TGIF. Here's the latest on Venu, Hoda Kotb, Smartmatic, David Zaslav, Cameo, Leo Terrell, "Squid Game," Lionsgate, and so much more... |
Painter and Reliable Sources reader Therese Rea shared her latest work of art, titled "OVERWHELMED," and I thought all of you would appreciate it. Rea says the work "reflects my reaction to so much going on everywhere on all fronts!" |
Hey, it's OK not to be OK, especially this week. Let's get you caught up on media world news: |
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Liam Reilly writes: Venu Sports, the joint streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corp., and Disney, will be discontinued before it even launched, the trio announced in a surprise decision Friday. "We have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service," the companies said in a statement a few minutes ago...
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This might be the day TikTok's U.S. fate is determined. Later this morning the Supreme Court will hear two hours of oral arguments as the hugely popular video app desperately tries to fend off the ban that's set to take effect on January 19. CNN's John Fritze has a great guide to the case here.
As WIRED notes, if the law banning TikTok is upheld, "it won't disappear from your phone" immediately — "but it will get messy fast." Here's why.
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>> "Frank McCourt's Project Liberty and its consortium of partners" have proposed "a formal bid to ByteDance to buy TikTok's U.S. assets," Reuters reports.
>> Terrific new reporting from CNN's Clare Duffy: "They built careers on TikTok. Now they’re bracing for a possible ban..."
>> "Even if TikTok wins in court, it has been significantly weakened by the fight, with many important influencers diversifying their content to include Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube in anticipation of a ban, potentially taking their audiences along with them," Julia Angwin notes.
>> David French's NYT column imagines how China could exploit TikTok and the app's data in a future conflict. He says "this is the first Supreme Court case of a new cold war, this time with China..."
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On the firestorm's frontline |
From interviewing fire officials on the front lines (see Anderson Cooper below) to debunking the push alert mistakenly sent to all of L.A. County residents, journalists are relaying emergency info to millions of people. |
The social media reaction to the fires, on the other hand, "has featured all the finger-pointing and false rumors that we've come to expect from every big negative news event in America," Noah Smith writes. He cuts through the crap and urges people to "learn smart lessons from the L.A. fires, not stupid lessons..."
>> Journalist Mike Rothschild, who writes about conspiracy theories for a living, lost his home in the Eaton fire. He pushed back on the disinfo, commenting, "I don't blame our loss on 'DEI firefighters' or space lasers or Gavin Newsom or wokeness not allowing forest floors to be raked. There's no cartoon villain here. This was a catastrophic wind storm that caused bone dry vegetation to ignite. It's climate change."
>> Wash Post's Philip Bump calls the attempts to deflect from the reality of climate change "2020 election denialism wearing a different outfit."
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How WBD is supporting L.A. staff |
Elizabeth Wagmeister writes: At Warner Bros. Discovery, about 1,300 employees have evacuated from their homes due to the fires, and 20 employees have already lost their homes, CEO David Zaslav said during a staff briefing yesterday. WBD has formed an "emergency attack team," Zaslav said, to secure hotel rooms and other resources for L.A. employees. Hotel rooms, meals, and cars are being covered by the company. "The ultimate objective here is that everybody feels safe," Zaslav said, ensuring them that the company is providing financial and emotional support. It was a really reassuring message, and very well-received internally...
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>> More: Disney is "deploying emergency response and assistance services" to employees, Bob Iger said in a memo obtained by Oliver Darcy.
>> Apple has cancelled the red carpet premiere of "Severance" season two due to the fires. CBS has delayed the TV premiere of "Hollywood Squares" by a week.
>> The AP compiled a list of "landmarks from film and TV" that sustained damage.
>> Universal Studios Hollywood is reopening this morning after closing for two days.
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Hoda Kotb "was instrumental to helping the 'Today' show recover from multiple public relations crises," Washington Post TV critic Lili Loofbourow writes. Kotb "energized the format in the aftermath" of Matt Lauer's departure and "proved not only that two female co-hosts could work but also that 'Today' could weather the loss of any particular presenter." Still, Kotb's departure "feels like the end of an era because it probably is one." If you're not watching the "Today" show's send-off right now, you can follow along via NBC's live blog here...
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Trump "has picked Fox News contributor Leo Terrell to serve as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department, Harmeet K. Dhillon," Politico's Myah Ward writes. (Dhillon was a frequent guest on Fox, too, until her friend Tucker Carlson was canned.) Matt Gertz of Media Matters says Terrell is the "18th current or former Fox staffer announced to join the Trump administration."
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"Unionized employees at the Washington Post held a protest" Thursday afternoon "outside Will Lewis' office criticizing the CEO for this week's layoffs and avoiding the paper's staff," per Semafor's Max Tani.
Earlier in the day, the executive editor that Lewis hired on an interim basis, Matt Murray, confirmed to Post staffers that he will remain in his position, but that no public announcement is planned, per the NYT's Ben Mullin.
>> According to Charlotte Klein's new deep dive for NYMag, Murray has been "intimating in private conversations with staff that a dark period was ahead for the Post." Klein says "there are fears of major cuts coming to the newsroom, all while the C-suite" (meaning Lewis) "seems to occupy a different universe."
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Meta users looking for the exit? |
I'm skeptical that this will amount to much, but: "Google searches for how to cancel and delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have seen explosive rises in the U.S." in the days since Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta's MAGA makeover, TechCrunch's Rebecca Bellan reports.
>> GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin says Zuckerberg briefed Trump on the changes ahead of time...
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CNBC: Elon Musk "says DOGE probably won’t find $2 trillion in federal budget cuts," after all.
CNN: On an X audio livestream, Musk urged Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany party in upcoming elections.
WSJ: Musk "says he recently became one of the world’s top 'Diablo IV' players," leaving people "asking where he found the time" to play so much.
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>> The "Pizzagate" gunman who terrorized DC's Comet Pizza in 2016 because he believed a deranged conspiracy theory was shot and killed by NC police on Monday after they say he pointed a gun at them during a traffic stop. (Charlotte Observer)
>> A NY appeals court ruled Thursday that Fox Corp must face Smartmatic's mammoth defamation lawsuit over 2020 election lies, Marshall Cohen reports. (CNN)
>> "Vox Media cut at least 12 staffers at Vox.com, in the company's second round of layoffs in about a month," Lucia Moses reports. (BI)
>> Two days after announcing impending cuts at HuffPost, the publication's top editor Danielle Belton said she is stepping down. "In hopes of saving some roles, I knew I would face eliminating my own," she wrote in a memo. (X)
>> Following its election night special with Brian Williams, "Amazon has been holding exploratory talks about possible news concepts," Brian Steinberg reports, and might green-light some live specials on a "project-by-project basis." (Variety)
>> Comcast's SpinCo is filling out its exec roster. Val Boreland will be president of entertainment and Keith Cocozza will be chief comms officer, to name two...(Deadline)
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>> "How Journalism Will Adapt in the Age of AI:" Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait offers "eight reasons to be both optimistic and paranoid." (Bloomberg)
>> In his new Bulwark newsletter, Adrian Carrasquillo argues that "the media isn't ready for Trump's mass deportation moment..." (Bulwark)
>> Sophie Haigney spends time in "the weird world of Cameo," which "feels like the end product of an ever-more-intense fan culture..." (NYT Mag)
>> J Wortham highlights Meredith D. Clark's new book, "We Tried to Tell Y'All: Black Twitter and the Rise of Digital Counternarratives," which came out earlier this week. (NYT)
>> Patrick Klepek writes about kids being obsessed with "Squid Game:" It's "all over Roblox. You can't escape it on YouTube. It's even on the playground..." (Crossplay)
>> Alan Sepinwall goes behind the scenes of "Jeopardy!" to examine how the game show reinvented itself following the death of Alex Trebek. (Rolling Stone)
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>> Google and Microsoft are joining the list of tech companies donating $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. (CNBC)
>> Samantha Cole reports that many netizens believe A.I.-generated images of the iconic Hollywood sign burning are real. (404 Media)
>> "Amazon has built a massive advertising business by charging merchants to promote their product listings on its site. Now, Amazon wants to sell the technology behind its ad business to other e-commerce companies." (The Information)
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This weekend at the box office |
It's a slow start to the 2025 box office: Lionsgate's "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera" is "aiming for $11 million to $13 million from 3,000 North American theaters over the weekend," while Paramount's "Better Man" is "projected to bring in $2 million from a slimmer screen count of 1,200 venues," Variety's Rebecca Rubin reports. She notes that the L.A. premiere of "Better Man" was cancelled due to the fires.
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>> Apple is putting season one of "Severance" on Roku for free "in an apparent bet that the influx of viewers will help drive new subscribers to its Apple TV+ streaming service" just in time for season two, Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
>> "In a rare display of transparency for downstream revenues," Universal revealed that "Wicked" "has racked up $26 million in its first day and $70 million in its first week of digital release." (Variety)
>> "WWE Monday Night Raw" is off to a strong start on Netflix. (THR)
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