Top News:
Ben Johansen / Politico:
Sources: USAGM told employees of VOA's Persian-language service who were placed on administrative leave to return to their roles amid the Iran-Israel conflict — President Donald Trump ordered the service to shut down in March. — Employees of Voice of America's Persian-language service …
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Washington Post, CNN, The Wrap, New York Times, Raw Story, @raymondnorman.bsky.social, FITSNews, NewsNation, NewsMax.com, The Indian Express, Reuters, Irish News, Euractiv, NOTUS, Al Jazeera and CNBC
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Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Arabic news channel Alhurra has replaced its programming with an image accusing the USAGM of illegally withholding Congress-approved funding for its parent MBN — The Arabic-language news channel Alhurra is using its air waves to draw attention to the U.S. Agency for Global Media's (USAGM) …
Discussion:
@newsguy.bsky.social and @kaedotcom.bsky.social
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Byron Allen settles with McDonald's over his $10B 2021 lawsuit accusing the fast food chain of racial stereotyping in its ads budget; terms were not disclosed — McDonald's (MCD.N) has settled a $10 billion lawsuit by the media entrepreneur Byron Allen accusing the fast-food chain of …
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Variety, The Wrap, Deadline, @fly_sistah, Restaurant Business and The Desk
CNBC:
The WNBA and E.W. Scripps renew their media rights deal, ensuring Friday night WNBA matchups will continue on Ion, along with a new weekly studio show — The WNBA and E.W. Scripps announced on Friday a new, multi-year media rights agreement to carry Friday night WNBA matchups on Ion.
Discussion:
Brian Lawlor on LinkedIn, Sportico, New York Times, Front Office Sports, The Desk, @matthewkeyslive, The E.W. Scripps Company, Awful Announcing, Adam Symson on LinkedIn, Cord Cutters News, Sports Business Journal, Sports Media Watch, Barrett Media, TV Tech, Radio & Television … and Multicast News
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Take-Two, NBA, and National Basketball Players Association expand their partnership to launch NBA Take-Two Media, producing original content, live events, more — The video game publisher of the NBA 2K franchise will partner with the league on original content and competitive gaming via its new banner …
Discussion:
Sports Business Journal, Charlie Hyun on LinkedIn, NBA.com, Jonathan Rosen on LinkedIn, Variety, The Wrap and TVNewsCheck
Graham Kates / CBS News:
A US appeals court denies Trump's request for a rehearing in writer E. Jean Carroll's case, in which he was found liable in 2023 for sexual abuse and defamation — President Trump on Friday lost his latest effort to get a retrial in the case in which a jury found him liable for sexual abuse …
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MeidasTouch News, Associated Press, Chicago Sun Times, UPI, Irish News, @brianstelter, Fox News, The Independent, @kyledcheney, Reuters, The Hill, CNBC, The Guardian, @cristianfarias.com, @kyledcheney, Raw Story, NOTUS, The National Pulse, Washington Examiner, ABC News, KRDO, Just Jared, Newsweek and Ms. Magazine
Peter White / Deadline:
The Outstanding Talk Series Emmy category will have only three nominations in 2025, down from five in 2023, due to getting just 13 submissions — The likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Sean Evans and John Mulaney will be battling it out for one of only three Emmy nominations.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Screen Rant, The Santa Barbara Independent, LateNighter, GoldDerby and Variety
Kaitlin Washburn / Chicago Sun Times:
The Chicago Tribune is offering buyouts to the newsroom's 75 union members; the newsroom last went through buyouts in 2021, when nearly 40 people left — The newsroom's union, which ratified its first contract just seven months ago, said in a statement cutting staff as a “short-term profit boost” is unsustainable.
Discussion:
@ctguild, @mediaevan, Crain's Chicago Business and MediaPost
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Betting platform Kalshi aired a fully AI-generated 30-second ad during the NBA Finals, reportedly made in 2-3 days with 300-400 generations using Google's Veo 3 — It apparently took just days to make using Google's new text-to-video generator, Veo 3.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Vox Media Union says it has reached a tentative three-year agreement with Vox Media, averting a strike — The Vox Media Union covers editorial staff at Vox.com, The Verge, Eater, SB Nation, Pop Sugar, Thrillist, Vox Media Podcast Network and The Dodo. — An overwhelming 90% of the members …
Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:
WBD plans to shut down its linear multiplex channels HBO Family, ThrillerMax, MovieMax, and OuterMax on August 15, 2025; HBO Family launched in December 1996 — In a significant shakeup for the television industry, HBO, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, has confirmed plans to shut …
Discussion:
The Wrap, The A.V. Club, Deadline, Variety, Bleeding Cool News and Multicast News
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
A spam marketing operation exploited some domains owned by NPR, Nvidia, Stanford, and the US CDC to host AI slop articles redirecting users to an SEO spam site — Web domains owned by Nvidia, Stanford, NPR, and the U.S. government are hosting pages full of AI slop articles that redirect to a spam marketing site.
Discussion:
@bartona104.bsky.social, @andybaio@xoxo.zone, @samleecole.bsky.social, @sesmith.lol, TechRadar and Futurism
