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Casey Affleck, accused of sexually abusive conduct in 2010, withdraws from customary role of prior year's best actor presenting best actress award at Oscars — Casey Affleck has withdrawn from presenting the best actress award at the March 4 Academy Award ceremonies.
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Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, TVWeek.com, /Film, thecut, Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club, Washington Post, Vox, Glamour, Business Insider, Consequence of Sound, The Daily Caller, TVLine, @alexburnsnyt, Decider, Vanity Fair, @_celia_marie_, The Ringer, NPR, The New York Observer, New York Times, Mashable, Fast Company, Mediaite, IndieWire, PAPERMAG, Slate and Splinter


How Axios used Mike Allen and distilled news to become influential quickly, with 260K+ newsletter subscribers and more; source says Axios AM fetches ~$75K/week — Every morning, Washington wakes up to Axios AM — Mike Allen's top 10 stories of the day, filled with short bits of breaking news …


CNN is closing Beme and Casey Neistat is leaving following 2016 buyout, which sources say valued it at $20M+; CNN will continue to develop some of its products — CNN acquired Beme in late 2016 with hopes that it would become a major piece of its digital business. Now Neistat's leaving the company.
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YouTube, TechCrunch, Business Insider, @katienotopoulos, TVWeek.com, @morewillie, @timcast, CNNMoney, Forbes, Variety, Ad Age, The Daily Caller, The Wrap, The Verge, Tubefilter, Engadget, @perlberg, Gizmodo, Mashable, @johnnydollar01, @justinkownacki, @jenchung, Mediaite, @srabil, @alyssabereznak, @rrhoover, @niemanlab and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »


Sources: Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and CBS CEO Leslie Moonves held “exploratory” discussion on merging companies; boards expected to discuss merger in coming weeks — (Reuters) - Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) Chief Executive Bob Bakish and CBS Corp (CBS.N) CEO Leslie Moonves …
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable, Radio & Television … and Engadget
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Analysis of behind-the-scenes maneuvers to merge Viacom and CBS and the futures of CEOs Bob Bakish and Leslie Moonves, as Shari Redstone pushes for scale — The mogul faces a delicate negotiation with CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, who wants to be at the helm of the united company.


CNN reinstates political analyst Ryan Lizza, who was fired by The New Yorker after sexual misconduct allegations — CNN is reinstating Ryan Lizza, the Washington political reporter who was fired from the New Yorker for alleged sexual misconduct. “Upon learning of The New Yorker's decision …
Discussion:
Mediaite and @erikwemple


Former assistant for Harvey Weinstein sues him and Weinstein Company for discrimination and harassment, detailing required tasks to support his liaisons — Sandeep Rehal claims she was required to clean up after his “extremely prolific sexual encounters.” — Harvey Weinstein's former …
Discussion:
Variety, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Variety, The Daily Caller, Hollywood Life, The Daily Beast and Mediaite


Source: ESPN is exploring options for FiveThirtyEight, including a potential sale to an outlet like The Atlantic or moving the site under ABC News — By the time mid-term election season really heats up, Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight will in all likelihood have a different platform than ESPN.
Discussion:
Politico, @nbj914, Variety, @rafat, @bmorrissey, @danwolken, @mylesudland and The Wrap


Reports: Kimi Yoshino, business editor at the LA Times and an editor on the Pulitzer-winning Bell corruption scandal stories, was suspended for two days — Kimi Yoshino, the business editor of the Los Angeles Times, has been suspended for two days, according to multiple reports.


GateHouse Media is buying The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, from the Baker family; GateHouse now has publications in 36 states, 130 daily newspapers — - Colorado-based marijuana company not buying One East Broadway in downtown Eugene, after all; it has already bought another downtown building for a pot shop
Discussion:
@dgtedford, @dlboardman, @francescamarief, @mrcampbell17 and The Rural Blog


Meager TV coverage of women's marches highlights imbalance as journalists fail to contextualize and investigate the movement as they have for Trump voters — in women's marches around the world this weekend. But blink, and you'll miss all the attention paid to them on Sunday's top five political talk shows.
Discussion:
@laurenarankin and @b_b_baconator


Sources: Twitter is working on a Snapchat-style tool to more easily share videos and photos on the network, but its design and launch aren't yet finalized — Social network is experimenting with new products to woo users — Company seeks to streamline process of posting photos, videos
Discussion:
Business Insider, The Next Web, Mashable, Daily Mail, Engadget, The Verge, MacRumors, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, 9to5Google, Fast Company and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »