Each week, we share a version of our media links round-up on Instagram each week that goes more in-depth about what that story says about the power dynamics and inequity within journalism. (Previous week’s here!)

This week, our Instagram round-up will examine a query from the former public editor for the New York Times: Who holds the paper of record to account?

Also: A quarterly reminder that we’re looking for media news pitches. We pay $0.50/word and typically commission stories between 600-1,500 words. Pitch us here or email me at [email protected] to chat more. We love stories that examine how “objectivity” affects newsrooms and the people who make them. Examples: How the Knight Foundation scrubbed DEI language from its “about” page, systemic bullying in an NYC newsroom, and how US journalists face retaliation for supporting Palestinian human rights.

—James Salanga

🔍 “Journalism is meant to hold power to account, but who holds the Times to account?” asks Margaret Sullivan, former public editor of the New York Times, in a media column reflecting on the increase of journalists at the New York Times — which employs more than 2,300 journalists, almost 7% of newspaper employees in the US by some counts — and the decimation of The Washington Post. The Times has not rehired for the public editor role and outside criticism isn’t always treated seriously or addressed completely.

🗳 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a response on Wednesday against Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr’s threat to revoke broadcasting licenses that don’t align with the administration’s values. This warning, along with the attacks on unflattering press coverage on the war in Iran, is in part why the V-Dem Institute report on world democracy downgraded the US from a liberal democracy to an “electoral democracy,” where there is freedom of expression and association but no guarantee of civil liberties or constraints on executive power.

🤝 A co-op is usually formed around a community utility — electricity, food, internet — and isn’t good journalism just another necessity for a community? Gourmet is a journalism co-op covering all the food fit to eat (and maybe some that isn’t), and recontextualizing these recipes in their political and social homes.

🌐 WGAE union members at CBS News 24/7 began a 24-hour walkout Tuesday for better working conditions and wages. The walkout comes after layoffs from the last acquisition of Paramount Pictures, and CBS News 24/7 expects more after its parent company (Paramount Pictures, a Skydance Company) spends $110 billion to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

🎩 Broadcast news merger updates: California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an antitrust suit to block Nexstar’s (the largest broadcast company) purchase of Tegna (the fourth-largest). FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had indicated he’d approve the deal, creating a broadcast company that would reach 80% of US households. Last year, Nexstar suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to capitulate to Trump threats over Kimmel’s comments on the Charlie Kirk assassination.

👉 Follow-up: The Washington Post lost more than 60,000 subscribers after it laid off about 350 reporters (44% of its total staff) in February.

Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.

Black Press Day was March 16, and this week is Black Press Week. The holidays commemorate the first issue of Freedom’s Journal, founded in 1827 and considered the start of the Black press in the U.S.

This issue is by James Salanga and Marlee Baldridge. Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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