Donald Trump wants nothing more than to stamp out the First Amendment.
This wannabe dictator will use his final 925 days in the White House unleashing the Department of Justice and abusing the levers of presidential power to stifle, harass and prosecute his political enemies by any means necessary.
First it was former national security advisor John Bolton who published “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” Bolton plead guilty to one charge against him and is looking at a 2.5M fine and five years prison time.
The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.
The smirking bully Trump
The Times journalists who received subpoenas included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, who reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had departed Turkey on the old Air Force One as a security precaution at the urging of the Secret Service. On Thursday, The Times reported that the new Air Force One, a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Both articles cited sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.
The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.
In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.
The Times denounced the administration’s actions.
“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.
The blogger has been watching the World Cup since Day One on June 11th and is thrilled that the United States men’s team has moved to the group of 16 and will meet Belgium on Monday, July 6th in Seattle.
Despite all the joy of the game there is most definitely a political element. Deutsche Welle and The New Yorker have broken down and dissected the problems afflicting what is euphemistically titled The Beautiful Game.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.1.2026
US President Donald Trump was front and center when Chelsea lifted last year’s Club World Cup trophy
It’s a familiar and understandable diversion of attention from the issues that dominated the buildup. Many Argentine fans were denied visas to attend the tournament and see Messi make history, Vozinha’s mother was only granted a visa bond waiver to the country after her son’s heroics for Cape Verde, and those fans seen on TV are often the lucky few rich enough to afford outrageous ticket prices.
The decision to award US President Donald Trump FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize last December, shortly before Trump started a war with tournament participant Iran, was reportedly a unilateral move by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and has further eroded trust both within and outside the organization.
Excerpted from The New Yorker POWER MOVE – Sam Knight – 6.8.2026
Gianni Infantino is both absolutely in control and strangely ill at ease. “He doesn’t trust many people,” a former official said. “His circle is very small.” Patrick Oberli, the Swiss journalist, has interviewed him four times. (Infantino declined to speak with me.) “In every case, I was faced with someone who was fearful,” Oberli said. “It was a peculiar feeling. It was as if he were sitting an exam.” In 2023, when Infantino was reëlected, unopposed, for a second full term as president, he opened a rare news conference with a rebuke for the waiting reporters. “I don’t understand why some of you are so mean,” he said. “Why? Why? I don’t get it.”
Blogger’s World Cup tracker – 7.11.2026
Infantino—now the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which governs global soccer and owns the World Cup—was twelve years old and living in Brig, a small town in the Swiss Alps. Infantino’s parents were Italian migrants: his father worked on the night trains that ran under the mountains and across Europe, and his mother managed a kiosk at the railway station. Working-class Italians suffered discrimination in Switzerland during Infantino’s childhood. But the triumph of the Azzurri, the Italian men’s national team, in the World Cup helped to change that. It “allowed us to grow,” Infantino said in a speech, in 2021. “For me personally, I think that the 1982 World Cup was definitely the moment when the football virus . . . became part of my life and my body.”
Swiss Italians of Infantino’s generation have described the mounting euphoria of that summer as a feeling of riscatto—redemption and release. Brig is only a few miles from the Italian border. (Infantino calls his personality a combination of Italian creativity and Swiss precision.) After one match, he and his family crossed the border to the town of Domodossola to celebrate. There were no Italian flags on sale anywhere, so Infantino’s mother bought strips of red, white, and green fabric and sewed them together herself.
Brig is in the Upper Valais, a gaunt and conservative place where the inhabitants speak Walliser German, an Alpine dialect that many Swiss people find unintelligible. Six miles along the valley is Visp, the birthplace of Sepp Blatter, Infantino’s predecessor at FIFA, who, until Infantino entered the picture, was the most infamous soccer administrator of all time.
Gianni Infantino is both absolutely in control and strangely ill at ease.
Infantino will be unavoidable this summer. During the previous World Cup, in Qatar, directors of the official tournament feed were reportedly instructed to show him in the crowd once per match and not while he was looking at his phone. The geography of this year’s World Cup means that he won’t be physically omnipresent, but his imprint will be everywhere. “It’s safe to say that there’s no major decision that’s being made at this tournament without the direct involvement of Gianni,” a former high-ranking FIFA official told me. FIFA has staged two men’s World Cups under Infantino, but the 2026 edition is the first to be awarded and delivered during his tenure, and thus fully shaped in his image. He has already declared it to be the greatest of all time. Infantino’s messaging is as relentless as a 3-D printer’s. He is fond of the number eleven, which is the number of players on a soccer team. Most things are iconic. He likes to describe FIFA as “the official happiness provider to humanity.”
Top photo: American star striker Folarin Balogun will miss the round of 16 in Seattle after he was assessed a controversial Red Card in the USMNT win over Bosna-Herzegovina
A label which is unfair to Connie. If fighting for the working class, affordable housing and health care as Chair of the Board of Supervisors budget committee then we should all be labeled “Progressives.”
Connie is a practical political policy driven operative who, during her nearly six years as a San Francisco Supervisor, has fought for practical solutions to everyday problems.
Connie Chan has come a long way since she eked out a 125 vote victory to be elected a San Francisco Supervisor in 2020.
Six years later congressional candidate Connie is on the precipice of power having finished second in the June 2nd election. Defeating self funded centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti who spent nearly 10M of his own money.
Now, Saikat has endorsed Connie and committed himself, along with his bankroll and campaign staff, to push Connie’s effort. She will need all the help available because her opponent, State Senator Scott Wiener, is the errand guy for the deep pockets real estate industry.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan speaks flanked by Mayor Daniel Lurie to her right at a press event in front of San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 29, 2025.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Examiner 6.17.2026
In a potential boon to San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan’s congressional campaign, centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti has endorsed her candidacy and is converting his campaign committee to support her against state Sen. Scott Wiener in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Chakrabarti spokesperson said.
Chakrabarti — who finished behind Chan in the June 2 primary election despite having loaned or contributed nearly $10 million of his own money to his campaign — changed the name of his election campaign committee to the SF Solidarity PAC, an independent-expenditure committee, according to federal filings.
The former candidate had made offers to about 220 campaign employees who could work on Chan’s behalf as part of the independent effort, said spokesperson Nate Albee.
With almost all of the ballots from the election counted Monday, Wiener — a former San Francisco supervisor and a state legislator of nearly 10 years — won first place, with 95,720 votes, or 40.73%. Pelosi’s 11th Congressional District covers all but a southern chunk of The City.
Chan — who got Pelosi’s coveted endorsement on May 18, late in the primary race — came in second place with 69,823 votes, or 29.71%. Chakrabarti came in third with 41,990 votes, or 17.87%.
The results showed Wiener was dominant in most of The City, but Chan was particularly strong in the heavily Asian American Richmond and Sunset districts, according to data on the website Election Map.
Supervisor Chan and supporters at a reelection rally in 2024
In addition to the Chakrabarti endorsement Connie Chan recently announced she has hired a powerful Union organizer as her campaign director, Rudy Gonzalez.
Rudy Gonzalez’s Endorsement of Connie Chan
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council (SFBCTC), publicly backed Connie Chan in her campaign for the U.S. House seat vacated by Nancy Pelosi heritagereview.com.
Gonzalez’s endorsement came in the context of a high-stakes Democratic primary race in San Francisco’s 1st district, where Chan was competing against state Sen. Scott Wiener and tech entrepreneur Saikat Chakrabarti. While the California Democratic Party had endorsed Wiener, Chan secured backing from a wide coalition, including labor unions, former mayors, and other community organizations Mission Local.
When asked about the endorsement, Gonzalez did not frame it as the result of a public feud between Pelosi and Wiener, but he did note that “I don’t know if they have a relationship to speak of,” implying a lack of personal connection between the two heritagereview.com. This comment underscored the political dynamics at play — Pelosi had bypassed her own party’s front-runner to choose Chan, and Gonzalez’s support aligned with the broader labor and progressive base that had rallied behind her.
Gonzalez’s role as head of the SFBCTC, one of the largest and most influential unions in San Francisco, gave his endorsement significant weight. His backing reinforced Chan’s position as a candidate with strong labor support, which has been a cornerstone of her campaign messaging occupysf.net.
In sum, Rudy Gonzalez’s endorsement of Connie Chan was both a labor union endorsement and a strategic political move, adding to Chan’s coalition of support in a competitive race.
Top photo: Connie Chan cited by San Francisco Police at a May Day 2026 protest at San Francisco International Airport
Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade may snag its biggest prize. The current star of the American soccer world.
Team USA stunned its fans and media pundits when it soundly defeated Paraguay4-1 in its opening World Cup match last Friday in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The most goals ever scored by America in a World Cup game.
The man responsible for this feat is Folarin Balogun, the 24 year old Nigerian who earned “Birthright Citizenship” when his pregnant mother was obliged to stay in New York City during her pregnancy. Medical authorities told her it was unsafe to return to Nigeria.Folarin was born on July 23, 2001and became an American citizen.
Now Donald Trump is attempting to take away Birthright Citizenship which was deemed legal in 1898. The Supreme Court heard arguments months ago and will soon issue its Decision.United States v. Wong Kim Ark – Wikipedia
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a landmark decision[3] of the Supreme Court of the United States which held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China” became “at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”[1]
Wong Kim Ark was the first Supreme Court case to decide on the status of children born in the United States to alien parents. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.[3]
Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law banning virtually all Chinese immigration and prohibiting Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted “in light of the common law”.
Excerpted from The Hill 6.15.2026
U.S. men’s soccer striker Folarin Balogun scored two goals in the Americans’ victorious opener of the FIFA World Cup on Friday, a performance that would not have occurred had his mother not traveled to the U.S. just before he was born.
Folarin Balogun scores for Team USA in the World Cup in Los Angeles – 6.12.2026
The performance has also put President Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship back in the spotlight. A challenge to Trump’s executive order ending the policy is before the Supreme Court.
Balogun’s mother, Florence Balogun, traveled to New York while she was seven months pregnant with the future soccer star in 2001. Florence Balogun and her husband, Ben Balogun, were born in Nigeria and lived in London at the time.
While Florence Balogun was at the airport to head back to England, airline employees refused to allow her to fly — saying she was too pregnant, according to an ESPN profile of her son from 2023.
As a result, she stayed with her sister-in-law in Brooklyn and gave birth to Folarin in America on July 3, 2001, ESPN reported. Nearly 22 years later, and despite coming up in the Arsenal academy and playing for England’s under-17, under-18 and under-21 teams, Folarin Balogun decided to play for the U.S. senior national team.
That decision paid off on his World Cup debut, as the 24-year-old scored the second and third goals of the Americans’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday. The win marked the most goals the U.S. has ever scored in a single World Cup game, and it’s one more than the three goals it netted in the entire 2022 tournament.
But if the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the president on birthright citizenship, Folarin Balogun may not be able to play for the U.S.
The president’s executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office, stated that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”
Netanyahu needs to stop his whining and kvetching. Much of the World is totally disgusted with what this Guy is doing to the historic reputation of Israel.
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.15.2026
Israel Is Alarmed by Trump’s Deal With Iran
A man waves a Hezbollah flag in Tehran on Sunday. Vahid Salemi/Associated Press
Critics say the deal eases pressure on Tehran too soon, while others say it shows the war was a mistake
TEL AVIV—President Trump’s deal to wind down the war with Iran set off alarm bells in Israel, where top officials are wrestling with the consequences of easing the pressure on Tehran and the risks of opening a rift with the U.S. over the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It is a harsh comedown from Israeli hopes that the war would bring fundamental change to the region by toppling or crippling the Iranian regime and paving the way to diplomatic relations with more of Israel’s Arab regional counterparts under an American security umbrella, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.
The tension has been heightened by the lack of certainty about what exactly Trump has agreed to in the deal, which is expected to be signed later this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urgently trying to set up a meeting with the president to sort out the competing issues, a person familiar with the matter said.
An Israeli strike over the weekend on Beirut in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israel almost derailed the agreement and set off a last-minute scramble by the White House and mediators to keep the deal on track.
Trump criticized the strike in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said on social media that Israel had to stop its attacks across Lebanon. That was at odds with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement earlier in June that only required Israel to end the fighting if Hezbollah also stopped. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. was on the hook to end Israel’s attacks and aggression in Lebanon, state media reported.
Defying those claims, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would hold its so-called security zone in Lebanon indefinitely, saying it was needed to protect communities in northern Israel. He also said Israel would act independently to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons if necessary.
Israel is concerned that Trump has agreed to a deal that could provide Tehran with the financial relief it needs to rebuild its shattered economy but doesn’t include a commitment to turn over its enriched uranium.
It figures that the G7 would be postponed for a day to accommodate Donald Trump’s 80th birthday 60M cage fight match in front of the White House.
The 52nd G7 Summit is a scheduled annual summit of the G7 to be held from 15 to 17 June 2026 in Évian-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, France.[1][2]
The summit had initially been announced for 14-16 June 2026, but was later moved by one day to 15-17 June, to avoid a clash with US president Donald Trump‘s birthday.[5]
Évian-les-Bains previously hosted the 29th G8 summit in 2003. The 2026 summit will therefore make Évian the first French town to host a G7 or G8 leaders’ summit twice.[2][3]
Background
The summit is being held on the French shore of Lake Geneva, close to the border with Switzerland. As several delegations are expected to arrive through Geneva Airport, the event requires security coordination between France, Switzerland and the Swiss cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Valais.[4]
French president Emmanuel Macron made the reduction of global economic imbalances a priority for France’s G7 presidency, citing industrial overcapacity, underinvestment, excessive debt, deregulation and low private investment in developing countries among the threats to economic stability.[6]
Protesters in Geneva clashed with police, set a car on fire and smashed the windows of a bank to show their opposition to the G7 G7 – Wikipedia summit taking place across the border in France.
Clashes broke out between protesters and police near the United Nations (UN) building in Geneva on Sunday on the eve of the G7 summit in the nearby French resort town of Evian.
Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy nations, including US President Donald Trump, are set to gather in Evian on Monday for a three-day meeting.
The demonstration was taking place in Geneva because France refused to issue permits for protests near the G7 summit venue, the Geneva city government said.
Macron and Trump. Who’s the puppet?
Demonstrators threw bottles, stones and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons.
Witnesses cited by the AFP and Reuters news agencies said protesters targeted the offices of the UN’s telecommunication building and threw flares as police tried to clear them from the site.
Thousands of security personnel were deployed in Geneva, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Evian, ahead of the protest organized by an anti-G7 coalition.
G7 protest not allowed in France
Some 20,000 people gathered for a march that began peacefully in the early afternoon before violence broke out.
Some protesters tore down the plywood panels fitted to protect shopfronts and smashed windows, pelted projectiles at police, and set a Tesla on fire.
Protests are common at G7 gatherings, with demonstrators at the summits often voicing anger over capitalism, globalization, inequality and other issues.
The arch conservative when it comes to American hegemony. I have seen him appear on The News Hour, Deutsche Welle and the BBC. I have read his writings in Foreign Affairs magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
I certainly disagree with John Bolton on his Hawkish views regarding American hegemony. But nobody can question his integrity, sincerity or convictions.
Bolton is being unfairly persecuted by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The convicted felon President doesn’t like what he wrote in his book, ‘The Room Where It Happened’ The Room Where It Happened – Wikipediaafter leaving the White House during his first term.
The entire Editorial in the Wall Street Journal can be found by accessing the following link.
President Trump may hate being the target of lawfare, but he sure knows how to wield it against anyone who crosses him.
That’s the story of John Bolton, his former national security adviser, who is agreeing to a plea deal essentially for the sin of writing a critical book about his time advising Mr. Trump.
The President has been determined to seek revenge against Mr. Bolton, who wrote his well-regarded memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” based on his 17 months running the National Security Council in Mr. Trump’s first term.
Mr. Trump first tried and failed to block publication, then went to court to confiscate the royalties. He lost that fight too. But on Mr. Trump’s return to office, his Justice Department charged Mr. Bolton with a coercive 18-count indictment for keeping diary notes on a home computer that included “national defense information.”
Mr. Bolton has now decided to plead guilty to a single felony count for retaining classified information. He will pay a $2.5 million fine, which is best understood as an attempt to deny Mr. Bolton the earnings from the book.
Like most similar defendants, Mr. Bolton had little choice.
It is very reassuring to know that voters in Marin and Sonoma County have overwhelmingly endorsed the SMART train which currently runs from Larkspur in Marin to the far reaches of Sonoma County.
At a time when voters in car centric America are loath to fund public transit the results coming from Marin and Sonoma Counties prove that voters appreciate the value of sustainable passenger rail travel.
Perhaps North Bay voters have experienced rail travel outside the United States where public transit is an essential part of daily life.
The blogger can only bemoan the sordid history of how the automobile industry worked hard to destroy public transit in the United States.(see attached link).
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Independent Journal 6.3.2026
SMART’s (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) critical sales tax extension rode to passage Tuesday.
Officials in the public transportation world have something to cheer about andare trying to remain optimistic, pointing to a SMART train sales tax extension on Tuesday that won 70% of the vote in Marin and Sonoma counties.
To many observers, it demonstrates not only that residents value transit but that they view SMART as a centerpiece for a new wave of development.
With 100% of precincts reporting, results from Marin show 70.25% of voters in favor and 29.75% opposed. In Sonoma County, with 72% of precincts reporting, returns showed 70.44% voted yes and 29.56% were opposed.
Measure B renewed the quarter-cent sales tax for 30 years. The tax generates about $51 million annually for SMART, equal to more than half of its annual operating budget.
Marin County has 173,082 registered voters, while there are 319,260 in Sonoma County.
The citizens’ initiative required a simple majority vote to win, as opposed to a traditional two-thirds threshold. If the measure had failed, the existing tax would have expired on June 30, 2029.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the results we’re seeing right now,” said Suzanne Smith, chair of the SMART initiative committee.
“I think it’s a testament to SMART as an organization and the services they provide to the community,” said Smith, a former executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority. “We, as a committee, were lucky enough to have such a great project to sell to voters, to tell voters about, and voters see that value, so we’re pretty excited.”
Some commentators describe The Atlantic piece as War Hawk neo con talking points blasting Trump for “surrendering”to Iran.
Such talk is only correct by half. Yes Trump may be surrendering. But not for the reasons the War Hawks argue.
Trump is the prototype, for better and worse, transactional operator. He realizes belatedly the entire assault on Iran, pushed by Israel, has been a disaster from Day One on February 28, 2026. Now he is seeking an exit ramp realizing he’s made a shambles of the global economy and guaranteed the MAGA brand is going to take a beating on election day next November 3rd.
Excerpted from The Atlantic 5.21.2026 – Robert Kagan
According to one U.S. official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the May 20th call with Donald Trump—for good reason.
The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu May 20th, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz
Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions.
The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.”
Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system.
The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States. When Trump turns his back on Israel, as he must do to implement this policy, MAGA will gladly follow. The bipartisan anti-Israel consensus in the United States will grow and harden.
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
Lee's Perspective 