Howard Fineman, who spent three decades at Newsweek and later became HuffPost's political editor and global editorial director, dies at 75 of pancreatic cancer (Nick Visser/HuffPost)

Mediagazer: Howard Fineman, who spent three decades at Newsweek and later became HuffPost's political editor and global editorial director, dies at 75 of pancreatic cancer (Nick Visser/HuffPost)

Top News:

New York Times:

Sources: Shari Redstone was irked that Skydance's revised Paramount terms reduced National Amusements' value from $2B to $1.7B, affecting her family's holdings— There were several hitches in the last week as Skydance, Paramount and its parent company, National Amusements, reached the final stages of negotiations.
Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN, @richlightshed, @benmullin, @lucas_shaw, Bloomberg, Deadline, Next TV, Fast Company, The Guardian, Media Play News, The Wrap and The Hill

Discussion:

Jessica Toonkel /
Wall Street Journal: Redstone's National Amusements Ends Deal Talks With Skydance

Georg Szalai /
The Hollywood Reporter: After Shari Redstone Ends Talks With Skydance, Wall Street Debates What's Next For Paramount

Oliver Darcy /
CNN: Why Shari Redstone called off talks with David Ellison's Skydance on Paramount deal

Ben Mullin /
@benmullin: How the Paramount deal died: Shari's lawyers emailed the special committee just as they were planning to vote — she was miffed that Skydance had lowered the value of National Amusements from $2 billion to $1.7 billion. W/@LaurenSHirsch $PARA https://www.nytimes.com/... [image]

Lucas Shaw /
@lucas_shaw: The last 6 months in Paramount: Shari Redstone picked David Ellison/Skydance as her preferred buyer, largely ignored entreaties from other interested parties, and then decided she didn't want to sell to Ellison.

Callum Jones /
The Guardian: Paramount tycoon Shari Redstone pulls the plug on proposed Skydance merger

Erik Gruenwedel /
Media Play News: National Amusement's Shari Redstone Ends Acquisition Talks With Skydance Media

RELATED:

Wall Street Journal:
National Amusements ends talks with Skydance; sources: Shari Redstone will likely seek a sale of just National Amusements, without including Paramount directly

Discussion:

Jessica Toonkel /
@jtoonkel: Sources tell me that Redstone rejected the Skydance merger before Paramount's independent committee of directors could vote Tuesday afternoon $PARA https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ

Anthony Carmen /
@nthonycarmen: Big day for The Town listeners @empirecitybo: My guess is that Shari Redstone will just take @ParamountPics completely off the market. She never wanted to sell in the first place.

Meg James /
@megjameslat: Paramount Global sale collapses after Shari Redstone pulls support for David Ellison's Skydance deal. Eleventh hour drama adds to the challenges facing media company. https://www.latimes.com/...

Julia Alexander /
@loudmouthjulia: This book is going to be so damn good. @richlightshed: @MattBelloni Hard position for a $PARA board member — if you vote for Skydance, even if you truly believe it creates superior long-term value, the near-term dilution ensures you will be spending a lot of time in Delaware Court [image]

Tim Baysinger /
@tim_bays: Absolutely bonkers

Joe Flint /
@jbflint: Add another chapter! National Amusements ends slow dance with SkyDance from @jtoonkel

Matthew Belloni /
@mattbelloni:

Anthony D'Alessandro /
Deadline: David Ellison Thanks Skydance Team As Paramount Merger Talks End; Sets Sights On “Building A Next Generation Content Company On Our Terms”

Todd Spangler /
Variety: Shari Redstone's National Amusements Says It Has Ended Talks With Skydance About Paramount Merger

Anthony Pascale /
TrekMovie.com: Paramount/Skydance Deal Officially Dead; Yet Another Bidder Emerges

Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: No Deal: Shari Redstone Ends Talks On Skydance Offer for Paramount Global

Phil Santiago /
@philthepill.wtf: Can't wait for Paramount to eventually be owned by the company behind Cuisinart. [embedded post]

Lillian Rizzo /
CNBC: National Amusements stops discussions with Skydance on Paramount deal, sources say

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Paramount Special Committee Votes on Documentation of Skydance Deal

The Hollywood Reporter:
In an email to staff, Skydance CEO David Ellison acknowledges Paramount merger talks have ended, and says that Skydance is “stronger” because of the talks

Discussion:
Observer, The Streamable, Deadline, The Wrap, Broadband TV News, Financial Times, Advanced Television, Variety, The Desk, CBS News, Reuters, New York Post, The Information, IndieWire and The Verge

Discussion:

Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly /
Observer: Paramount Owner Shari Redstone Ends Merger Talks with David Ellison's Skydance

David Satin /
The Streamable: Paramount, Skydance Merger Talks Die; What Will Shari Redstone Do Now?

Jill Goldsmith /
Deadline: Shari Redstone, Paramount End Merger Talks With Skydance As Two Sides Unable “To Reach Mutually Acceptable Terms”

Mike Roe /
The Wrap: Skydance CEO David Ellison Says Company Is ‘Stronger’ After Scuttled Paramount Deal

Julian Clover /
Broadband TV News: Paramount-Skydance talks at an end

Todd Spangler /
Variety: After Paramount Merger Talks Collapse, Skydance CEO David Ellison Tells Staff: ‘We Are Stronger Because of This Process’

Matthew Keys /
The Desk: Skydance Media merger with Paramount appears dead

Dawn Chmielewski /
Reuters: Shari Redstone ends talks with Skydance for Paramount merger, source says

Alexandra Steigrad /
New York Post: Shari Redstone kills Skydance bid for Paramount Global

Sahil Patel /
The Information: Shari Redstone's National Amusements Ends Sale Talks with David Ellison's Skydance

Brian Welk /
IndieWire: Paramount-Skydance Isn't Happening — Shari Redstone just shut down what looked like a done deal.

Emma Roth /
The Verge: Paramount's rumored merger with Skydance is off

Rolling Stone:

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suggests partisan funding of ProPublica is to blame for its coverage of the court, in a secret recording at a recent dinner— In a new, secret recording, the Supreme Court justice suggests partisan funding is to blame for coverage of justices' undisclosed luxury gifts

Discussion:
Poynter, Slate, New Republic, @killick@dmv.community, CNN, The Daily Beast, @7im, @rollingstone, @eisingerj, @rollingstone, @markjacob16, @normornstein, @rollingstone, @eisingerj, @lawindsor, @justinelliott, @digiphile@threads.net, Missouri Independent, @anatosaurus, @allysammarco@threads.net, @adamparkhomenko@threads.net, @ernie.tedium.co, @jstatepost@mstdn.social, @slackermom.bsky.social, @macloo.bsky.social, @JasonPerseus@mas.to, Boing Boing, Fox News, NewsNation and New York Times

Discussion:

Shirin Ali /
Slate: Mrs. Alito Explains on Secret Recording Why Her Husband's Job Is Really Cramping Her Style

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling /
New Republic: Lindsey Graham Vows to Keep Supreme Court Corrupt

Killick /
@killick@dmv.community: @Mediagazer — Sure, it's the MEDIA's fault for noticing he was in insurrectionist.

Ellen Rittiner /
CNN: Filmmaker reveals why she secretly recorded Supreme Court Justice Alito and his wife

Steven Lubet /
The Daily Beast: Was Clarence Thomas Fooling Us Then or Now?

Tim Dickinson /
@7im: New audio: Alito lashes out at @propublica for its **checks notes... Pulitzer-prize winning ** coverage of Supreme Court corruption https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... @rollingstone: In a new recording, Justice Samuel Alito lashes out at the news organization ProPublica, describing their news coverage of the Supreme Court as driven by political animus, insisting: “They don't like our decisions.” EXCLUSIVE: https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... [image]

Jesse Eisinger /
@eisingerj: Read for yourself and see if ideological billionaires lavishing secret gifts to Supreme Court justices (for decades in Clarence Thomas' case) are just “any little thing”: https://www.propublica.org/...

@rollingstone:
Alito continued, “ProPublica gets a lot of money, and they have spent a fortune investigating Clarence Thomas, for example. You know, everything he's ever done in his entire life.” 🔗 https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... [image]

Mark Jacob /
@markjacob16: Clarence Thomas takes $4 million in gifts (much of it secretly) and his right-wing pal Alito rips ProPublica for investigating “any little thing they can find.” These people are shameless.

Norman Ornstein /
@normornstein: Corrupt to the core. Partisan hack. Unfit to wear any judicial robe.

@rollingstone:
But Alito didn't stop there. He volunteered: “There are groups that are very well-funded by ideological groups that have spearheaded these attacks.” Asked to elaborate, Alito got specific. “ProPublica,” he said. More: https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... https://x.com/...

Jesse Eisinger /
@eisingerj: So everyone understands: -Donors get no say in which stories we do -Donors have no idea what stories we are working on -We hold any powerful actor accountable-left, right, Dem, GOP, or jus' plain greedy -We are rigorously fair. Nothing we reported was challenged for accuracy.

Lauren Windsor /
@lawindsor: EXCLUSIVE UNDERCOVER AUDIO feat. the debut of my colleague @Ally_Sammarco: Alito v @ProPublica Justice Alito rants on ProPublica and minimizes Justice Thomas' extraordinary ethics breaches as “any little thing they can find” [video]

Justin Elliott /
@justinelliott: Our story on Justice Alito taking a luxury fishing vacation paid for in part by a hedge fund billionaire who later had cases at the court: https://www.propublica.org/...

Alex Howard /
@digiphile@threads.net: Since its founding, @propublica & its staff have been driven to hold powerful people & institutions accountable, driving impact through journalism. The Court adopted its first ethics code because of their reporting: https://www.propublica.org/... Alito's smear reflects his own political animus after journalists documented corruption on the court, not theirs.

Ashley Murray /
Missouri Independent: Pair of U.S. House Dems add to chorus calling for Alito, Thomas recusals

Anat Shenker-Osorio /
@anatosaurus: Who needs a Pulitzer when you can have this praise? Congrats @propublica. Can't imagine higher esteem than angering a man who is taking our freedoms and ruling for billionaires.

Ally Sammarco /
@allysammarco@threads.net: New Audio: Alito Bashes ProPublica for Reporting on Supreme Court Ethics https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...

Adam Parkhomenko /
@adamparkhomenko@threads.net: ANOTHER Alito audio has dropped. This time featuring my better half @allysammarco: Justice Alito rants on ProPublica and minimizes Justice Thomas' extraordinary ethics breaches as “any little thing they can find”

Ernie Smith /
@ernie.tedium.co: Personally I trust ProPublica over ProSecretDinnerRantica [embedded post] @jstatepost@mstdn.social: @Mediagazer — 🥥 Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is one bent mother redacted. 🥥 @slackermom.bsky.social: I don't give a shit what this corrupt MAGA asshole thinks about media coverage. He needs to be impeached along with Thomas for corruption. [embedded post]

Mindy McAdams /
@macloo.bsky.social: The bent Justice thinks everyone else is bent too. [embedded post]

Jason Perseus /
@JasonPerseus@mas.to: Upset he got caught, not because the underlying conduct makes him a corrupt piece of shit. — 🤷 ♂️ — Surprise! — https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... #uspol #politics #uspolitics #scotus #supremeCourt Boing Boing: Alito is even more radical than you think — Justice Alito isn't even pretending anymore. Fox News: ‘The View’ co-hosts say they're uncomfortable with Alito recordings, but concede someone has to ‘expose them’

HuffPost:

Howard Fineman, who spent three decades at Newsweek and later became HuffPost's political editor and global editorial director, dies at 75 of pancreatic cancer— Fineman, who provided a critical look behind the curtain of Capitol Hill as a regular analyst on cable television, died of pancreatic cancer.

Discussion:

Jake Lahut /
@jakelahut: I met Howard at the last campaign event I covered before the pandemic. After I introduced myself, he chatted me up and I was so struck by how interested he was in my background and life story as just some random kid from a local paper. He gave great advice, too.

Tyler Kingkade /
@tylerkingkade: RIP to a legend. Howard was very kind and welcoming to me when I was a baby intern at HuffPost. He was already a veteran but made time to sit and listen to my ideas, and actually engaged with me on them rather than dismissing me as a novice. @hollywoodpete69: @samstein @brianstelter Oh my god, I had no idea he was sick. He was such a good hearted person and incredible voice of reason, in addition to being a great journalist. I'm heartbroken, my thoughts go out to his family.

Michael Calderone /
@mlcalderone: A really nice remembrance of Howard, who I found to be generous with his time when I was starting out on the media beat — and a great colleague at HuffPost.

Greg Pinelo /
@gregpinelo: A hundred years ago, I went to watch the 4th of July fireworks with a friend who worked at Newsweek (great view from their offices in DC). My friend introduced me to Howard, and being very young and dumb, I said “Kurtz?” Howard smiled and said, “close enough.” RIP.

Sam Stein /
@samstein: Remembering my good friend and mentor, Howard Fineman, who passed away last night after a valiant fight with pancreatic cancer. He was a lovely man, a force of nature and a mensch, in the truest sense. https://www.huffpost.com/...

Joe Sonka /
@joesonkaky@threads.net: Longtime political journalist Howard Fineman has died. He got his start at the Louisville Courier Journal back in the 1970's, covering the environment, coal industry, state politics and then national politics, until he moved to Newsweek in 1980. @realgottalaff@threads.net: RIP Howard Fineman, a Newsweek political correspondent and television commentator for decades who brought behind-the-scenes insight to news cycles often dominated by horse-race campaign coverage, died June 11 at his home in Washington. He was 75...from pancreatic cancer... https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

New York Times:

How The New York Post, TMZ, and 100+ other sites around the world distorted a NYT story to claim that a remote Amazon tribe got addicted to porn due to Starlink— A Times story about the arrival of high-speed internet in a remote Amazon tribe spiraled into its own cautionary tale on the dark side of the web.

Discussion:
@jacknicas, @jones3d, @seangraf and @oftenwrongsorry

Discussion:

Jack Nicas /
@jacknicas: No, a remote Amazon tribe did not get addicted to porn. Those headlines and memes you've seen over the past week are not true. If you've shared those, then please share this. https://www.nytimes.com/...

Sean Graf /
@seangraf: No, a Remote Amazon Tribe Did Not Get Addicted to Porn https://www.nytimes.com/... The Marubo people are not addicted to pornography. There was no hint of this in the forest, and there was no suggestion of it in The New York Times's article.

AdExchanger:

Roku launches Roku Exchange to let programmatic ad buyers access the same data as direct buyers, get more metadata about channels, and more— Roku wants ad buyers to know it's no walled garden. — On Wednesday, Roku announced what it's calling the Roku Exchange.

Discussion:
The Desk, StreamTV Insider, Paul Gubbins on LinkedIn, Joe Melendez on LinkedIn, Adweek and Advanced Television

Discussion:

Bevin Fletcher /
StreamTV Insider: Roku Exchange debuts for more direct programmatic access to streaming ad inventory

Paul Gubbins /
Paul Gubbins on LinkedIn: Wow, this is great to see from the Roku team who want to bring increased transparency to programmatic CTV ad buys. 👏 …

Joe Melendez /
Joe Melendez on LinkedIn: “...with the Roku Exchange, programmatic buyers can access the same data as direct buyers, he said, such as the length of ad breaks and when those breaks happen within a particular stream. …

Catherine Perloff /
Adweek: Roku Shifts Its Approach and Opens Up Data to the Programmatic Ecosystem

Nieman Lab:

The Institute for Nonprofit News survey of 346 member outlets for 2023: 71% of outlets are digital-first, about 33% reported declines in web traffic, and more— While the sector is still growing, that growth is slowing, by some metrics. And audience data for 2023 shows that across all outlets surveyed …

Discussion:
Institute for Nonprofit News, @risj_oxford and @localnewsini

Discussion:
Institute for Nonprofit News: About the Index — The INN Index is the most comprehensive dataset on nonprofit news in North America. @risj_oxford: “The full picture is neither feast nor famine,” say the authors of a report @INN based on a survey of its members on the state of their coverage, revenue, staffing, and audience in 2023 The nonprofit news sector is still growing, but this growth has slowed https://www.niemanlab.org/...

Washington Post:

The Baltimore Sun's union says the paper's new ownership has “tossed aside” ethical standards, reusing a below-standard Sinclair Broadcast Group story and more— “Ethical standards,” the Sun's union says, “have been tossed aside under new ownership.”

Discussion:
Popular Information, @washingtonpost, @strannik_reb45, @jamieson, @tvnuggetfinder, @healthcarerenew, Washington-Baltimore …, FTVLive and CNN

Discussion:

Judd Legum /
Popular Information: Sinclair injects deceptive attacks on Biden's age into dozens of local broadcasts @washingtonpost: The union representing the Baltimore Sun's journalists said articles that do not meet the Sun's standards have appeared on its website, including an op-ed by the Sun's co-owner likening the “transgender movement” to a “cancer.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @strannik_reb45: The fact that the new Baltimore Sun owner has been putting nakedly partisan articles in the paper isn't exactly unexpected - no one would ever accuse Sinclair of respecting news ethics - but @WBNG32035 was right to call it out. https://wbng.org/...

Dave Jamieson /
@jamieson: Baltimore Sun Guild says in a statement that under new owners The Sun has been publishing articles from Sinclair without notifying Sun staffers. ‘We are concerned that the nature of the relationship between Sinclair and The Sun has not been made clear to us or to our readers.’

Dave Jamieson /
@jamieson: Sinclair's David D. Smith bought The Sun earlier this year, bringing “more crime and conservatism” to the storied paper https://www.npr.org/... @tvnuggetfinder: Now that the evil Sinclair empire (@komonews in Seattle) owns the Baltimore Sun, it is forcing the paper to publish content from its Channel 45 there. The Guild is not happy! Nor should they be. Their demands: https://www.facebook.com/... @healthcarerenew:

Scott Jones /
FTVLive: More Sinclair Evil — Earlier this year, Sinclair executive chairman David Smith bought …

Chris Isidore /
CNN: UAW President Shawn Fain under investigation by federal monitor

Pew Research Center:

A survey of 10,287 US adults on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X: most see news content, but a minority says they are on the platform for news, except for X— X remains more of a news destination than other sites, but the vast majority of users on all four are seeing news-related content

Discussion:
Press Gazette, The Verge, @kurtwagner8, Bloomberg and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Gaby Del Valle /
The Verge: A growing number of Americans are getting their news from TikTok

Kurt Wagner /
@kurtwagner8: A new Pew Research study confirmed what I think many people already knew: Elon Musk has made X significantly more welcoming and appealing to political conservatives since his takeover https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @aishacounts [image]

Aisha Counts /
Bloomberg: Elon Musk Has Made X More Right-Leaning, Study Shows

Politico:

A Dutch court convicts and sentences six men in connection with the murder of celebrity crime reporter Peter R. De Vries on an Amsterdam street in July 2021— A Dutch court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced six men in connection with the murder of a well-known crime reporter and television presenter.

Discussion:
Associated Press, Reporters Without Borders, Deutsche Welle, RTÉ, Agence France-Presse and CBS News

Discussion:
Reporters Without Borders: Netherlands: RSF and FPU welcome convictions for the killing of journalist Peter R. de Vries

Press Gazette:

The UK Central Arbitration Committee approves an NUJ request to become the recognized union for PA Media's journalists, after PA resisted recognizing the union— The Central Arbitration Committee has approved an NUJ application to become the recognised union for journalists at , PA Media.

Discussion:
@pressgazette, National Union of Journalists … and HoldtheFrontPage

Discussion:
@pressgazette: The Central Arbitration Committee has approved a unionisation bid by journalists at PA Media. PA argued the arbitrator should ballot staff before making a decision, but the CAC said it was unnecessary as most editorial employees are already NUJ members: https://pressgazette.co.uk/...

9to5Google:

YouTube plans to roll out its Thumbnail Test & Compare tool to all creators “in the coming weeks”, letting them test video thumbnails “evenly” across audiences— YouTube is preparing to roll out a new thumbnail testing feature to creators, which means you'll …

Discussion:
Google Help Center, TechCrunch and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Lauren Forristal /
TechCrunch: YouTube creators can now test multiple video thumbnails

Axios:

Sources: WaPo CEO Will Lewis is floating Local+, a new offering for readers who want to pay extra for premium local content, including paid newsletters— - In pre-Bezos times, the Post made the world of Washington front and center, dedicating A1 columns to city hall and zoning disputes in the suburbs.

Discussion:
@cuneytdil and @jayrosen_nyu

Discussion:
@cuneytdil: Scoop: New Brit regime atop Washington Post aims to boost local coverage. Will Lewis and new execs floating “Local+” concept, for readers who want to pay extra for premium local content. My column this week: https://www.axios.com/...

Jay Rosen /