Laughs and Liberty: Weekend Tales with Jimmy Failla
FOX Across America and FOX News Saturday Night host Jimmy Failla joins Kennedy to hilariously recap their weekend at Mohegan Pennsylvania.
Plus, they discuss the upcoming White House Correspondents' Dinner and share amusing anecdotes about run-ins with notable personalities.
Follow Kennedy on Twitter: @KennedyNation
Kennedy Now Available on YouTube: https://bit.ly/4311mhD
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
40 minutes ago
- USA Today
What Swift fan accounts should know about copyright after Barstool's 'Taylor Watch' canceled
What Swift fan accounts should know about copyright after Barstool's 'Taylor Watch' canceled The rumors may be terrible and cruel, but the ones about Barstool Sports' "Taylor Watch" podcast being canceled are true. The podcast with 115,000 fans on TikTok, 78,000 fans on Instagram and 16,000 subscribers on YouTube — geared toward discussing all things Taylor Swift — aired its final episode on June 4. What was supposed to have been a celebratory moment for Swift regaining control of her masters started on a melancholic note as hosts Kelly Keegs and Gia Mariano sang "Ave Maria." The two sat in their brown leather chairs to acknowledge the termination of a show they've cultivated for two-plus years. "'Taylor Watch' is canceled," Keegs said on the 150th episode, "because having a music related podcast or something that can toe the line with lawsuits in general where it comes to music rights, whatever, is just not feasible with Barstool Sports at this time." One underlying issue lies in copyrighted photos, videos and music being used on social media. Several posts potentially opened parent company Barstool Sports to lawsuits, and the podcasters had two options: to cancel "Taylor Watch" or be fired. "It was all just stupid mistakes on my part," Mariano said on the podcast through tears. "It was never intentional. We would never think that we could just get away with something." "Or even jeopardize the company," Keegs jumped in. "We love working here." Long live the Eras Tour with our enchanting book The one- to two-hour episodes crafted a corner in the Swiftie community where fans (and some haters) tuned in to hear the thoughts of Keegs and Mariano. " Gia and I went to Paris Night 2 together, and there were some people coming up to us and saying what they liked about the show," Keegs tells the USA TODAY Network of Swift's May 10, 2024, concert. "Then by the time we were in Miami — that was a totally different experience — I couldn't believe how many people were coming up to us who knew who we were." The two hosts offered unfiltered thoughts on Swift's music, business moves, concerts and news. They would post short snippets to social media. A couple included some paparazzi photos and sped-up music pulled from the internet. "It's what I looked forward to every week," Keegs says. Her favorite part was the voicemail segment when people called in to offer their thoughts. "We got a call from a mom excited about the 'Speak Now (Taylor's Version).' She gave birth to her son when the first version came out and now he's a teen. She made him listen to 'Never Grow Up.' It was a beautiful full circle moment." Copyright's gray area So where do the legal lines lie for copyright? It's a perfect question for David Herlihy, an intellectual property, new media and entertainment lawyer who also teaches at Northeastern University in Boston. Copyright is the subject of entire college courses, so keep in mind the following is heavily abbreviated. Herlihy also provides an asterisk: " None of these things are absolute, but there are basic policy contours of copyright." Let's start with images and videos that fan accounts share on social media. Herlihy says the copyright of photos of Swift taken in a public place are owned by the photographers and can be licensed to news outlets. However, the photographers can't make merch with the photos, "because that's a commercial exploitation of her likeness." What about fan accounts that repost photos and credit them, do they need permission? Some cases can be deemed fair-use, which means using copyrighted material doesn't need permission under "certain circumstances." This balances copyright holders' intellectual property rights with the public's need to access and use information. "You're using the photograph for news reporting, commentary or for conversation, and the law regards news, commentary and conversation as valuable," Herlihy says. "So depending upon the nature of the use, the rights of the copyright owner may actually yield to other socially beneficial purposes." What Taylor Swift's trademark applications say about potential business moves. However, Instagram has a clear policy that users cannot post content that violates someone else's intellectual property rights, including copyright. 'Taylor Watch' is not the first account within the past month to get flagged. In fact a few behemoth Swift fan accounts with six digits in followers were recently sent to Instagram purgatory and deactivated for similar infractions including @ and @tstourtips. Meta, Instagram's parent company, did not comment on the deactivations to the USA TODAY Network. The accounts, which are not officially affiliated with Swift, share news, theories on upcoming announcements and records broken by the superstar. They foster micro-communities of the global fandom. And they celebrate moments like Swift buying back her first six albums from Shamrock Capital. For Keegs and Mariano, "Taylor Watch" was their safe space to gab about the superstar. 'It's not like we aren't Taylor fans still,' Keegs said. She tried to find a bright side explaining, "If we want to be poetic about it, I suppose you can say our watch has ended because [Swift's] gotten all of her stuff back." Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the free, weekly newsletter This Swift Beat. Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Cartoon Network Studios Icons McCracken, Tartakovsky, Sugar, Quintel, Ward and Muto on The Studio, State of the Industry and What Inspires Them
In an intimate and candid discussion at this year's Annecy Animation Festival, the biggest names behind some of television's most iconic animated series met with Variety to talk legacy, change and the shifting landscape of the medium they helped define. Creators Craig McCracken ('The Powerpuff Girls' 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'), Genndy Tartakovsky ('Dexter's Laboratory,' 'Samurai Jack'), Rebecca Sugar ('Steven Universe'), Pendleton Ward ('Adventure Time,' 'The Midnight Gospel') and J.G. Quintel ('Regular Show') and 'Adventure Time' executive producer and showrunner Adam Muto opened up about the origins of their work, a new era of creation and what it means to still be pushing boundaries after decades in the business. More from Variety Taicca and Gobelins Paris Announce Partnership at Annecy to 'Nurture Original Stories from Taiwan': 'Dream Bigger and Reach Further' 'Arcane' Producer Fortiche Teaming With ARTE France on Coming-of-Age Mini-Series 'Miss Saturne' GKIDS Acquires North American Rights to Hong Kong Animated Feature 'Another World,' Premiering at Annecy (EXCLUSIVE) The conversation ranged from nostalgic memories of Cartoon Network Studio's golden era – Annecy hosted a celebratory 25th anniversary panel for the studio on Tuesday afternoon – to bold speculation about the future of animation. At its core was the recognition that while technology, audience behavior and corporate structures have transformed dramatically, the creative spirit that fueled their iconic shows still drives the creators, and likely the next generation, too. 'There are people who are making independent animated shows themselves,' McCracken said, pointing to projects like Vivienne Medrano's hugely popular YouTube pilot-turned-Prime original series 'Hazbin Hotel' as evidence that a new wave is possible, though likely through free online platforms such as YouTube first, not television. 'You almost go the independent route first, get noticed, get an audience, and then the channels and the streamers.' Sugar and Muto were quick to praise Green Street Pictures' 'Scavengers Reign' and 'Common Side Effects' as other examples, the former having started life as a short that gained significant recognition online before resulting in a series greenlight. Tartakovsky wasn't so sure about the scalability or reliability of those models to result in long-term commercial successes, though. 'IP is the only word now,' he proposed, lamenting studios' current focus on rebooting existing franchises. 'It's harder for a new generation to break out like this again when [the studios] are just trying to do things that already exist,' echoing a plea Mudo made during the anniversary panel for studios and broadcasters to 'start greenlighting things, please.' Quintel added a silver lining: while short programs and incubators may be on pause, the mentoring tradition is alive. 'We're hiring people straight out of school. They've never done it, and they're learning on the show how to board, how to do premise-driven animation.' Several of the speakers emphasized that the animation industry has long been subject to cycles, and more original content could break through in the future. A recurring theme during the afternoon's discussion was how arbitrary past constraints now seem in the age of digital distribution. 'The reason our shows are 11 minutes is because that's how you divide 22,' McCracken said. 'But who says a show has to be seven minutes or 11 minutes? Why can't it be two minutes? Or an hour?' When it came to audience impact in the modern distribution ecosystem, the room was somewhat split between creative independence and audience-driven development. 'When you put something online, you can see how the audience reacts and adjust based on the feedback… just sharing with the people viewing,' McCracken mused. Tartakovsky pushed back: 'Maybe this is an antiquated way of thinking, but if we follow the audience, it's really dangerous. I want to give the audience what I think is going to be good. I want to do something original and unique that can stand out.' The assembled artists acknowledged the massive transformation of global collaboration thanks to new tools and technologies as well as the prominence of social media platforms and portfolio sites. McCracken now runs almost his entire show, a preschool 'Foster's spinoff' out of London, working remotely from Los Angeles. 'It's exactly the same job. It's just remote. It's no different than being back at the studio,' he said. Tartakovsky's teams are similarly international. 'I have a running list of Instagram people I want to work with,' he said. 'That's how I found the studio that did 'Primal,'' he explained, surprising some at the table. 'They had a short film based on one of their comic books, and I didn't want to do things the old way, so I contacted them at their very small studio in Paris, and they agreed to do it. And what they did was incredible.' Most of the creators use social media and video platforms to find inspiration and potential collaborators, while Quintal and Sugar said they've made transformative connections at comic conventions. Muto argued that individual portfolio sites, popular in decades past, have been making a comeback, and Ward pointed out that 'the Women in Animation website is a great resource for finding artists.' But for all the changes, some things have stayed the same, especially the camaraderie that has kept this group linked for decades. 'You hook onto talent that you like,' said Tartakovsky. 'My art director from 'Samurai Jack' has done pretty much everything with me. I have a background designer who worked with me all the way back on 'Dexter' who I just started working with again. You love these people.' McCracken agreed. 'It takes a very special, insane brain to do this job… It's bananas that we do this,' he laughed. 'So if any of us pull it off, we're like, 'Great job,' and we want to work with those people again and again.' 'It's so hard to build a crew,' admitted Mudo. 'Every time you have to lay off everybody and completely reconstitute, which is something that is a bigger part of the modern streaming cycle, it feels like you have to make a new show, even if it's just a new season of the same show. That explains a lot about why we end up working with the same people.' Each having varying degrees of experience working on more mature productions, the creators celebrated the freedom that adult animation now offers. Sugar recalled, early in 'Steven Universe's' broadcast run, that she would often be told that smaller fandoms of her show were insignificant to the network, as it was more interested in capturing a wide TV audience of all ages and demographics. With adult animation, she argued, fandoms are now more important than ever, and smaller groups of dedicated viewers can have a much more significant impact on a show's success. 'It seems like now we can start something where that is what matters most,' Sugar said, referring to the specificity and passion of modern fandoms. 'That can matter the most.' Even with a billion-dollar global success like the 'Hotel Transylvania' films under a filmmaker's belt, in the case of Tartakovsky, getting original ideas greenlit remains difficult. 'Three 'Hotel Transylvania' movies, almost $2 billion, and I still have a hard time getting an original greenlit,' Tartakovsky said. 'Every time I pitch, I hear that they love it, but that somehow they also don't love it.' After three decades, these creators aren't just surviving in an ever-shifting industry. They're still experimenting, still mentoring, and still hungry for what's next. Best of Variety 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sky Sports News' golden age at an end as rival platforms turn up the volume
A constant in pubs, gyms and hotel breakfast rooms, almost always with the sound down. Perhaps not since cinema's silent age have faces been so familiar without the general public knowing their voices. The vibe is more casual than in previous times, shirt sleeves rather than business suits, but the formula remains the same: a carousel of news, clips, quotes, quips, centred around highlights, all framed within a constant flow of results, fixtures and league tables. Sky Sports News hits 27 years of broadcasting in August, having been launched for the 1998-99 football season by BSkyB. As the domestic football season concluded, news came of changes within the Osterley-based newsroom. Seven members of the broadcast talent team would be leaving, including the long-serving Rob Wotton and the senior football reporter Melissa Reddy, within a process of voluntary redundancies. Advertisement Sky sources – not those Sky sources – are keen to state the changes are not a cost-cutting exercise, instead a redress of SSN's place within a changing media environment. Ronan Kemp, the One Show presenter and Celebrity Goggleboxer, is understood to be in discussions to join Sky and despite Wotton's departure, Ref Watch will still be serving those who get their kicks from re-refereeing matches and VAR calls. Rolling news, which became common currency around the time of the initial Gulf war with Iraq is no longer the go-to information environment. Sky News, SSN's sister organisation, is going through similar changes, including the loss of the veteran anchor Kay Burley. The smartphone, where news alerts supplant even social media, takes the strain of keeping the world informed of Micky van de Ven's latest hamstring injury. Desperate to hear even more from Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville? There are podcasts and YouTube channels available at a swipe. In the US, ESPN's SportsCenter and its accompanying ESPNews channel were the progenitors of a medium copied globally and by Sky in launching SSN. SportsCenter is a flagship in marked decline from a golden 1990s era that made American household names of presenters such as Stuart Scott, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick. ESPN, an organisation in the process of taking itself to digital platforms as cable TV gets mothballed, closed SportsCenter's Los Angeles studio in March. Linear TV's death will be slow, but it is dying nonetheless as streaming, all bundles and consumer choice, takes hold. Meanwhile, YouTube channels, with production values way below industry standard, amass huge audiences for fan-owned, independent media. Advertisement The time of viewers tuning in for 10pm highlights voiced over by presenters' catchphrases – Scott's 'boo yah!' being the prime example – has long passed. Social media and YouTube have killed the demand. Though live sports remain the foundation of broadcasting contracts, highlights and analysis can be watched at the time of the viewers' choice. Digital is where the eyeballs go, and what the advertising dollar is attracted to, despite the ubiquity of Go Compare et al. Viewing figures remain healthy but the game is now about far more than ratings. SSN's imperial period was the early millennium days of Dave Clark and Kirsty Gallacher's toothsome double act, to a time when the yellow ticker of breaking news held great sway, though not always delivering on its promise of earthquake journalism (news of Nicky Shorey's Reading contract extension, anyone?). Millie Clode, Di Stewart, Charlotte Jackson, Kelly Cates: a nation turned its lonely eyes to them. Then there was transfer deadline day, more important than the football itself. Long, frantic hours spent hearing Jim White's Glaswegian whine declare anything could happen on this day of days. In the early years it often did, from Peter Odemwingie's mercy dash to Loftus Road to the brandishing of a sex toy in the earhole of reporter Alan Irwin outside Everton's training ground. Another reporter, Andy 'four phones' Burton, labelled the night the 2008 window closed: 'The best day of my life, apart from when my son was born.' Eventually, though, it became too knowing. Not even White's yellow tie, as garish as his hype, accompanied by Natalie Sawyer's yellow dress, could stop the event from becoming desperate hours chasing diminishing returns. Live television is a challenging environment, especially with nothing to feed off. Advertisement Though many presenters have been lampooned – abused in the more carrion social media age – the difficulty of 'going live' with an earpiece full of instructions and timings should never be underestimated. How does Mike Wedderburn, the channel's first presenter, make it look so easy? When, in a broadcasting-carriage dispute between Virgin and Sky, Setanta Sports News was given brief life in 2007 – 22 months as the Dagmar to Sky's Queen Vic – it was made apparent how hard, and costly, the business can be. Over-exposure to SSN – as happens when someone works in a newspaper sports department, say – can lead to contempt. The joins can be seen, too. Haven't they done that same gag for the past six hours and each time pretended it was an ad lib? Just what is Gary Cotterill up to this time? Why did Bryan Swanson always use such portentous tones? From morning till night, it would be ever-present. On weekend evenings, when you caught the skilled veteran duo of Julian Waters and the late David Bobin running through the day's events, you knew it was time to leave the office, down that late drink, question your life choices, the pair's clipped tones taking on the effect of a lonely late-night cab ride. SSN is forced to move with the times. As is the case across the industry, journalists have often been supplanted by influencers, as the mythical, perhaps unreachable, 'younger audience' is chased. That is not to say the channel is short of decent reporting. In the aftermath of the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol produced a superb account of the ensuing chaos and danger while others floundered for detail. Advertisement SSN, like SportsCenter across the Atlantic, is now more a production factory for content being sent across the internet, published to multiple platforms, than it is a rolling news channel. Within press statements around the redundancies there was the word 'agile', a term repurposed – and overused – in the business world, but meaning doing more with less. Next season, as heavily trailed on SSN right now, Sky will have 215 Premier League live matches to show, including every game played on Sundays. That requires the company's shift in focus, for Sky Sports News in particular. Though look up wherever you are and it will still be on in the corner, almost certainly with the sound down.
