The Media Front
Michael Calderone On Media and Politics
Michael Calderone is Media Editor at TheWrap, overseeing coverage of the industry, and with an emphasis on the intersection of media and politics. He was most recently an editor at Vanity Fair and has reported on the media for Politico, HuffPost, and The New York Observer. He has also taught journalism courses at Princeton University and New York University.
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The Media Front: All the News That’s Fit to Predict
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Columns
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CBS Finally Airs Shelved ‘60 Minutes’ ‘Inside CECOT’ Report Despite Trump Admin No-Show | Analysis
CBS News chief Bari Weiss didn’t get Trump officials on camera as desired, but U.S. viewers witnessed the plight of Venezuelan men sent to a hellish El Salvador mega-prison
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Columns
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Inside Media’s Risky Bet on Explosive Prediction Markets | Analysis
Through partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket, newsrooms are harnessing real-time odds to inform coverage — even as prediction platforms face intensifying scrutiny and fuel dystopian fears
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Journalism
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The FBI’s Search of a Washington Post Reporter’s Home Crosses a Dangerous Line | Analysis
Journalists and First Amendment experts express alarm over the government’s action, which one suggests is “meant to intimidate” the press
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Columns
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ICE Shooting Video, White House Spin, and the World We’re In
The Media Front newsletter aims to cut through the outrage and misleading narratives, and interrogate how power, politics and technology converge to shape the media today
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Journalism
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Tony Dokoupil Charts a Trump-Friendly Course for the ‘CBS Evening News’ | Analysis
From amplifying the White House’s January 6 spin to saluting Marco Rubio, the newly minted anchor is signaling a less adversarial tone out of the gate
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Columns
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After a Rocky Year, Newsrooms Push Deeper Into AI
Editorial missteps, staff resistance and public skepticism haven’t slowed experimentation as news outlets wrestle with how to embrace AI without eroding trust
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Journalism
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How Journalists Survived — and Even Thrived — as Trump’s War Against Media Escalated in 2025 | Analysis
Billion-dollar lawsuits and new press restrictions didn’t stop journalists from holding power to account as they navigated an unprecedented tsunami of news this year
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Columns
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Bari Weiss Is Eroding Fragile Trust at CBS News | Analysis
Weiss may be a TV news novice, but she isn’t politically naive. Her mishandling of a “60 Minutes” investigation is, at best, clumsy, and at worst, cover for the Trump administration
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Columns
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Donald Trump’s CNN Grudge Looms Over Warner Bros. Discovery Deal | Analysis
The president has inserted his desire for a revamped CNN into the center of the Paramount-Neflix battle
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Columns
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Why Trump Keeps Getting Away With Insulting Female White House Reporters | Analysis
White House Correspondents Association President Weijia Jiang tells TheWrap that “personal attacks” on journalists “will not deter them,” though calls to stand up for maligned colleagues are mounting
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Columns
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Los Angeles Is On the Cusp of a Local News Boom | Analysis
Three startups – LA Local, LAReported and Murdoch’s California Post – are set to reshape how journalists cover one of America’s most complex cities
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Columns
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Pete Hegseth’s Media Bubble Has Already Popped on Day 1 | Analysis
Even with a new Pentagon press corps packed with conservative reporters and influencers, it’s the legacy media still driving the news cycle
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Columns
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Media Clashes on the Right Could Shape What Comes After Trump: ‘Things are a Hot Mess ’ | Analysis
Debates over Jeffrey Epstein and Nick Fuentes, and who carries the MAGA mantle, have politicians and pundits staking ground ahead of 2028
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Columns
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Former Washington Post Editor Calls Trump’s Jamal Khashoggi Comments ‘A Disgrace’ | Exclusive
Martin Baron, who was the Post’s top editor when the columnist was killed in 2018, tells TheWrap: “Just when you think Trump has gone as low as possible, he goes still lower”
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Columns
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