Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Caitlin Scialla
“When Ben Bagdikian, an esteemed journalist and early FAIR contributor, published his groundbreaking book The Media Monopoly in 1983, he painted a troubling picture of US media consolidation, reporting that 50 corporations controlled the media business. With each reprint, that number dwindled (FAIR.org, 6/1/87). When FAIR replicated his analysis in 2011 (Extra!, 10/11), it stood at 20. Now, over 40 years after the initial release of The Monopoly Media, the media landscape has transformed drastically. Even Bagdikian’s later editions, written at the dawn of the internet, could not fully anticipate how profoundly digital technology would reconfigure the media oligarchy. ‘News’ is increasingly synonymous with online news. Over half the US public (56%) say that they ‘often’ get news through their digital devices — compared to less than 1 in 3 (32%) who often get news from TV, 1 in 9 from radio, and only 1 in 14 from print publications like newspapers or magazines (Pew, 9/25/25).” (02/04/25)
“Given current realities, it’s hard to turn away from the immediate economic and political situation, but sometimes an overflow of ignorance demands it. The claim that a country is facing a crisis due to a falling birthrate should be an immediate signal that you are not hearing from a serious person.” (02/04/26)
“By any reasonable standard, most of Trump’s tariffs are plainly illegal. Two lower courts have ruled against them. The Trump administration appealed those decisions, and in early November the Supreme Court heard arguments on the case. Many businesses that have found it impossible to make long-term plans with the fate of the Trump tariffs in limbo eagerly awaited the Court’s ruling. They’re still waiting. And I can’t see any plausible explanation for the delay other than Supreme cowardice.” (02/04/26)
“When Don Lemon was arrested after reporting on the aggressive protest of a church … the Trump administration claimed that Lemon and another journalist present at the event had violated federal laws meant, in part, to shield churches from having their services disrupted. The administration’s message was clear: Disrupting church services and taking away the right of others to worship freely and in peace is unconscionable. How dare protesters infringe on those congregants’ First Amendment rights! Who would do such a thing? Well, one of the first things this White House did after Donald Trump’s second inauguration was to rescind the 2021 guideline that required CBP and ICE agents to do everything in their power to avoid conducting operations in or near ‘protected areas’ like churches, hospitals, and schools. It wasn’t long before agents were showing up at just those sorts of places in the apparent hope of surprising their targets.” (02/04/26)
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Abraham McLaughlin
“Keeping up with today’s national and global developments can feel like living in a cauldron of political pressure. If we’re not in the storm ourselves, the sheer volume of political twists and turns can make us feel numb to the news. Yet, looking to those who have withstood the storm and triumphed shows us that responding with grace and confidence in good starts with the truths we hold in our heart. The Bible offers compelling examples. Consider the spiritual clarity and bravery of four individuals: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel. They’d been taken from their home in Israel and were being indoctrinated by their Babylonian captors. Yet they held in their hearts strong spiritual truths – and got to witness dramatic turnarounds. In Babylon, the pressure – political, religious, and cultural – was ferocious. One of the world’s most powerful kings was insisting that all his subjects worship a lifeless statue (see Daniel 3).” (02/03/25)
“Republicans enjoy using the Jim Crow-era Democratic Party’s support for segregation as proof that their embrace of white nationalism is not worth mentioning. It’s bothsidesism as a ‘get out of racism free’ card. There was a time post-September 11 when the GOP’s bogieman du jour was from somewhere vaguely Middle East or Muslim. We were coached to become a nation of bedwetters convinced that bearded men with long, curved knives were coming to kill us all in our beds. We packed heat and opened fire on anything that went bump in the night either at home or abroad. Now it’s anyone nonwhite.” (02/04/26)
“As the national debt is a few months from reaching $39 trillion, and perhaps $40 trillion by the end of this year, it is puzzling how unperturbed the political class is. Or perhaps not. Writer and political agitator Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) said: ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.’ Or pretending not to. A bipartisan congressional consensus, more alarming than partisan rancor, is: There are no long-term fiscal gains without intense short-term political pains. So, because today’s congressional careers do not yet seem likely to coincide with coming dire consequences, let them come. In 2016, a budget expert was allotted 20 minutes to brief Donald Trump on those possible consequences. After five minutes, Trump said, ‘Yeah, but I’ll be gone.’ He was perfectly in sync with the political mainstream he professes to supplant.” (02/04/26)
“By now, we have heard the mantra that President Donald Trump was right to close the border, but wrong in his heavy-handed approach to immigration enforcement. We are also told that if he would have simply done what most Americans wanted, that is, arrest and deport violent criminals, then his poll numbers would be higher, and his administration wouldn’t find itself embroiled by crisis in the aftermath of two killings at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. But this claim (that the problem with Trump’s immigration agenda is mainly about enforcement tactics) is flawed. Seriously addressing this country’s ongoing immigration crisis will require policy change, and to get to that point, there needs to be a narrative shift in this country away from indiscriminately criminalizing all undocumented people to humanizing them.” (02/04/25)
In our surveys assessing university student tolerance for hypothetical controversial speakers, most students have not wanted to allow most speakers on campus. You can almost hear someone saying, ‘These kids today are too soft. Send ‘em to boot camp!’ The funny thing is, that might actually help.” (02/04/26)
