Journalism

The Philadelphia Inquirer hadn’t written much about suburbs like Lower Merion (PA) and Cherry Hill (NJ) for years. Now it is revisiting those communities—with an assist from AI. In 2025, the Inquirer launched newsletters in four locations, amassing more than 50,000 free subscriptions. Reporters are using artificial-intelligence tools to scan community meetings for topics that may prompt news, such as a zoning issue related to an ICE detention facility and a proposal for a new data center.

Tech oligarchs are capturing America’s media system. They’re doing it through three interconnected strategies: buying media companies outright, creating financial dependency through funding and artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships, and controlling the platforms where most people get their information. MediaJustice's new report maps how that capture works, who’s driving it, and why it matters for communities of color and organizers fighting for racial justice. What you need to know:

The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission were designed to be independent stewards of the public interest — guardians against monopolies, fraud and the misuse of public airwaves. The Trump administration has ruined that independence. President Trump’s appointees have weaponized the agencies and transformed them into instruments of ideological enforcement.

This is yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech. The Federal Communications Commission has no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes or to create a climate that chills free expression. CBS is fully protected under the First Amendment to determine what interviews it airs, which makes its decision to yield to political pressure all the more disappointing.

The stakes for media funding have never been higher. Market failures and policy decisions have reshaped local, national, and international journalism. Public-interest reporting is disappearing in many communities, misinformation continues to proliferate, and emerging technologies, from AI to new social platforms, are reshaping how people access information. At the same time, many funders across climate, health, education, democracy, and the arts have already discovered that supporting media—including newsrooms, documentaries, and engagement platforms—strengthens their core strategies.

Americans today describe a complicated relationship with the news.

When President Trump endorsed Nexstar‘s proposed merger with Tegna, which would create a broadcast giant reaching 80 percent of the country, it scrambled a feverish Washington (DC) lobbying effort over a transaction that has gotte

Your reality is formed from what you read, see, listen to and experience. It's no longer mostly shaped by the "news." It feels like you control this.

I am deeply concerned about your efforts to eliminate all media ownership restrictions, including one that you have no authority to change. I would like to remind you that you do not have the authority to alter or eliminate the 39 percent national television ownership cap. The limit on how much of the national television audience any one broadcast station ownership group is allowed to reach is enshrined in law, and therefore cannot be changed without congressional action.

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez issued the following statement after the FCC released a misleading announcement suggesting that certain late-night and daytime programs may no longer qualify for the long-standing “bona fide news interview” exemption under the Commission’s political broadcasting rules: “Nothing has fundamentally changed with respect to our political broadcasting rules. The FCC has not adopted any new regulation, interpretation, or Commission-level policy altering the long-standing news exemption or equal time framework.