'Close to over'?

Calls for US action on detained journalist

Will the US take action to free Ahmed Shihab-Eldin? As we reported here yesterday, the Kuwaiti-American journalist has apparently been behind bars in Kuwait for six weeks. We have not heard back from the Kuwaiti government about his status. 

“Our ally” is “holding him in prison for social media posts,” former National Press Club boss Bill McCarren wrote on X. He said the US government should “make the call” and ensure Shihab-Eldin’s release.

 >> As Clarissa Ward said on “The Lead” yesterday, Shihab-Eldin’s lengthy detention reflects the “draconian security restrictions that we have seen here in the Gulf since this war began…”

New Hungarian leader likens state media to North Korea

“Sparks flew on Hungarian public TV this morning,” Maria Tadeo of Euronews wrote on X.

As her colleague Sandor Zsiros reported here, Viktor Orbán’s successor Péter Magyar appeared on the country’s Orbán-aligned public radio and TV arms for his first interviews in 18 months. (The outlets claim he was invited to appear during the campaign, though that’s complicated.) Both segments “ended in acrimony, with sharp exchanges, interruptions and mutual accusations,” Zsiros reported.

“What has been happening here since 2010 is something that Goebbels or the North Korean leadership would admire — not a single true word being spoken. This cannot continue,” Magyar said.

He said his government would pass a new law governing public media and suspend the current news operations “until its public service character is restored.”

“We will create independent, objective and impartial conditions to end this propaganda,” he said.

Press freedom groups will be watching closely to see if he does that, or if he simply rips off Orbán’s media-capture playbook…

’BBC to cut one in 10 jobs in radical downsizing’

That’s the word from the FT’s Daniel Thomas, who has a preview of the town hall meeting that the BBC is about to hold for staffers. Thomas reports that “as many as 2,000 jobs are set to be cut by the BBC across its departments as part of a radical downsizing of the UK’s national broadcaster ahead of the arrival of new director-general Matt Brittin.”

Snap makes cuts, citing AI

“The owner of social media platform Snapchat said Wednesday it’s eliminating about 16% of its global workforce, or about 1,000 jobs that will be culled in its latest round of layoffs,” The AP reports.

 >> Quoting from CEO Evan Spiegel’s memo: “While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers.”

 >> Disney announced significant cuts yesterday, including in its sprawling marketing organization. About “1,000 jobs are expected to be eliminated,” per THR’s Alex Weprin.

Dems hold hearing about Paramount-WBD deal

Democrats are holding another “shadow hearing” today to scrutinize the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal. This time, Sen. Cory Booker is taking the lead and hearing from witnesses like Writers Guild of America East rep Michael Isaac and former MSNBC anchor Katie Phang. The hearing is slated to take place this afternoon.

“Booker also has invited Paramount CEO David Ellison to testify, following up on previous letters asking him to appear,” Deadline’s Ted Johnson reports. “But Paramount informed Booker that Ellison could not attend, as he is attending a funeral due to a death in the family.”

Meanwhile, more entertainment pros continue to sign on to that Hollywood open letter opposing the deal. The number of signees doubled yesterday, from 1,000+ to 2,000+, according to the advocacy groups that organized it. I said on CNN that potential action by state attorneys general is one of the biggest X factors now…

Can Brendan Carr elaborate on this?

“I’m pleased with some of the changes we’re seeing at CBS,” FCC chair Brendan Carr said on CNBC yesterday. “I mean, nothing’s going to be exactly the way I personally would want it, and that’s fine, but I do think they’re trying something different… at least around the edges.”

What exactly is Carr “pleased” by? I tagged him on X yesterday, saying it would be good if he’d elaborate on that. He hasn’t replied yet.

 >> Speaking of Carr: Dell Cameron’s latest for WIRED is titled, “The FCC has a fast lane for complaints about Trump’s media critics.”

 >> Picking up steam on the right: “Jimmy Kimmel may face federal investigation as Carr vows to probe broadcast TV stars who don’t disclose political fundraising,” as the New York Sun reports here…

New HQ for The Free Press 

The startup co-founded by Bari Weiss and acquired by David Ellison last fall has moved into new digs: Paramount’s NYC office tower in Times Square. Olivia Reingold posted a video showing a group of staffers posing outside the HQ yesterday. “Read it and weep, legacy media,” she exclaimed, though many in that building are proud of Paramount’s “legacy” status.

 >> It’s notable that The Free Press did not move into the CBS News HQ on the far west side – which probably reflects the outdated nature of that building…

Dianna Russini exits, but the probe continues

The Athletic says its probe into star NFL reporter Dianna Russini’s work is ongoing, even though Russini resigned yesterday, which seemed like an inevitable outcome after those photos surfaced.

The photos – showing her holding hands, embracing and spending time in a pool with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel — led to what Russini called “self-feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts.” But her resignation letter did not state any facts about her relationship with Vrabel. 

The Athletic editor Steven Ginsberg, who was criticized for initially defending his reporter, told staffers yesterday that “it was our instinct to support and defend a colleague while we continued to review the matter.” Then “additional information emerged” and “new questions were raised,” he said, without getting into specifics, and she chose to resign. Liam Reilly and I have more here… 

 >> Writing for USA Today, Nancy Armour argues that “Russini has given new fire to the infuriating trope that women in sports are only here to hook up with athletes.”

 >> And NBC’s Mike Florio points out that Russini is out of a job while “Vrabel emerges unscathed, for now.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rescued!

The Baltimore Banner’s nonprofit publisher is showing its ambitions for expansion, buying the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just weeks before the paper was slated to shutter, as CNN’s Liam Reilly reports here.

Yesterday, the Venetoulis Institute announced a deal with Block Communications that keeps the Post-Gazette’s newsroom in Pittsburgh and continues the paper’s biweekly print editions. This marks Venetoulis’s third expansion of its turf this year, following its February moves into Prince George’s County and into DC sports coverage…

Vance highlights assault of TPUSA commentator

Authorities in Minnesota say four people were arrested at a disturbance over the weekend where Turning Point USA contributor and conservative commentator Savanah Hernandez was swarmed and shoved to the ground by anti-ICE protesters.

The Minnesota Star Tribune covered the incident here, and the video has been in heavy rotation on Fox News, where hosts have been portraying it as a prime example of leftist violence. VP JD Vance brought up the case on stage at a Turning Point event last night and said the FBI is fully involved, using it as an example of “what we should be doing.” Hernandez posted the video of Vance on her social media feeds.

 >> Mediaite says founding editor Colby Hall has been suspended “pending further investigation” after Status and Semafor highlighted multiple examples of Hall’s newsletter misattributing quotes and imagining storylines that didn’t exist.

 >> NiemanLab’s Laura Hazard Owen says “a lot of the discussion of news publishers’ traffic in recent months has focused on a decline in search traffic. But social traffic is down, too, and she has the charts to prove it.

 >> Happy to see my home state doing this: Maryland legislators have unanimously passed a law “requiring that half of the state’s advertising dollars be directed to community news outlets, establishing the nation’s first statewide government advertising set-aside,” according to Rebuild Local News.

ProPublica bans journos from betting on news

Marshall Cohen writes: ProPublica announced a new policy yesterday banning employees from using prediction sites to bet “on the outcome of news events… regardless of whether or not they are involved in coverage of said event.”

As journalists, we often know things before they become public. It’s now easier than ever for anyone to cash in on knowledge like that. As I’ve noted in stories about Kalshi and Polymarket, CNN editorial employees are prohibited from participating in prediction markets. (CNN has a partnership with Kalshi and uses its data to cover major events.)

Still, ProPublica’s rules say “betting on sporting events” is allowed, presumably because the outlet doesn’t cover individual games and matches. And remember: Most of the trading volume on prediction sites pertains to sports — and not news, politics or policy.

More of today’s tech talk

 >> Grok “continues to generate sexualized images of people without their consent,” despite a pledge months ago “to halt abusive deepfakes after a public backlash and government investigations,” David Ingram reports. (NBC)

 >> One more from Ingram: Earlier this year, “Apple threatened to remove Grok from the App Store over sexualized deepfakes.” (NBC)

 >> Meta has “changed its speech rules to add new restrictions around posts including the word ‘Antifa,’” Sam Biddle reports. (The Intercept)

 >> YouTube announced this week “that it will now hold back ads during livestreams if chat engagement is at its peak, and if users show support with Super Chat, Super Stickers, or gift purchases,” Aisha Malik reports. (TechCrunch)

Dave Chappelle explains Riyadh gig

In a brand-new interview on NPR’s “Newsmakers” podcast, Dave Chappelle offered his most direct answer yet about his controversial appearance at last year’s Riyadh Comedy Festival.

”US intelligence did make it clear that they believe the Saudis killed Jamal Khashoggi… You knew that when you went, right?” host Michel Martin asked. “You had no qualms?”

Chappelle’s blunt rationale: “They asked me to go years before that, and I said no. For that very reason. Since that time, the United States government does business with the Saudis. Netflix does business with the Saudis… The Saudis finance tons of movies. I see them financing boxing matches and all these things, and none of these things were issues until I went there. And why is that? As soon as a Black man can make money off the plantation, they try to tell you that the money is dirty.” 

“In a rare public critique by a major client,” NBCUniversal ad boss Mark Marshall called out Nielsen “after the media measurement company put off an update that would have led to higher reported viewership numbers for broadcast and cable television, at least in the short term,” Patrick Coffee reports for the WSJ. Coffee has been on top of this fight for months…

>> The delayed “Gauge” report for February showed that “thanks to the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal — with an assist from the recently spun off Versant — dethroned YouTube for the largest share of TV viewing” in that month, THR’s Rick Porter writes.

Netflix’s plan for ‘Pop Culture Jeopardy!’ 

“Pop Culture Jeopardy!” is “moving from Prime Video to Netflix” and changing its release format, Vulture’s Joe Adalian scoops. “When the Colin Jost–hosted series returns for its second season next month… new episodes will roll out in a very un-Netflix way: daily.”

They’ll pop “every weekday for a full month, starting on Monday, May 11, and ending with the season-two finale on Friday, June 5,” i.e., just like the series. Per a Netflix source, this is believed to be the first time the streamer has used a daily, Monday-through-Friday cadence to release an original US entertainment series.”