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Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok denies a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to Elon Musk, calling it “pure fiction” — TikTok denied a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to tech billionaire Elon Musk to keep TikTok operational …
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Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese officials are evaluating an option involving Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US; X would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together — - ByteDance's preferred strategy is to fight ban, sources say — Trump has said he would like to delay ban to seek resolution
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Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD commits $15M to LA fire relief efforts while Amazon, Comcast, and Netflix donate $10M each, and Sony $5M; SAG-AFTRA pledges $1M for impacted workers — Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery commit $15 million while Amazon, Netflix and Comcast add $10 million, Sony chips in $5 million and Paramount contributes $1 million.
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Richard Nieva / Forbes:
Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky — Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …
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Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko plans to transfer Mastodon's ownership to a new non-profit, saying it “should not be owned or controlled by a single individual” — Mastodon says the decentralized network ‘should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.’
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Brian Stelter / CNN:
Opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin leaves WaPo to launch The Contrarian on Substack, to combat the “authoritarian threat” with the tagline “Not owned by anybody” — New York CNN — — Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list …
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Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: Chuck Todd has told top editors and leaders from other media organizations that he plans to leave NBC when his contract is up this year — Chuck Todd has quietly been meeting with Washington media organizations about his post NBC-future. The former host of Meet The Press …
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: This American Life has discussed staff cuts; last year, the podcast quietly changed its “about” page, revising its listenership from 4M per week to 3M — The venerable podcast This American Life is poised to reduce staff for one of the few times since its founding in 1995, Semafor has learned.
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Research: climate change scepticism “almost entirely disappeared” from UK national newspapers over the past decade but they increasingly oppose taking action — But newspapers are instead increasingly arguing against the need to take action to slow climate change.
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Memo: Susan Zirinsky, CBS News president from 2019 to 2021, will return as interim “executive editor” to oversee the unit's editorial standards — The veteran producer, who served as the unit's president from early 2019 to the end of 2021, has been asked to return to CBS News as an interim …
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The Wrap, Deadline, @dylanbyers, @bristei.bsky.social and @alexsteigrad
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
NBCUniversal plans to shut down Universal Kids on March 6, 2025, as NBCU prepares to spin off most of its cable networks into a new, publicly traded company — NBCUniversal, which has already been evaluating its stake in the declining pay-TV business, plans to shut down cable network Universal Kids.
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Rachel Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties to Mondays in 2022, will return to five nights a week as part of MSNBC's plans for Trump's first 100 days — Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties after the spring of 2022, holding forth only on Mondays, will return to five nights a week …
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