Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr says there was no “pressure from the outside” on the agency leading to an early review of ABC's TV broadcast licenses — Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, claimed there was no White House pressure on him to make the unprecedented …
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Brian Stelter / CNN:
Trump says ABC “better” fire Jimmy Kimmel soon, after Kimmel said “Donald and Melania lately have seemed closer than ever” on Wednesday; Disney hasn't commented — People in entertainment Donald Trump Federal agencies TV shows — President Donald Trump says ABC had …
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
The NAB's CEO says the FCC's “nearly unprecedented request” for Disney to reapply for TV licenses is contrary to established principles and creates uncertainty
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Reporters Without Borders:
RSF Press Freedom Index hits a 25-year low: over 50% of the world's countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories; Norway holds the top spot — For the first time in the history of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index …
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Reporters Without Borders, Media Nation, Daily Kos, The Guardian, LatAm Journalism Review, Journalism.co.uk, Rawan Damen on LinkedIn, @margaretmorgan.bsky.social, @crof.bsky.social, @localnotail.bsky.social, @volberg.bsky.social, @dw_innovation@mastodon.social, The Kyiv Independent, Balkan Insight, France 24, DutchNews.nl, Mediaite, Al Jazeera and CBS News
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
X says it has begun a “phased rollout” of its rebuilt ad platform, which it says will have more modern “retrieval and ranking systems” powered by AI — Elon Musk's X is still trying to woo back advertisers — this time with a rebuilt, AI-powered ads platform that started to rollout on Thursday.
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Adweek, MediaPost, @xbusiness, Adweek, BMW BLOG, International Business Times, Crypto Briefing, @elonmusk and Digiday, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple reports Q2 revenue from Services, which includes the App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, and more, grew 16.3% YoY to $30.98B, beating estimates of $30.4B — Apple hit another high note in the first three months of 2026, delivering an earnings beat driven by a surge in iPhone sales and continued momentum in its Services segment.
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Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Reddit reports Q1 revenue up 69% YoY to $663M, vs. $611M est., DAUq up 17% to 126.8M, vs. 125.9M est., and forecasts Q2 revenue above estimates — Reddit reported better-than-expected profit and revenue in its first-quarter earnings report on Thursday, and also issued an optimistic forecast.
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Reuters, The Information, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance and Business Wire, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku reports Q1 revenue up 22% YoY to $1.25B, ad revenue up 27% to $613M, subscription revenue up 30%, raises 2026 profit guidance; ROKU jumps 8%+ after hours — Roku beat Wall Street earnings forecasts for the first quarter of 2026 and raised its full-year profit guidance as the company continues …
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The Wrap, Benzinga, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Cord Cutters News and Search Engine Roundtable, more at Techmeme »
Riddhi Setty / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at fights by journalists at McClatchy, ProPublica, EdSource, and the NYT to shape their newsrooms' policies around the use of AI — Journalists across the United States are fighting for contracts that address AI use: “We don't want it to be done in our name, literally.”
Discussion:
Riddhi Setty on LinkedIn and @columjournreview.bsky.social
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Digital Content Next files an amicus brief in support of Amazon's Perplexity lawsuit, saying AI agents' unregulated access to content threatens news outlets — Case centres on use of AI agents that access content while cloaked as human users. — Major digital news publishers in the US …
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Emily Shugerman / The San Francisco Standard:
Semafor announces a two-day conference, Silicon Valley & the World, in November in the Bay Area, with an advisory board including Jensen Huang and Satya Nadella — Davos by the Bay? — That's what the leaders of Semafor, the digital media and events company, seem to have in mind …
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
A Texas court stays the turnover of Infowars to the official who agreed to license it to The Onion; Sandy Hook families will seek emergency relief from courts — “[This] just warms my heart and still gives me faith in America and our legal system,” the Infowars founder adds
Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
UMG artists will receive a share of the proceeds from UMG's Spotify stock sale, regardless of debts; WMG paid out $126M to artists from its 2018 stock sale — Years ago, as part of her negotiation process to sign with UMG, Swift demanded that the company pay out artists …
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