 |
| Elizabeth Warren |
Senator Elizabeth Warren wants the Securities and Exchange Commission to probe Donald Trump's SPAC deal.
The Massachusetts Democrat says SPAC sponsor Digital World Acquisition Corp. may have violated securities laws because it discussed the merger with Trump before the SPAC went public, according to media reports.
DWAC's failure to disclose the talks "appears to be an omission of material information necessary for both early institutional investors and retail investors in the SPAC's public offering," wrote Warren in her Nov. 17 letter to SEC chairman Gary Gensler.
Warren also believes the lack of a core business model for Trump Media and Technology Group raises questions about the extent to which DWAC is profiteering off the SPAC model and inherent disclosure failures.
She noted that the overview of Trump Media and Technology Group fails to list any officers, employees or operations, "instead relying on the brand of former president Trump and aspirational statement about the company's ability to compete with existing social media giants, traditional news media, and streaming services including Netflix and Disney Plus."
Warren wrote that she frequently holds public officials to task for lawbreaking and ethics violations: "This includes the former president, who is not above the law."
She hopes the probe of the Trump deal would lead to a broader SEC investigation "of wrongdoing and fraud in the SPAC space."
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
