Mediagazer: Elon Musk takes over Twitter and fires several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and legal policy, trust, and safety head Vijaya Gadde (Washington Post)

4:25 PM ET, October 28, 2022

Top News:

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Among tech companies, Twitter has been the biggest defender of online free speech, globally; fired head of legal and policy Vijaya Gadde drove much of that work — Last night, Elon Musk closed his on-again, off-again, on-again deal to buy Twitter, and his very first order of business was to fire a bunch of top executives.

Washington Post:

Elon Musk takes over Twitter and fires several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and legal policy, trust, and safety head Vijaya Gadde — Musk's $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company closed on Thursday night. — SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk became …

Discussion: @elonmusk, New York Times, @nedsegal, CNBC, @whey_standard, Axios, New York Times, @thierrybreton, @jackalltogether, Media Matters for America, The Verge, Mediaite, Adweek, Reuters, The Hill, The Atlantic, New York Times, @mattzeitlin, Bloomberg, The Daily Wire, CNET, MediaPost, The Guardian, Insider, Slate, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Fortune, The Post Millennial, The A.V. Club, The Rooster, New York Magazine, @lukewearechange, @nigel_farage, @mikegalsworthy, @tedcruz, @taylorlorenz, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Observer, Politico, Bloomberg, Protocol, The Wrap, MacRumors, Gizmodo, @ericrweinstein, @tinch, Common Dreams, @film_girl, @jason_kint, @_lokeshsharma, Al Jazeera, Wired, The Addition, @ariehkovler, @kaalateetham, @megan, @nickbilton, Jezebel, @geoffreyvs, The Week, @karaswisher, @mattzeitlin, @mmasnick, @quinncy, @megbasham, @carnage4life, TechCrunch, @dellcam, Reason, @jeffjarvis, @goldman, @penamerica, @danprimack, Broadband TV News, @donwinslow, Variety, Associated Press, @clarajeffery, AppleInsider, Agence France-Presse, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, TechCrunch, The Desk, New York Post, Engadget, WFLA-TV, The Wildfire Newsletter, The Daily Beast and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Elon Musk pens an open letter to calm Twitter advertisers, arguing his goal is not “to make more money” and the service “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape” — Mega-billionaire Elon Musk, nearing the finish line in his rocky takeover of Twitter …

Discussion: @elonmusk, Washington Post, Insider, The Wrap, @sep, Insider, New York Times, MediaPost, The Information, Slate, The Hill, NPR, New Republic, Associated Press, CNET, CNBC, CBS News, @cwarzel, The Post Millennial, WISC-TV, @daveyalba, Techdirt, @maxwinebach, Forbes, @wajahatali, @schmittnyc, @bcappelbaum, Billboard, @miblogestublog, @mzhemingway, KTLA, Today's Take, Axios, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, The Shortcut, Bloomberg, Press Gazette, @maxkennerly, Wired, @hayskali, ZDNet, New York Post, The Verge, @greg_price11, @vprasadmdmph, @jayrosen_nyu, @emilybell, The Daily Wire, @adriennelaf, Pirate Wires, AdExchanger, @marklittlenews, @schwarz, @schwarz, @briannawu, @esqueer_, @adriennelaf, Digiday, @justinhendrix, @pkafka, @goldman, @cwarzel, @donie, @ruthbenghiat, Vanity Fair, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, @theplumlinegs, @oneunderscore__, MAGA Underground, @robinw, Music Ally, Vox, The Daily Beast, The Desk, Media Matters for America, Reuters and FOX News Radio, more at Techmeme »

Alex Heath / The Verge:

CNBC and Bloomberg ran headlines saying Elon Musk was cutting staff at Twitter, based on two people with boxes outside its office; one used a meme as his name — In videos circulating on Twitter Friday morning, two men carrying boxes are seen standing near the entrance to Twitter's San Francisco building …

Discussion: CNBC, Talking Biz News, New York Post, @matthewkeyslive, @alex, @billym2k, @chrisgeidner, @bykatherineross, @asilbwrites, @hopeking, @alexeheath, @billym2k, @tomwarren, @genepark, @genepark, @dee_bosa, Bloomberg and @chrisgeidner

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

A reassessment of The New York Times' apology and James Bennet's firing after Sen. Tom Cotton's op-ed: Bennet was right and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger was wrong — Controversy over an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) consumed the New York Times in June 2020 and claimed the job of then-editorial page editor James Bennet.

Ashley King / Digital Music News:

Music streaming service LiveOne and its subsidiary Slacker say a ruling ordering them to pay SoundExchange ~$10M in royalties could cause financial ruin — Is Slacker headed for bankruptcy? The company says SoundExchange's $10 million judgment could destroy them.

Discussion: Billboard

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

In an email, Chris Licht told staff that CNN will stop buying documentary films and original TV series and instead use long-form content produced internally — Acquired and commissioned documentary movies and TV shows like ‘Navalny’ and ‘Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy’ are going away.

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, @maxkennerly, @fawfulfan, @isobelyeung, @will_doran, IndieWire, @thor_benson, @scottfeinberg, @elwasson and @jbflint

Daniel Finn / The Wire:

Q&A with Tom Mills, the author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, on the BBC's start in 1922, government relationships, rethinking the license fee, and more — No broadcaster in the world today can rival the cultural prestige of the UK's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Bloomberg:

A book excerpt details Netflix's shift from DVDs and tensions with HBO, which took a hard line on streaming rights, leading Netflix to make its own content — Jeffrey Bewkes scanned his mind, searching for the perfect war metaphor. — It was December 2010.

Discussion: @lucas_shaw

David Gutman / The Seattle Times:

A Washington judge fines Meta $24.66M, the maximum possible amount, after finding the company intentionally violated campaign finance disclosure laws 822 times — Meta, Facebook's parent company, was fined nearly $25 million Wednesday for intentionally and repeatedly violating Washington's campaign finance laws.

Discussion: Associated Press, @katieharbath, @jvagle, @evelyndouek, Horrific/Terrific, The Hill, @agowa, CNET and MediaPost

Pjotr Sauer / The Guardian:

Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of Putin's one-time boss, has fled to Lithuania, intelligence services say, after a police raid on one of her homes — Ksenia Sobchak, media personality and daughter of Vladimir Putin's one-time boss, was subject of arrest order

Discussion: Insider

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

More than 500 authors and others working in publishing sign an open letter to Penguin Random House protesting Amy Coney Barrett's $2M book deal — More than 250 literary figures rail against acquisition by Penguin Random House of book by conservative US supreme court justice

Discussion: Fox News, The Wrap, @senwhitehouse, The Post Millennial, Mediaite, @thefireorg, @nmamatas, @josephoneillx, @heckelfonic, @nicoperrino, @samthielman, @joshbbornstein, @katzonearth, @nicoperrino, @nicoperrino, @samthielman, @penamerica and @xor

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Todd Spangler / Variety:
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