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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.”
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.
