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2:15 AM ET, March 29, 2025

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 Top News: 
CNBC:
Elon Musk says xAI acquired X in an all-stock deal valuing xAI at $80B and X at $33B; xAI was reportedly in talks to raise funds in February at a $75B valuation  —  Elon Musk said on Friday that his startup xAI has merged with X, his social network, in an all-stock transaction that values …
Brian Stelter / CNN:
A US district court judge issues a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration's efforts to close Voice of America, in a lawsuit by VOA staff  —  A federal judge sided with silenced Voice of America journalists on Friday, the latest setback for President Trump's push to shut …
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump commutes the criminal fraud sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson, shortly before Watson was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term  —  President Donald Trump commuted the criminal sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson on Friday, just hours before Watson was due …
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.
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.
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.
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 …
Sharon Knolle / The Wrap:
QVC lays off ~900 employees, or ~5% of its workforce, after consolidating operations with HSN earlier in 2025, as QVC pivots to “a live social shopping company”  —  The layoffs come as part of a reorganization for the QVC Group after consolidating with rival network HSN earlier this year
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
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.
 
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 More News: 
Carly Thomas / The Hollywood Reporter:
The Academy apologizes for not publicly supporting Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Oscar-winning No Other Land, after his assault and arrest in the West Bank
Student Press Law Center:
A press freedom coalition condemns US immigration officials' detention of a Turkish Ph.D. student who co-wrote an op-ed supporting Palestinians in March 2024
 Earlier Picks: 
Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
JioStar, the joint venture that merged Viacom18 and Star India, says its streaming service JioHotstar has passed 100M subscribers
Discussion: WORLD SCREEN and Variety
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
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
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Meta adds a Friends tab on Facebook that will show content just from users' friends, with no recommended posts, as it brings back “OG” Facebook experiences
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is considering deep budget cuts to its metaverse efforts in 2026, potentially as high as 30% and most likely including layoffs as early as January

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says general counsel Kate Adams and policy chief Lisa Jackson will retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Meta's former chief legal officer, will replace Adams

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy
 
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