Washington Post C.E.O. Will Lewis Steps Down After Stormy Tenure

“I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/t...

I don’t think they’re set up to direct it to a specific thing, but you can make a one-time donation to Minnesota Public Radio any time, at mpr.org.

Live: Man shot by federal agents in south Minneapolis this morning, witnesses say A video appears to shows federal agents wrestling a man to the ground then shooting him.

Man shot by federal agents has died, police chief says
www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

Live: Man shot by federal agent in south Minneapolis this morning, witnesses say More than a hundred protesters and observers have gathered near E. 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue.

Witnesses say a man was shot by a federal agent in south Minneapolis this morning. The Minnesota Star Tribune is on the scene:
www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

Man shot by federal agent in south Minneapolis www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

Opinion | In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War

I went to Minneapolis last week. What I saw was horrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Gift link to my latest column: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

Fear factor: Intimidation becomes a calling card as Twin Cities ICE surge widens Six weeks into the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, observers say there are signs that federal agents are employing violence more frequently and with little apparent restraint against citiz...

Six weeks into the immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities, observers say federal agents are employing violence more frequently and with little apparent restraint against citizens and noncitizens alike. (1) www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

I curate the history series at public media's trade journal Current. We're looking for pieces on the history of NPR, PBS and its affiliates, with some space to imagine public media's future. We accept academic articles repurposed for wide readership. Plus, we pay. Please circulate!

MPR News is live right now bringing you updates on this. mprnews.org/listen

Listen to the @mprnews.org audio livestream for live coverage (including interview tape of an eyewitness) www.mprnews.org

Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

Here’s last night’s story about public media, who it serves, what we can do to counteract the Trump administration’s budget cuts to it, and why the answer is “sell Russell Crowe’s jock strap.” You’ll see. youtu.be/yknMJOgy2pA

Over the years, we have accumulated many, many weird items on this show. Wax presidents, Russell Crowe’s jock strap, even a Bob Ross painting. Now, you can own them. Visit johnoliversjunk.com to bid on items that will help us raise money for The Public Media Bridge Fund!

As @lastweektonight.com covered tonight, local public media stations across the country are in crisis. You can help out by going to adoptastation.org

Penn State plans to 'wind down' WPSU after board committee rejects plan to transfer it to WHYY WPSU, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary of bringing public media to Pennsylvania, is slated to close soon, after a Penn State board of trustees committee voted Thursday against a proposal...

This is the first NPR/PBS station I've seen that's going out of business as a result of the federal rescission:
radio.wpsu.org/2025-09-11/p...

An image from the aftermath of the shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. In the foreground is a woman running in the middle is a street. She is running away from the camera, towards a school in the background. She has her wallet in her hands, and also her shoes, which she presumably took off so she could run faster. You can see the bottom of one of her feet, and dirt is visible (again, presumably from running barefoot).

Of all the photos posted by the Strib related to the shooting at Annunciation Church, this was the one that got me the most. Maybe because we cant see the (presumably) mom’s face, so it seems more universal? arc.stimg.co/startribunem...?

Time to Grow The 51st Help us hire Christina and Martin Full-Time!

good day to support your local nonprofit newsroom givebutter.com/SsQ8CG

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

The corporation for public broadcasting shutting down is awful news for people looking to keep public media’s mission alive.

a brief thread on what it means for public radio:

The Invention of “Sesame Street” Renata Adler’s 1972 review of the program that revolutionized children’s television.

“Small children from poor or middle-class families who watch ‘Sesame Street’ do better on cognitive tests and in first grade than children who do not watch it,” Renata Adler wrote, in 1972.

PBS News is not going anywhere.

We will continue our work without fear or favor, as we have for nearly five decades on the air.

We are profoundly grateful to Viewers Like You for your loyalty and unwavering support.

Do countries with better-funded public media also have healthier democracies? Of course they do But the direction of causality is tricky. Do a democracy's flaws lead it to starve public media, or does starving public media lead to a democracy's flaws?

"Do countries with better-funded public media also have healthier democracies? Of course they do"

www.niemanlab.org/2022/01/do-c... (January 2022)

MICAH BECKWITH: I think elected officials have a duty to get out, talk to their constituents, take the arrows, answer the questions and push back a little bit. Like, if you believe what you believe, then defend it, right? FOLKENFLIK: Black has worked at the station for 10 years, after decades in local TV. BLACK: We're very good at giving them 30 minutes about an issue, whereas if you tune into a local commercial media outlet, you're probably going to get 30 seconds of something. And I think that's what we're providing to the community. FOLKENFLIK: All of that, Black says, is now in doubt. As part of sweeping budget cutbacks in Indiana, elected officials unexpectedly eliminated all state funding for 17 Hoosier public broadcasting stations. That's about $3.6 million. That means a team of eight journalists who cover Indiana politics and policy for those stations will soon be disbanded. Black says more cuts are in store. BLACK: I'm in the process of doing budgeting right now, and what it means for me immediately is some programming losses.

BLACK: If I truly lose federal funding and it gets added to the state funding loss, then, you know, I'm immediately taking about $1.5 million out of my pocket. FOLKENFLIK: Donors can't make up that difference. BLACK: That is pretty darn close to being catastrophic. FOLKENFLIK: That would shred WNIN's financial reserves in a year or two, force the sale of his headquarters, and still it might go dark. If public media endures in Indiana, would it cover county school board meetings, the region's farms or sports teams or fudgemakers, its smaller triumphs, along with the trials and traumas? Black says he doesn't know who would report or tell those stories.

This @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social story is a great reminder that gutting CPB won't necessarily hurt national NPR (about 1% of their funding is federal), but it *will* devastate affiliate stations, particularly rural ones serving areas with few media outlets.

www.npr.org/2025/07/15/n...

Thank you! Happy to share. Feel free to DM your email address!

Thank you, Paul!!

Thank you!

Thank you so much, Colin!!

Thank you so much!!

Congratulations to Annenberg's newest Ph.D. @ljlincoln.bsky.social, who successfully defended her dissertation yesterday.

Titled "All the News That's Fit to Fund," Lincoln's dissertation explores how journalism became a philanthropic cause and examines today’s nonprofit news landscape.

Thank you so much Mia!! Day one nonprofit news girlies 🥹