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CNN:
Syrian locals say a man filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime — A man who was filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime …
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Sean Craig / The Daily Beast:
Syrian fact-checking group Verify-Sy says that a Syrian man may have given CNN a “false identity” during a segment depicting his apparent release
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Oliver Darcy / Status:
Memo: LAT opinion staff express concern over Soon-Shiong's new policy forcing editorials critical of Trump to be presented side-by-side with an opposing view — Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, has dismayed staffers as he curtails critical coverage of Donald Trump.
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
ByteDance asks SCOTUS to block the US law that could ban TikTok on January 19; when asked about the law, Trump says he has a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok — The law will go into effect on Jan. 19 if the justices don't grant the company's request.
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Danielle Kaye / New York Times:
A US judge sentences Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson to almost 10 years in prison for trying to defraud investors and lenders by lying about Ozy'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.
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Melissa Clarke / ABC:
Australia's ABC names former Nine CEO Hugh Marks as managing director, starting March 10, 2025; Marks oversaw the AU$4B merger of Nine and Fairfax Media in 2018 — In short: — The ABC's next managing director will be former Nine Entertainment chief executive Hugh Marks.
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Hadas Gold / CNN:
Donald 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 …
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Axios:
Sources: NYT's Cliff Levy and Meta's Anne Kornblut withdrew from consideration to become Washington Post's executive editor after hearing its business strategy — - One person involved in the search told us Lewis' pitch was foggy and uninspiring. … Other candidates include current interim executive editor Matt Murray.
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@jmhaigh, @doriandavis, @mikeallen and @jimvandehei
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
ABC News will never live down its capitulation after paying $15M to help establish Trump's library and $1M in legal fees, and it should have used 1A protections — ABC News not only settled a defamation suit with Trump. It paid out $15 million. What?
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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
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@bobgeiger.bsky.social, Adweek, RedState, @taraemcg.bsky.social and Justin's Political Corner
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
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Financial Times:
The UK opens a consultation on AI and copyright, and aims to offer an “opt out” copyright exception, force companies to open models to scrutiny, and more — Consultation could see easier access to copyrighted works but require tech groups to be clearer on what they have used
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TVNewsCheck, The Guardian, Music Ally, The Mirror, CNBC, GOV.UK, GOV.UK and CMU, more at Techmeme »
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
A look at Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Film Festival, attended by movie stars, filmmakers, and execs in search of cash, as the KSA tries to boost its local industry — Stars, producers and financiers are traveling to Saudi Arabia looking for cash. The country wants foreigners to help nurture a local industry in exchange.
Discussion:
@lucasshaw.bsky.social
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Amnesty International: Serbian authorities used phone hacking startup Cellebrite's tools to unlock a journalist's phone before infecting the device with malware — A new report from Amnesty International reveals multiple cases where Serbian authorities used Cellebrite devices …
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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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Virgin Music Group, which is owned by UMG, agrees a deal to acquire Downtown Music Group Holdings for $775M, expected to close in H2 2025 — Downtown Music Group includes FUGA, Downtown Artist & Label Services, Curve Royalties and more. — Virgin Music Group, which is owned by Universal Music Group …
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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube adds a tool to let creators authorize third parties, including Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI to train AI models 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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