports.

“CBS News abruptly pulled an investigative 60 Minutes segment on the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison after the Trump administration refused to grant an interview,” the Washington Post reports.

“The decision came directly from the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, according to an internal email sent to producers from the segment’s correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, who called the decision tantamount to handing the White House a ‘kill switch.’”

Sarah Palin’s bid for a new libel trial against The New York Times was rejected by a New York federal judge who also refused Palin’s request that the judge recuse himself, the AP reports.

Donald Trump chimed in again on 60 Minutes, CBS and Paramount, this time complaining that the newsmagazine has treated him “far worse” since the David Ellison-led takeover of the company, Deadline reports.

Said Trump: “For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before. If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”

Affinity Partners, the fund tied to President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has backed out of Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, Axios reports.

Merriam-Webster declared “slop” its 2025 word of the year, a sign of growing wariness around artificial intelligence, CNBC reports.

Slop is now defined as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” The word has previously been used primarily to connote a “product of little value” or “food waste fed to animals.”

President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices, the AP reports.

“How this vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior has become normalized in the United States is something our descendants will study in school, to the shame of our generation.”

— Christian Today editor Russell Moore, quoted by Mediaite, blasting President Trump’s comments on the murder of director Rob Reiner and his wife.