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The White House says Biden's pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox is still off, after Fox said its streaming service Fox Soul would interview him, in an about-face — Hours after the White House said Fox had called off its pre-Super Bowl interview with President Joe Biden, the network said the president was still welcome.
Discussion:
@presssec, Variety, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Week, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, The Comeback, New York Times, @grynbaum, Washington Post, Deadline, Next TV, @variety, @tommyxtopher, @zigmanfreud, TVNewser, @oliverdarcy, @anniekarni, @megynkelly, @reploudermilk, The Sussex County Informer, Newser, @oliverdarcy, The Hill, @jeremymbarr, @vincecoglianese, @nycsouthpaw, @tommyxtopher, @isaiah_bb, @claytravis, @tommyxtopher, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, @geoffpilkington, @blanchardjrb, @ltthompso, @pettylupone, @rossalincoln, ABC News, @variety, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, SheKnows, TVLine, The Hill, New York Daily News, Forbes, IndieWire, Mediaite, Bloomberg, New York Post, Insider, The Wrap, Awful Announcing and CNN


An advertising joint venture by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone to rival Meta and Google wins unconditional EU antitrust approval — Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Vodafone (VOD.L) on Friday secured unconditional EU antitrust approval …
Discussion:
European Commission, @astaniscia86, @robertjbateman, @wolfiechristl, Newsroom Orange Groupe and Adweek, more at Techmeme »


Sources: TikTok's Internal Audit team that spied on journalists had wide investigative powers with little oversight; ByteDance says it's restructuring the team — TikTok's hyper-aggressive internal security team drew a wave of complaints from employees before its conduct exploded …
Discussion:
@dlberes, @jason_koebler, WUFT News, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @semafor, @semafor, @reedalbergotti, Tubefilter, Bloomberg and Observer


How Rumble, which claims to have 71M MAUs, became the only success story in right-wing social media by letting creators who are banned elsewhere monetize video — For a moment, the right's longtime dream of an alternative social media seemed within reach. Various companies had been trying …
Discussion:
@ben_kew and @ggreenwald, more at Techmeme »


Report: ads next to tweets from 10 extremist Twitter accounts restored by Musk generate enough engagement to likely bring in $19M in ad revenue annually — Ads from major brands are running alongside hateful content and dangerous conspiracy theories from far right Twitter users, group claims


Marianne Mantell, who co-founded Caedmon, a groundbreaking label that issued recordings of writers reading their words, the precursors to audiobooks, dies at 93 — In her early 20s she co-founded the groundbreaking spoken-word record label Caedmon, which had a hit with Dylan Thomas's “A Child's Christmas in Wales.”
Discussion:
@susannahfox, @edoballerini, @libraryamerica and @penamerica


Sources: Fox turned down $2B+ unsolicited offers for Tubi, which the company acquired for $440M in 2020; Tubi lost ~$50M in Q4 and grew sales 25% YoY to $200M+ — Fox Corp. has turned down unsolicited offers of more than $2 billion for its Tubi streaming service, over four times …
Discussion:
@tvgrimreaper, @carlquintanilla, @tsoh_investing, The Streamable, Insider, The Wrap and Media Play News


News Corp Q2: revenue down 7% YoY to $2.52B, vs. $2.55B est., net income down 64% YoY to $94M, book publishing revenue down 14%, and news media revenue down 9% — Media conglomerate News Corp (NWSA.O) said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due …
Discussion:
News Corp, @pressgazette, The Wrap and The Guardian
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After a three-month strike, the HarperCollins union and the company reach a tentative deal that includes increasing minimum salaries and a one-time $1,500 bonus — After a three-month strike, the two parties reached a tentative deal that includes wage increases and a one-time bonus.


Creators tend to see copyright as a strong defense, including against generative AI, but it won't protect them from odious contracts imposed by monopolists — The media spectacle of generative AI (in which AI companies' breathless claims of their software's sorcerous powers are endlessly repeated) …
Discussion:
@doctorow, @anniezaidi and @jbaert


Journalists must challenge the notion that AI will replace humans; ChatGPT proves that finding the truth is trickier than pairing data with the right algorithm — Don't let these tools dazzle you beyond reason. Don't anthropomorphize them. Ask hard questions about what they're purported to do.
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Indian Express, @jennaburrell, Insider, Boing Boing, MediaPost, @mike_salter, @spj_tweets, @poynter and @datasociety


An excerpt from an upcoming book on the Redstone family and its media empire: how Shari Redstone took control of Paramount, which emerged from CBS and Viacom — Her father doubted her much of her career. Les Moonves launched a bid at CBS to overrule her. That was before sexual misconduct allegations came to light.
Discussion:
@jamesstewartnyt, @craigsilverman, @nytimes, @benmullin, Air Mail and Bloomberg


Sources: Amazon is in talks with Times Internet to acquire MX Player, a top VOD streaming service in India; Times Internet acquired MX Player for $140M in 2018 — Amazon is engaging with Times Internet to explore the acquisition of MX Player, one of the largest on-demand video streaming services in India …
Discussion:
@digitallybones, The Information and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »