 Sumner Redstone |
The legal struggles over the control of 94-year-old Sumner Redstone’s fortune were kicked up another notch by a suit filed Oct. 16 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In the suit, Manuela Herzer, ex-companion of the former Viacom and CBS executive chairman, charges Redstone’s daughter, Shari Redstone, and grandson, Tyler Korff, with “systematic, criminal and illegal infiltration into the private affairs of Sumner, Herzer and others around them without any care about his medical or legal privacy.” In addition to illegally accessing Herzer’s computer and spying on her by manipulating the elder Redstone’s security cameras, the suit charges that Shari Redstone and her son were involved in “an illegal pattern of racketeering” in their quest to control Sumner’s property as well as his personal life. Because of this, Shari Redstone and Korff are being prosecuted under the RICO Act, which is directed towards acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. Herzer is seeking $100 million, as well as the treble damages provided for under RICO and punitive damages.
 Ben White |
Politico has launched “Politico Money,” a weekly podcast which will interview key figures in money, finance, and banking, focusing on politics and the practical implications of often complex policy. The podcast will be hosted by Ben White, Politico’s chief economic correspondent. "My goal is to break down all of the economic and financial issues dominating the conversation on Wall Street and in Washington with leaders in business and politics,” said White. The premiere episode features Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who draws a line in the sand for members of Congress: Failure to pass a big tax cut bill, he says, could blow up the stock market.
 Laura Barrón-López |
The Washington Examiner is bringing on Laura Barrón-López as a political reporter. Barrón-López comes to the Examiner from The Huffington Post, where she covered Congress. Before that she was a reporter at The Hill, covering energy and environment policy. At the Examiner, she will cover the Democratic Party and Democratic lawmakers in Congress. “Laura is a great reporter whose work I’ve followed and admired for years,” said Hugo Gordon, the paper’s editorial director. “Her excellent sources on Capitol Hill will bring extra power to our coverage of the Democrats as they try to claw their way back to power.”
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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