 Jason Miller |
Gizmodo Media Group is being sued for $100 million by former White House communications director and CNN commentator Jason Miller. The suit claims that Splinter, one of GMG’s news sites, colluded with Miller’s ex-lover to plant a false story that he slipped an abortion pill into the smoothie of a pregnant stripper. It goes on to say that “the false accusations ended Miller’s relationship with CNN and put his entire career in serious jeopardy.” Miller claims that the allegation was in a filing that had been sealed by the court, though The Daily Beast said in a report that couldn't be confirmed. The site also reports that a source with direct knowledge said that Miller is being represented in the suit by Ken Turkel and Shane Vogt. Turker and Vogt were on the legal team that represented Hulk Hogan in his successful lawsuit against Gawker over its publishing a sex tape featuring Hogan. That team was led by Charles Harder, who is now an attorney for president Trump. Following that decision, parts of Gawker Media were spun off to become Gizmodo Media Group.
 Mohammed bin Salman |
Talent agency Endeavor is attempting to call off a deal under which the Saudi government would have invested $400 million in the company. Earlier this year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Los Angeles, meeting with a series of Hollywood executives that included Endeavor CEO, Ari Emanuel. For Endeavor, Saudi Arabia represented a new market for its clients, as well as for the agency’s growing stream of content, such as mixed-martial-arts organization UFC. The country had also recently lifted a ban on movie theaters, and production houses were allegedly considering the Saudi desert for shooting locations. In addition to Endeavor, such Hollywood heavyweights as AMC and Imax have financial dealings with the Saudis. According to The Hollywood Reporter, most of those companies have either refused to comment or say they are monitoring the situation.
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Facebook inflated ad viewing time averages it reported by as much as 900 percent and then lied about doing so, according to a lawsuit filed on Oct. 16. The inflated numbers were due to what the company says was a calculating error. Facebook says it did not discover the error until August 2016 and fixed it by the time the company made a public statement about the issue the following month. However, the lawsuit claims that Facebook knew about the miscalculated metrics in January 2015, keeping the problem secret for well over a year. Facebook’s optimistic numbers about online video viewership are widely credited as one cause behind the “pivot to video” that resulted in the major shift of resources away from traditional journalism and toward video production made by many media organizations. "Suggestions that we in any way tried to hide this issue from our partners are false," Facebook told CNBC. "We told our customers about the error when we discovered it — and updated our help center to explain the issue."
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
