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3:40 PM ET, August 27, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Todd Spangler / Variety:
FCC Chair Brendan Carr appears to blame Google for the Fox standoff and says “get a deal done Google”; the FCC has no authority over services like YouTube TV  —  Brendan Carr, the pro-Trump chairman of the FCC, weighed in on the carriage fight between Google's YouTube TV and Fox Corp. …
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Apple partners with TuneIn to make Apple Music's six radio stations available outside its app, a first, as it seeks to compete with Spotify; TuneIn has 75M MAUs  —  The tie-up with TuneIn to distribute Apple's radio stations aims to introduce the company's music service to more people
Sara Fischer / Axios:
NASCAR launches on Substack, becoming the first major sports league on the platform; the newsletter will be written by NASCAR's in-house editorial team  —  NASCAR on Thursday will launch its first-ever Substack newsletter, becoming the first major sports league to partner with the email platform …
Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline:
Sources: Anonymous Content, the production company behind Spotlight, is undergoing layoffs; the estimated cut is less than 15% from a total staff of about 130  —  The estimated reduction of staff is less than 15% of the company's employees.  —  I hear that pink slips will be across the board, from admin staff to executives.
Discussion: Variety
Mike Hale / New York Times:
Documentary series American Experience begins an abbreviated schedule after WGBH suspended its production and laid off 13 staffers amid US federal funding cuts  —  The documentary series “American Experience” begins an abbreviated schedule this week.  A victim of the federal funding take-back …
Kelefa Sanneh / New Yorker:
How music criticism lost its edge: since the 2010s, outlets like Pitchfork have abandoned extremely low scores, and critics face harassment for negative reviews  —  Music writers were once known for being much crankier than the average listener.  What happened?
RELATED:
Jesse Hassenger / The Guardian:
Cultural criticism is at risk of erasure, as the Chicago Tribune cut its film critic job, VF fired its film critic, and the NYT reassigned four arts critics
The Guardian:
Lebanese journalists demand an apology from US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack after he told them to “act civilized” and not be “animalistic” in Beirut  —  Reporters demand apology from Tom Barrack, US special envoy to Syria, after his remarks at Beirut press conference
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney sues Sling TV for allegedly violating their carriage deal by including Disney's networks without permission in the new mini-bundles launched in August  —  The mini-bundles start at $4.99, a fraction of the usual minimum of $45.99 a month for a regular Sling subscription.
The Marshall Project:
The Marshall Project names Jennifer Peter as EIC, replacing Susan Chira, who stepped down in December 2024; Peter worked at the Boston Globe since 2004  —  Peter, of The Boston Globe, will lead the national criminal justice outlet's news operations.  —  Jennifer Peter has been named editor …
Ray Schultz / MediaPost:
Time promotes Alex Altman, previously deputy Washington bureau chief and executive features editor, to executive editor  —  Time has promoted Alex Altman to the post of executive editor.  Previously, he served as deputy Washington bureau chief and executive features editor.
Discussion: Time
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 More News: 
Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
Staffers, including 14 full-time reporters, from three nonprofit newsrooms backed by Signal Ohio are unionizing with the Northeast Ohio NewsGuild
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Noisy Creek, owner of Seattle's The Stranger and the Portland Mercury, is acquiring the Chicago Reader and also plans to expand its ticketing service to Chicago
Katie Campione / Deadline:
KPop Demon Hunters surpasses Red Notice to become Netflix's “most popular film of all time” based on a 91-day premiere window, hitting 236M views since debuting
 Earlier Picks: 
David Folkenflik / NPR:
A US judge orders Kari Lake to submit to questioning under oath after she failed to comply with repeated orders to share info about her plans for VOA's future
Annelise Levy / Bloomberg Law:
Filing: Anthropic reached a settlement in a copyright class action brought by authors whose works were included in two pirate databases Anthropic downloaded
Leia Mendoza / Variety:
Fairchild Media Group promotes Michael Atmore to EIC of Women's Wear Daily, in addition to his role as chief brand officer
Discussion: Adweek, Talking Biz News and WWD
 

 
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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