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9:40 AM ET, December 18, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Shane O'Neill / Washington Post:
Q&A with Christopher Anderson, who photographed Trump's inner circle for VF: “My job is to ... draw on my experience as a journalist and photograph what I see”  —  Every line, spot, blemish and blood vessel was captured by Christopher Anderson's lens.  What was he thinking?
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS News and The Free Press announce Things That Matter, a series of town halls and debates, starting in early 2026, with Sam Altman, J.D. Vance, and others  —  The news division is also planning a town hall with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in the ‘Things That Matter’ series, with Bank of America lined up as a sponsor.
RELATED:
Axios:
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr tells a Senate committee the FCC “is not an independent agency”; the agency removed “independent agency” from its site as he testified  —  FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in his Wednesday Senate testimony that the agency he governs “is not an independent agency, formally speaking.”
RELATED:
Steven Portnoy / ABC News:
Democratic Senate Commerce Committee members accused FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of making “mafia threats” and encroaching on broadcasters' First Amendment rights  —  Sen. Markey calls him “chairman of the ‘Federal Censorship Commission.’”  —  Brendan Carr, commissioner …
John Rogers / Associated Press:
Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who covered the Vietnam War for the AP and the first Gulf War for CNN, has died at 91  —  Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war …
RELATED:
Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Filing: Comcast's offer to merge NBCUniversal with WBD valued Comcast's media and theme-park assets at about $81B; Comcast's overall valuation is about $111B
Discussion: MediaPost
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Senators Warren and Blumenthal call on AG Bondi to recuse herself from reviewing the WBD deal due to her prior employment with lobbying firm Ballard Partners
Todd Spangler / Variety:
SEC filing: WBD says the Ellisons offered David Zaslav a compensation package of several hundred million dollars, which Zaslav said was inappropriate to discuss
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Paramount reaffirms its $30/share all-cash bid after WBD's board officially rejected it, saying its bid offers “superior value and certainty” for shareholders
Scott Feinberg / The Hollywood Reporter:
The Academy signs a multiyear deal that gives YouTube the exclusive global rights to the Oscars, beginning in 2029 and running through 2033, streaming for free  —  The Academy announced on Wednesday:  —  LOS ANGELES, CA - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and YouTube signed …
Will Page / Pivotal Economics:
Analysis: music copyright's global value rose 5.2% YoY to a record $47.2B in 2024; the revenue split favored labels and artists at 62%, above songwriters' 38%  —  11-MINUTE READ  —  TL;DR  —  Music copyright was valued at $47.2bn in 2024, nearly doubling in a decade
Laura Cress / BBC:
Netflix wins rights to a FIFA soccer simulation game, developed by Delphi Interactive and set for release ahead of the 2026 World Cup, for free to Netflix users  —  Fifa will finally release its much-anticipated return to video games in 2026, several years after its acrimonious split with developer EA.
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix signs a deal with Barstool Sports to stream video versions of three podcasts, initially in the US; full video episodes will be removed from YouTube
Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:
PEN America elects novelist Dinaw Mengestu as president, as the organization navigates free speech challenges across the US and criticism of its Gaza response  —  The novelist Dinaw Mengestu will lead the literary group at a time of escalating threats to free expression at home and abroad.
Discussion: PEN America
 
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 More News: 
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube says it will no longer give data to US Billboard charts after January 16, arguing Billboard's ranking formula doesn't count ad-supported streams fairly
 Earlier Picks: 
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta is testing limiting Facebook professional accounts and Pages to posting just two links per month, unless they subscribe to $14.99+/month Meta Verified
 

 
From Techmeme:

Helena Horton / The Guardian:
X limits Grok's image generation and editing to paying subscribers after widespread outcry over its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery

Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Docs: xAI had a net loss of $1.46B in Q3, up from $1B in Q1; sources: xAI told investors it plans to build AI that will eventually power Optimus humanoid robots

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI is rolling out a HIPAA-compliant version of ChatGPT for clinicians to assist with medical reasoning and administrative tasks, at Cedars-Sinai and others
 
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