Pawel Popiel
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ppopiel.bsky.social
Pawel Popiel
@ppopiel.bsky.social
1.8K followers 650 following 480 posts
Media policy + platforms + political economy | Assistant Prof @ Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University | US Team Research Lead - GMICP.org | Affiliate @ MIC Center, UPenn and CITAP, UNC | Philly expat | pawelpopiel.com
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ppopiel.bsky.social
Pawel Popiel @ppopiel.bsky.social · Jun 23
Now out! My and @kvasudevan.bsky.social's new edited book, featuring stellar contributions grappling with the politics of digital platforms expanding and attempting to reshape politics, economics, and social relations in their extractive image.
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...
Platforms, Power, and Friction | Pawel Popiel, Krishnan Vasudevan | Ta
This edited book deconstructs the myth of frictionless digital platform expansion, revealing the persistent "platform frictions" that shape platform economies
www.taylorfrancis.com
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
404media.co
NEW: At least four videos show what really happened when ICE shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

DHS has established itself as an agency that cannot be trusted to live in or present reality.

Our latest:
DHS Is Lying To You About ICE Shooting a Woman
At least four videos show what really happened when ICE shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday. DHS has established itself as an agency that cannot be trusted to live in or present reality.
www.404media.co
January 7, 2026 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
theintercept.com
Video from the scene of the Minnesota ICE shooting contradicts DHS’s narrative that locals were rioting and threatening agents' lives.
Video Shows ICE Agent’s Fatal Shooting of Civilian in Minneapolis
Video from the scene of the Minnesota ICE shooting contradicts DHS’s narrative that locals were rioting and threatening agents’ lives.
interc.pt
January 7, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
atrupar.com
Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
January 7, 2026 at 6:40 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
“C.P.B.’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/b...
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Votes to Shut Down
www.nytimes.com
January 7, 2026 at 2:58 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
a bald man with a red bow tie says " it is happening again "
Alt: a bald man with a red bow tie says " it is happening again " twin peaks
media.tenor.com
January 3, 2026 at 8:31 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
New piece out with @christopherali.bsky.social @sydneyforde.bsky.social @theine.bsky.social examining the shifting terrain of US wireless competition policy via the T-Mobile / Sprint merger, and noting "performative competition" supplanting empirical analysis.
journals.sagepub.com/eprint/ZB3CG...
We examine the evolving political economy of the U.S. wireless communications market through a case study of the 2020T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Drawing on industry data from the Global Media & Internet Concentration Project and policy documents from the merger review, we show how the merging parties and regulators worked to construct the perception of competition to justify the transaction's approval despite clear evidence of oligopolistic concentration. We conceptualize this strategy as performative competition, involving regulators downplaying antitrust concerns, reframing consumer harms, and emphasizing speculative promises of 5G deployment to approve a corporate merger. We argue that performative competition is an increasingly necessary regulatory strategy, which emerges from policymakers’ neoliberal deference to dominant industry actors in a political economy marked by the growing consolidation of wireless markets; entails an increasing decoupling of communications policymaking from regulatory empirical analysis; and fulfills a discursive policy function of legitimating policy decisions to policy stakeholders.
December 30, 2025 at 4:48 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
It took Trump ignoring death threats to her family for MTG's moment of realization. 😐

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
‘I Was Just So Naïve’: Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump
www.nytimes.com
December 29, 2025 at 11:34 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
"You Should Be Skeptical of the TikTok Deal"
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/o...
Mr. Trump’s deal preserves many of the ties to China that the law was designed to sever. ByteDance would reportedly license or transfer its recommendation algorithm to the new U.S. entity. TikTok would continue to manage “global product interoperability,” meaning the American app would remain integrated with TikTok’s worldwide platform. Oracle, the app’s U.S. cloud provider, would serve as a “trusted security partner,” monitoring the system and eventually retraining the algorithm. Make no mistake: In this new arrangement, Beijing will still have leverage over the newly structured entity.
December 24, 2025 at 6:28 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
Good thing Santa wasn't pulled over by ICE! 🎄
www.bbc.com/news/videos/...
Ho Ho No! Santa pulled over for speeding in Ohio
Santa is speeding through his Christmas deliveries, but a sheriff had to stop him for "flying a little too fast".
www.bbc.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
404media.co
iCloud, Mega, and as a torrent. Archivists have uploaded the 60 Minutes episode Bari Weiss spiked.
Archivists Posted the 60 Minutes CECOT Segment Bari Weiss Killed
iCloud, Mega, and as a torrent. Archivists have uploaded the 60 Minutes episode Bari Weiss spiked.
www.404media.co
December 23, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
esqueer.net
The 60 Minutes episode on CECOT that Bari Weiss tried to spike has leaked.

youtu.be/lenFGZ5WUTA?...
WATCH: Segment CBS News Pulled From "60 Minutes"
YouTube video by Phil Lewis
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 11:04 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
MAGA's killing Jim Beam
www.cbsnews.com/news/jim-bea...
Jim Beam to pause production at its main distillery on Jan. 1
The main distillery will be closed for site enhancements, the company said. The pause comes after whiskey production has dropped amid a challenging year.
www.cbsnews.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
alexshephard.bsky.social
The full Weiss memo is dogshit
-who cares if administration figures “regret” sending people to CECOT
-who cares about the criminal histories of the people we sent to CECOT, we sent them to a torture prison
—who cares about the “debate” over the legality of sending people to a torture prison
December 22, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
adamisacson.com
Current issue of @theonion.com nails it again.
December 21, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
annabower.bsky.social
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
News Team, Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier. I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity. Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now-after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one. We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a "kill switch" for any reporting they find inconvenient. If the standard for airing a story becomes "the government must agree to be interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state. These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless. CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones. We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight. Sharyn
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
donmoyn.bsky.social
The CBS reporter who led the story calls pulling it a "political" decision.
"The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote in the note, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
December 22, 2025 at 3:10 AM
ppopiel.bsky.social
Bari Weiss: "old-school journalistic values: asking the hard questions, following the facts wherever they lead and holding power to account. Americans hungry for fairness will see that on display night after night.”

www.thedailybeast.com/60-minutes-s...
'60 Minutes' Suddenly Drops Segment on Major Trump Controversy
The show announced a programming change just before its Sunday night timeslot.
www.thedailybeast.com
December 21, 2025 at 11:46 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
This debate about whether (and if so, how to) situate antitrust within a leftist politics is fascinating and worthwhile, as is this latest contribution by Sandeep Vaheesan
lpeproject.org/blog/why-ant...
Why Antitrust Reform Matters
In the recent exchange between the Marxists and the antitrusters, much of the disagreement has turned on different understandings of the project of antitrust reform. What is its animating goal?
lpeproject.org
December 17, 2025 at 3:07 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
The other problematic merger receiving less media attention: “If your agencies approve the deal, the country’s largest TV station owner would double its audience reach to 80% of TV households and cement a market-dominant position”
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
Elizabeth Warren, Congressional Democrats Push FCC and DOJ to Scrutinize Nexstar-Tegna Deal (Exclusive)
The politicians argue that the deal will "increase costs, drive job losses, and harm local journalism" in a letter to Brendan Carr and Gail Slater.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
dougcoulson.bsky.social
"A new digital platform designed to combat censorship is being established to preserve the archives of news outlets that have been shut down or are facing extinction in authoritarian countries." apnews.com/article/cens...
Digital platform aims to preserve journalism from outlets closed or threatened
PEN America and Bard College have started a digital platform, Kronika, designed to preserve the journalism of independent news outlets that have been closed or threatened by authoritarian governments.
apnews.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
Zuckerberg 2017: "Building a global community that works for everyone starts with the millions of smaller communities and intimate social structures we turn to for our personal, emotional and spiritual needs."

2025: Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content
Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content
More than 50 organisations report sites being restricted or removed, with abortion hotlines blocked and posts showing non-explicit nudity triggering warnings
www.theguardian.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:01 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
The API and SDK of the AI-web, aka a scaling (monopolizing?) tool. "When someone uses Claude to perform tasks in Slack, for example, MCP is what authorizes and establishes the connection between services."
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
AI companies want a new internet — and they think they’ve found the key
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says the Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin.
www.theverge.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:00 PM
ppopiel.bsky.social
This is a pretty significant green light to the AI-powered mass media future
www.reuters.com/business/med...
Disney to invest $1 billion in OpenAI, license characters for Sora video tool
Walt Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will let the startup use characters from Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in its Sora AI video generator, a crucial deal that could reshape how ...
www.reuters.com
December 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
bgrueskin.bsky.social
David Ellison appears to be mortified that CBS/60 Minutes is “going rogue” by covering the news and by keeping him “in the dark” about a segment critical of Trump.

Because Ellison doesn’t realize that’s how it’s supposed to work.

nypost.com/2025/12/10/m...
Sources say Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has told people close to Trump he was unaware of the broadcast until the day it ran, as was Jeff Shell, president of Paramount Skydance, and Weiss. • "They're saying those guys went rogue and when Paramount Skydance found out about it, they were caught flatfooted," said one person with direct knowledge of the matter. The sources say paramount's brass insists that "60 Minutes" staffers kept them mostly in the dark about the controversial interview that aired Sunday night - which provoked Trump to declare that Paramount Skydance and its management "ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP." "Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!" Trump added of the Ellisons.
December 11, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Reposted by Pawel Popiel
victorpickard.bsky.social
A lovely tribute to Bob McChesney by his partner, the media scholar Inger Stole.
Bob McChesney: A Life Well Lived - Monthly Review
monthlyreview.org
December 10, 2025 at 11:36 PM