 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.”
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.
