Mediagazer: Anthropic convinced a California federal judge to reject a preliminary bid to block it from using lyrics owned by UMG and other music publishers to train Claude (Blake Brittain/Reuters)

1:35 PM ET, March 26, 2025

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The Atlantic publishes Houthi attack plans that Trump advisers shared on Signal, after Trump and other officials asserted no classified information was shared — The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic's editor in chief.

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Charlie Nash / Mediaite:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses PBS and NPR of “brainwashing children” and making them transgender ahead of a DOGE subcommittee hearing with their CEOs — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has accused PBS and NPR of “brainwashing children” and making them transgender ahead …

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Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham says the Academy declined to publicly support the Oscar-winning co-director Hamdan Ballal when he was arrested by Israel — “No Other Land” filmmaker Yuval Abraham has criticized AMPAS for not commenting on the situation surrounding his Oscar-winning fellow co-director Hamdan Ballal.

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Deadline:
No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham says co-director Hamdan Ballal has been freed after being beaten by Israeli settlers and arrested by soldiers

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Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

Mansueto Ventures tightens Fast Company and Inc. paywalls, reserving four daily stories for subscribers, up from one, to grow revenue amid traffic volatility — Fast Company and Inc. are tightening up their paywalls. Up until a few weeks ago, the Mansueto Ventures-owned publishers would put one new story a day behind a paywall.

Discussion: Talking Biz News and @dannygroner.bsky.social

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Deloitte: on average, US SVOD subscribers pay for four services totaling $69/month, up 13% YoY; 54% pay for at least one ad-supported tier, up from 46% in 2024 — Streaming services like Netflix used to look like a much cheaper alternative to cable TV. But now streamers are facing similar pressures …

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Mia Galuppo / The Hollywood Reporter:

Amazon MGM selects Amy Pascal and David Heyman, the producers behind the Spider-Man and Harry Potter franchises, to produce the next James Bond movie — The producers are behind the Spider-Man and Harry Potter franchises. — It's official, the James Bond franchise has found its producers in Amy Pascal and David Heyman.

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Financial Times:

Axel Springer board member Martín Varsavsky resigns after accusing Politico of left-wing bias and says its coverage is “not aligned” with his ethical standards — Martín Varsavsky says news coverage is ‘not aligned with my own ethical standards’

Discussion: New York Post and @martinvars

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:

Sports Illustrated partners with UK-based Galactic to launch SI Predict, a predictions market linked to athletic events, except the outcome of games — The Sports Illustrated brand is teaming up with UK-based media firm Galactic to launch a predictions market allowing users to bet …

Blake Brittain / Reuters:

Anthropic convinced a California federal judge to reject a preliminary bid to block it from using lyrics owned by UMG and other music publishers to train Claude — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic convinced a California federal judge on Tuesday to reject a preliminary bid to block …

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, San Francisco Business Times, Digital Music News, Engadget, MEDIANAMA, Music Business Worldwide and TorrentFreak, more at Techmeme »

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:

eMarketer expects X to generate $1.31B in US ad sales in 2025, up 17.5%, and $2.26B in global ad sales, up 16.5%, its first year of ad revenue growth since 2022 — Elon Musk's X is on pace for its first year of advertising revenue growth since the billionaire acquired the company in 2022 …

Jessica Testa / New York Times:

LeBron James signs a distribution deal with Wondery for his Mind the Game podcast, furthering Amazon's wider push into sports content — The basketball star has signed a podcasting deal with Wondery, furthering Amazon's wider push into sports. — Last summer, the basketball podcast “Mind the Game” ended under unusual circumstances.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Waldron on LinkedIn and Larry Otsuka on LinkedIn

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

UK-based agency Newsflare, which counts the NYT, the BBC, and Mail Online among its clients, withdraws AI-generated videos from social media after criticism — UK-based agency Newsflare has withdrawn a number of fake videos it distributed which appear to have been generated using AI.

Discussion: @josiah.writes.news

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Trump withdraws the nomination of Media Research Center founder L. Brent Bozell III to head USAGM, naming him instead to serve as US ambassador to South Africa — President Donald Trump on Tuesday withdrew his nomination of Leo Brent Bozell III to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

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Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Court docs: a federal judge has ordered USAGM to restore operational grants to RFE/RL, after the outlet sued to stop the blocking of funds allocated by Congress

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