Mediagazer: CEO Randall Stephenson says AT&T may make concessions to get DoJ approval for Time Warner merger but won't sell assets like CNN because of “message it sends” (Tony Romm/Recode)

7:10 PM ET, November 29, 2017

Top News:

NBC sources describe Lauer's transgressions: lewd comments, invitations to his hotel room late at night on assignment, and dropping his pants in his office — As the co-host of NBC's “Today,” Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted …

Mike Allen / Axios:

Memo from NBC News Chairman Andy Lack: “Today” anchor Matt Lauer has been fired following a complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behaviour — NBC “Today” star Matt Lauer, the highest paid personality in TV news, was fired following “a detailed complaint …

Discussion: @thedailyshow, @todayshow, @realdonaldtrump, New York Times, Page Six, @ewagmeister, CNNMoney, The Guardian, The Wrap, Washington Post, TIME, Business Insider, @herbscribner, @yashar, @raminsetoodeh, Washington Post, @brianstelter, @lpolgreen, Mediaite, CNBC, Mediaite, The Wrap, ABC News, Deadline, Vanity Fair, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, @alexweprin, @jimrutenberg, People.com, Jezebel, The A.V. Club, @robingnelson, TMZ.com, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, EW.com, Ad Age, Sputnik International, Mother Jones, PAPERMAG, Net Worked, @fbonacci, The Daily Beast, @pastpunditry, Mashable, Quartz, The Daily Caller, abc7ny.com, Financial Times, The New York Observer, Deadline, Fortune, WGN-TV, FOX2now.com, Media Matters for America, AOL, Rolling Stone, @banikarim, @hilarieburton, @peppergii, Refinery29, @jamilsmith, Wonkette, @lookner, @allisonkilkenny, IndieWire, The Week, TVWeek.com, Fortune, The Hill, @brianstelter, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, Law & Crime, @hoarsewisperer, The Daily Caller, @dylawn4, Reuters, Fast Company, The Ringer, @manda_like_wine, @jazadelphia, @lrihendry, CBS New York, @karnythia, @hadas_gold, @jamiestelter, @hadas_gold, @heidivoight, @rebeccashap and Newser

Erik Ortiz / NBC News:

Video: “Today” co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb share Matt Lauer's firing on Wednesday's show; Guthrie says they are devastated — Matt Lauer, the anchor of “Today” for two decades, was fired by NBC News after a detailed complaint about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.

Discussion: Washington Post, Fast Company, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, RAPPLER, The Hill, The Wrap, VICE News and Fox News Insider

Jeff Baenen / Associated Press:

Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion”, says he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior — MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” said Wednesday he has been fired …

Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:

BuzzFeed to cut ~100 jobs, mostly business-side roles in its US and UK offices, as it faces a revenue shortfall; President Greg Coleman to step down — CEO Jonah Peretti aims to diversify revenue sources beyond native advertising — Facing a significant revenue shortfall this year …

Discussion: USA Today, The New York Observer, Financial Times, The Ringer, Fast Company, The Drum, Adweek, Tubefilter, @wordsbydan, Business Insider, Press Gazette, @wsj, @alexweprin and The Daily Caller, Thanks:@beet_tv

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Memo: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti says the company is restructuring its business operations to help diversify its revenue streams beyond native advertising — That's about 6 percent of its workforce. President Greg Coleman is also out. Here's the memo from CEO Jonah Peretti.

Discussion: @pkafka, Ad Age, AdExchanger, @rafat and Mediawire

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

Media companies, from upstarts like BuzzFeed to the NYT, face a correction and must continue to diversify revenue; counting on unlimited VC money spells doom — Agony is the natural state of the news industry. Newspaper sales per capita peaked before color television was a thing …

Discussion: Thomson Reuters, @profcarroll and @mattdpearce

Hollywood Reporter:

CNN fires senior producer Teddy Davis, who worked on State of the Union hosted by Jake Tapper, after claims of inappropriate behavior — “The behavior attributed to Mr. Davis does not align with the standards and values of CNN," the network said in a statement.

Discussion: @farhip, @jaketapper, TVNewser, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Shira Ovide / Bloomberg:

Snapchat's redesign likely won't appeal to new users, despite goal of growing users, and may alienate media partners by separating content from friend messages — The messaging service can't seem to decide whether to cater to avid users or appeal to a broader audience.

Discussion: Axios, TechCrunch, Fast Company, New York Magazine, Tubefilter, Digital Trends, The Wrap, The Next Web, The Verge, MacRumors, Gizmodo, Vanity Fair and @shiraovide, more at Techmeme »

Deadline:

Sources: John Lasseter's conduct with women went beyond “uninvited hugs” to groping; Disney had a handler attend events with him to supervise his behavior — In the wake of John Lasseter's announcement that he would take a six-month leave from Disney-Pixar Animation …

Discussion: Vanity Fair and IndieWire

John Skipper / ESPN Front Row:

Memo: ESPN President John Skipper announces 150 layoffs, mainly in studio production, digital content, and technology — EDITOR'S NOTE: ESPN President John Skipper shared this message with employees this morning. — Today we are informing approximately 150 people at ESPN that their jobs are being eliminated.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, SI.com, Multichannel News, FierceCable, Mashable, USA Today, Fortune, Fast Company and The Daily Caller

Tony Romm / Recode:

CEO Randall Stephenson says AT&T may make concessions to get DoJ approval for Time Warner merger but won't sell assets like CNN because of “message it sends” — The company's leader, Randall Stephenson, said AT&T is still open to concessions — but ready to fight.

Discussion: Variety, Deadline, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, @johnkoetsier, FierceCable and Cord Cutters News

Ed Pilkington / The Guardian:

Project Veritas, the organization that tried to dupe WaPo into writing a fake story about Roy Moore, received $20K from Trump's charitable org in 2015 — James O'Keefe's organisation specialising in media stings received donations from Trump's foundation but was caught red-handed peddling a false story

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Gateway Pundit and The Week

Jason Schwartz / Politico:
CNN says staff will not attend White House media Christmas party; sources say Trump's tweet about CNN International is believed to imperil journalists abroad

Discussion: Politico, New York Magazine, Mashable, Splinter and The Daily Caller

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More News:

Jessica Guynn / USA Today:
Facebook says it is temporarily stopping advertisers from excluding racial or ethnic groups from ad targeting while it studies how advertisers exclude groups

Discussion: Fast Company, ProPublica and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube announces Reels, a version of the Stories format available in a separate tab that lets creators post shorter videos, available in beta

Discussion: YouTube Creator Blog, Pocket-lint, New York Magazine, The Verge, Tubefilter, MacRumors and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

Daniel Holloway / Variety:
Warner Bros. Television Group fires Andrew Kreisberg, executive producer on superhero shows The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl

Discussion: Deadline, /Film, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap and The A.V. Club

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Wired Magazine is launching a metered paywall in January; EIC Nicholas Thompson says a price has not been set yet, but it will be less than $9.99 a month

Discussion: Folio, @rafat and @nxthompson

Nick Holdsworth / Hollywood Reporter:
HBO expands its standalone streaming service, HBO Go, to seven more European countries, including Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia

Earlier Picks:

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Arguments against FCC's Net Neutrality rollback miss that regulation incurs opportunity costs and more attention should be paid to inter-ISP competition

Discussion: Recode, Ad Age, Fortune and Home Media Magazine

Ben Fong-Torres / San Francisco Chronicle:
“Live and local” radio played a vital role during California wildfires in providing information and updates in the absence of cell service and electricity

Facebook:
Facebook says 99% of ISIS and Al Qaeda-related terror content is removed via AI before users flag it, and 83% of copies are removed within an hour of upload

Discussion: Adweek, Bloomberg, The Daily Caller and Beyond Search

Rebecca Lurye / Hartford Courant:
Campus police arrest Lucian Wintrich, WH correspondent for Gateway Pundit, after his UConn talk was interrupted, and he appeared to grab a woman, starting brawl

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Washington Post, Wonkette, The Wrap, Right Wing Watch and The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:
Sources: Trump continues to privately harbor a handful of conspiracy theories with no grounding in fact, including doubting the Access Hollywood tape

Discussion: The Guardian, CNN, Slate, Media Matters for America, NPR, Washington Post, VICE, Business Insider, Mother Jones, VICE News, Mediaite, Vanity Fair, Wonkette and ABC News

From Techmeme:

Marshall Cohen / CNN:
CCDH: before the election, Elon Musk made 87 X posts that were debunked by fact-checkers, hitting 2B+ views; his political posts had 17.1B views since July 2024

Bloomberg:
Sources: Canadian authorities arrest Alexander “Connor” Moucka, who is allegedly behind the June and July 2024 hacks of up to 165 Snowflake users including AT&T

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iOS 18.2's second developer beta shows a “daily limit” for free access to “advanced” ChatGPT via Siri and an option to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in Settings

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