Top News:
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
A CBS News producer quits, saying stories may now be evaluated “on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations”, causing self-censorship — “The very excellence we seek to sustain is hindered by fear and uncertainty,” the news producer writes
Gene Weingarten / The Gene Pool:
An H1B visa filing list indicates Will Lewis' base salary as WaPo CEO was $3M per year in 2025, or enough to pay ~27 of the 300+ reporters who were laid off — So. — The image above was given to us by Deb Milbrath, a freelance cartoonist in Atlanta. I love it. — Here's something I don't love:
Discussion:
@hshaban, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @coreypein.bsky.social and @adamkeiper.com
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Axios:
US DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater says she is leaving, in a departure viewed as a victory for tech giants over some of MAGA's more populist voices — Gail Slater on Thursday said she is leaving the Justice Department, where she led the antitrust division.
Discussion:
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Michael Savage / The Guardian:
Trump's lawsuit against the BBC is set for trial in Feb. 2027; discovery must proceed though the judge has not ruled whether the Florida court has jurisdiction — Job losses and programming cancellations expected after Tim Davie tells staff broadcaster is not a ‘protected species’
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
An interview with Lachlan Cartwright on the one-year anniversary of Breaker, his profitable newsletter-first outlet, which has 40K+ paid and unpaid subscribers — A New York-based news site and twice-weekly newsletter has become profitable within a year, driven by subscriber revenue and a direct relationship with “superfans”.
Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
NYT's Zach Seward details the “Manosphere Report”, an in-house LLM-powered tool that summarizes new episodes from about 80 podcasts with largely male audiences — The daily podcast round-up is just one way the Times is adopting in-house AI transcription and summarization tools.
Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak:
Anna's Archive has quietly begun releasing millions of music files from its scrape of Spotify, despite an injunction against distribution of copyrighted works — Despite being sued by Spotify and several record labels, Anna's Archive has silently begun releasing the actual music files from its massive Spotify scrape.
Discussion:
@matthewkeys.net, Cybernews.com, @researchbuzz@researchbuzz …, Music Ally and CMU
Eduardo Baptista / Reuters:
ByteDance's new AI video generation model Seedance 2.0 goes viral in China; the model was designed for film, advertising, and e-commerce productions — ByteDance's new video-generating artificial intelligence model has already impressed the likes of Elon Musk and gone viral in China …
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Sources: Paramount CEO David Ellison met with Trump last week for two conversations; Trump has said he will stay out of Netflix-Paramount competition for WBD — Donald Trump Media Corporate news Tech news … Paramount CEO David Ellison returned to the White House last week to meet privately …
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Agnieszka Flak / Reuters:
Universal Music Group signs a licensing deal with rights platform ClicknClear, easing the licensing process for athletes using music in choreographed sports — Universal Music Group and rights-tech platform ClicknClear have signed a global licensing deal enabling athletes to license music …
Discussion:
Plagiarism Today, Digital Music News, Music Business Worldwide, Music Ally and Sports Business Journal
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
The Virginia State Bar rejects a disciplinary complaint from a press freedom group against a DOJ lawyer over the raid of WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson's home — A press freedom group accused a prosecutor of violating an ethics rule by not telling a judge about a law limiting searches for journalistic work product.
Discussion:
@charliesavage.bsky.social
Todd Spangler / Variety:
E.W. Scripps is expected to make layoffs in the near future as it seeks to grow adjusted earnings by up to $150M over three years; in 2024, it had 5K staff — This week at its headquarters in Cincinnati, Scripps said, it gathered a team of 200 managers “charged with carrying out the transformation.”
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