Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos deactivated his account on X, where he had 2.3M+ followers, over the weekend after ABC News settled Trump's lawsuit — ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos deactivated his account on X, formerly Twitter, where he had more than 2.3 million followers.
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Brian Stelter / CNN:
Some media lawyers say ABC had a good chance of beating Trump at trial, but risked severe reputational damage when internal emails are scrutinized in discovery
Some media lawyers say ABC had a good chance of beating Trump at trial, but risked severe reputational damage when internal emails are scrutinized in discovery
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Hadas Gold / CNN:
Trump says he plans to sue The Des-Moines Register over its final poll of Iowa voters by Ann Selzer, saying he wants to “straighten out the press” — New York CNN — — President-elect Donald Trump had not been terribly successful in suing media organizations until this weekend …
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David Enrich / New York Times:
How Trump and his allies are using actual or threatened lawsuits to crack down on unfavorable media coverage, even before Trump moves back into the White House — The small flurry of threatened defamation suits is the latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised …
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Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
DeepMind unveils Veo 2, a next-gen video-generating AI model that can create 2+ minute long clips in resolutions up to 4K, behind a waitlist as part of VideoFX — Google DeepMind, Google's flagship AI research lab, wants to beat OpenAI at the video generation game — and it might just, at least for a little while.
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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube adds a tool to let creators give authorization to several third parties, including Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, OpenAI, and Meta, to train on their videos — YouTube on Monday announced it will give creators more choice over how third parties can use their content to train their AI models.
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Sean Craig / The Daily Beast:
CNN is investigating after a Syrian fact-checking group said that a Syrian man may have given a “false identity” during a segment depicting his apparent release — CNN says it is investigating the identity of a Syrian man who may have given the network a “false identity” …
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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Virgin Music Group, which is owned by UMG, strikes a deal to acquire Downtown Music Group Holdings for $775M, with the deal expected to close in H2 2025 — Downtown Music Group includes FUGA, Downtown Artist & Label Services, Curve Royalties and more. — Virgin Music Group …
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Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI makes ChatGPT Search available to all logged in users, not just subscribers, and says ChatGPT Search can be set as their browser's default search engine — The product, called ChatGPT Search, will be available to any user who is logged in with an account for the chatbot across …
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Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
ByteDance asks SCOTUS to block the law that could ban TikTok on Jan. 19; Trump said today he has a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok, when asked about the law — The law will go into effect on Jan. 19 if the justices don't grant the company's request.
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Bloomberg:
French pay-TV business Canal+, which Vincent Bolloré split off from Vivendi, starts trading in London; ad firm Havas and publisher Louis Hachette also floated — - Canal+ is the largest part of Vivendi being spun off — Listing tests Bolloré's goal to cut conglomerate discount
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Danielle Kaye / New York Times:
Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson is sentenced to almost 10 years in prison for trying to defraud investors and lenders by lying about the company's finances — A federal jury in July found Mr. Watson, who started the digital media company in 2013, guilty of trying to defraud investors and lenders.
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Major news outlets like Fox, MSNBC, and CBS are leveraging their reporters' personal TikTok accounts rather than the companies' own to reach younger audiences — Some big brands have been slow to join the platform but now are experimenting with ways to reach a new audience
Max Tani / Semafor:
Kamala Harris' deputy campaign manager and digital chief says the campaign tried to book Harris on sports shows and podcasts but was rejected by the top names — The News — Soon after Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty turned his attention to sports.
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