Mediagazer: Source: Paramount+ removed one Russell Brand stand-up comedy special, Russell Brand in New York City, after one allegation of rape and four of sexual assault (Daniel Arkin/NBC News)

5:35 PM ET, September 20, 2023

Top News:

Source: Disney CEO Bob Iger, WBD CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, and NBCUniversal Studio Group chair Donna Langley attend the AMPTP-WGA talks — “This is so long in coming; everyone's feeling pain. Let's get in there and nail things down," says one source familiar …

Discussion: Variety, IndieWire, Deadline and Bleeding Cool News

Michael Wolff / New York Magazine:

Excerpt from Michael Wolff's The Fall: how Tucker Carlson's success became a headache for Rupert Murdoch, making Carlson a casualty of the Dominion settlement — Rupert Murdoch didn't want to dump his ratings leader and favorite Fox host. But was Tucker Carlson giving him a choice?

Discussion: The Messenger, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Politico, Vanity Fair, Columbia Journalism Review, @martinpengelly, @aghamilton29, UPROXX, @michaelwolffnyc, @anncoulter, @justinbaragona and Insider

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty says that in 2022, Rupert Murdoch thought Fox would pay $50M in the Dominion lawsuit, which cost $787.5M

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, @janinegibson.bsky.social and The Wrap

New York Times:

The Authors Guild and more than a dozen prominent novelists sue OpenAI over allegedly infringing on authors' copyrights by using their books to train ChatGPT — The suit, filed with the Authors Guild, accuses the A.I. company of infringing on authors' copyrights, claiming it used their books to train its ChatGPT chatbot.

Discussion: CNN, The Wrap, Deadline, MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, CBS News, Rolling Stone, @michellemanafy, @bergmayer@mastodon.social, Lieff Cabraser and bookforum.com

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Substack shares its redesign, which changes the layout and adds a Home tab to help users find stuff to read, that feels more like a traditional social media app — After a tease in a blog post on Tuesday, Substack officially shared details about its redesigned app on Wednesday, which offers a new …

Discussion: @andydehnart.bsky.social, @hamishmckenzie, On Substack, TechCrunch and @hamishmckenzie

The Guardian:

The Guardian launches a digital Europe edition to offer “a European lens on world issues”, the fifth edition after the UK, the US, Australia, and international — Expanded presence to showcase original journalism and highlight issues that matter to European readers

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Journalism.co.uk, @pippacrerar and @shafldn

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Mumbai-based Kuku FM, which offers audio content in English and six Indian languages for ~$1.20/month, raised a $25M Series C, taking its total funding to $60M — Google-backed audio content platform Kuku FM has raised $25 million in a new funding round as it looks to make deeper inroads …

Kim Willsher / The Guardian:

France arrests investigative journalist Ariane Lavrilleux, who covered classified documents alleging Cairo used French intelligence to target civilians in Egypt — Ariane Lavrilleux, who reported on leaked documents alleging French intelligence used to target civilians in Egypt, is in custody

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, @redfrog@mamot.fr, Committee to Protect …, Al Jazeera and European Federation …

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:

Source: Paramount+ removed one Russell Brand stand-up comedy special, Russell Brand in New York City, after one allegation of rape and four of sexual assault — The streaming service follows YouTube and the BBC in distancing itself from the comedian, who has been accused by four women of sexual assault.

Discussion: TVLine, The Wrap, Deadline, The Messenger and Newser

Alexi Duggins / The Guardian:

Actor Stephen Fry warns about the dangers of AI after finding an unauthorized version of his voice he claims was generated from his Harry Potter book narration — Actor warns about dangers of artificial intelligence after discovering version of his voice based on Harry Potter audiobooks

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Collider and Futurism

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

Journalists Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett plan to launch In Retrospect, a weekly pop culture podcast, on September 21, distributed by iHeartPodcasts — iHeartPodcasts and The Meteor are launching “In Retrospect,” a pop culture podcast by Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett.

Angela Fu / Poynter:

A Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter and her colleagues faced social media attacks when users, including Elon Musk, distorted her coverage of a fatal hit-and-run — The Las Vegas Review-Journal is facing a harassment campaign stoked by Elon Musk, one year after a reporter was killed for his coverage.

Discussion: @tomgara, @johnmcquaid@journa.host, American Press Institute, @cfwij, @elizthompsn, @johnnykats, @jimi_writes, @ralstonreports, @ttangap, @emilymiller, New York Post, @markokern.bsky.social, @MaryAliciaZiff@mastodon …, Las Vegas Review-Journal and Mediaite

Anna Chernova / CNN:

A Moscow court refuses to hear an appeal against WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich's pre-trial detention, meaning he could remain in jail until at least November 30 — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain behind bars after a Moscow court refused to hear an appeal against his pre-trial detention on Tuesday.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Independent, ABC News, UPI, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Voice of America, The Hill, Fox News, Talking Biz News, Associated Press, The Sun, The Messenger and New York Times

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More News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon announces the $50 Fire TV Stick 4K, the $60 Fire TV Stick 4K Max, the $120 24-inch Fire TV Soundbar, and generative AI updates for Fire TV voice search

Dan Sabbagh / The Guardian:
Police at London Luton Airport held a British journalist, who had worked in a Kurdish-controlled part of Syria, for five hours in August without arresting him

Discussion: @natalieben, @RadicalAnthro@c.im and @profbillmcguire

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Radio Times, started 100 years ago as the BBC's “official organ”, remains “highly profitable”; the magazine also offers a website, an app, and a weekly podcast

Patrick Brzeski / The Hollywood Reporter:
Paramount plans to launch Paramount+ in Japan on December 1 as a no-additional-cost add-on to the on-demand services of local operators J:COM and Wowow

Discussion: The Wrap, WORLD SCREEN, Broadband TV News, Media Play News, MediaPost, Variety and Paramount

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Sky calls on the UK government to tackle regulatory red tape that threatens to stifle the creative sector, ahead of a planned government review of TV trends

Discussion: Deadline

Axios:
Filing: Disney plans to spend ~$60B in the next 10 years on its parks and cruise line segments, nearly doubling the company's investment over the past decade

Earlier Picks:

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony Group lays off some podcast staff and cancels Emily Ratajkowski's podcast; spokesperson: cuts involved a “significant percentage of the division”

Discussion: New York Post, @ashleyrcarman and @maxwelltani

Abbey White / The Hollywood Reporter:
Reading Rainbow's LeVar Burton leads an open letter signed by 175+ writers, musicians, actors, comedians, academics, and others denouncing book bans in schools

Discussion: The Wrap, Axios, MoveOn, The Guardian, The Hill, The Messenger, MoveOn and Billboard

Emma Roth / The Verge:
WBD plans to add a Max live sports tier, Bleacher Report Sports, in the US on October 5 for $9.99/month, or free for current subscribers until February 29, 2024

Gretel Kahn / Reuters Institute:
How Russia spreads pro-Kremlin messages in Africa through local journalists and media outlets like Afrique Média, a Cameroon-based, pro-Wagner Group TV channel

Discussion: GitHub

Bobby Hristova / CBC News:
The Hamilton Spectator, one of Ontario's longest-running newspapers, plans to close its office in October; last week, Torstar's owner Nordstar cut 605 staff

Discussion: @mollyhayes, @terrycookehcf, @fallonhewitt_, @bobbyhristova and @charlizealcaraz

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Matthew Panzarino, who recently stepped down as TechCrunch EIC after 10 years, on the site's Silicon Valley relationship, the future of media, and more

more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Thoughts on Apple TV's history and future; sources: Apple postponed a larger-than-usual number of iOS 19 features to spring 2026, when iOS 19.4 is set to debut

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in the past year, Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to invest as much as $600M in Tether for about a 5% stake; Cantor holds most of Tether's $134B in assets

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A look at the shortcomings of Google's Tensor SoC for Pixel devices, with four generations failing to impress in key performance and power efficiency metrics

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