Top News:
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
In a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger, FCC Chair Brendan Carr says the FCC is opening an investigation into DEI practices of Disney and ABC — - Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, is now investigating Disney over its DEI practices.
Discussion:
@brendancarrfcc, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Reuters, Variety, New York Post, Deadline, Financial Times, Media Play News, Cord Cutters News, @christopherterry.bsky.social, @romitmehta.com, CNBC, @jgo4justice.bsky.social, @fednews.bsky.social, @pkafka.bsky.social, @businessinsider.com, Inside Radio, The Hollywood Reporter and TVNewsCheck
Charlotte Klein / New York Magazine:
Guardian US expects $44M in donations in the US and Canada in 2025, up 33% YoY; contributions make up 60% of revenue, which exceeded costs by $16M in 2024 — There was a time in media when having a billionaire owner was an asset. For many outlets, this is still the case …
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.
Discussion:
Breitbart, @pinemikey.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social and @passantino.bsky.social
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
Washington Post:
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg says the Trump administration's lies regarding Signal chats on Yemen attack plans prompted him to reveal the texts — The Trump administration tried to paint the veteran journalist as a liar, so he felt compelled to prove them wrong — and he had the receipts.
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Penske Media and Tasty Media plan a Spanish-language edition of The Hollywood Reporter with original content, following editions in Italy, India, and Japan — The partnership sees the iconic entertainment brand expand its reach with Spanish-speaking readers in Latin America and Spain.
Discussion:
Diego Ortiz on LinkedIn
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:
CNBC, AppLovin, Yahoo Finance, Business Wire and Benzinga, more at Techmeme »
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Jake Kanter / Deadline:
A look at AI-generated fake movie trailers on YouTube; WBD, Paramount, and Sony have earned ad revenue from some videos instead of defending their copyright — Cut to Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor watching on and Milly Alcock's Supergirl levitating into view. “They are not from here,” Luthor intones in an ominous voiceover.
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Google will pay $100M in cash to settle a 2011 lawsuit accusing the company of charging for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted — Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing …
Discussion:
The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CNN, New Jersey Online, The Independent, @seungminkim, @peterbakernyt, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Stephanie Smith on LinkedIn, Lindsay Stewart on LinkedIn, The Hill, Saeed Ahmed on LinkedIn, @whoa-magic.lol, Giada Zampano on LinkedIn, Mediaite, @danlinder.bsky.social, Deadline, @kyledcheney.bsky.social, The Associated Press and The Wrap
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 …
Discussion:
@thomashansen.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »
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
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