Business of Media
How US media outlets are covering Michael Cohen’s testimony
The country’s liberal and conservative media outlets seemed to agree on one thing this week: Michael D. Cohen, the government’s star witness in its case against former President Donald J. Trump, was worth belittling, reports The New York Times’ Santul Nerkar.
But they made that argument in far different ways.
Conservative outlets painted Cohen, a former lawyer for Trump, as a traitor to the conservative cause. Liberal outlets focused on Cohen’s testimony about how he would do anything to impress Trump.
Fico shooting could trigger media crackdown in Slovakia, editors fear
Journalists in Slovakia fear the attempted assassination of the country’s prime minister, Robert Fico, could lead to even more polarisation and a crackdown on independent voices, reports The Guardian’s Lili Bayer.
In the hours after Fico was shot on Wednesday, several senior politicians from the ruling coalition blamed independent media and the opposition for the incident.
“This is your fault,” Ľuboš Blaha, the deputy speaker of parliament from the ruling Smer party, told opposition politicians, before also blaming the media.
OpenAI inks data, advertising deal with Reddit
In a major licensing deal for the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, the organization says that it has inked a multifaceted deal with the web platform Reddit, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin.
Reddit has said that licensing its data to help train generative AI models is one of its growth opportunities, and indeed the company says that “OpenAI will access Reddit’s Data API, which provides real-time, structured, and unique content from Reddit. This will enable OpenAI’s AI tools to better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics.”
News Brands
Lachlan Murdoch returns home to executives on the edge
Few things are guaranteed to spook the troops like the big bosses showing up in the building. Particularly if they’re already packing it, reports Nine Publishing’s Mark Di Stefano.
So, whispers that Lachlan Murdoch and News Corp global CEO Robert Thomson are returning has rippled out through edgy executives in Holt Street, Sydney.
Murdoch finished up meeting advertisers and delivering Fox Corporation’s results in New York last week. And sources tell us the scion has made his way back to his southern hemisphere home.
Who are TV’s news bosses?
2024 has seen big changes in television news departments with the departure of several news bosses in the spate of just six weeks, reports TV Tonight.
So who are the people calling the shots in television News & Current Affairs?
Entertainment
Review: Billie Eilish has released the album of the year with Hit Me Hard and Soft
Listening to Hit Me Hard and Soft is like sitting on the floor with a close friend and pouring an entire bottle of wine into glasses as she pours out her heart(break), reports News Corp’s Mikaela Wilkes.
Billie Eilish downloads her whole story, start to finish.
The 22-year-old and nine-time Grammy winner did not release any singles from her highly-anticipated third studio album, which is out today (Friday), because none of its 10 tracks are intended to be consumed in isolation.
Sports Media
The NFL’s Netflix Christmas: Love or hate it, what does it mean?
The NFL is galloping to Netflix, which might make a rabbit-eared TV traditionalist crabby, but cannot surprise even a casual observer of either showbiz behemoth. Yes: Pro football has historically benefited from the wide reach of over-the-air broadcast coverage, and Netflix claimed it wasn’t keen on live sports, but dollars are dollars, and the pairing grew inevitable. Eventually the money talked, talked, talked, as it always does, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay.
So here it comes, on a holiday, the Netflix logo, the da-DA sound effect, the NFL on Netflix, on a Christmas Wednesday—the Wednesday part even more sacrilegious than the Netflix or Christmas part. Rumored for a while, the deal ($150 million for two games, reported the Journal’s Jessica Toonkel) was formally confirmed by the streamer the morning of May 15 with a groan-obvious tagline: You can’t spell Netflix without NFL.