Free Republic

The coronavirus pandemic helped decimate already declining U.S. media jobs in digital, print, and broadcast newsrooms, according to new data. According to the figures provided by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. and posted by Axios, 16,000 newsroom jobs were lost in 2020 — higher than the last peak in 2008, when 15,000 newsroom jobs disappeared. The data showed 14,000 “other media jobs” were lost this year as well, a category that includes jobs in television/film/streaming production, advertising, and book publishing. Those categories got whacked in 2008 as well, shedding nearly 15,000 jobs. The bleeding has been relentless over the past...

Parts of the movement started by widespread revulsion at the murder of George Floyd have metastasized into a power grab by hard leftists. Their aim goes beyond dismantling the police—likely to have an early sell-by date—but targets the suppression of such tenets of liberalism as speech and property rights. Conservatives who want to conserve the republic as it is need to gird up for this battle. For a brief, ephemeral moment, the country came together in condemnation of Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis. But a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, so those who want to change...

James Bennet, the Editorial Page editor at The New York Times resigned over the weekend after backlash over an op-ed by US Sen. Tom Cotton. Debate is no longer allowed in America’s liberal newsrooms, and the left has the scalps to prove it. James Bennet is out as NY Times editorial-page editor; Stan Wischnowski, as top editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Neither was allowed to stay even after humiliating themselves by admitting their thought crimes and hailing the virtues of the lynch mobs. Bennet’s sin: His paper published an opinion column by a US senator arguing for deploying the military...

The Federal Communications Commission has pulled the plug on a study that sought information on the how local radio and television stations cover news. The Critical Information Needs study was to be conducted every three years for Congress. It was aimed at eliminating barriers that make entry into the media industry difficult for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. However, the pilot test for the survey included questions regarding the editorial practices of media and was heavily criticized both inside and outside the FCC. The test was slated for this spring in Columbia, S.C. Besides general inquiries regarding coverage of issues including...

As more comes to light about Diane Griego Erwin, the former Sacramento Bee columnist, the more revealing and instructive the story becomes. It is a story we mentioned in a recent Media Monitor, but much more has come to light. In one sense, it is another validation for the New Media, specifically the blogs; and for another, it shines a light on problems related to diversity in the newsrooms, when diversity strictly refers to skin color. It also spells potential big trouble for the Sacramento Bee editor, Rick Rodriguez, the new president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE)....

<p>JERUSALEM (AP) --  Israeli soldiers raided the office of two Arab television stations in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday, forcing journalists to lie face down on the floor while they searched for militants and weapons, a reporter said.</p>