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| Brian Karem |
Brian Karem, a senior White House correspondent for Playboy magazine and CNN contributor, is suing President Trump and press secretary Stephanie Grisham over the Aug. 16 suspension of his press credentials, according to a report in Politico. Karem’s hard pass was temporarily revoked following a confrontation between him and former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka in the Rose Garden following the White House’s Social Media Summit on July 11. Gorka is currently the host of “America First with Sebastian Gorka,” a talk show that runs on the conservative Salem Radio Network. Karem’s lawyer says that Grisham violated his due process rights, since the revocation of his pass was based on unwritten rules. Politico cites an Aug. 2 letter Grisham wrote to Karem in which she says she “had not previously thought that a set of explicit rules was necessary to govern behavior by members of the press at the White House.” Karem’s lawyers also say that the power to revoke a reporter’s credentials lies with the Secret Service, not with the press secretary.
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| Sean Spicer |
Sean Spicer, who exited as White House press secretary in 2017, has found a high-profile new position. Starting Sept. 16, Spicer will be a cast member on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” squaring off against such celebrity competition as Christie Brinkley, former NBA star Lamar Odom and ex-Baltimore Raven Ray Lewis. The show’s host, Tom Bergeron, said he was unhappy about the decision to include Spicer, saying the program should be a “joyful respite” from the “exhausting political climate.” For his part, Spicer says his strategy will simply be to "work really, really, really hard every day." Bergeron also found a silver lining to the situation. "The nice thing is Sean will be in charge of assessing audience size," he joked during the announcement of the show’s cast on "Good Morning America."
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| The logo for Facebook's News Tab |
Facebook plans to use humans, as opposed to algorithms, to select some stories in News Tab, the effort it is launching in an attempt to get itself back into the publishing game. “For the Top News section of the tab we’re pulling together a small team of journalists to ensure we’re highlighting the right stories,” said Facebook head of news partnerships Campbell Brown. According to the New York Times, Facebook says that the use of human news curators will be limited to the Top News section, while the stories across the rest of NewsTab will still be chosen by algorithm. News Tab, which is to begin testing later this year, will be separate from the platform’s main feed.
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.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
