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The U.S. Department of Justice is planning to file suit to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, according to a report from Reuters. The legal challenge follows AT&T’s rejection of a DoJ demand made earlier this month requiring AT&T to shed its DirecTV unit or Time Warner to sell off Turner Broadcasting in order to win antitrust approval. AT&T’s chief executive said then that he would defend the deal in court to win approval if necessary. Turner Broadcasting is the parent company of CNN, a major Trump nemesis. In addition to the President, several consumer groups and smaller television networks object to the merger on the grounds that it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers. Neither AT&T nor Time Warner had any immediate comment on news of the impending lawsuit.
 Glenn Thrush |
The New York Times says it has put White House reporter Glenn Thrush on suspension while it looks into charges that he made unwanted advances on young women while working for Politico as a reporter. The suspension comes in the wake of a piece posted today on the website Vox by Laura McGann, who worked with Thrush at Politico. McGann claims that Thrush placed his hand on her thigh at a bar, after asking a person who had been sitting with them to leave. In a statement, the Times called the alleged behavior “very disturbing” and “not in keeping with the Times’ standards.” Thrush has decided to enter a substance abuse program, a decision which the Times says it supports.
 Sarah Ellison |
The Washington Post is bringing on Sarah Ellison as a media reporter, effective January 22. Ellison comes to the Post from Vanity Fair, where she had been a special correspondent and contributing editor since 2011…. The Wall Street Journal has named Adam Horvath senior editor, overseeing news and weekend coverage for the paper’s “Review” section. Horvath has been at the Journal since 2003, most recently serving as world editor…. Quartz has hired David Kaufman as global lifestyle editor. He will help to supervise Quartzy, the publication’s new lifestyle and culture edition. The site will be edited by Indrani Sen (who currently edits Quartzy the newsletter). Before coming to Quartz, Kaufman was co-editor in chief of the New York Post’s “Alexa” vertical.
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The New Yorker has joined the list of publications who have placed the sexual harassment scandals front and center. The cover of the Nov. 27 issue of the magazine, which hit newsstands today, is cartoonist Barry Blitt’s “Nowhere to Hide,” (shown at right) which addresses the string of revelations of sexual abuse committed by powerful men. “He could be any one of the parade of names that gets longer every day—from Harvey Weinstein to Roy Moore, Al Franken, Louis C.K., Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, and even the current occupant of the White House,” Blitt says of the anonymous figure in the image. “He could be anybody, actually.”
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.
