6:35 PM ET, December 22, 2025
December 22, 2025
5:20 PM
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says CBS' 60 Minutes decision gives the Trump administration “veto power over critical reporting by simply refusing to engage”
4:10 PM
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
A spate of unforced errors by Bari Weiss has kept scrutiny high on CBS News, as Paramount tries to acquire WBD and can ill afford negative attention
3:10 PM
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Source: Threads plans to add podcast previews to let snippets of shows play directly in user feeds; it is focusing on live events, seeking to attract podcasters
2:05 PM
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Source: Bari Weiss got personally involved with political stories, after Trump criticized 60 Minutes for interviewing Marjorie Taylor Greene earlier this month
1:15 PM
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Italy's competition watchdog fines Apple €98.6M, saying the company's ATT rules are “disproportionate” and “harmful” to app developers and advertisers
12:05 PM
James Franey / New York Post:
Sources: SAG-AFTRA “is building a war room to oppose” the WBD-Netflix merger, including plans for a potential strike
11:20 AM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Weiss thinks that the existing 60 Minutes framework did not provide sufficient checks and balances to ensure that the reporting met Weiss' standards
10:06 AM
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS staff call: Bari Weiss says the 60 Minutes story “was not ready”, “did not advance the ball”, and needed to “get the principals on the record and on camera”
9:10 AM
Reuters:
Israel's cabinet votes to shut down popular national radio station Army Radio, saying it has become a platform for views that “attack” its armed forces
8:07 AM
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Paramount says Larry Ellison “agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4B” for its hostile WBD bid, but did not increase its $30 per share bid
7:20 AM
Connor Hart / Wall Street Journal:
SEC filing: Netflix says it secured up to $25B in bank financing to fund its proposed $72B acquisition of WBD, maturing three years after the deal closes
7:05 AM
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Email: Sharyn Alfonsi says CBS' decision was “not an editorial decision, it is a political one” and “we have effectively” handed the government a “kill switch”
6:55 AM
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
A survey of 700 Hollywood insiders: 52% think Netflix will buy WBD, 80% say they use AI in their work, 30% predict Josh D'Amaro as Disney's next CEO, and more
6:10 AM
Ali Watkins / New York Times:
Channel 4 says Jimmy Kimmel will share a message on Christmas Day as part of its Alternative Christmas Message show, emphasizing the importance of free speech
5:10 AM
Mitchell Peters / Billboard:
Pirate activist group Anna's Archive says it scraped 86M music files and 256M rows of track metadata from Spotify, and releases them in ~300TB of torrent files
4:40 AM
Max Tani / Semafor:
Adam Mosseri says “maybe we'll need” premium longform video for Instagram, and that TikTok's US sale turmoil has given Meta time to retune algorithms
December 21, 2025
10:15 PM
Washington Post:
Internal email: 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told staffers Bari Weiss pulled the CECOT segment after the Trump administration refused an interview
7:45 PM
Julia Ornedo / The Daily Beast:
CBS postpones a 60 Minutes segment on El Salvador's CECOT prison, which houses people deported by the Trump administration, just hours before it was set to air
December 20, 2025
7:00 PM
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Interview with WPP CEO Cindy Rose, who says AI puts pressure on the ad agency's pricing and WPP has 10K data scientists and software engineers and 12K creatives
December 19, 2025
6:00 PM
Ken Vogel / @kenvogel.bsky.social:
Politico ends its print edition after 19 years, as its early reliance on print ad revenue fades and its audience relies more on digital platforms
3:25 PM
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Google sues data scraping company SerpApi for allegedly using hundreds of millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted material from Google products
3:15 PM
Paul Glynn / BBC:
HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women
2:40 PM
Karl Bode / Techdirt:
The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China
12:40 PM
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M
12:00 PM
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
The Kansas City Chiefs launch Foolish Club Studios, a first for an NFL team, to produce scripted and unscripted content that “might only be sports-adjacent”
10:40 AM
Bloomberg:
Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025
10:15 AM
Natalie Korach / @nataliekorach:
Sources: VF's article by Chris Whipple featuring quotes from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles led to VF's biggest subscription signup day since 2016
9:40 AM
Financial Times:
Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says ByteDance's US entities will retain direct control over core US revenue drivers, including ecommerce, ads, and marketing
8:45 AM
Kirsten Chuba / The Hollywood Reporter:
TikTok's first awards show, held on December 18, handed out 14 awards, including Creator of the Year for Keith Lee; at the event, none of the screens worked
8:05 AM
Ryan Glasspiegel / Front Office Sports:
Sources: Netflix will pay Barstool a yearly fee “in the eight figures” for its video podcasts; Fanatics has pitched WWE podcasts to Netflix which airs WWE Raw
7:20 AM
George Winslow / TV Tech:
The National Association of Broadcasters launches a campaign to support live sports on free broadcast channels as more big games move to streaming services
December 18, 2025
8:15 PM
Jessica M. Goldstein / New York Times:
A look at Track Star, a YouTube music quiz show that has become a stop on the celebrity promo trail and has started creating documentary-style music features
7:55 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) agree to buy WildBrain's 41% stake in Peanuts Holdings for ~$457M, raising Sony's stake to 80%
7:10 PM
Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
Universal Music Group partners with music creation platform Splice to build “advanced commercial AI tools” for musical artists
5:54 PM
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Memo: the TikTok US deal is set to close on Jan. 22; terms include retraining the recommendation algorithm on US user data and Oracle overseeing data protection
5:29 PM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20%
4:50 PM
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
YouTube streaming the Oscars in 2029 makes Netflix's WBD bid less likely to face antitrust issues, as it shows Netflix might need WBD to compete against YouTube
3:25 PM
Emilio Casalicchio / Politico:
Downing Street makes changes to press access, cutting an afternoon briefing and promising more press conferences, which will be open to social media influencers
2:55 PM
Financial Times:
Trump Media agrees to merge with Google-backed fusion energy company TAE in a $6B deal and build the “world's first utility-scale fusion power plant” in 2026
2:10 PM
Will Sattelberg / 9to5Google:
Google returns as a partner service for Movies Anywhere, after leaving the service during a feud with Disney in October and November
1:35 PM
Anna Betts / The Guardian:
David Brooks, who wrote a NYT column last month decrying popular fixation on the Epstein story, appears in newly released photos of a 2011 event with Epstein
1:10 PM
Janko Roettgers / The Verge:
Atlas Obscura plans to launch Obscura Society, a WebXR-based lounge offering users 3D avatars for voice chats, portals to other VR apps, and more, in early 2026
1:00 PM
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
YouTube terminates Screen Culture and KH Studio, two large channels that used AI to create fake movie trailers; the platform earlier suspended the channels' ads
12:40 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix hires ESPN anchor Elle Duncan as its first on-air host for live sports and cultural events; she has appeared on SportsCenter, College GameDay, and more
11:45 AM
OpenAI:
OpenAI launches the OpenAI Academy for News Organizations, which offers journalists AI training, open-source projects, and practical use cases
10:45 AM
Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Disney+ and Gulf region streamers Shahid and OSN+ announce a bundle offer; all three apps are available through Shahid, owned by Saudi broadcaster MBC
10:20 AM
Lanre Bakare / The Guardian:
Members of UK performing arts union Equity vote overwhelmingly in favor of refusing to be scanned while on set to prevent their likeness being used by AI
9:45 AM
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Dow Jones hires ex-Bloomberg Media CEO M. Scott Havens as its first chief growth officer, overseeing subscription growth and other consumer revenue streams
9:25 AM
Shane O'Neill / Washington Post:
Q&A with Christopher Anderson, who photographed Trump's inner circle for VF: “My job is to ... draw on my experience as a journalist and photograph what I see”
8:50 AM
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS News and The Free Press announce Things That Matter, a series of town halls and debates, starting in early 2026, with Sam Altman, J.D. Vance, and others
8:30 AM
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
NBCU plans to add Arrival Ads, live ads that play when users turn on Peacock, and use AI to search live sports events for the optimal moment to place ads
8:10 AM
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says it will roll out more App Store ads in 2026 “to increase opportunity in search results”; Apple's website says 800M+ users visit the App Store weekly
6:45 AM
Will Page / Pivotal Economics:
Analysis: music copyright's global value rose 5.2% YoY to a record $47.2B in 2024; the revenue split favored labels and artists at 62%, above songwriters' 38%
6:15 AM
Natalie Korach / Status:
Sources: Bari Weiss moved a planned internal CBS town hall, set to lay out her broader vision, from this month to 2026, after the Erika Kirk town hall flopped
5:45 AM
Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:
PEN America elects novelist Dinaw Mengestu as president, as the organization navigates free speech challenges across the US and criticism of its Gaza response
December 17, 2025
11:05 PM
John Rogers / Associated Press:
Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who covered the Vietnam War for the AP and the first Gulf War for CNN, has died at 91