Silicon Investor - Media Industries: Newspapers, TV, Radio, Movies, Online

[Ron] Bartiromo's lawyer claims she was not let go. However, the NYT has more on the s...

Ron — 9/5/2026 6:25:11 PM

Bartiromo's lawyer claims she was not let go. However, the NYT has more on the specifics:

nytimes.com

It revealed an important shift at Fox in the years since the 2020 election — one that could have real consequences for Mr. Trump as he seeks to again assert the American election system is rife with fraud before a midterm election that, polling shows, could be rough for his party.
Where in 2020 he could count on hosts like Ms. Bartiromo to air his wildest election claims on Fox’s top-rated programs without much pushback, he cannot do so now.

[S. maltophilia] ....But, once again, it should raise some serious questions about these cases, ...

S. maltophilia — 9/5/2026 3:32:11 PM

....But, once again, it should raise some serious questions about these cases, and the motivations of those bringing them. Even if you believe that the companies could do a better job, the whole reason why Section 230 is supposed to stop these cases cold at the beginning is to stop grifting lawyers and grifting plaintiffs from filing these sorts of lawsuits as a shakedown. This is why we've warned people that, even if you hate Meta, the results of the California case are bad news.

The point of Section 230, again, was supposed to be that it prevented "death by a thousand duck bites," but increasingly the courts are saying "eh, we can allow the ducks to bite away and sort it out later." And that's an open invitation for more suits like this one, where the lawyers get a contingency fee, the parents get a settlement, and the troubled kid gets deposed about their worst year.

Hell, in the RKC case, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube all paid off the family (and its lawyers) before the trial even started. So the plan appears to have worked, even if Meta escaped, thanks to the ChatGPT transcript that was revealed during discovery.

I understand that big tech companies are unsympathetic here, and Mark Zuckerberg has made a ton of terrible choices over the years. I honestly hope that the company collapses and users find other, more user-empowering places to connect with family....

techdirt.com

[S. maltophilia] It's a good week when we find out two toxic voices won't be speaking much anymor...

S. maltophilia — 9/5/2026 12:45:42 PM

It's a good week when we find out two toxic voices won't be speaking much anymore.

I remember Santelli's rant from the Merc floor. It't probably never occured to him that without the bailouts, the financial markets would have all been devastated and he would have had no audience and no job.

[Ron] Rick Santelli to exit CNBC in October thewrap.com he helped boost the Tea part...

Ron — 9/5/2026 12:33:18 PM

Rick Santelli to exit CNBC in October

thewrap.com

he helped boost the Tea party movement and he's been wrong about countless other things
ever since...

[S. maltophilia] timesmachine.nytimes.com (Sorry, subscribers only. I'm too clumsy to make a com...

S. maltophilia — 9/5/2026 12:14:49 PM

timesmachine.nytimes.com

(Sorry, subscribers only. I'm too clumsy to make a composite screenshot)

From

nytimes.com

It must've been super annoying to have to research the marital status of every woman mentioned in a news story back then.

[Ron] The cost of streaming, with or without ads, has jumped in the last year. advisor...

Ron — 9/4/2026 5:18:38 PM

The cost of streaming, with or without ads, has jumped in the last year.
advisorator.com

[Ron] Netflix trading lower as subscription rates go higher for UK and some European s...

Ron — 9/4/2026 2:00:30 PM

Netflix trading lower as subscription rates go higher for UK and some European subscribers
deadline.com

[Ron] US House to vote on bill requiring AM Radio in new vehicles thedesk.net note- ...

Ron — 9/4/2026 1:40:20 PM

US House to vote on bill requiring AM Radio in new vehicles
thedesk.net

note- the vast majority of AM stations now are in right wing talk radio networks.

[S. maltophilia] Payday aside, it fails to do the one thing needed: remove the doom-scroll addict...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 7:57:04 PM

Payday aside, it fails to do the one thing needed: remove the doom-scroll addiction algorithm

Comment from techdirt.com

Not to mention other platforms where immature people congregate.

[Ron] She's 58, and with the loot she's taken from Fox, could easily retire. These peo...

Ron — 9/3/2026 6:44:47 PM

She's 58, and with the loot she's taken from Fox, could easily retire. These people don't want to do that.
We'll see where she lands. Maybe it will be the Trump regime. They might be the only ones who'd take her.

[S. maltophilia] Not only betrayed her employer, but her employer betrayed the regime, which in t...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 6:32:29 PM

Not only betrayed her employer, but her employer betrayed the regime, which in turn will betray fox. The emperor will not be deprived of the attention to which he's entitled. She can either go to work for the regime or retire.

[Ron] [bluesky] Usually reporters get leaks FROM the White House -- but at Fox News, ...

Ron — 9/3/2026 6:18:15 PM

[bluesky]

Usually reporters get leaks FROM the White House -- but at Fox News, a reporter appears to have leaked TO the White House. That's according to @oliverdarcy.bsky.social's explanation of the sudden Maria Bartiromo erasure by the Murdochs
— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) 2026-09-03T21:44:42.744Z

[/bluesky]

[Ron] The press shouldn’t be Trump Media’s unpaid sales force editorandpublisher.com

Ron — 9/3/2026 4:21:10 PM

[S. maltophilia] Yeah, I was a fan, starting shortly after she did, when she'd report from the NY...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 4:12:48 PM

Yeah, I was a fan, starting shortly after she did, when she'd report from the NYSE floor while dodging the "sea of suits" that worked there. But I got tired of her constantly harping on MU, as well as other CNBC irritations.

ice.com

[starts @~ 5:00] Interesting stories about dealing with those suits.

[Ron] I used to watch her some when she was on CNBC. She's aged and not in a good way....

Ron — 9/3/2026 3:54:22 PM

I used to watch her some when she was on CNBC. She's aged and not in a good way. I doubt she's hot enough for a Trump spokes-position.

[S. maltophilia] Guardian's take: ....But Bartiromo has been off the air since early August, wit...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 2:35:30 PM

Guardian's take:

....But Bartiromo has been off the air since early August, with no reason given for her departure, an absence that had skirted the attention of the press....[can't say I've noticed, either]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/sep/03/maria-bartiromo-fox-news-departure

But somebody has to take over for leftit. She's marginally more photogenic than Cheung.

[Ron] Bartiromo Out at Fox Business variety.com

Ron — 9/3/2026 1:45:31 PM

[Ron] [bluesky] It’s think for yourself thursday— jacob galapagos (@jacobgalapagos.bs...

Ron — 9/3/2026 12:54:22 PM

[bluesky]

It’s think for yourself thursday
— jacob galapagos (@jacobgalapagos.bsky.social) 2026-09-03T15:24:26.506Z

[/bluesky]

[S. maltophilia] Many teens don't see the zuckerverse as their primary walled garden, but these m...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 12:44:34 PM

Many teens don't see the zuckerverse as their primary walled garden, but these measures will presumably spread to other parts of social media. For now, the people making the laws are still stuck on zuck.The teens are thinking up ways of getting around whatever the adults dream up.

[Ron] I know several teens, none of them use Facebook, a couple occasionally post on I...

Ron — 9/3/2026 12:38:52 PM

I know several teens, none of them use Facebook, a couple occasionally post on Instagram, cryptic
stuff that adults don't understand. Most have other means of connection, mostly group texting, seems like.

[S. maltophilia] pulling in data like who they’re connected to, who they follow and who their fo...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 11:42:09 AM

pulling in data like who they’re connected to, who they follow and who their followers are

By the time they're grown, teens will be conditioned to expect and accept that meta and other platforms will know them better than they know themselves, and be acceptable citizens of the metaverse, as well as any future regime wanting access to the data. And they won't even have to learn Mandarin.

[Ron] How Meta will pull off massive changes to its social media apps cnbc.com

Ron — 9/3/2026 9:48:30 AM

[S. maltophilia] How one newsletter writer is building a subscription business when “paywalls don...

S. maltophilia — 9/3/2026 1:10:17 AM

How one newsletter writer is building a subscription business when “paywalls don’t really work”

niemanlab.org

[Ron] More Layoffs Hit USA Today - an employee posting: Today, USA TODAY did mas...

Ron — 9/2/2026 8:54:15 PM

More Layoffs Hit USA Today - an employee posting:

Today, USA TODAY did mass layoffs. I was on the creative team, and all but three people were cut. They are all in on AI. In fact, they’ve openly talked about how one day they want to just “push a button” to make ads. ??

What blows my mind is how this company bears our country as a part of its name and yet is trying to completely automate and offshore it. I don’t even know how vast the layoffs have gone, but I know in our dept. it was around 40 people — and I’m learning of more in other depts.

Some people spent a decade here. Many of us are used to surviving around two layoffs a year. No one gets raises anymore. In fact, the vast majority hired within the last 3 years have never received a raise. People were told “they don’t do that here.”

The obsession with AI has gone to another level. Nine rounds of feedback. 30+ comments on a doc. It’s no wonder we never got anything done.

And now, they’ve fired everyone because they feel so confident that they will get by on AI alone. Don’t get your news here.

We were all let go same day, no notice. No one had any idea. Just yesterday we were working to meet deadlines.

reddit.com

[Ron] [X] Elon Musk documentary, ‘Musk,’ contends that his four-month stint in Washin...

Ron — 9/2/2026 5:14:58 PM

[X]

Elon Musk documentary, ‘Musk,’ contends that his four-month stint in Washington last year did more than gleefully ax 270,000 federal employees and untold billions in life-saving aid.

Director Alex Gibney suggests that Musk also had access to and potentially collected intimate… pic.twitter.com/qGk6JovZ1x
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 2, 2026

[/X]

Documentary 'Musk'
hollywoodreporter.com

[Ron] Google defeats U.S. bid to force ad tech sale Alphabet’s Google escaped a break...

Ron — 9/2/2026 4:26:16 PM

Google defeats U.S. bid to force ad tech sale

Alphabet’s Google escaped a breakup of its advertising technology business on Wednesday, when a judge in Virginia rejected U.S. antitrust enforcers’ bid to force a sale of Google’s online advertising exchange.

While the ad exchange is a small part of Google’s business, the ruling is the second powerful symbolic victory against the U.S. Department of Justice in its efforts to force Google to sell assets to address illegal monopolies.
U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, declined to make Google sell AdX, where publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites. She accepted most of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies.

The DOJ and a broad coalition of states sued Google in 2023 over its dominance in markets for advertising technology used by online publishers and websites.
cnbc.com

[S. maltophilia] publicly available material Last I heard, NYT is behind a paywall. Unless the A...

S. maltophilia — 9/2/2026 1:37:34 PM

publicly available material

Last I heard, NYT is behind a paywall. Unless the AI trainer gives away unlimited articles, NYT has a case.

[Ron] Trump Administration Backs OpenAI in New York Times Copyright Fight The governme...

Ron — 9/2/2026 1:07:19 PM

Trump Administration Backs OpenAI in New York Times Copyright Fight
The government argues that training artificial intelligence models with copyrighted material is protected by fair use

thewrap.com

[Ron] As midterms approach, political ad spending jumps 63 percent from July thedesk....

Ron — 9/2/2026 9:26:05 AM

As midterms approach, political ad spending jumps 63 percent from July
thedesk.net

its now everywhere, including all the streaming channels...

[Ron] Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav tried to kill this movie. Now it's his latest h...

Ron — 9/1/2026 4:01:08 PM

Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav tried to kill this movie. Now it's his latest humiliation.
slate.com

[S. maltophilia] ....According to the documentary, Larry Ellison personally told Trump that acq...

S. maltophilia — 9/1/2026 1:14:02 PM

....According to the documentary, Larry Ellison personally told Trump that acquiring Warner Bros. would allow Paramount to overhaul CNN, which has been relatively independent and critical of Trump.

But what Ellison does with CNN, while it may be distressing to the concept of a free press independent of the state, isn’t an antitrust issue. This is: The....

prospect.org

bravenewfilms.org

[Ron] The way media is morphing... who knows? Can Gaming Become the Next Revenue Pill...

Ron — 9/1/2026 12:36:49 PM

The way media is morphing... who knows?
Can Gaming Become the Next Revenue Pillar for Netflix?

tradingview.com

[Ron] On-line advertising: FTC, states sue Amazon over alleged ads price fixing thedes...

Ron — 9/1/2026 10:33:48 AM

On-line advertising: FTC, states sue Amazon over alleged ads price fixing
thedesk.net

[Ron] MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Hit With Furious Staff Backlash over Editorial Slant in ...

Ron — 9/1/2026 10:16:42 AM

MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Hit With Furious Staff Backlash over Editorial Slant in Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed Story and Headline

archive.ph

[S. maltophilia] That makes it a big market for the AI talking heads.

S. maltophilia — 8/31/2026 2:10:33 PM

[Ron] They're a big chain. I'm sure others will follow. In terms of assets owned, ...

Ron — 8/31/2026 1:46:02 PM

They're a big chain. I'm sure others will follow.

In terms of assets owned, Scripps is the third largest operator of ABC affiliates, behind Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group, and ahead of Hearst Television and Tegna. Scripps also owns a number of free-to-air multi-genre digital subchannel multicast networks through its Scripps Networks division, including the Ion Television network and Scripps News.

en.wikipedia.org

[S. maltophilia] no bantering among co-hosts or even a presence to announce an upcoming commerci...

S. maltophilia — 8/31/2026 1:41:19 PM

no bantering among co-hosts or even a presence to announce an upcoming commercial break and provide the familiar, “We’ll be right back after this.”

Surely, those can be artificially generated. Seems to be why many tune in to their favorite talking heads.

[Ron] Scripps broadcasting goes to anchorless news, featuring AI automation- hundreds ...

Ron — 8/31/2026 1:33:23 PM

Scripps broadcasting goes to anchorless news, featuring AI automation- hundreds laid off,
including many producers

Here is how it works, according to an account from The Baltimore Banner. On WMAR, an ABC affiliate, live news content that would have aired during the morning and evening shows has been replaced by a rolling stream of prerecorded stories, with graphics separating different segments, instead of live anchors offering engaging transitions. There’s no bantering among co-hosts or even a presence to announce an upcoming commercial break and provide the familiar, “We’ll be right back after this.” What’s missing, in other words, is a person.

I'm sure this will save them a ton of money. We'll see if it turns out to be profitable.

status.news

[Ron] AT&T sues Charter over “fiber-powered Internet” advertising claims AT&T says Cha...

Ron — 8/31/2026 1:15:21 PM

AT&T sues Charter over “fiber-powered Internet” advertising claims
AT&T says Charter's use of coaxial cable to deliver its broadband into the homes of customers isn't comparable to its pure-fiber offering.
thedesk.net

[Ron] Hegseth parks sock puppets on social media to amplify his right wing memes... ...

Ron — 8/30/2026 10:50:50 PM

Hegseth parks sock puppets on social media to amplify his right wing memes...

Pentagon secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles
Conservative veterans with large social media followings have been hired by the Defense Department and are amplifying Pete Hegseth’s culture-war fights.

archive.ph

[Ron] He beat Big Tobacco. Will the same playbook work against Meta and social media? ...

Ron — 8/30/2026 6:51:30 PM

He beat Big Tobacco. Will the same playbook work against Meta and social media?

Former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore took on Big Tobacco in the 1990s and is now working on language for a master settlement with social media companies.

cnbc.com

[S. maltophilia] If there is a complaint filed, NBC likely would have a simple defense: What Welk...

S. maltophilia — 8/30/2026 4:27:44 PM

If there is a complaint filed, NBC likely would have a simple defense: What Welker said happens to be true.

Still works, most of the time, for now.

[Ron] The occupant of the White House lives to attack American institutions, like the ...

Ron — 8/30/2026 4:20:16 PM

The occupant of the White House lives to attack American institutions, like the press.

In Latest Threat Of Regulatory Retaliation, Donald Trump Says He’ll Report NBC News’ Kristen Welker To FCC For “Rebuke Or Punishment”

deadline.com

[Ron] The enshittification of streaming: Cramming in more ads for lower rate tiers: p...

Ron — 8/30/2026 12:47:53 PM

The enshittification of streaming: Cramming in more ads for lower rate tiers:
pcworld.com

[Ron] Google participates in Trump's silly, distracting little game: If you put Toron...

Ron — 8/30/2026 12:41:39 PM

Google participates in Trump's silly, distracting little game: If you put Toronto into Google maps,
and you are in the U.S. the lake Toronto sits on is 'Lake America.' But if you tell your browser VPN
you are in some other country, say Canada, Australia, Japan etc... it still says Lake Ontario.
Anything to keep our senile occupant of the White House happy, I suppose.

[S. maltophilia] red states, too. Not directly political in a red/blue sense. But the telecom co...

S. maltophilia — 8/30/2026 11:22:10 AM

red states, too.

Not directly political in a red/blue sense. But the telecom companies don't make money stringing fiber down every isolated road, so they have a sympathetic ear. Imagine this crew 250 years ago saying the post office would only serve profitable locations.

[Ron] The Internet Archive at 30: Can the web’s memory bank withstand the AI era? fast...

Ron — 8/30/2026 10:53:13 AM

The Internet Archive at 30: Can the web’s memory bank withstand the AI era?
fastcompany.com

[Ron] Anthropic Is Quietly Cutting Google Out of the Equation The AI startup is rollin...

Ron — 8/30/2026 10:51:52 AM

Anthropic Is Quietly Cutting Google Out of the Equation
The AI startup is rolling out its own browser within Claude Cowork, eliminating the need for a Chrome extension for many routine tasks.
gizmodo.com

[Ron] A lot of the people in slow internet service areas are in red states, too. harl...

Ron — 8/30/2026 9:01:02 AM

A lot of the people in slow internet service areas are in red states, too.
harlanonline.net

(note the 'where available' proviso)

I know an Air BnB near Viper, KY where the internet speed is the slowest I've seen since 1997,
and she's lucky to have that.

[S. maltophilia] Unfair to dial-up? arstechnica.com

S. maltophilia — 8/30/2026 1:00:58 AM