For years, Viktor Orbán showed how to take control of a country’s media without shutting it down.

You don’t ban journalism. You buy it.

Allies acquire major outlets. Friendly voices get amplified. Critical ones get squeezed — through regulation, pressure, access, or money. And over time, most of it falls in line.

That was the model. And it worked — up to a point. Because not all of it fell in line.

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In 1926, RCA helped launch NBC — not to inform the public, but to sell radios. More stations meant more content, more content meant more listeners, and more listeners meant more radios in American homes.

It worked. It didn’t just move product — it helped build modern broadcasting, expanded reach, and created something close to a shared national conversation. We might not have modern broadcasting as we know it today if not for RCA’s push to make more money.

That part tends to get lost.

Because nearly a hundred years later, the same move is happening again — only now the product is artificial intelligence.

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There’s a growing sense right now that the free press in America is under siege.

Journalists, media critics, and even casual observers are talking about it. The idea that something fundamental is breaking. That the system is being bent, maybe beyond repair. Yes, I’m one of those talking about it. I’ve spent half my broadcasting career in news, and I care about it because it was more than a job. It was a vital service in defense of democracy. Every journalist who cares feels that way.

But the cracks in the pavement aren’t the whole picture.

What’s actually happening is messier than that. Less dramatic in some ways. More complicated in others.

Let’s dive in.

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On May 17th, the 58th season of 60 Minutes ends. And it may be the end of 60 Minutes — at least as we know it.

Inside CBS News, the expectation — based on multiple reports — is that once the season is over, the guardrails come off. The changes that were held back can finally begin. And those changes may hit the most successful, most durable, most trusted brand in television news.

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Something unusual is happening.

Not just on the battlefield, but in the way Americans are being told about it — or, more accurately, not being told.

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Another round of layoffs is hitting radio.

Audacy. iHeartMedia. Different companies, same pattern. Jobs cut across markets. Shows disappearing. People finding out in real time that their careers just ended.

Like far too many people in this business, I have personal experience with this. Last June, I got caught in a round from Audacy. It felt like a body blow — that cold feeling when you realize why the boss is suddenly scheduling a Zoom call before you even get to the office.

I had spent more than a decade at KNX. Not just spent, but enjoyed. Improved. Learned how to be better. For someone who started in music radio, after KFI and KNX, I felt like I’d built something real as a broadcast journalist. Work that mattered. Work that had weight.

Then it was gone. Just like that.

It felt like losing a limb. And underneath that, a harder realization: the market for getting back in was shrinking, no matter how strong your reputation was.

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The median age of Americans is in the late 30s. But the typical president takes office in their late 50s, 60s, even 70s. Lately, it’s skewing even older. Both Biden and Trump have served in their late 70s and beyond.

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Last week, CNN tried something new.

Jake Tapper ditched his studio and anchored The Lead from his office — campaign posters on the wall, big podcast mic on the desk, guests crammed onto a couch. Anderson Cooper broadcast AC360 from the middle of the newsroom, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, speaking into an oversized desk microphone.

The message CNN was apparently trying to send: we’re just like those cool indie podcasters you’ve been watching.

The internet responded with mockery. And frankly, it was deserved.

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In the heads of millions of Americans opposed to Trump, there’s a hopeful scenario: his collapsing poll numbers lead to a Republican wipeout in the midterms, followed by a 2028 landslide so overwhelming that none of his maneuvering could keep him in power.

But even if that happens — then what? How long would it take to return to something like normal, at home and abroad?

One expert says: probably never. Because the damage — especially to international relationships — may be irreparable.

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It usually starts the same way—not with a declaration of dictatorship, not with tanks in the streets, but with a target. An opposition that isn’t just wrong, but illegitimate. Dangerous. Corrupt. A threat to the nation itself. The language shifts first, almost casually: political rivals become enemies, opposition becomes sabotage, disagreement becomes disloyalty. Once that line is crossed, the rest follows with surprising speed, because the argument has already been won in the minds of enough people that removing the opposition no longer feels like repression—it feels like necessity.

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