Top News:
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
A CBS News producer quits, saying stories may now be evaluated “on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations”, causing self-censorship — “The very excellence we seek to sustain is hindered by fear and uncertainty,” the news producer writes
Gene Weingarten / The Gene Pool:
An H1B visa filing list indicates Will Lewis' base salary as WaPo CEO was $3M per year in 2025, or enough to pay ~27 of the 300+ reporters who were laid off — So. — The image above was given to us by Deb Milbrath, a freelance cartoonist in Atlanta. I love it. — Here's something I don't love:
Discussion:
@hshaban, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @coreypein.bsky.social and @adamkeiper.com
RELATED:
Axios:
US DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater says she is leaving, in a departure viewed as a victory for tech giants over some of MAGA's more populist voices — Gail Slater on Thursday said she is leaving the Justice Department, where she led the antitrust division.
Discussion:
Politico, American Prospect, PitchBook, The Hollywood Reporter, Sportico, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, CBS News, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, New York Post, Washington Post, UPI, The Verge, The Hill, @paulsteidler, Bloomberg, @stacyfmitchell, @jbsdc, @laurenshirsch, @verge, @douglaslfarrar, @chrispavlovski, Financial Times, NewsMax.com, The Daily Caller, @gigibsohn, @sportsfanorg, @maxmmillerat, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, KVIA-TV, Raw Story, @ddayen, NBC News, @gailaslater, The Information, The A.V. Club, The Wrap, Variety, CNBC, Deadline, Semafor and Global Competition Review, more at Techmeme »
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
An interview with Lachlan Cartwright on the one-year anniversary of Breaker, his profitable newsletter-first outlet, which has 40K+ paid and unpaid subscribers — A New York-based news site and twice-weekly newsletter has become profitable within a year, driven by subscriber revenue and a direct relationship with “superfans”.
Michael Savage / The Guardian:
Trump's lawsuit against the BBC is set for trial in Feb. 2027; discovery must proceed though the judge has not ruled whether the Florida court has jurisdiction — Job losses and programming cancellations expected after Tim Davie tells staff broadcaster is not a ‘protected species’
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
The Virginia State Bar rejects a disciplinary complaint from a press freedom group against a DOJ lawyer over the raid of WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson's home — A press freedom group accused a prosecutor of violating an ethics rule by not telling a judge about a law limiting searches for journalistic work product.
Discussion:
@bselena.bsky.social and @charliesavage.bsky.social
Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
NYT's Zach Seward details the “Manosphere Report”, an in-house LLM-powered tool that summarizes new episodes from about 80 podcasts with largely male audiences — The daily podcast round-up is just one way the Times is adopting in-house AI transcription and summarization tools.
Brendon Kleen / Awful Announcing:
Memo: The Banner in Maryland plans to expand sports staff to cover Washington, DC, teams, hiring beat reporters to cover the Nationals and Commanders, and more — Credit: Baltimore Banner; Washington Commanders; Washington Nationals — The Baltimore Banner is hoping it can fill …
Discussion:
The Banner
Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:
YouTube and the NFL's second annual Creator Flag Football game drew 14M live views around the world, up from 6M in 2025, as the NFL seeks to export the sport — The Team J Balvin vs. Team Druski matchup saw more than double the viewership of last year's game
Discussion:
Tubefilter, @hunterwalk.com, Media Play News, Adweek and YouTube Official Blog
Ali Abunimah / The Electronic Intifada:
Current and ex-CPJ staffers say the nonprofit scrapped its Global Impunity Index in 2025 because Israel would have been ranked near the top or first, for years — Earlier this month, Omar Shakir stepped down from a senior role at Human Rights Watch after the group's suppression …
Discussion:
Committee to Protect …
Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak:
Anna's Archive has quietly begun releasing millions of music files from its scrape of Spotify, despite an injunction against distribution of copyrighted works — Despite being sued by Spotify and several record labels, Anna's Archive has silently begun releasing the actual music files from its massive Spotify scrape.
Discussion:
@matthewkeys.net, @researchbuzz@researchbuzz …, Music Ally, CMU and Cybernews.com
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Sources: Paramount CEO David Ellison met with Trump last week for two conversations; Trump has said he will stay out of Netflix-Paramount competition for WBD — Donald Trump Media Corporate news Tech news … Paramount CEO David Ellison returned to the White House last week to meet privately …
Discussion:
Variety, Wall Street Journal, Techdirt, @deggans, @davidclinchnews, NewsMax.com, Axios, mxdwn Television, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
