Mediagazer: A TASS journalist gained access to Trump's meeting with Zelensky, even as AP and Reuters were barred; the White House says he was unauthorized and escorted out (CNN)

5:05 PM ET, February 28, 2025

Top News:

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Source: more than 75,000 Washington Post digital subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions following Jeff Bezos' overhaul of the paper's opinion section — More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos …

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

Jeff Bezos' opinion section changes contradict his October 2024 edict that WaPo won't endorse a presidential candidate because it can't be seen as taking a side — Months after insisting he would never allow his personal interests to influence the Post's content, one of the world's richest …

Jaden Amos / Axios:

Trump says he had dinner with Jeff Bezos on February 26, the day Bezos announced that WaPo's opinion pages would focus on personal liberties and free markets — - “I never even understood it,” Trump said. … - In July 2024, Bezos privately urged Trump to choose Doug Burgum as his vice president …

Discussion: The Wrap, @mehdirhasan.bsky.social, @shelleybwoke.bsky.social, @rewhan.bsky.social, @screw-reality.bsky.social, @cemck.bsky.social, @wagatwe.com, The Independent, American Prospect, Daily Mail, Columbia Journalism Review and @maxwelltani

Gene Weingarten / The Gene Pool:
Source: The Washington Post's media critic Erik Wemple wrote about the changes at its opinion section, but the piece was killed

Discussion: New York Post, @joshgerstein, Eric Anderson on LinkedIn, @jpodhoretz, @jonathanchait, @muwxguy.bsky.social, @jongorey@threads.net, @froomkin.bsky.social, CNN and Deseret News

CNN:

A TASS journalist gained access to Trump's meeting with Zelensky, even as AP and Reuters were barred; the White House says he was unauthorized and escorted out — A member of Russia's state-owned news agency gained access to the Oval Office on Friday to cover President Trump's sit …

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Sources: in a tense meeting with journalists, Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell said he'll end the travel pool and implied reporters “trash the warfighter” — Inside a tense off-the-record meeting, the Pentagon's new press chief confronted reporters and indicated they will do away …

Discussion: @sashotodorov.bsky.social, @dodresponse, @cthomasjamh.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, Newsbusters, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social, @ohiorob.bsky.social, @moivtx.bsky.social, @timtrautmann.com and @status.news

S.V. Date / HuffPost:
The US political press has not dealt with autocrats working this hard to seize power; trading soft coverage for access could fail media audiences and democracy

Discussion: MSNBC, The Atlantic, @joeperticone, @andrewfeinberg, @svdate, @fritschner, @lizskalka, @dwass, @brianstelter, @arifleischer, @afrakroon.bsky.social, @blueangie.bsky.social, Daily Kos, @ruralindependent.bsky.social, Raw Story and Politico

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

GB New wins a landmark case against Ofcom after a judge finds a decision that GB News breached due impartiality rules with Jacob Rees-Mogg's show was unlawful — In a High Court ruling, a judge found that Ofcom was unlawful in determining that GB News breached broadcasting rules …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Press Gazette, Telegraph, Variety, GB News, GB News, @nigel_farage, Financial Times, @bubbaprog.lol, @gbnews and Mirror

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

FCC Chair Brendan Carr says the Skydance-Paramount merger review is far from finished and defends his solicitation of comments on a complaint about 60 Minutes — FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said that the agency's review of the proposed Skydance-Paramount Global merger is far from finished …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @bsdtectr.bsky.social, C-SPAN.org, Free Press, TVNewsCheck, The Hill, New York Post, New York Times, Variety, Semafor, Reuters and Adweek

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fubo reports Q4 North America revenue up 8% to $433.8M, a net loss of $40.9M, down from $71M in Q4 2023, and 1.67M paid subscribers; FUBO drops 21%+ — The sports-focused streamer earlier unveiled a deal to merge with Walt Disney's Hulu+ live TV business. — Fubo TV ended the fourth quarter …

Discussion: Advanced Television, StreamTV Insider, Yahoo Finance, Engadget, The Streamable, Deadline, Benzinga, Streaming Better, Cord Cutters News and ir.fubo.tv

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Disney sells out ad inventory for Oscars 2025, which will stream on Hulu for the first time; source: 30-second spots went for $1.7M to $2.3M, in line with 2024 — Advertising inventory for Sunday's Oscar telecast is sold out, Disney has confirmed, with pricing said to be holding steady with 2024 levels.

Discussion: MediaPost, Adweek, Marketing Brew, Rolling Stone, Variety and The Wrap

Kathleen Kingsbury / The New York Times Company:

The NYT announces David Leonhardt will be joining Opinion as an editorial director and says it won't retreat from having editorials or an editorial board — As editorial director, David will work to carve out a new vision for the editorial board true to our longstanding values and updated for today's world.

Discussion: @gregjkrieg, @maxwelltani, @glennf.com and @tweetbenmax

Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal:

Websites and apps for all 32 NFL teams had been collecting detailed consumer data without notice or opt-out choices; the NFL has updated policies to fix issues — Digital data, including information about consumers' precise movements and locations, was shared with ad-tech vendors

Discussion: Adweek, TVNewsCheck and The Hill

New York Times:

Sources: at a Paramount board meeting this month, Shari Redstone said she was in favor of resolving President Trump's $20B lawsuit against CBS News — Consumer sentiment has turned south as high prices weigh on households. Could that crimp big pieces of the president's economic agenda, including tariffs?

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Associated Press, Reason, @mgallagher.bsky.social, CBS News, @mattgertz and @mediaevan

Sharon Knolle / The Wrap:

Source: over 40 newsroom employees at the Los Angeles Times have taken buyout offers from owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, including roughly 17 reporters — “We should put out a missing flyer in search of the man who bought our paper and made promises about its future,” one employee tells TheWrap

Discussion: @jen_rice_, @gerrickkennedy, @davidfolkenflik, @joelrubin, @benmullin and @mediaevan.bsky.social

Sewell Chan / Columbia Journalism Review:
The last remaining member of the Los Angeles Times editorial board, Carla Hall, says she is taking a buyout, ending her 32-year tenure at the paper

Discussion: @brittny_mejia, @mikebonin, @geholland, @abbeyr28.bsky.social, @hannahcwiley.bsky.social, @nicosan1.bsky.social and @mattkrasnowski.bsky.social

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Michael Levenson / New York Times:
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