Mediagazer: A Los Angeles ethics agency fines former CBS CEO Les Moonves $15K for misconduct in obtaining confidential police info about a sexual assault claim against him (Gene Maddaus/Variety)

10:00 PM ET, April 17, 2024

Top News:

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Uri Berliner says he is resigning from NPR as he “cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm” NPR's problems — Uri Berliner, a National Public Radio senior editor who wrote a scathing online essay accusing the public radio network …

Alicia Montgomery / Slate:

A former NPR editor says Uri Berliner's critique was inaccurate and ignored inconvenient facts, but the outlet has long been an overcautious, centrist mess — Yes, the broadcaster is a mess. But “wokeness” isn't the issue. — NPR, the great bastion of old-school audio journalism, is a mess.

Discussion: Fox News, Politico, @claireatki, Nicole Carr on LinkedIn, @lewispants, JONATHAN TURLEY, NPR, Mediaite, @mikeisaac, Differ We Must, CBS News, Columbia Journalism Review, Media Nation, Wall Street Journal, Poynter, @lewispants, @jessbravin, @profstevensmith, @biblioracle, @merulloboaz, @jamesfallows, Inside Radio, Beyond Search, Associated Press, @stevemullis, Newser, The Daily Beast, @jackjenkins@threads.net, Neil Lewis, Jr on LinkedIn, Jessica Hansen I Voice Work on LinkedIn, Elaine Heinzman on LinkedIn, Mark McDonald on LinkedIn, Brendan Sweeney on LinkedIn, Doug McLennan on LinkedIn, Current, @glyph@mastodon.social, @digiphile@mastodon.social, Twila Dang on LinkedIn, The Desk, @ashtonpittman.ms@threads.net, @tylrfishr@social …, @jayrosen_nyc@threads.net, @acdha@thepit.social, @JMarkOckerbloom …, @tusk81@mastodon.social, Los Angeles Times, MediaPost, @dave@social.masto.land, @gretared@sfba.social, New York Times, The Guardian, Deadline, New York Post, The Hill, The Wrap, CNN and NPR

Ben Mullin / @benmullin:

About 50 NPR staffers sign a letter to NPR leadership calling for a public rebuke of the “factual inaccuracies and elisions” in Uri Berliner's essay — new: About 50 NPR employees sign a letter to CEO Katherine Maher and top editor Edith Chapin calling for, among other things, a public rebuke of the “factual inaccuracies and elisions” in Uri Berliner's Free Press essay. [image]

Discussion: New York Post

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

A Los Angeles ethics agency fines former CBS CEO Les Moonves $15K for misconduct in obtaining confidential police info about a sexual assault claim against him — Leslie Moonves, the former CEO of CBS, was fined $15,000 on Wednesday by the L.A. City Ethics Commission for obtaining secret information …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, @mhanson101@union.place, @iamiysha.bsky.social, @pppatticake.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, @parsnip.bsky.social, @arunadsouza.bsky.social and Deadline

Sam Tobin / Reuters:

UK court documents: actor Hugh Grant settled a lawsuit against The Sun publisher News Group Newspapers over claims of using private investigators to phone tap — British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of The Sun tabloid newspaper over claims journalists used …

Discussion: @hackedoffhugh, Crikey, Sydney Morning Herald, @hackedoffhugh, @hackedoffhugh, Press Gazette, @hackedoffhugh, Rolling Stone, Newser, Associated Press, @hackedoffhugh, Mediaite, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, The Guardian, Deadline and HuffPost

Ellise Shafer / Variety:
Hugh Grant says he settled with News Group to avoid up to £10M in costs and “Murdoch's settlement money has a stink and I refuse to let this be hush money”

Discussion: Reuters, @davidfolkenflik and The Guardian

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

How one author gained a limited copyright for the “selection, coordination, and arrangement of text” from AI, as the US Copyright Office wrestles with AI law — Elisa Shupe was initially rebuffed when she tried to copyright a book she wrote with help from ChatGPT.

Discussion: @brooklynlaw, @knibbs, @mahendra.bsky.social, @ai_machinations, @magdaromanska, @peterhndrsn, @ai_machinations, @blipclinic and Plagiarism Today

Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:

A look at Newsweek's use of AI, including in video production, an AI-focused Live News desk for breaking stories, and letting the tech write some first drafts — The legacy publication is leaning on AI for video production, a new breaking news team, and first drafts of some stories.

Discussion: @decka227

Russell Brandom / Rest of World:

How Oscar winner RRR's success brought a wave of Telugu-language movies to Netflix's US catalog, about 50% of which is now made up of non-English content — Netflix's U.S. catalog has more content in Telugu than in German, Russian, or any dialect of Chinese.

Discussion: @restofworld@restof.social

James Careless / TV Tech:

Parks Associates: US households with internet now consume an average 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices, up from 37.2 hours in 2020 — Those homes are now watching six more hours of video per week than they were in 2020 — U.S. Internet households now consume …

Discussion: Media Play News, NewsLab, The Streamable and WORLD SCREEN

Thomas Brewster / Forbes:

After Forbes found 120+ YouTube videos and 27 Google ads promoting AI deepfake porn tools and “nudifier” Telegram bots, Google took them down — The company removed more than 100 YouTube videos after Forbes found the platform was promoting AI nudifiers used by school bullies and a convicted pedophile.

Discussion: @iblametom, @rashishrivast18 and @ttp_updates

Sheena Vasani / The Verge:

TikTok starts rolling out TikTok Notes, its Instagram rival for sharing photo and text content, for limited testing in Australia and Canada on Android and iOS — TikTok has started rolling out its Instagram rival, TikTok Notes, to select Android and iOS users “for download and limited testing in Australia and Canada.”

Discussion: MediaPost, @tiktokcomms, @tiktokcomms and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Steven Kurutz / New York Times:

A profile of Rusty Foster, whose Today in Tabs daily media industry newsletter has 36,000 subscribers, of which ~10% pay $6 per month or $50 per year — Rusty Foster in his element at his home in Peaks Island, Maine.Greta Rybus for The New York Times — In a time when the headlines …

Discussion: The Information and @waxy@xoxo.zone

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 10:00 PM ET, April 17, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The European Data Protection Board says large online platforms like Meta should give users an option to use their services for free without behavioral ads

Discussion: edpb.europa.eu, The Information, Maria Lobato on LinkedIn, TechCrunch, @jason_kint, @intergalacticdesign …, @jason_kint, @daveleebbg@threads.net, @documentingmeta@threads.net, Daniel Tunkelang on LinkedIn, Christos Zanganas on LinkedIn and @parkert@threads.net, more at Techmeme »

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Swedish streaming service Viaplay, which shut down its US app in February, launches a $5.99 per month subscription channel on Prime Video Channels

Discussion: The Streamable, Variety and Media Play News

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Snap plans to add watermarks to AI-generated images exported from Snapchat; the watermarks appear as a translucent version of the Snap logo with a sparkle emoji

Discussion: Snapchat, more at Techmeme »

Mike Allen / Axios:
The Daily Beast seeks a reporter to cover Jeff Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez, part of plans to become a “smart tabloid” and cover tech execs and their ecosystem

Discussion: @katenocera, @mediaevan, @ashleevance, @teddyschleifer, @almostmedia, @dondisappoints, New York Post, @nathanjrobinson, @bencjacobs, @joannacoles, @katienotopoulos and Page Six

Bloomberg:
A profile of Uday Shankar, a former journalist who worked with the Murdoch family and is set to lead Viacom18, which is poised to dominate India's media market

Discussion: Sohee Kim on LinkedIn

Earlier Picks:

Financial Times:
An interview with CNN CEO Mark Thompson on having “plenty of things” to fix, how shifting to digital is an “existential question”, subscriptions, and more

Discussion: @danielthomasldn, New York Post, @astronomer_mark, @ft, @danielthomasldn and Duncan Hooper on LinkedIn

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
PEN America: 4,349 books were removed from US schools across 23 states from July 2023 to December 2023, up from 3,362 books in the entire previous academic year

Discussion: Plain Dealer, Boing Boing, CNN, The Daily Beast, PEN America, The Hill and Publishers Weekly

Hadas Gold / CNN:
The News/Media Alliance asks the DOJ, the FTC, and California's AG for a probe into whether Google broke any laws when removing some links to CA news sites

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, @newsalliance, @newsalliance, @oliverdarcy@threads.net, MediaPost, News/Media Alliance, News/Media Alliance and Axios

Megan Specia / New York Times:
The US assures the UK that Julian Assange could seek US First Amendment protections and wouldn't face the death penalty or be persecuted for his nationality

Discussion: Reclaim The Net, Gizmodo, Mediaite, Fox News, The Guardian, The Independent, Sky News, Reuters and Bloomberg

From Techmeme:

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders that were set for April 9 due to concerns about Trump's tariffs but the June 5 launch date remains unchanged

Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Microsoft Copilot adds support for memory, personalization, web-based actions, podcast creation, camera and screen analysis, deep research, and more

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman says OpenAI plans to release o3 and o4-mini “after all” and GPT-5 “in a few months”, citing challenges in “smoothly integrating everything”

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page