BREAKING: CBS Shuts Down Longest Running News Show in America

Updates on Trump's efforts to control the billionaire press, and what you can do about it.

I need to be straight with you today.

CBS News just shut down its flagship radio network — once home to legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow — as part of its downsizing operation since the network was taken over by a billionaire ally of President Donald Trump. CBS Radio provided news to about 700 affiliated stations around the country.

Now it’s gone.

Not because the news business is slow. Not because there are fewer stories to tell. Because David Ellison, the billionaire who bought CBS, is remaking it in his own image. Trump lackey Bari Weiss just laid off dozens more journalists. And CNN is likely next, with Ellison closing in on the entire Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio — including TNT, Discovery and HBO.

This is not a media story. This is a democracy story. And it’s happening right now, while a war is killing American service members and nobody at the major networks is asking the questions that need to be asked.

That’s why I’m writing to you. Raw America needs your support. Here’s why I want you to consider upgrading your subscription today.

This is what’s happening to your media.

Last Saturday, FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses from any network that covers this war in ways the administration dislikes. Trump told reporters that honest war coverage is “pretty criminal” and that outlets could be “in serious jeopardy.” The president of the United States floated criminal prosecution as a weapon against the free press.

Meanwhile, a former Newsmax news director was just installed at Voice of America, the day after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop dismantling it. VOA was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda.

The FBI admitted under oath this week that it is purchasing your location data without a warrant, using commercial data brokers to get around the Fourth Amendment entirely.

This is the environment Raw America is operating in every single day.

Here’s what Raw America is doing about it.

I founded Raw Story in 2004 because I believed someone had to cover the raw truths that the mainstream press was avoiding. I came back to build Raw America because what’s happening now is worse. The billionaires aren’t just ignoring the stories anymore. They’re buying the newsrooms and killing them.

This month, Raw America hired a reporter in Washington to cover the hearings that matter, the votes the networks ignore, and the protests the cameras aren’t showing you. We brought you an exclusive interview with a top general from the Iraq War you can’t find anywhere else. We’ve covered the Epstein story with the tenacity it deserves. We’ve been in the room.

We have bold, ambitious plans for 2026. We plan to add more reporters, video coverage across the country, and columns on topics that matter to you. I’m thrilled and excited, as much as I was when I started Raw Story 22 years ago.

But here’s the honest truth.

We’re behind on our fundraising goals.

Not because the work isn’t resonating. The response from readers tells me it is. We’re behind because we don’t have David Ellison writing us a check. We don’t have a billionaire backer who can cover the gap.

Every dollar that funds Raw America comes from people like you. That is our greatest strength and, right now, our most urgent need.

Why this moment is different.

The Iran war has killed 13 American service members. Oil has surged past $111 a barrel. The administration approved Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and then lied about it publicly. Trump’s Director of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned in protest and wrote that the war was built on a lie.

Corporate media barely covered it.

These are the stories that matter. These are the stories that the networks — now owned by people with a stake in this administration’s success — are softening, burying, or ignoring entirely.

Raw America was built for this fight. We answer to our subscribers and nobody else. We don’t sell wars. We don’t run cover for power. We don’t take calls from billionaires telling us which stories to kill.

That’s our biggest strength. But that independence is only real as long as our readers are the ones funding it.

What I’m asking you to do.

If you’ve been reading Raw America and you haven’t yet become a paid subscriber, today is the day. Not next week. Today.

CBS is cutting journalists right now. The FCC is threatening the outlets that remain right now. Ellison is closing in on CNN right now. American service members are dying in a war built on shifting justifications right now.

And the people who own the cameras have decided not to tell you the full truth about it.

Your paid subscription isn’t a donation. It’s an investment in the only kind of journalism that cannot be bought, threatened, or restructured out of existence by someone with a checkbook and an agenda.

Become a paid subscriber today. We’re not backing down from this fight. We just need you in it with us.

— John Byrne

Founder, Raw America and Raw Story

P.S. If you can’t support us today, we understand. We know these are difficult times. But please share our newsletters with your friends and family. Make sure people are getting the truth. Being present matters. Voting matters. We’re here for you, and we’re not going away.