Mediagazer: Excerpt from Michael Wolff's The Fall: how Tucker Carlson's success became a headache for Rupert Murdoch, making Carlson a casualty of the Dominion settlement (Michael Wolff/New York Magazine)

5:55 PM ET, September 20, 2023

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Excerpt from Michael Wolff's The Fall: how Tucker Carlson's success became a headache for Rupert Murdoch, making Carlson a casualty of the Dominion settlement — Rupert Murdoch didn't want to dump his ratings leader and favorite Fox host. But was Tucker Carlson giving him a choice?

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Messenger, UPROXX, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Insider, Politico, Columbia Journalism Review, @martinpengelly, @aghamilton29, @michaelwolffnyc, @anncoulter and @justinbaragona

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty says that in 2022, Rupert Murdoch thought Fox would pay $50M in the Dominion lawsuit, which cost $787.5M

Discussion: The Messenger, New York Times, CNN, UPROXX, Insider, @janinegibson.bsky.social and The Wrap

Hollywood Reporter:

Source: Disney CEO Bob Iger, WBD CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, and NBCUniversal Studio Group chair Donna Langley attend the AMPTP-WGA talks — “This is so long in coming; everyone's feeling pain. Let's get in there and nail things down," says one source familiar …

Discussion: Variety, IndieWire, Deadline and Bleeding Cool News

New York Times:

The Authors Guild and more than a dozen prominent novelists sue OpenAI over allegedly infringing on authors' copyrights by using their books to train ChatGPT — The suit, filed with the Authors Guild, accuses the A.I. company of infringing on authors' copyrights, claiming it used their books to train its ChatGPT chatbot.

Discussion: CNN, The Wrap, Deadline, MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, CBS News, @michellemanafy, @bergmayer@mastodon.social, Lieff Cabraser, Rolling Stone and bookforum.com

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Substack shares its redesign, which changes the layout and adds a Home tab to help users find stuff to read, that feels more like a traditional social media app — After a tease in a blog post on Tuesday, Substack officially shared details about its redesigned app on Wednesday, which offers a new …

Discussion: @andydehnart.bsky.social, @hamishmckenzie, On Substack, TechCrunch and @hamishmckenzie

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Mumbai-based Kuku FM, which offers audio content in English and six Indian languages for ~$1.20/month, raised a $25M Series C, taking its total funding to $60M — Google-backed audio content platform Kuku FM has raised $25 million in a new funding round as it looks to make deeper inroads …

Kim Willsher / The Guardian:

France arrests investigative journalist Ariane Lavrilleux, who covered classified documents alleging Cairo used French intelligence to target civilians in Egypt — Ariane Lavrilleux, who reported on leaked documents alleging French intelligence used to target civilians in Egypt, is in custody

Discussion: Voice of America, Reporters Without Borders, @redfrog@mamot.fr, Committee to Protect …, Al Jazeera and European Federation …

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:

Source: Paramount+ removed one Russell Brand stand-up comedy special, Russell Brand in New York City, after one allegation of rape and four of sexual assault — The streaming service follows YouTube and the BBC in distancing itself from the comedian, who has been accused by four women of sexual assault.

Discussion: TVLine, The Wrap, Deadline, The Messenger and Newser

The Guardian:

The Guardian launches a digital Europe edition to offer “a European lens on world issues”, the fifth edition after the UK, the US, Australia, and international — Expanded presence to showcase original journalism and highlight issues that matter to European readers

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Journalism.co.uk, @pippacrerar and @shafldn

Alexi Duggins / The Guardian:

Actor Stephen Fry warns about the dangers of AI after finding an unauthorized version of his voice he claims was generated from his Harry Potter book narration — Actor warns about dangers of artificial intelligence after discovering version of his voice based on Harry Potter audiobooks

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Collider and Futurism

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

Journalists Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett plan to launch In Retrospect, a weekly pop culture podcast, on September 21, distributed by iHeartPodcasts — iHeartPodcasts and The Meteor are launching “In Retrospect,” a pop culture podcast by Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett.

Anna Chernova / CNN:

A Moscow court refuses to hear an appeal against WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich's pre-trial detention, meaning he could remain in jail until at least November 30 — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain behind bars after a Moscow court refused to hear an appeal against his pre-trial detention on Tuesday.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Independent, ABC News, UPI, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Voice of America, The Hill, Talking Biz News, Fox News, Associated Press, The Sun, The Messenger and New York Times

Angela Fu / Poynter:

A Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter and her colleagues faced social media attacks when users, including Elon Musk, distorted her coverage of a fatal hit-and-run — The Las Vegas Review-Journal is facing a harassment campaign stoked by Elon Musk, one year after a reporter was killed for his coverage.

Discussion: @tomgara, @johnmcquaid@journa.host, American Press Institute, @cfwij, @elizthompsn, @johnnykats, @jimi_writes, @ralstonreports, @ttangap, @emilymiller, New York Post, @markokern.bsky.social, @MaryAliciaZiff@mastodon …, Las Vegas Review-Journal and Mediaite

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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
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Abbey White / The Hollywood Reporter:
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How Russia spreads pro-Kremlin messages in Africa through local journalists and media outlets like Afrique Média, a Cameroon-based, pro-Wagner Group TV channel

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