Top News:
Dave McNary / Variety:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened with a box-office gross of $45M, the second-largest Thursday preview in North America, behind The Force Awakens — The Force remains unstoppable as Disney-Lucasfilm's “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opened with $45 million on Thursday night.
Discussion:
Forbes, Deadline, /Film, The New York Observer, Box Office Mojo, CinemaBlend, 89.3 KPCC, The A.V. Club, IndieWire, Fortune, The Wrap, Polygon, UPROXX and Forbes
Shruthi Muraleedharan / Facebook:
Facebook debuts Snooze, a News Feed feature to temporarily unfollow a person, Page, or group for 30 days — One of our core News Feed values is giving people more control. Over the next week, we're launching Snooze, which will give you the option to temporarily unfollow a person, Page or group for 30 days.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, The Guardian, Forbes, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Ringer, Pocket-lint, UPROXX, Variety, iDownloadBlog.com, VentureBeat, Mashable, Axios, CNET, Daily Mail, TIME, Engadget, Business Insider and Mashable, more at Techmeme »
Yashar Ali / HuffPost:
Ten current and former Fox News on-air staffers say they faced harassment by execs and talent, refuting Rupert Murdoch's dismissal of allegations as “nonsense” — The media mogul said claims of rampant sexual harassment at the network are “nonsense.”
Discussion:
Mediaite, Media Matters for America, The Wrap, @badfoxgraphics, UPROXX, New York Times and Forbes
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
How Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World in just 9 days, amidst Sony's heavy publicity push and award buzz — LOS ANGELES — The sun was setting on Nov. 7, when Christopher Plummer arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan for a secret, hastily arranged meeting.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, @nytimes, @abc and IndieWire
Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:
Assistant US Attorney Rizwan Qureshi calls journalist's knowledge of terms “black bloc” and “kettle” suspicious in Trump inauguration felony cases — The U.S. government told a D.C. jury that six people — including a photographer and two medics — “agreed to destroy your city.”
Peter Dreier / American Prospect:
Bill Moyers, one of the most prolific and influential figures in American journalism, retires again, from BillMoyers.com — Bill Moyers has threatened to retire several times. Each time, the many fans and friends have urged the legendary PBS journalist to reconsider, and each time he did.
Discussion:
BillMoyers.com, @nicholsuprising, @peterdreier, @randycoppinger and @billmoyers
Rebecca Leber / Mother Jones:
Environmental Protection Agency signed a no-bid $120K contract with Republican opposition research firm Definers Corp., to help track and shape press coverage — It promises “war room” style media monitoring. … Using taxpayer dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency has hired …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Iger plans to make Hulu the outlet for Fox's more “adult-oriented product”; whether Disney will try to buy out Comcast's and TimeWarner's stakes remains unclear — Nothing will change immediately at Hulu in the wake of Disney's $52 billion deal with 21st Century Fox.
Discussion:
The A.V. Club, Forbes, The Guardian, The New York Observer and Los Angeles Times
Michael Wolff / Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the dynamics among Rupert Murdoch and his children, and how their business interests may have influenced the Disney deal — When the media titan unloads the bulk of Fox to Disney rather than letting it pass to his heirs, it proves he has always has had a favorite Murdoch — himself.
Discussion:
CNNMoney, Bloomberg and Broadcasting & Cable
RELATED:
Isaac Stone Fish / Washington Post:
After China's Integrated Whale Media bought a majority stake in Forbes in 2014, several cases of editorial meddling have raised questions about independence — When a Chinese company buys a major American magazine, does the publication censor its coverage of China?
Discussion:
@mathewi, Talking Biz News, @stinson, @gwbstr, @raykwong, @raju, @bethanyallenebr, @anderscorr, @john_hudson, @melissakchan and @whitebison66
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Sources: FCC to fine Sinclair Broadcasting $13.3M after it failed to disclose programming that aired on local TV stations was sponsored by a cancer institute — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission plans to fine Sinclair Broadcasting Corp $13.3 million after it failed …
Discussion:
Multichannel News, Axios and @hshaban
Steve Dent / Engadget:
YouTube debuts 360-degree YouTube VR app on Steam in early access for HTC Vive, but users of the beta are reporting several problems from bugs to crashes — There's a lot of VR content out there, but much of it is for one platform or another — what works on Gear VR may not on Daydream, the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift.