Tag Archives: media

TV Host Wendy Williams Diagnosed With Dementia

ABC News reports: Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, according to a press release from the former talk show host and her medical team. Williams, 59, who hosted her eponymous talk show “The Wendy Williams” show for more than a decade, has been open in the past about her prolonged health struggles, which included …

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Newsmax Orders Mandatory Sex Harassment Training

Mediaite reports: Newsmax staffers received a memo on Monday morning alerting them to a mandatory and company-wide sexual harassment training, just months after a sexual harassment scandal involving a top executive rocked the conservative cable news outlet. The training, which will run for an entire week in February, comes after Mediaite reported in November on allegations against Newsmax vice president …

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Bloomberg: Disney In Discussions To Sell ABC Network

Bloomberg News reports: Walt Disney Co. has held exploratory talks about selling its ABC network and TV stations to local broadcaster Nexstar Media Group Inc., according to people familiar with the discussions. The talks are preliminary and haven’t involved a specific valuation. Disney, in a statement, said that while it’s still considering a variety of strategic options for its traditional …

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Chuck Todd Signs Off As Moderator Of Meet The Press

“On my first day on the job at Meet The Press, I was handed an audience show survey of Sunday show viewers and the Number One reason folks said they tuned in was not who the person was behind the chair or the guest. It was simply to get educated. “So for nearly a decade, I’ve had the honor of …

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TV Station Fires Four Over Anti-Gay Pride Month Memo

The Desk reports: Nexstar Media Group has fired one of its Michigan-based television news directors who orchestrated a memo urging reporters under his watch to lessen their coverage of Pride Month events because the stories were upsetting some viewers. On Thursday, WOOD-TV (Channel 8, NBC) News Director Stanton Tang learned of his dismissal during a one-on-one meeting with the station’s …

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Vice Media Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

Reuters reports: Vice Media Group, popular for websites such as Vice and Motherboard, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday to engineer its sale to a group of lenders, capping years of financial difficulties and top-executive departures. Vice said that the lender consortium, which includes Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, will provide about $225 million in the …

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BuzzFeed CEO To Shut Down Site’s News Operation

First, last month’s report by CNBC: BuzzFeed is shrinking its money-losing news organization, the company announced Tuesday, amid what people familiar with the matter describe as broader investor concern that the division is weighing down the company. Several large shareholders have urged BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti to shut down the entire news operation, said the people, who asked …

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Media Startup Seeks To Be Fox News But In Spanish

Politico reports: Americano Media, which launched in March, is embarking on an aggressive expansion plan to shape center-right Hispanic opinion during the upcoming election cycle. The network has hired more than 80 Latino journalists and producers, are expanding their radio presence to television, and by the end of the year will have studios in Miami, Las Vegas and D.C. with …

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Russia Bans One Of Its Last Independent News Outlets

Reuters reports: Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last independent news outlets, was stripped of its media licence on Monday, and in effect banned from operating. Russia’s media watchdog Rozkomnadzor had accused the publication of failing to provide documents related to a change of ownership in 2006. Speaking outside court, editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Peace laureate for his efforts to …

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Rachel Maddow Show To Go Mondays Only [VIDEO]

Variety reports: Rachel Maddow doesn’t seem to have much in common with John Oliver. But starting next month, the MSNBC anchor and the HBO comic will offer viewers something similar: a program that analyzes the news just once each week. Starting in May, Maddow will scale back her duties at MSNBC, moving from what had been a five-days-per-week role to …

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Veteran Liberal Journalist Eric Boehlert Dies In Accident

NorthJersey.com reports: A Montclair bicyclist who was killed by a New Jersey Transit train near the town’s Watchung Avenue station Monday night was writer Eric Boehlert, founder and editor of Press Run, a blog about the media, according to his wife, Tracy Breslin. Boehlert, 57, was a veteran writer and media analyst and a frequent television and radio guest discussing …

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Ex-CNN Host Chris Cuomo Seeks $125M From Network

Deadline reports: After months of legal anticipation following his December 2021 firing by Jeff Zucker, Chris Cuomo has just launched the official opening salvo in what looks to be protracted battle with CNN over not only $125 million in cash, but his character and family drama as well. “As a result of Turner’s indefensible choice to unceremoniously fire him, Cuomo …

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CNN’s Paid Streaming Platform To Launch March 29th

The Verge reports: CNN Plus, the streaming platform from the cable news giant, will debut in the US on March 29th, the company said Friday in a news release. For early subscribers — those who sign up in the first four weeks of its launch— the service will cost $2.99 per month, and they’ll lock in that price for as …

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Chris Wallace To Join CNN’s Coming Streaming Service

Mediaite reports: Fox News anchor Chris Wallace is headed to CNN+, in a seismic industry shakeup. Variety first reported the news that Wallace may be joining the yet-to-launch streaming platform from CNN, in what amounts to a major coup for the nascent subscription service. Mediaite has confirmed the news through an industry source. Wallace ended his 18-year tenure as host …

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Right Wing Outlet Mandates Vax For All Employees

The Daily Caller reports: The Washington Examiner is now requiring all employees to take the COVID-19 vaccine, according to an internal memo reviewed by the Daily Caller. The memo, which was sent to employees Sunday, announced that the Examiner and its publisher, MediaDC, are “implementing a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy” that will go into effect Monday. All employees must send …

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Maria Bartiromo’s Senior Producer Dies Of COVID

The Hill reports: Eric Spinato, a top producer for Fox News and the Fox Business Network, died of the coronavirus over the weekend. In a memo to Fox News staffers obtained by the Hill, company leadership called Spinato’s work “instrumental to the growth and entrepreneurial success” of the network, saying his contributions to the company during two stints over a …

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Biden To Hold First Press Conference On March 25th

CBS News reports: President Biden will hold his first press conference as president on March 25, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. The news comes after questions from reporters and urging from critics that he do so. By this point in their presidencies, former Presidents Trump and Obama had held some form of a press conference. When Mr. …

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CNN To Shutter Its Airport Network On March 31st

Deadline reports: CNN will cease its Airport Network, which provided news feeds to airport monitors across the country. CNN President Jeff Zucker wrote in a memo that the network would cease as of March 31. “The steep decline in airport traffic because of COVID-19, coupled with all the new ways that people are consuming content on their personal devices, has …

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NYT CEO Doubts Print Edition Will Exist In 20 Years

The Hill reports: Outgoing New York Times CEO Mark Thompson said he would be “surprised” in the newspaper still offered a print edition in 20 years, adding that he’s skeptical if advertising will ever return at pre-pandemic levels. “I believe the Times will definitely be printed for another 10 years and quite possibly another 15 years — maybe even slightly …

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Advertisers Flee Adjacency To COVID-Related Stories

The New York Times reports: To stay away from bad news, advertisers often turn to a method known as blacklisting. It allows airlines to avoid running ads near plane-crash coverage, and companies with wholesome images to keep away from articles containing words like “murder” or “sex.” In a time of political polarization, frequently blacklisted terms include “Russia,” “impeach” and, among …

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