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SPORTS
&
MEDIA

WBD C.E.O. David Zaslav, at the end of the 9 a.m. call, described CNN as an “unmoored boat.” But, he said, “this is our company, our boat. We all have an oar.”

The Zaz in CNN

A scholarly perusal of the WBD C.E.O.’s arrival at CNN HQ. Plus, news and notes on Zucker’s media rollup and Mad Dog Beckman.
Dylan Byers • March 15, 2023
Eriq Gardner • March 13, 2023
Inside the Murdoch-Dominion Settlement Chatter
The wallet buster for Fox and the Murdochs in Dominion v. Fox News will whittle down to two calculations: putative damages, and alleged “diminution of enterprise value.”
Right now, either Dominion or Fox is misjudging the financial situation. So which side is it?
Dylan Byers • March 11, 2023
Dafna Punk
Dafna Linzer stepped down as Politico’s executive editor.
The fast and mysterious departure of Politico’s executive editor may have been neither fast nor mysterious.
Dylan Byers • March 8, 2023
Tucker’s Troubles & Licht’s Cri de Coeur
Inside Fox News, the network is starting to manifest the same tensions and schisms as the party it covers. Plus, news and notes on Licht’s pivot and Semafor’s controversial partnership.
In his Dominion v. Fox News testimony, Rupert Murdoch said hosts like Lou Dobbs were “endorsing” Trump’s election lies.
Dylan Byers & Eriq Gardner • March 3, 2023
Murdoch Shrugged
A close reading of the Fox News-Dominion $1.6 billion lawsuit revelations: Is Fox signaling that it won’t settle? Is Murdoch playing for his legacy? Will Fox repatriate to Nevada? And did Dominion overplay its hand?
Glenn Beck’s The Blaze merged with CRTV in 2018, and late last year raised a round of financing from investors including the billionaire DeVos family.
Tina Nguyen • March 3, 2023
Glenn Beck & DeVos Make a Deal
The Blaze, one of the original conservative politics-meets-lifestyle brands of the digital media era, has raised a new round of financing from investors including the billionaire DeVos family.
Murdoch’s shockingly candid deposition hardly guarantees that Dominion Voting Systems will win their defamation lawsuit—but it certainly improves their position.
Dylan Byers • March 2, 2023
Will Rupert Make a “Blood Sacrifice”?
As documents reveal Fox News anchors and executives (and even the chairman, himself) pointing fingers and whispering about how crazy everyone else is, a familiar question percolates: Will Murdoch need a new Rebekah Brooks?
The late Viacom chairman and C.E.O. Sumner Redstone in 2008.
Eriq Gardner • February 27, 2023
A Redstone, A Porn Star, and a Cat-Kidnapper Walk into a Bar…
It’s springtime for defamation. From Hollywood A-listers to NFL legends, QAnon conspiracists to YouTubers and even chess grandmasters, everyone is seemingly in court these days over what someone else said.
Don Lemon seems to have been given every warning to self-edit before saying what’s on his mind, which, coincidentally, is the one thing that actually delivers ratings.
Dylan Byers • February 24, 2023
Lemon’s Lightning
More news and notes on the Lemon saga, the Barkley-Gayle question, and ‘CNN This Morning.’
Don Lemon, a gifted broadcaster, is hardly a stranger to moments of eyebrow-raising, journalist-becomes-the-story misadventures.
Dylan Byers • February 23, 2023
Licht’s Lemonade
The Don Lemon “women-in-their-prime” fiasco has become the quintessential scandal of New CNN—a microcosm of Zaz’s prerogatives, the network’s ratings struggles, Licht’s operational inexperience, and the realities of the Dantean journey through the decline of cable news.
The buzziest news out of CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht’s morning meeting was his condemnation of Don Lemon’s foolish and controversial and ageist comments about women.
Dylan Byers • February 17, 2023
Fox Fallout & Lemon’s Lumps
News and notes on the two biggest stories in cable news: the messy fallout at Fox News from the discovery in the Dominion case, and Don Lemon’s lapse.
Jimmy Pitaro, the president-turned-recently-appointed chairman of ESPN
Dylan Byers • February 16, 2023
The ESPN Catch-22, WaPo Rumbles & CNN Plot Points
News and notes on the biggest stories coursing through the media: Iger’s ESPN tea leaves, WaPo transformation, and a CNN digital counterfactual.
CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht is now in negotiations to bring Charles Barkley to the network for a news-oriented primetime show, two sources with knowledge of the matter tell Dylan.
Dylan Byers • February 10, 2023
Licht’s Rebound Play
As he tries to woo Gayle King, Chris Licht sets his sights on bringing Charles Barkley to CNN.
Chris Licht’s inaugural year running CNN has involved a confection of headaches, both macroeconomic and small.
Dylan Byers • February 9, 2023
Licht’s Big Number
Chris Licht expects to grow CNN’s profitability this year by $150 million, up to $900 million. But how?
ABC News Chief Kim Godwin has her detractors at at the network, fairly or not.
Dylan Byers • February 4, 2023
The Unbreakable Kim Godwin
At last, the T.J. Holmes-Amy Robach fiasco has come to an end. And so have the industry murmurs about the future of ABC chief Kim Godwin. But a bigger curiosity is now coming into focus.
Gayle King, the star of CBS Mornings
Dylan Byers • January 31, 2023
Will Gayle King Bite on CNN?
Chris Licht is out to his pal and old colleague about hosting a prime time interview show that would still allow her to host ‘CBS Mornings.’ It could be just the sort of narrative-changing move he needs. Will she take it?
A recent New Yorker profile has inadvertenly unearthed tensions between WaPo publisher Fred Ryan and Politico’s former owner Robert Allbritton.
Dylan Byers • January 27, 2023
The Way We Were: Ryan & Allbritton
The personal and nearly litigious backstory behind one of the most complicated political relationships in Washington media—the bond between Fred Ryan and Robert Allbritton.
Tech And Media Elites Attend Allen And Company Annual Meetings In Idaho
Dylan Byers • January 26, 2023
Murdoch’s $3 Billion Deal, WaPo Woes & CNN A.M. Darkness
News and notes from around the media industry.