Mediagazer: X is rolling out Grok-powered AI tools for advertisers to generate ready-to-use ad copy and imagery and provide campaign performance analysis (Kendra Barnett/Adweek)

2:50 PM ET, February 22, 2025

Top News:

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

The AP sues three Trump officials, alleging they violated the First and Fifth Amendments by banning AP reporters in retaliation for the use of “Gulf of Mexico” — The wire service sued three of them for denying its reporters access to press events.

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, Mediaite, @techledes, Breitbart, @farhip, Newser, @myschatheriault.bsky.social, @jillgeisler, @banksyfella.bsky.social, @katie_robertson, @zoetillman, @jeffdomingues, @farhip, @anneapplebaum.bsky.social, @farhip, RedState, Mirror, Newsbusters, @gwen-corvid.bsky.social, Townhall, The Jim Acosta Show, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, Techdirt, Axios, Variety, Wall Street Journal, @jschleuss.com, @nyang.bsky.social, @amandabecker.bsky.social, Saeed Ahmed on LinkedIn, @nyclu.org, @b0yle.bsky.social, Daily Mail, The Wrap, @cscfisher@threads.net, Mediaite, @carlysitrin.bsky.social, @jnsheff.bsky.social, @jayrosen.bsky.social, @geoffthejohnson.bsky.social, @keithgoogins.bsky.social, Deadline, @peterbakernyt.bsky.social, CNN, Barrett Media, The Post Millennial, @aclu.org, Politico, The Guardian, Washington Examiner, The Reporters Committee …, The Virginian-Pilot, The Daily Signal, The Hill and The Nation

Tom Durante / Mediaite:

NBCUniversal settles a $30M defamation suit by a gynecologist who worked at a Georgia ICE facility; he disputed statements made about him on three MSNBC shows — NBCUniversal is settling a $30 million defamation lawsuit brought by an ICE detention facility gynecologist who was falsely branded a …

Discussion: NPR, @jeremymbarr, RedState, The Post Millennial, @jeremymbarr, JONATHAN TURLEY, @davidfolkenflik, @dicktofel.bsky.social, @redsteeze, Breitbart, Daily Mail, HotAir, TVNewsCheck and Fox News

Sarah Rumpf / Mediaite:

Ann Selzer asks to dismiss Trump's lawsuit over her inaccurate November 2024 Iowa poll, arguing the president's “fraud” framing is an attempt to evade the 1A — The legal team representing Iowa pollster Ann Selzer filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against her by President Donald Trump …

Discussion: The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, The Hill, WOWT-TV, @rumpfshaker.bsky.social, Law & Crime and The Wrap

Kendra Barnett / Adweek:

X is rolling out Grok-powered AI tools for advertisers to generate ready-to-use ad copy and imagery and provide campaign performance analysis — The company is betting on AI to help recover some of the millions it has shed in ad revenue over the last two years

Discussion: @xbusiness, @kendraebarnett, Ad Age, @gsarafanpolitic.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck and @bgrueskin.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

RFI:

Researchers say dozens of fake news sites linked to John Dougan are posting disinfo ahead of Germany's election, recycling tactics used before the US election — From a fabricated sex scandal to a fake museum heist, disinformation aimed at influencing Germany's high-stakes election …

Discussion: ISD, @cambskeptics@mastodonapp.uk, Recorded Future, @sabine34.bsky.social and @fife4europe.bsky.social

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Sources: MSNBC chief Rebecca Kutler weighs more on-screen time for Jen Psaki and The Weekend hosts Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez, and Michael Steele — Rebecca Kutler, who was named president of MSNBC earlier in February, is considering expanding the on-screen presence of Jen Psaki …

Discussion: Deadline, @finfox2.bsky.social, @rachel99marta.bsky.social, The Wrap, Puck, @bristei.bsky.social, @mariopro.bsky.social and @bristei.bsky.social

Deadline:

Sources: Amazon paid $1B+ to gain creative control of the James Bond franchise and plans to expand it into its own universe akin to Marvel or Star Wars — Amazon originally overpaid on its purchase of MGM in a deal orchestrated by then-MGM board chair Kevin Ulrich.

Justin Kroll / Deadline:
Amazon MGM Studios, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli form a JV to house James Bond IP rights, under which Amazon gains creative control of the franchise

Discussion: @jeffbezos, Puck, The Hollywood Reporter, Comic Book, Read Max, The Streamable, LADbible, Us Weekly, Screen Rant, Collider, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Gossip, FemaleFirst, The Guardian, Benzinga, @isylis.bsky.social, @johncnj.bsky.social, Mirror, @joerussotweets, GB News, Frontpage Mag, @richlightshed, CNN, @mgsiegler, @deeketweak, @jacobkleinman, @nextbestpicture, @benroyturner, @bunndumm, BBC, @sonnybunch, Breitbart, CBS News, Variety, Variety, @cpmaz.bsky.social, @librarythingtim.bsky.social, @autismsupsoc.bsky.social, About Amazon, @marcusjdl.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, NPR, CBR, @courier12.bsky.social, Geoff Hollingworth on LinkedIn, The Daily Wire, @bennomatic@appdot.net, SlashFilm, @autismsupsoc.bsky.social, @illdave.bsky.social, @_patmurray@mastodon.social, Forbes, Gizmodo, Syracuse Post-Standard, Esquire, @billhuntbits.bsky.social, Engadget, Rolling Stone, GQ, Steve Siskind on LinkedIn, New York Times, @mutarada.bsky.social, Town & Country, Business Insider, Fortune, @benschwartz.bsky.social, The Playlist, @nedraggett.bsky.social, Yahoo Finance, @vinzenzhediger.bsky.social, Axios, @davidjcourt.bsky.social, Financial Times, @michaelthec@poweredbygay …, WPXI-TV, Just Jared, Bloomberg, Carlo Bertucci on LinkedIn, CNBC, The Verge, The Information, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, @mrfengi.bsky.social, Los Angeles Times, Cord Cutters News, @taraconlan.bsky.social, Associated Press, @ronmarz.bsky.social, LADbible, CBR, Consequence, IndieWire, Gizmodo, Reuters, @moviessilently.bsky.social, Collider, World of Reel, @gigawattconduit.bsky.social, NDTV, @jjdotbiz.bsky.social, @josie.zone, The Wrap, Screen Rant, @caseym.org, @gigawattconduit.bsky.social, Oh No They Didn't! and Tatler

Ricardo Brito / Reuters:

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes orders the immediate and full suspension of Rumble in the country due to noncompliance with court orders — Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered U.S. video-sharing platform Rumble (RUM.O) immediate and full suspension …

Discussion: Reclaim The Net, @ggreenwald, @allumbokhari, @chrispavlovski, @ggreenwald, @ggreenwald, The Rio Times, Breitbart, @chrispavlovski, @scrowder, Associated Press, @daphnek.bsky.social, Fox News and JURIST, more at Techmeme »

Marie Woolf / Globe and Mail:

Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge urges a near-doubling of funds for public broadcaster CBC, to bolster the broadcaster and end its reliance on ads — ////Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge is proposing that the CBC's public funding almost double, in a bid to bolster the public broadcaster …

Discussion: National Post, Jessica Johnson on LinkedIn, CBC News and CityNews Toronto

Marty Swant / Digiday:

Amazon plans transparency updates for its ad buying system after an Adalytics report found it placed ads on sites hosting CSAM and other problematic content — Amazon plans to more transparency tools for its advertising offering, updates that come just weeks after its demand-side platform …

Discussion: Richard Raddon on LinkedIn, @olivia10.bsky.social, Lou Paskalis on LinkedIn and Adweek

New York Times:

Memo: MLB and ESPN mutually agree to end their national television deal after the 2025 season; ESPN was due to pay MLB around $550M/year in 2026, 2027, and 2028 — Major League Baseball and ESPN have “mutually agreed” to end their national television deal after the upcoming 2025 season …

Dan Sabbagh / The Guardian:

The BBC pulls a Gaza documentary from iPlayer to conduct “further due diligence” after criticism for not clearly disclosing narrator was a Hamas leader's son — Show removed from iPlayer as ‘further due diligence’ carried out and critics ask if any Hamas members were paid for filming

Discussion: BBC, @tamhussein, @robertjenrick, @hamza_a96, @archrose90, @garyspedding, HotAir, The Times of Israel, The Independent, Exposing the role …, The Wrap, GB News, Realscreen, Variety, Fox News, Deadline, The Sun, Mirror, BBC and Daily Caller News Foundation

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Apple plans to launch Apple News+ Food in April, for News+ subscribers, with recipes, kitchen tips, and other content from Allrecipes, Serious Eats, and more — The new section will include tens of thousands of recipes from publishers like Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and AllRecipes.

Discussion: The Verge, Engadget, AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Apple and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Reuters:
Sources: India fines BBC ~£300K for alleged foreign exchange violations over its failure to reduce foreign ownership in a company BBC launched in India in 2023

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Similarweb: traffic from ChatGPT to the top 14 publishers globally rose 8x from 435,000 in August to 3.5M in January, but is still less than 0.1% of all visits

Discussion: Fast Company, Matt Shaw on LinkedIn, Kate Rooney on LinkedIn, CNBC, The Wrap and TechCrunch

Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
Some journalists are taking freelance jobs with AI training data companies like Scale AI, which recruit them for tasks such as fact-checking and prompt drafting

Discussion: @tylerborchers.com and Rest of World

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
If X threatened an ad group with US government interference, we've hit a high level of coercion, and conservatives who complained of Big Tech bias should object

Discussion: MediaPost, Geekout Newsletter, @pkafka, Kevin Drum, Kennon Fleisher on LinkedIn, @fricker.bsky.social, @businessinsider.com, @briantylercohen.bsky.social, @joshsternberg.com, Gizmodo and The Information

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
A NY court tells Nexstar to pay DirecTV $26.6M in a case over retransmission fees; a court earlier said Nexstar wrongly received $10.5M in fees in the same case

Discussion: TV Tech, StreamTV Insider, The Streamable, Radio & Television …, TVNewsCheck and Cord Cutters News

Earlier Picks:

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Bloomberg News promotes Mark Gurman to managing editor for global consumer tech and adds senior editor Dana Wollman and two others to his team

Discussion: @whatthebit, @dsilverman@threads.net, @markgurman and @markgurman

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Senator Warren urges the US DOJ to scrutinize Disney's deal to acquire a controlling stake in Fubo and merge it with Hulu + Live TV, citing antitrust concerns

Discussion: Cord Cutters News, @tvgrimreaper, TV Tech, The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, TVNewsCheck, Reuters, Awful Announcing, The Desk, Business Insider, Benzinga, Light Reading, Deadline, Media Play News, The Wrap and Yahoo Finance

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Former Merit TV employees detail struggles at Dr. Phil McGraw's streaming service, including multiple rounds of layoffs, staff discontent, and low ratings

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, The Desk, @thedesk.net and RADAR

Lauren Easton / Editor and Publisher:
Memo: AP is launching its Local Investigative Reporting Program, to be led by Ron Nixon, to support US state and local newsrooms in investigative reporting

Discussion: Media Nation, Poynter, Ron Nixon on LinkedIn, @rebuildlocalnews.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck and @sdkstl.bsky.social

From Techmeme:

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
A book excerpt details how the OpenAI board ousted Sam Altman with help from Mira Murati, who provided examples of his alleged lies and other toxic behavior

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
A look at drone delivery startup Zipline, which has raised $500M+, made 1.4M+ deliveries in seven countries, and delivers packages for Walmart in two US cities

Arfa Javaid / Financial Express:
Replit CEO Amjad Masad says learning to code is a waste of time, citing Dario Amodei's prediction that AI may generate essentially all code by next year

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