There Are Green Shoots in the Media World

Sunday, May 17, 2026

The media landscape is very grim.

Posted by A_Friend at 11:30 AM | 8 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

After reporter Megan Rose uncovered problematic generic versions of organ transplant drugs, she had to tell a mom that her daughter's medications could have played a role in her death. It wasn't easy. Hear the full story in Ep. 1 of "Paper Trail": propub.li/4wOngoq

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-- ProPublica (@propublica.org) 7:01 PM Â· May 16, 2026

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snip ...

The media landscape is very grim. Thomas Jefferson once famously said he would prefer newspapers without a government over a government without newspapers. A modern version of that would replace "newspapers" with "media outlets," since recycling trees isn't really the essence of journalism in the 21st century. It is about investigative journalists looking for and publicizing things the government would rather not publicize. They are not going the way of the dodo, but times are tough and courage is scare in legacy media outlets.

There is a lot of bad news on the news front, what with mergers, retrenchments, and billionaires buying and silencing publications. As more and more legacy media companies are bought by billionaires or silenced by their owners, is there any hope for investigative reporting?

#1 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-14 04:59 PM | Reply

snip ...

Is journalism and its buddy, Truth, now dead? Maybe not. Let's take a look.

#2 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-14 05:01 PM | Reply

Billionaires have zero right to exist

#3 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-05-14 06:50 PM | Reply

#3 Paul McCartney is a billionaire.

Are you proposing that Paul McCartney has "zero right to exist"?

#4 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-05-14 07:33 PM | Reply

We should start referring to it as the "right wing propaganda landscape"

#5 | Posted by hamburglar at 2026-05-14 08:10 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

I don't ------- care.

Genocidal maniacs have no right to exist, either.

#6 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-05-14 10:10 PM | Reply

I gave up on the "major networks" when I dumped Hulu last year and I can't say I've missed them.
I catch Colbert and Kimmel clips on You Tube. The rest of their programming is crap. I gave up on Sports with all the reviews and other delays. It's all about keeping the gamblers and fantasy sports crowd happy. Can't have those folks losing big bucks on a blown call. College sports has been ruined by the same stuff, plus all the transfers and NIL stuff.
There are other ways to be informed without all the corporate bs baggage.

#7 | Posted by morris at 2026-05-14 10:56 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 4

And the most confusing headline of the year goes to...

#8 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-05-17 02:17 PM | Reply