On the Media

By: WNYC Studios
  • Summary

  • The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger examine threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.
    © WNYC
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Episodes
  • Shari Redstone's Road to Power at Paramount Global
    Apr 30 2025

    The Redstone family is a controlling shareholder of Paramount Global — one of the biggest entertainment companies out there. (Think CBS Entertainment, MTV, Nickelodeon.) The family is also one of the inspirations for HBO's Succession, which makes sense the more you get to know them.

    Shari Redstone currently has the controlling stake in Paramount Global. Company leadership was carefully criticized in a recent on-air "rebuke" by 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, who said the show was receiving new kinds of oversight amid the Trump presidency. The drama has unfolded as Redstone seeks FCC approval for a lucrative merger, and the Trump administration is suing Paramount Global for billions of dollars.

    This week we revisit Redstone's backstory by re-airing a conversation with Rachel Abrams, a senior producer and reporter for The New York Times Presents, and the co-author with James B. Stewart of Unscripted:​​ The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy.

    On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

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    15 mins
  • Brendan Carr’s F.C.C. Has Been Busy. Plus, Rewriting the History of Watergate.
    Apr 25 2025

    The Federal Communications Commission is currently investigating CBS for “intentional news distortion” for its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. On this week’s On the Media, what the new chairman of the FCC has been up to, and what led a top CBS producer to quit. Plus, what a growing effort to rewrite the history of Watergate tells us about the American right.

    [01:00] The Federal Communications Commission is currently investigating CBS for “intentional news distortion” for its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. Host Brooke Gladstone talks with Max Tani, Semafor’s Media Editor and co-host of the podcast Mixed Signals, about Brendan Carr’s busy first three months as Chairman of the FCC and the impacts that these kinds of investigations could have on press freedoms.

    [15:37] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Michael Koncewicz, political historian at New York University, about the fight over who gets to tell the story of Watergate and the years-long conservative movement to rehabilitate Richard Nixon’s image.

    [29:26] Brooke sits down with Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, to talk about the Trump Administration's war on museums, especially those that deal with our nation's history of racism.

    Further reading:

    • How Nexstar dodged a Trump lawsuit, by Max Tani
    • Shari Redstone kept tabs on ‘60 Minutes’ segments on Trump, by Max Tani
    • The Alarming Effort To Rewrite the History of Watergate, by Michael Koncewicz
    • The Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done, On the Media (2018)

    On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

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    50 mins
  • Left Wing Youtuber David Pakman **EXTENDED VERSION**
    Apr 23 2025

    **EXTENDED VERSION**

    Micah spoke to left-wing YouTuber, David Pakman for last week's show. This is the long version of that conversation.

    On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

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    23 mins
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wouldn't miss if

Love the in depth analysis of topics. Brooke is the best! Wouldn't miss an episode.

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What the world needs

Outstanding! Enlightening! Wish everyone would do it this way. Between OTM and Glenn Kirchner staying informed of current events is fun and easy!

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