Mediagazer: AppLovin hires a law firm to investigate short sellers' allegations that the mobile ad company's ad performance numbers are fraudulent (Olivia Solon/Bloomberg)

10:10 AM ET, March 28, 2025

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Kyle Cheney / Politico:

AP photographer Evan Vucci and AP Chief White House Correspondent Zeke Miller testified Thursday about damage done by the White House ban on the wire service — Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci testified at a court hearing in the AP's lawsuit over being kicked out of the White House press pool.

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Oliver Darcy / Status:

Sources: the Los Angeles Times has laid off dozens of employees on the business side this week, including VP of Communications Hillary Manning — The newspaper slashed dozens of business-side staffers this week—including its longtime chief spokesperson—in a painful new round of cuts, Status has learned.

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Olivia Solon / Bloomberg:

AppLovin hires a law firm to investigate short sellers' allegations that the mobile ad company's ad performance numbers are fraudulent — It followed a Muddy Waters report released on Thursday that alleged that AppLovin was misappropriating data and violating some of its platform partners' terms of service …

Discussion: AppLovin and Yahoo Finance, more at Techmeme »

Carmen Reinicke / Bloomberg:
AppLovin's stock closes down 20%+ after short seller Muddy Waters released a report, the third such short report against the company in about a month

Discussion: Barron's Online, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, Muddy Waters Research and Investor's Business Daily, more at Techmeme »

Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:

Adalytics: DoubleVerify, IAS, and Human Security, paid by advertisers to detect bots, regularly miss such traffic; DoubleVerify missed 21% of bot visits — Companies that claim to help brands avoid serving digital ads to bots regularly miss nonhuman traffic

Discussion: Dr. Augustine Fou on LinkedIn

John Nichols / The Nation:

Robert McChesney, a co-founder of media advocacy nonprofit Free Press and a globally respected media scholar and author, died from cancer at 72 — The academic and activist inspired generations of people to challenge corporate power and support a media reform movement that lives on. — Bluesky

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Vanity Fair, @davidsirota.com, @jesspgh.bsky.social, @jenmercieca.bsky.social, @joeycoleman.ca, @victorpickard.bsky.social, @timkarr.bsky.social, Free Press, @froomkin.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, @ajbauer.bsky.social, @christopherterry.bsky.social, @dankennedy.net, @mediamorphis.bsky.social, @nicholsuprising.bsky.social, @joshuabenton.com and @notaaroncraig.bsky.social

Matt Stevens / New York Times:

A report on California's creative economy finds entertainment jobs in 2024 were 25% below 2022; LA County's 2024 shooting days fell 42% compared to 2022 — Many entertainment industry workers have been jobless for months, leading state officials to consider increasing subsidies to keep film and television production in California.

Discussion: Hollywood Life, Variety and Deadline

Michael Savage / The Guardian:

BBC correspondent Mark Lowen was arrested in Turkey on Wednesday and deported from the country today after reporting on anti-government protests — Mark Lowen considered ‘threat to public order’ after reports on nationwide anti-government demonstrations — The BBC correspondent Mark Lowen …

Reuters:
Turkey releases seven journalists it detained while covering mass anti-government protests, including Agence France-Presse journalist Yasin Akgul

Discussion: BBC, israelhayom.com, USA Today, Committee to Protect …, CBS News, Mediaite, Bloomberg, @pierocastellano.com, Mirror, Reporters Without Borders and Breitbart

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

FICCI-EY: India's media and entertainment sector revenue hit $29.4B in 2024, with digital media accounting for 32%, surpassing TV for the first time — India's media and entertainment sector hit INR2.5 trillion ($29.4 billion) in 2024, according to the annual Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)-EY report.

Discussion: Music Ally, The Economic Times, Press Trust of India, EY, MIT OpenCourseWare, Deadline and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Court documents: India criticizes Elon Musk's X for wrongly labeling an official website, used to notify tech firms of harmful content, as a “censorship portal” — India has criticised Elon Musk's X for wrongly labelling as a “censorship portal” an official website …

more at Techmeme »

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:

JioStar, the joint venture that merged Viacom18 and Star India, says its streaming service JioHotstar has passed 100M subscribers — JioHotstar, the Indian streamer, has passed 100 million subscribers. — The service launched in February following the merger of Reliance Industries' Viacom18 …

Discussion: Variety and WORLD SCREEN

Brian Welk / IndieWire:

Memo: Amazon MGM Studios head Jen Salke is stepping down to start a new production entity; the former NBC Entertainment president joined Amazon in 2018 — No immediate successor will be been named, and film chief Courtenay Valenti and TV head Vernon Sanders will report directly to Prime Video chief Mike Hopkins.

Discussion: Variety, The Verge, Business Insider, Reuters, World of Reel, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Information, Cord Cutters News, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

Julia Ornedo / The Daily Beast:

Richard Carlson, a former Voice of America director, former CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and father of Tucker Carlson, has died at 84 — REST IN PEACE — Dick Carlson first became a reporter in the 1960s and spent the majority of his life working as a journalist.

Discussion: @tuckercarlson, @rdotinga, @xelahart.bsky.social, @jilltwiss.bsky.social, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, The Gateway Pundit and RADAR

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

The widow of Pierre Zakrzewski, the Fox News cameraman who was killed while working in Ukraine in 2022, filed a £9M suit against Fox in the UK earlier in March — Michelle Ross-Stanton, the wife of Fox News video journalist Pierre Zakrzewski, is seeking more than $11 million in compensation.

Discussion: HuffPost, Adweek, Deseret News and @washingtonpost.com

Brady Knox / Washington Examiner:

Kari Lake withdraws the cancellation of RFE/RL's funding and argues RFE/RL's lawsuit is “moot” after a court granted the outlet a temporary restraining order — U.S. Agency for Global Media senior adviser Kari Lake withdrew the Trump administration's cancellation …

Discussion: Radio Free Europe/Radio …, The Wrap, The Kyiv Independent, The Hill, The Diplomat, Reuters, New Republic, The Independent, Raw Story, @kyledcheney.bsky.social and @chrisgeidner.bsky.social

Danielle Kaye / New York Times:
VOA Director Michael Abramowitz sues Kari Lake, Victor Morales, and USAGM, alleging dismantling VOA violates federal law and separation of powers

Discussion: Washington Post, The Contrarian, JURIST, Politico and Raw Story

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John Koblin / New York Times:
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From Techmeme:

CNBC:
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