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2:15 PM ET, July 21, 2026

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
A US judge orders a temporary halt to the Paramount-WBD merger, as a 12-state coalition, led by California, argues it would violate federal antitrust law  —  Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin issued the order after hearing argument from both sides on Friday morning.
RELATED:
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
In the temporary restraining order, a US judge says Paramount's anticipated 27% market share in theatrical distribution is likely to violate antitrust laws  —  A court issued a temporary restraining order freezing the deal for a short period.  Next, it will consider whether to issue …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Cuts at ESPN are part of larger Disney layoffs; sources: some corporate functions, film studios, and Disney Entertainment Television are expected to be impacted  —  Pixar and Nat Geo are said to be hit particularly hard in the latest round of cuts, with some high-profile talent also being let go at ESPN.
RELATED:
Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Memo: ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro announces layoffs, mostly due to the NFL Network acquisition; sources: on-air personalities Karl Ravech and Ryan Clark are affected  —  Karl Ravech, one of ESPN's most prominent on-air voices for more than three decades, and NFL insider Tom Pelissero were laid off …
MJ Franklin / New York Times:
How publishers are cashing in on surging public interest in The Odyssey through splashy reissues; Circana BookScan says sales of The Odyssey rose by 76% YoY  —  It's the climax of the “Odyssey.”  Odysseus, back in Ithaca at long last, finds his home swarming with suitors vying for the hand of his wife, Penelope, and for his throne.
RELATED:
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey nets $124.5M at the domestic box office and $264.1M worldwide on its opening weekend; Universal spent ~$250M to make the film
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Unsealed docs: the DOJ sought phone records of NYT reporters and their relatives in an extraordinary attempt to unmask sources of NYT's Air Force One coverage  —  The government is aggressively seeking the confidential sources of Times reporters who wrote about the president's new Air Force One.
Brian Stelter / CNN:
The DOD hasn't held a press briefing in more than two months, as part of a larger effort to control information and avoid difficult questions about the Iran war  —  The Middle East Federal agencies US military Donald Trump … The public deserves transparency about the US war in Iran.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Hearst names Chris Berend, most recently chief digital officer at NBC News, as its first chief content and experience officer, starting August 3  —  Chris Berend, after leaving NBCUniversal News Group, is joining Hearst Magazines as chief content and experience officer.
Discussion: The Wrap
Anna Betts / The Guardian:
A US judge grants The Guardian's motion to dismiss UnitedHealthcare's defamation suit, filed in June 2025, for an article on secret payments to nursing homes  —  Healthcare conglomerate pursued a defamation lawsuit against the Guardian over 2025 investigative reporting
Discussion: Talking Biz News and The Wrap
 
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 More News: 
Chris Best / The Substack Post:
Substack partners with AI-detection tool Pangram, allowing users to scan text longer than 100 words for an estimate of how much was written with AI assistance
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
BBC register: BBC News on-air journalists received at least £657,000 in external payments from 550 outside engagements in the year to the end of March 2026
Discussion: Deadline
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Sony Music files a second copyright suit against Udio, alleging the AI music company copied 30,117 recordings without permission to train its AI models
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
A judge approves Anthropic's $1.5B settlement with authors, the first major US case of its kind to settle; some authors opted out and have other ongoing suits
Bloomberg:
Source: Netflix raised $1B from a US high-grade bond sale, its first since a debut deal two years ago
Bloomberg:
Snap reaches a deal to settle the second case set for trial over social media harm to minors, following TikTok and YouTube, leaving Meta as the only defendant
Discussion: TechCrunch
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Fox Corp.'s Red Seat Ventures becomes the latest entity to partner with Amazon to integrate its programmatic ad inventory into Amazon's demand-side platform
 Earlier Picks: 
Ned Holmes / Radio Times:
Netflix and Goalhanger agree to a new two-year deal to broadcast The Rest Is Football podcast through the next two Premier League seasons and the Euros in 2028
 

 
From Techmeme:

Tulsee Doshi / Google:
Google launches Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, and says it has started its “most ambitious pre-training run yet” for Gemini 4

Ina Fried / Axios:
OpenAI says its models, including GPT-5.6 Sol and “an even more capable pre-release model”, breached Hugging Face while OpenAI tested their cyber capabilities

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to launch Apple Upgrade, a leasing program for most iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch models, with partner Klarna in the US next week
 
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