Mediagazer: Gray Television sues the FCC over a $518K fine imposed in 2022 for Gray allegedly violating a ban on owning two of the top four TV stations in any given market (Matthew Keys/The Desk)

3:50 PM ET, May 25, 2023

Top News:

An in-depth look at Vice's downfall, as private equity's ill-fated bet on the future of media fell apart; some shareholders blame TPG, which invested $450M — The evaporation of TPG's $450mn investment shows what can happen when Wall Street collides with an uncontrollable creative industry

Discussion: @orskov, @iatalkspace, @maxseddon, @mattgarrahan, @hamzajahanzeb, @johnreedwrites, @oliverbullough, @paleofuture, @moorehn, @fd, @tonytassell, @sallyhayd, @tariqpanja, @rafat, @ftopinion, @birdyword, @hayekmg and @annaknicolaou

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement on Twitter Spaces was delayed by ~25 minutes of crashes, feedback glitches, and audio failures — - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement plans evening were derailed by massive technical glitches …

Discussion: New York Times, @morning_joe, @alexeheath, @elonmusk, Forbes, @rmac18, @ike_saul, Mediaite, Insider, @benjysarlin, @joebiden, @karaswisher, The Verge, @davidsacks, Semafor, @karaswisher, @kylegriffin1, CNN, @mehdirhasan, The Guardian, Axios, @oneunderscore__, The Register, @wakeup2politics, The Nation, New Republic, The Atlantic, The Week, TechCrunch, @bcmerchant, Gizmodo, @andreasharsono, @tedlieu, Poynter, @futureshift, The Hill, @shutupamanda, @briannawu, @mattnavarra, @jayrosen_nyu, @sherman4949, @andrewkimmel, @karaswisher, @mollypriddy, @rolandsmartin, @ike_saul, @briannawu, @brianstelter, @benjysarlin, @aidnmclaughlin, @oneunderscore__, @mattbinder, @_kxdyn, @oliverdarcy, @mattgertz, @karaswisher, @oneunderscore__, @jason_kint, @jonathanvswan, @karaswisher, @justinbaragona, @chrislhayes, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, NBC News, El País, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, Quartz, Fox News, The Wrap, Slate, The Information, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Reuters, Florida Politics, TMZ.com, TechCrunch, Associated Press, Bloomberg, New York Post, Mercury News, Al Jazeera, Variety and Politico, more at Techmeme »

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Elon Musk's intent in buying Twitter wasn't only to dismantle a tool he perceived as empowering the media but also to turn the app into a right-wing heavyweight

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

DirecTV strikes a nonexclusive deal with EverPass Media, formed to distribute NFL games to commercial spots, to offer NFL Sunday Ticket to those locations — - DirecTV has struck a multiyear deal with EverPass Media to commercially provide the NFL's “Sunday Ticket” package, sources said.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Desk, NBCSports.com, DIRECTV, CNET, @sherman4949 and Radio & Television …

Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair:
A look at the NFL's growing streaming partnerships, including YouTube, Peacock, and Amazon, signaling that the future of live sports is outside the cable bundle

Discussion: New York Post, @vanityfair, @jkosner and Billboard

Wall Street Journal:

A look at Disney and Comcast's Hulu fight; sources say their Hulu valuations vary by tens of billions, they're in arbitration, and Comcast stopped funding Hulu — Parent companies are in final phase of battle marked by legal threats, broken promises and secret arbitration

Discussion: The Desk, The Wrap, @great_katzby, @loudmouthjulia, @great_katzby, @aagave, @jtoonkel, @sherman4949, @edmundlee, @jtoonkel, @edmundlee, @loudmouthjulia and @rwhelanwsj, more at Techmeme »

Access Now:

Pegasus was used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict to target at least five journalists, among others, in 2021 and 2022, the first documented use in a war — The Armenia spyware victims include a former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia (the Ombudsperson) …

Discussion: TASS, @natynettle, Politico, Bloomberg, AppleInsider, @rferlpress, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, @pressfreedom, @cpj_eurasia, @naghdalyan, Committee to Protect …, The Guardian and Wired, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Memo: CNN shifts production for CNN en Español to Mexico City, trimming linear TV work and expanding mobile video; source: Atlanta and Miami may see job cuts — CNN will shift the bulk of its operations behind its Spanish-language efforts to Mexico City, scaling back production …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @variety and @jason

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Google DeepMind details how its visual language model Flamingo generates descriptions for YouTube Shorts, stored as metadata and helping improve discoverability — Google just combined DeepMind and Google Brain into one big AI team, and on Wednesday, the new Google DeepMind shared details …

Discussion: @glenngabe, DeepMind Blog and The Messenger

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Mansa, a free, ad-supported streaming service centered on Black culture, strikes a deal with AMC Theatres to exhibit original features and series in US theaters — Mansa, a free, ad-supported streaming service centered on Black culture, has struck a distribution deal with AMC Theatres …

Discussion: The Streamable and The Wrap

Financial Times:

Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe says AI can help authors generate content; Bertelsmann is using AI to analyze character emotions on shows to help place fitting ads — Thomas Rabe says that despite copyright challenges machine-generated content could be ‘very positive’

Discussion: @baldwinre

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube plans to shut down Stories on June 26, 2023, as the company focuses on other key areas, like Shorts, Community posts, live videos, and its usual content — Stories are over — at least on YouTube, that is. The Google-owned video site announced today that YouTube Stories will be shutting …

Discussion: The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Emily Steel / New York Times:

US Interior Department report: two Park Police officers used excessive force against two Australian journalists covering a George Floyd protest in 2020 — The Interior Department concluded that U.S. Park Police officers exceeded the “minimum level of reasonable force” during a George Floyd protest in 2020.

Discussion: Politico and The Hill

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Gray Television sues the FCC over a $518K fine imposed in 2022 for Gray allegedly violating a ban on owning two of the top four TV stations in any given market — The agency fined Gray more than a half-million dollars for operating a CBS and NBC affiliate in Anchorage.

Discussion: Radio & Television … and Next TV, Thanks:@thedeskdotnet

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