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Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Sources: Bari Weiss asked 60 Minutes to add material to its CECOT piece, such as a Stephen Miller interview; Weiss says her job is to publish the “best” stories — Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, criticized the network's decision to remove her reporting from Sunday's edition of the show.
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Washington Post:
Internal email: 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told staffers Bari Weiss pulled the CECOT segment after the Trump administration refused an interview — The segment on the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador's CECOT prison was postponed after the Trump administration refused to grant the network an interview.
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David Folkenflik / NPR:
Email: Sharyn Alfonsi says CBS' decision was “not an editorial decision, it is a political one” and “we have effectively” handed the government a “kill switch” — Just a day and a half before it was set to be broadcast, new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled …
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Julia Ornedo / The Daily Beast:
CBS postpones a 60 Minutes segment on El Salvador's CECOT prison, which houses people deported by the Trump administration, just hours before it was set to air — BE RIGHT BACK — The show announced a programming change just before its Sunday night timeslot.
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Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Weiss thinks that the existing 60 Minutes framework did not provide sufficient checks and balances to ensure that the reporting met Weiss' standards — CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss told top “60 Minutes” producers Sunday afternoon, after holding a controversial news segment …
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IJR, @sarafischer, Townhall, Mediaite and TV Insider
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS staff call: Bari Weiss says the 60 Minutes story “was not ready”, “did not advance the ball”, and needed to “get the principals on the record and on camera” — The venerable CBS newsmagazine canceled plans to present a story that took a tough look …
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Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Paramount says Larry Ellison “agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4B” for its hostile WBD bid, but did not increase its $30 per share bid — Paramount Skydance on Monday guaranteed the backing of billionaire Larry Ellison in an amended offer for Warner Bros. Discovery …
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Connor Hart / Wall Street Journal:
SEC filing: Netflix says it secured up to $25B in bank financing to fund its proposed $72B acquisition of WBD, maturing three years after the deal closes — Details come from a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission — Netflix said it has secured up to $25 billion in bank financing …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Cord Cutters News and Motley Fool
James Franey / New York Post:
Sources: SAG-AFTRA “is building a war room to oppose” the WBD-Netflix merger, including plans for a potential strike — Hollywood actors could go on strike over the planned Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery tie-up, with their trade union secretly plotting a possible work stoppage …
Ali Watkins / New York Times:
Channel 4 says Jimmy Kimmel will share a message on Christmas Day as part of its Alternative Christmas Message show, emphasizing the importance of free speech — Mr. Kimmel will speak out against fascism and about the importance of free speech in the holiday address, according to a Channel 4 spokesman.
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Mitchell Peters / Billboard:
Pirate activist group Anna's Archive says it scraped 86M music files and 256M rows of track metadata from Spotify, and releases them in ~300TB of torrent files — The scrape allegedly accessed 86 million audio files. Spotify is “actively investigating the incident.”
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
A survey of 700 Hollywood insiders: 52% think Netflix will buy WBD, 80% say they use AI in their work, 30% predict Josh D'Amaro as Disney's next CEO, and more — We asked more than 700 industry experts to name the best streaming service, worst CEO and next big movie star.
