The episode did not hold back on crass jokes aimed at Trump, showing him with a “teeny tiny” penis both in animation and as a deepfake and portraying him as Satan’s lover in a style reminiscent of the gay Saddam Hussein character from the 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. - Wired
“American Public Media Group (MPR’s parent organization) plans to cut 5% to 8% of its 500 staff members over the coming weeks, citing a $6 million budget shortfall driven by state and federal funding cuts.” - The Minnesota Star Tribune
“The stamp of approval from the Federal Communications Commission comes after months of turmoil revolving around Trump’s legal battle with 60 Minutes. … With the specter of the Trump administration potentially blocking the hard-fought deal with Skydance, Paramount earlier this month agreed to pay a $16 million settlement with the president.” - AP
“It’s a grossly wasteful industry. Think about set builds that aren’t recycled, think about transport, think about food, think about housing, but also light and energy. The amount of wattage you need to create daylight and consistent light in a studio environment. It’s a lot of energy.” - The Guardian
As linear TV viewership plummets and online ad rates remain low, the economics of late-night talk shows no longer works. But there are consequences, both obvious and impalpable, to the disappearance of these franchises. - TheWrap (MSN)
Due to the Trump/Congress clawback of funding for public broadcasting, the 13 GBH employees who work on the history documentary series have lost their jobs and production of new episodes is paused indefinitely. Reruns of American Experience documentaries from previous seasons will be broadcast instead. - Current
“In state-run media systems, a government agency hires editors, dictates coverage, and provides full funding from the treasury. Public officials determine — or make up — what is newsworthy. Media operations survive only so long as the party in power is happy. Public broadcasting in the U.S. works in almost exactly the opposite way.” - Nieman Lab
National Public Radio will cut its budget by about $8 million in order to provide that money to member stations most impacted by last week’s rescission of federal funding. - Houston Public Media
“Paramount agreed to buy the global streaming rights (to) South Park (for) the company's digital service, Paramount+, for the first time in the U.S. … The (five-year) deal with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, through their Park County production company, values the global streaming rights at $300 million a year.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
The report notes that "programmes about the arts, international issues, religion and belief were not readily available, prominent or discoverable, particularly on the platforms operated by commercial public service broadcasters". - The Stage
The UK government should intervene to make public broadcaster (PSB) content easier to find on YouTube, the regulator has urged, as it gravely posits that “time is running out” to save the sector. - Deadline
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles—it’s big fat bribe,” he said. - The New Yorker
“A report by Ofcom warns that UK-focused programming made by the British public service broadcasters (PSBs) – the BBC, ITV and Channels 4 and 5 – is under threat and there is a ‘strong case’ for legislation to make sure it is easy to find on third-party platforms,” notably YouTube. - The Guardian
“Donald Trump sued Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters on Friday over an explosive report that the president wrote a 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein that contained suggestive language. Trump claims the Wall Street Journal and its journalists defamed him.” - Variety
Resistance from Murkowski and other lawmakers from rural states exposed an uncomfortable truth about federal funding for public media stations: Rural stations — often in red states — depend heavily on federal funding to survive, unlike stations in larger markets that can better tap donations from listeners with money to spare. - Washington Post
