Death of CBS radio news is a victory for Trump over free speech

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.21.2026

The blogger has listened to radio news for a lifetime. One of the first stations was KCBS-740AM in San Francisco. Long before the days of National Public Radio.

The omnipresent CBS Radio News sign on

Make no mistake the shutdown of CBS radio news has nothing to do with money despite what corporate management insists.

Donald Trump has railed against mainstream media which fails to bow down. The death of CBS radio news is another victory over mainstream media free speech for Trump.

The Trump administration approved Mr. (David) Ellison’s purchase after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a suit brought by President Trump against “60 Minutes.” – NYT 3.20.2026

Excerpted from The New York Times 3.21.2026

It transported Americans onto the rooftops of London in the Blitz and into the bleak embers of concentration camps in liberated Nazi Germany, an aural atlas to world events thousands of miles away.

Edward R. Murrow broadcast from Buchenwald Concentration Camp April 1945

In more recent years, it transmitted eyewitness dispatches from world capitals to hundreds of local stations in rural and sparsely populated parts of the country.

CBS News Radio was a pioneer and stalwart of the mass media century, the proving ground of star journalists like Edward R. Murrow, with a distinctive five-tone chime that became synonymous with breaking news — long before the rise of 24-hour cable and the internet.

Now, its venerable airwaves are crackling to a close. Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS, announced on Friday that the radio news network would sign off, after 99 years, near the end of May.

Excerpted from the New York Times 3.20.2021

CBS News came under the control of David Ellison, a billionaire tech heir, after his Hollywood studio Skydance absorbed the media giant Paramount last year. The Trump administration approved Mr. Ellison’s purchase after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a suit brought by President Trump against “60 Minutes.”

Mr. Ellison said he wanted CBS News to appeal to a centrist audience, and he installed Bari Weiss, an opinion journalist and critic of the mainstream news media, as its new leader.

CBS News eliminated its century-old radio division, which broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s World War II dispatches from London, amid a round of layoffs on Friday announced by the network’s editor in chief, Ms. Weiss.

CBS radio news journalists on election night November 1936

More than 60 employees, or roughly 6 percent of the news division, are set to be laid off under the plan, according to a person who requested anonymity to share internal details.

“Certain parts of this newsroom need to get smaller in order for us to make room for the things that we need to build to remain competitive in the future,” Ms. Weiss, who started her job in October, said during a newsroom-wide conference call on Friday, according to a recording.

CBS News Radio, which has roots in the Jazz Age, was once among the premier news broadcasters in the country. “CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927,” Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, wrote in a memo.

Original CBS Radio news headquarters in New York City- circa 1939

“The Code of Silence is alive and well at SFPD…Rats are targeted for retaliation.”

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.19.2026

At least the San Francisco City Attorney is displaying a bit of empathy.

Knowing full well the incident resulting in the death of a SFPD recruit Jon-Marques Psalms  in 2025 is an embarrassment to the City and the SFPD. This wrongful death litigation will never go to Trial. The City will pay the grieving family.

The buried lede in San Francisco Chronicle article 3.19.2026

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/police-recruit-death-lawsuit-22083884.php

“The Code of Silence is alive and well at SFPD,” wrote Brad Gage, an attorney for the Psalms family. “Snitches get stitches and rats are targeted for retaliation.”

Spokespersons for the SFPD said they were precluded from commenting on the lawsuit due to ongoing litigation and referred all questions to the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. In a statement, city attorney spokesperson Jen Kwart called Psalms’ death “a tragedy.”

“Our thoughts are with his loved ones,” Kwart said. “We will review the complaint and respond in court.”

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 3.19.2026

The family of a 30-year-old San Francisco Police Department recruit who died after a intense training exercise last year sued the city this week, alleging his death could have been prevented with safety protocols — and that his family was misled about the severity of his injuries.

Christina and Marcus Psalms accused the city of battery, assault, wrongful death, negligent supervision and other actions in the August 2025 death of their son, Jon-Marques Psalms. 

Psalms, who  joined the SFPD academy just three months before his death, died two days after collapsing during an endurance training exercise called a “red man” drill, which  involves recruits wrestling in full-body padded suits to simulate hand-to-hand combat. 

We can’t bring back the dead. But Justice of a sort prevails.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.19.2026 UPDATED

A mockery of the judicial system.

Vallejo cop Jarrett Tonn murdered 22-year old Sean Monterrosa in June 2020 while he was sitting in his car.

A terrible abuse of police power which the blogger wrote about at the time (see following: Murdered by Vallejo cop)

The cop was never charged. Even worse. Jarrett Tonn was promoted to Sergeant in June 2025 after being reinstated in 2023.

But, six years later Justice of a sort prevails.

Hard to believe that Jarrett Tonn has received a promotion despite murdering 22-year old Sean Monterrosa in June 2020

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 3.18.2026

The city of Vallejo will pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Sean Monterrosa, who was shot and killed by a police officer there in 2020, the family’s attorney said. 

“The loss of Sean will forever be with our family, and no settlement can ease our pain,” the Monterrosa family said in a statement on Tuesday. “Nonetheless, we are grateful to have reached a resolution in this case.”


Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco, was fatally shot by Officer Jarrett Tonn on June 2, 2020, just a week after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, sparking months of protests against police violence across the country. 

Vallejo police were responding to reports of looting and came upon a group of people including Monterrosa outside a Walgreens. Tonn, who was riding in the back of an unmarked police truck, fired through the windshield from the back seat, striking Monterrosa in the back of the head. The 22-year-old was found with a hammer in his sweatshirt pocket, which police said they mistook for a gun.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/vallejo-sean-monterrosa-lawsuit-settle-22084331.php

Murdered by Vallejo cop. Family of slain 22-year old files wrongful death suit

Cesar Chavez legacy.. Rush to Judgment???

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues  3 18.2026

United Farmworkers leader Cesar Chavez outside Safeway headquarters – 1973

The blogger is shocked and dismayed to read The New York Times and subsequent reports in The San Francisco Chronicle chronicling years of  sexual abuse by United Farmworkers icon Cesar Chavez.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez

Equally dismaying is the Rush to Judgment to destroy Chavez’ legacy. In an SF Chronicle snap poll, over 75 percent of the respondents want his person and accomplishments vanquished from public life.

 

Mob Mentality in full throated roar– SF Chronicle – 3.18.2026
New York Times investigation which set off the firestorm

Shades of 1930’s Germany. Trump accuses critics of ‘Treason’

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.16.2026

Does this look familiar?

There’s the old saying made famous by Wes ‘Scoop’ Nisker. “If you don’t like the News. Go out and make some of your own.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Nisker

Donald Trump is using all the tools of power to bend the media to pervert the news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Nazi_Germany

Censorship in Nazi Germany was extreme and strictly enforced by the governing Nazi Party, but specifically by Joseph Goebbels and his Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Similarly to many other police states both before and since, censorship within Nazi Germany included the silencing of all past and present dissenting voices. In addition to the further propaganda weaponization of all forms of mass communication, including newspaper, music, literature, radio, and film, by the State,[1] the Ministry of Propaganda also produced and disseminated their own literature, which was solely devoted to spreading Nazi ideology and the Hitler Myth.

Book burning in 1930’s Germany – May 1933

Excerpted from The New York Times 3.16.2026

The president and his allies have sought to vilify the news media since the start of his political rise a decade ago. But this recent denigration of news organizations — including The New York Times — comes as Mr. Trump has appeared at pains to depict his Middle East military effort as a smashing success, despite some facts to the contrary and opinion polls that have revealed widespread doubts among Americans about the war.

In particular, Mr. Trump has zeroed in on accusing American news organizations of disloyalty to their country, as in an official White House news release declaring that CNN had sought “to undermine our decisive victories in Operation Epic Fury.”

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Monday: “The media has been undeniably biased and negative in its coverage of President Trump and Operation Epic Fury. Anybody with eyes and ears can see this.”

Oscar shocker. ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is now a Somebody

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.15.2026

Last night the blogger explored the Stalin era Soviet Union 1930’s Famine terror against the Russian people.

Tonight a documentary about the current state of Putin political terror in Russia walked away with the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. ‘ Mr. Nobody Against Putin’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Nobody_Against_Putin

Makers of ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ accept the Oscar – 3.15.2026

Excerpted from Deadline 3.15.2026

‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ Wins 2026 Oscar For Best Documentary Feature

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage, it’s that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity,” Director David Borenstein said. “When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume, we all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a ‘nobody’ is more powerful than you think.”

A documentary about the current state of affairs in Russia walked away with the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. ‘ Mr. Nobody Against Putin’.

His speech was interrupted by applause from the Dolby Theatre audience. Pavel Talankin, the 34 year old school teacher and the film’s main character, also spoke, his words translated from Russian, making an impassioned plea for peace at a time of war in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere.

“We look at the sky for shooting stars to make a very important wish. But there are countries where instead of shooting stars, they have shooting bombs and shooting drones,” he noted. “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.”

Mr. Nobody Against Putin trailer

Harrowing tale of ill-fated reporter who publicized Stalin’s terror

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.14.2026

The Academy Awards are upon us and serious movies rarely receive the Red Carpet treatment.

Tonight I watched transfixed the sobering and seriously motivating story ‘Mr. Jones ‘. Gareth Jones, a British journalist, who traveled to Soviet Russia in 1933 and exposed the terror of Stalin’s starvation campaign against his own people. Millions perished while the world remained ignorant the genocide until William Randolph Hearst published Gareth Jones harrowing tale.

Mr. Jones fateful and fatal phone call. Jones learns there are really two stories. One is the story the journalist, fictionalized in Mr. Jones as Paul Kleb, was desperately trying to uncover and for which he died.

Mr. Jones met a cruel fate. He was kidnapped and assassinated by Soviet agents in Mongolia one day before his 30th birthday in 1935. Gareth Jones (journalist) – Wikipedia

Mr. Jones (2019 film) – Wikipedia

The Holodomor,[a] also known as the Ukrainian famine,[8][9][b] was a massive man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.

Holodomor – Wikipedia

The film, directed by Agnieszka Holland, is meticulous. Particularly the cinemaphotography as it alternates between black/white and color.

The entire ensemble cast is stellar.

One story lines involves George Orwell and his novel ‘Animal Farm’. Apparently, the inspiration for the story was based on the ‘Holodomor’.

A second story line involves New York Times reporter Walter Duranty who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. It turns out that Duranty was well aware of Stalin’s atrocities against his own people. Yet continued to knowingly spin the fiction there was no famine. Even when the reality was known his Pulitzer was never revoked. Walter Duranty – Wikipedia https://share.google/MdriSCGn68mf9qEoU

Top photo: James Norton portrayed British journalist Gareth Jones

Trump war sinks America deeper into Iran Oil morass

SAN FRANCISCO

Headlines for a Friday the 13th

Lee Heidhues 3.13.2026 UPDATED

A War for One Man – Bibi Netanyahu

Excerpted from New York Times – Mairav Zonszein 3.13.2026

Israel, having demonstrated overwhelming force, is once again mistaking domination for security and tactical escalation for a sustainable regional order — even as the region continues to burn.

Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his political life trying to make war with Iran seem not only inevitable but overdue.

Thus, for the Israeli prime minister, the latest conflict was a victory the moment it began. Not because every consequence is good for Israel, but because he can sell almost every conceivable result as proof that he was right all along: that Iran had to be confronted, that force was unavoidable and that delay would only have made the threat more treacherous.

“It looks to me like investors are discounting what the president has to say about the direction  of the war and are now focused on the duration of it.” – Joseph Brusuelas, Economist. WSJ 3.12.2026

🫨

Country Joe McDonald gone to rest in big country in the sky

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.10.2026 UPDATED

Country Joe McDonald (wearing beads) and the Fish – circa 1967
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_Joe_McDonald

The blogger is well aware that Country Joe McDonald’s most well traveled song ‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag’ became a people’s anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_%22Fish%22_Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I%27m-Fixin%27-to-Die_Rag

The first Country Joe and the Fish album released in 1967 on the Vanguard Records label is a classic. Reading of Country Joe McDonald’s death at age 84 I took the album off the shelf and had some happy memories listening to the 11 tracks. In particular ‘Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine’.


McDonald recorded 33 albums and wrote hundreds of songs over a career spanning 60 years. Country Joe & the Fish were a pioneer psychedelic rock band known for their eclectic performances at the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium, the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and the original 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1979 reunion.

Top photo: An older Country Joe McDonald

Trump’s love of War sinks the job market and raises gas prices

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.10.2026 UPDATED

Trump needs to “Find Iran Exit Ramp ” – Wall Street Journal – 3.10.2026

Donald Trump’s unhinged, uncalled for, unnecessary assault on the people of Iran is destroying the infrastructure of this thousands year old nation.

The Guardian – 3 8 2026

The unilateral assault by America and its brethren Israel is causing ruin to the United States economy.

The only benefit to all this Trump inspired death and destruction is the blogger can only hope an angry and fed up American electorate will give a big thumbs down to the hegemon Trump and MAGA in the upcoming congressional elections.

Wall Street Journal 3.7.2026
Wall Street Journal 3.7.2026

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 3.6.2026

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/february-jobs-report-unemployment-1d7d1a9b?mod=Searchresults&pos=2&page=1

The U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, a widespread and unexpected downturn for a job market that continues to struggle across a broad range of sectors.

The employment numbers, reported Friday by the Labor Department, fell far short of January’s gain of 126,000 jobs. They were also much worse than the gain of 50,000 jobs that economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected to see.

The unemployment rate ticked slightly higher to 4.4%. While that is still low, the Friday report exposes troubling weaknesses in a labor market that has shown very little employment growth in recent months.