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 …
Discussion:
@elonmusk, New York Times, Reuters, Ars Technica, Us Weekly, Social Media Today, Semafor, Deutsche Welle, Fortune, @profdc9@mastodon.social, Comic Book, The Information, @lorak.bsky.social, UPI, Shacknews, Yahoo Finance, TVNewsCheck, @danny.page, @maxbrockbank.com, MediaPost, The Verge, @spencercallaghan.ca, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Greek City Times, Engadget, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, Barron's Online, @kalihays1@threads.net, The Hill, NBC News, Bloomberg, Deadline, @harrymccracken.com, Austin Business Journal, @hallijayne.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, Türkiye Today, PC Gamer, Spyglass, Cord Cutters News, BGR, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Research & Development World, Variety, E! Online, Benzinga, The Post Millennial, Forbes and San Francisco Chronicle, more at Techmeme »
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 …
Discussion:
Variety, @glennemartin, New York Times, Associated Press, UPI, Bloomberg, CBS News, Defector, The Independent, @heyjoemedia, Axios, Mediaite, Columbia Journalism Review, @glennemartin, NBC News, @KimPerales@toad.social, Deadline, @tomaxwell, @sarafischer, The Wrap, @samblum.bsky.social, Newser, @dsafavianesq and @sbyrnes
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, The Desk, Axios, Cord Cutters News, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, The Hill, New York Post, The Wrap, Associated Press, @romitmehta.com, Raw Story, @christopherterry.bsky.social, Deadline, Media Play News, The Guardian, @mrjoncryer.bsky.social, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC News, Financial Times, Forbes, Mediaite, Fox Business, Variety, @jgo4justice.bsky.social, @fednews.bsky.social, @businessinsider.com, @pkafka.bsky.social, Bloomberg, 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
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 …
Discussion:
MediaPost and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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
Kate Lamb / The Guardian:
Amid increasing intimidation of journalists in Indonesia, journalists working for Tempo, an outlet critical of the government, received dead animals as threats — Grisly gifts a worrying turn for press freedom in world's third-largest democracy — Warning: some readers may find an image in this story distressing
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.
Bureau Reporter - Vietnam, HCMC — 
Curation Editor (Contract), NY — 
Business Editor, CA — 
Executive Ed. - Tech & Electronics, AZ — 
Economy & Industry Reporter, TX — 
Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — 
Political Enterprise Editor, DC — 
Housing & Real Estate Reporter, ME — 
Associate Reporter - Yahoo Finance — 
Senior Editor, Remote — 
Deputy Politics Editor, CA — 
Alphaville Reporter, London — 
Trending News Reporter, NY — 
Weekend Editor, CA — 
Freelance Music Contributor, FL — 
Senior Reporter, CA — 
Managing Editor - State, CT — 
Sr. VP & Chief Content Officer, OR — 
Data Graphics Reporter, CA — 
Copy Editor - Miami HQ, FL — 
Police & Courts Reporter, OH — 
Senior Reporter, NM — 
Senior Editor - Ideas, Remote US — 
Morning News Producer, WA — 
Tech Correspondent, CA — 
Enterprise Journalist, WA — 
City Government Reporter, OR — 
TV & Pop Culture Critic, MA — 
Cockburn Editor, DC — 
Service Journalism Reporter, PA — 
Senior Editor - NBA, Remote US — 
Immigration Reporter, CA — 
Senior IP Reporter, Remote TX — 
Computational Journalist, NY — 
