Latest news with #InnovatingtoRestoreTrustinNewsSummit
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NPR ‘confident' they comply with FCC guidelines, CEO Maher says
NPR's CEO Katherine Maher said she is 'confident' it is compliant with Federal Communications Commission guidelines as it faces a FCC investigation into its sponsorship and advertising practices. 'We feel really confident that we have worked throughout the years to comply with FCC guidelines. We have a robust process and we'll look to see what happens with the inquiry,' Maher told Maxi Tani at Semafor's Innovating to Restore Trust in News Summit Thursday. Responding to a question about the organization's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Maher said NPR does not plan to replace Keith Woods, the public broadcaster's chief DEI officer, after he retires in May. PBS shuttered its DEI office earlier this month, citing legal advice that it was necessary to comply with US President Donald Trump's executive orders. Maher, however, told Semafor that NPR is planning 'to move some of that work into our operations and strategy work.' The FCC inquiry isn't the only cause for concern facing the public broadcaster. As Semafor previously reported, many local stations are concerned that Congressional Republicans will fulfill their promise to nix NPR's funding mechanism from the federal budget, which would affect both the NPR mothership and its satellite stations. Maher stressed that the local stations are at the heart of the broadcaster's mission: 'Many of these stations have their local identities. They mean something. Texas Public Radio in San Antonio is always going to be Texas Public Radio, and that is great.' NPR is simultaneously attempting to build its podcast business while not alienating managers at its affiliate stations who feel that NPR's focus on podcasts could take away from radio programming — and thus render local stations less valuable to their listeners. 'Podcasting is great, but broadcasting is a big piece of our power, and it's where we have a huge audience,' Maher said.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
FCC's Carr defends broadcast probes, slams social media ‘threat'
The Federal Communications Commission's Chairman Brendan Carr criticized social media giants in an interview with Semafor Thursday, saying they are 'the greatest threat [to free speech] that we have seen over the last several years.' Carr also defended the agency's probes into multiple broadcasters that US President Donald Trump has previously criticized. 'The social media companies got more power over more speech than any institution in history,' Carr told Ben Smith at Semafor's Innovating to Restore Trust in News Summit in Washington, DC. 'What we saw them doing with that power was discriminating against viewpoints, and the government was involved,' Carr said, referring to the Biden administration's pressure on Facebook to censor some COVID-19 content during the pandemic. 'My position is we want more speech, not less,' Carr added. The FCC head said part of his aim is to 're-empower local broadcasters to feel like they have the freedom to serve their local communities. Because they have these relationships with the national programmers that I don't think is entirely healthy.' Since taking the role, Carr has emerged as one of the Trump administration's most aggressive enforcers, taking aim at a number of media companies that operate on public airwaves. He has launched probes into US public broadcasting services NPR and PBS over their advertising and sponsorship practices, in what some critics say is a politically motivated move. He has also revived complaints into CBS, ABC, and NBC, but not a complaint against Fox. Carr has scrutinized the merger of Paramount and entertainment company Skydance. He has said he would fast-track an investigation into how CBS News covered the 2024 presidential election, and suggested that could factor into his view on the corporate merger of CBS' parent company. Carr has also launched an investigation into radio stations owned by Audacy, a media company recently acquired by an investment arm tied to liberal billionaire George Soros. Carr defended the investigations at Semafor's summit, saying that few people paid attention to an FCC decision to release public comments on a bid to deny the renewal of a local Fox News station under the Biden administration, calling the move 'the definition of media bias.' Carr said his actions were not unprecedented, 'if you would bother to actually look at what the FCC is doing.' The FCC chairman said he aimed to ensure that broadcasters live up to their public interest obligations, but didn't elucidate what exactly that meant. 'If you are a broadcast, and you don't want to serve the public interest, you are free to turn your license in, and you can go podcast, and you can go over the top.' In response to Elon Musk's Starlink seeking to expand its role in providing high-speed internet to rural areas, Carr said that 'if Starlink or Musk is pushing an issue and he's right 100% of time, at the FCC, we're going to side with him 100%. If he's pushing issues and he's wrong every single time, then he's going to lose every single time at the FCC.'
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NBCUniversal's Conde teases news subscription service
NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde said the network is planning to launch a premium subscription service for news as soon as late 2025. At Semafor's Innovating to Restore Trust in News Summit on Thursday, Conde said the new service would be 'laser-focused' on premium video, 'in all shapes and forms, short-form, long-form.' Conde maintained that some news content will remain free and ad-supported. He pointed, though, to the success of the network's free streaming news channel, NBC News Now, as evidence of consumer demand for high-quality video. NBC's roots, Conde said, are in 'free journalism for mass audiences – that's not going to change.' And he stressed that the 'best journalism' will remain free. 'But in addition to that, we think there's an opportunity to provide a premium experience for subscriptions here,' Conde added. Conde oversees the NBC network at its most unstable point in years. NBCUniversal is in the midst of a yearlong spinoff of its cable and broadcast assets, a task that reduces NBC's reach in television, but allows parent company Comcast to keep itself from being dragged down by the rapidly declining cable TV business. And while NBC has attempted to improve its image among right-leaning viewers — it lobbied hard to host a Republican primary television debate — its programming decisions, such as the hiring and subsequent firing of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, alienated some conservatives and Democrats. In a social media post earlier this month, US President Donald Trump went after Comcast chief Brian Roberts, calling him a 'lowlife,' and vaguely suggested that he should be punished for the content on the broadcast networks.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White House restrictions on media signal ‘worrying' precedent: Fox News' Baier
Top Fox News journalist Bret Baier said he is concerned about the White House taking control of who is allowed to join the press pool covering US President Donald Trump's activities, and restricting The Associated Press' access. 'I worry about setting precedent, that changes things down the road and maybe they don't realize the implications of that,' Baier, the network's chief political anchor told Semafor's Ben Smith at the Innovating to Restore Trust in News Summit Thursday, although he stressed that the president has taken more than 1,000 questions from reporters in his first month in office. The administration barred The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One after it refused to amend its style guide to change the internationally recognized Gulf of Mexico to Trump's rebranded Gulf of America. Baier, who has not touched on the White House' escalating fight with the US media much on air, said the issue is 'very Washington.' 'Telling the story about that is not something people care about in middle America,' he said. Baier is one of the conservative cable network's most high-profile journalists, and has interviewed US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in recent weeks, and is set to sit down with UK Prime Keir Starmer on Thursday and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Friday. When asked about what the administration's plan for the media is, Baier said, 'If you do something here, it lasts for a long time, no matter Democratic… Republican administration.' Fox News has supported the AP in its standoff with the White House, signing a letter alongside more than 30 other outlets pushing back on the administration's decision. 'This move does not give the power back to the people,' Fox's White House reporter Jacqui Heinrich said, 'it gives power to the White House.' Newsmax, another conservative cable network, said in a statement that, 'We fear a future administration may not like something Newsmax writes and seek to ban us. This is why news organizations like Newsmax and Fox News are supporting the AP's First Amendment rights.'
