Latest news with #BrendanCarr
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Trump's War On The Media Explained: Paramount Offered Trump $15 Million To Settle CBS Lawsuit
PBS sued President Donald Trump Friday to block him from cutting funding for the public television station, days after NPR also filed a lawsuit to stop the move. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, ... More on April 27, 2025. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) PBS and Lakeland PBS in Minnesota called the executive order Trump issued earlier this month directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a publicly funded nonprofit, to cease funding PBS and NPR an 'existential threat,' accusing Trump of overstepping his authority. Meanwhile, Trump and his companies have filed lawsuits against his media foes, his administration has elevated partisan right-wing voices in the White House press corps and sought to effectively shut down federally funded media outlets, including the international broadcaster Voice of America, among other tactics. Trump's new FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr also launched investigations into several outlets and warned publicly that a probe into CBS' interview with Harris last year could affect the network's pending multi-billion-dollar merger. Trump has also amped up his rhetoric to attack the press, calling pollsters for the New York Times, ABC News, the Washington Post and Fox News 'negative criminals' who should be 'investigated for ELECTION FRAUD' after the outlets have published surveys in the past week that show he has net negative approval ratings. Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here. Trump—who has feuded with CBS for years—sued the network for $20 billion, claiming it deceptively edited its '60 Minutes' interview with Harris after the network in a preview of her interview aired a different version of Harris' answer to a question than the one shown in the full program. In the preview, Harris gave a longer answer in response to a question about the Israel-Hamas war than the one aired during the full show. The network later released a full transcript of the interview that showed it ran the first sentence of her answer in the preview and the last sentence during the show, though the meaning of her response was largely the same. Trump is suing CBS as its parent company, Paramount, is seeking the Federal Communications Commission's approval of a multi-billion-dollar merger with Skydance. Trump urged the FCC to revoke the network's broadcasting license last month over '60 Minutes' coverage of him, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has warned that the deceptive-editing allegations against CBS could become a factor in the FCC review of the merger. Meanwhile, Paramount and Trump began mediation talks earlier this month as Paramount owner Shari Redstone wants to settle with Trump, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources. The lawsuit has led to accusations from journalists that Paramount leadership has meddled in coverage of Trump, compromising their integrity. Wendy McMahon, president of CBS News and Stations, said she would step down Monday following a 'challenging' few months in which she and the company did 'not agree on the path forward,' ostensibly referring to the settlement talks. Longtime '60 Minutes' producer Bill Owens also left his post in April, citing waning editorial independence. Trump reportedly wants $25 million or more and an apology to settle the lawsuit, the Wall street Journal reported this week, citing an unnamed source. The Federal Trade Commission opened a probe in May into the liberal advocacy group, Media Matters for America, and whether it coordinated with other watchdogs to deter companies from advertising on Elon Musk's X, according to multiple reports. Musk is also suing Media Matters for defamation over a report it published about antisemitic content on X. Media Matters president Angela Carusone told Forbes in response to the probe 'the Trump administration has been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully political opponents and silence critics. It's clear that's exactly what's happening here, given Media Matters' history of holding those same figures to account. These threats won't work; we remain steadfast to our mission." NPR also sued the Trump administration Tuesday to block its attempt to revoke federal funding for NPR and PBS. Trump signed an order May 2 to defund NPR and PBS and has said he'll ask Congress to revoke $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for NPR and PBS. The FCC also said it's opened investigations into NPR and PBS and whether they aired 'announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements,' Carr said in a letter to the organizations in January. Carr said the investigation could factor into Congress' decision on whether to continue funding the organizations. NPR said in a statement in a news article about the threat that the funding cut 'would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation,' adding that 'locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.' PBS CEO and President Paual Kerger told NPR the move would 'disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.' On April 29, the CPB sought a temporary restraining order to prevent Trump from removing three board members—two appointed by Biden and one appointed by Trump during his first term then reappointed by Biden—arguing the law that established the organization allows Trump to appoint board members, but not fire them. Carr has opened numerous investigations into media organizations and has echoed Trump's critical rhetoric of news coverage. 'We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,' Carr tweeted prior to his appointment as FCC chair. He also warned that 'broadcast licenses are not sacred cows,' suggesting the commission could revoke licenses for companies that don't 'operate in the public interest,' and he threatened that the FCC could block merger proposals from companies that promote DEI. In addition to the NPR and PBS probes, Carr has announced investigations into Comcast's diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and a San Francisco-based radio station's coverage of an immigration raid. Comcast said in a statement to the New York Post in response to the probe that it would cooperate with the investigation and built the company 'on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.' The FCC doesn't distribute and can't revoke licenses for entire networks and instead oversees licensing for their affiliated local broadcast channels. Cable networks, such as CNN and MSNBC, are not within its jurisdiction since they don't broadcast on public airwaves. Stations could fight any attempt to revoke their licenses in court, and laws that dictate their regulatory authority would make it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to pull a station's license. The FCC is prohibited, for example, from 'engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.' Licensing and merger decisions require the approval of the full commission, which is made up of the chair and four members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. One of the commission's two Democrats, Geoffrey Starks, announced last month he would resign this spring, and a third Republican seat is vacant. About one-third of Voice of America's workforce was terminated earlier this month, Kari Lake, senior adviser for the organization's parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told multiple outlets in a statement that said 'buckle up, there's more to come.' The move comes after Lake—a special adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, parent company for international broadcaster Voice of America—announced a 'partnership' earlier this month with the conservative One America News Network to broadcast its programs on USAGM networks, including the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Martí and Voice of America. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on April 22 ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Network and rehire all staff, halting an executive order Trump signed in March to shut down the government-funded news organizations. Trump, claiming Voice of America was 'anti-Trump' and pushed 'radical propaganda,' revoked funding for the VOA and its parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, prompting the organizations to place more than 1,300 employees and hundreds of contractors on leave. Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits opposing the shutdown, ruled the move was likely unconstitutional since the organization was created by and is funded by Congress. On April 29, Lamberth ordered the Trump administration to reinstate $12 million in funding that had previously been appropriated to Radio Free Europe, saying in the ruling the Trump administration cannot take away money that Congress allocated, the Associated Press reported. The VOA, which has a budget of about $260 million annually and was formed in 1942 as a counter to Nazi propaganda, broadcasts in more than 40 languages to an international audience of more than 350 million. Radio Free Asia was formed in 1994 by the International Broadcasting Act and has a budget of about $61 million, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network was founded in 2004 and has a $100 million budget. The White House has attempted to bar the Associated Press from accessing some spaces, such as the Oval Office and Air Force One, after it refused to rename the 'Gulf of Mexico' to the 'Gulf of America' in its style guide. The Associated Press then sued the Trump administration over the blockade, and Judge Trevor McFadden ruled in the AP's favor earlier this month, though Trump has appealed the ruling. The White House also eliminated a permanent spot in the press pool reserved for wire services and instead put the AP, Bloomberg and Reuters in a rotation for two 'print' slots, along with 31 other outlets. The Trump administration announced in February it would decide which journalists are allowed in the White House press pool, breaking a years-long tradition in which the independent White House Correspondents' Association coordinated the pool, made up of 13 journalists from a rotating group of outlets who travel with the president and share their reporting with other media outlets. The Trump administration has also set up a 'new media' seat in the briefing room that's offered to outlets that don't have a permanent spot, such as Forbes, though it often hosts non-traditional media such as podcast hosts and social media personalities. Trump and his companies have filed multiple lawsuits against media organizations prior to his winning a second term. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company for Trump's Truth Social platform, filed a $1.5 billion lawsuit against 20 media organizations, including Forbes, The Guardian, Reuters, Axios and MSNBC, in November 2023, alleging they defamed him by incorrectly reporting that Truth Social lost $73 million from its launch in early 2022 through mid 2023. Many outlets, including Forbes, corrected their stories to say Truth Social had lost $31.6 million since its inception. In January 2023, Trump sued journalist Bob Woodward, publisher Simon & Schuster and parent company Paramount Global for nearly $50 million, claiming Woodward published recordings of his interviews with Trump for his book 'Rage' without Trump's permission. Trump in December also sued the Des Moines Register, its parent company, Gannett, and its former pollster, Ann Selzer, over a Selzer poll shortly before the election that found Trump would lose Iowa by three to four points, only for him to win the state by 13 points. Trump alleged the poll amounted to election interference and a violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. The paper and Selzer filed motions to dismiss the suit in February, and the Register alleged the law only applies to 'consumer merchandise,' and there's no evidence Trump ever purchased anything from the paper. Trump has had mixed results in his legal battles with the press. He settled with ABC News last year in a lawsuit Trump filed when anchor George Stephanopolos said Trump was found liable for 'rape' when a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll. The network agreed to donate $15 million to Trump's presidential library and issue a statement of regret as part of the settlement. A judge in July 2023 dismissed a case he filed against CNN over its use of the term 'the big lie' to refer to his false claims he won the 2020 election and alleged comparisons between Trump and Hitler. F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships (New York Times) Which media companies has Donald Trump sued? (Reuters) '60 Minutes' Chief Resigns in Emotional Meeting: 'The Company Is Done With Me' (New York Times)
The Verge
3 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
Can a redesign save Apple's software?
There's a running theory in tech circles that says, basically, AI is the new UI. Not long from now, some people argue, you simply won't need a homescreen full of app icons or a traditional web browser or really anything other than an interface to an AI assistant and agent that accomplishes everything on your behalf. Is that the actual future, absurd AI boosterism, or something in between? Who knows! But the ranks of the AI believers seem to grow every day. Apple, however, appears poised to go… a different way. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss some of the rumors surrounding WWDC, including the possibility of a huge redesign and a new naming scheme for all of Apple's software. It's all eminently reasonable, if slightly confusing. But is it a coat of paint on an old idea, when what Apple actually needs to do is ship the better Siri it has promised for so long? We have many thoughts. (Oh, and a party speaker update.) Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for another edition of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, plus some talk about the impending launch of the Switch 2, and Elon Musk's exit-ish from the federal government. It's been a busy May for tech news, and it appears there's a lot more to come. If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first in party speakers: in Apple news: Apple is reportedly going to rename all of its operating systems Apple is ready to replace Game Center with a more Xbox-like gaming app Get ready for Apple's glassy operating systems overhaul. And in tech / web news: And in the lightning round:
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC): A Bull Case Theory
We came across a bullish thesis on Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC) on Substack by TheYoungValueHunter. In this article, we will summarize the bulls' thesis on EVC. Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC)'s share was trading at $1.9 as of 21st May. An aerial view of a broadcasting company's television stations, showing the power of the company's media presence. Entravision Communications (EVC) has endured significant challenges, including a 53% revenue hit from Meta's ASP program termination and a 60% stock decline. Yet, under CEO Michael Christenson's leadership, the company has initiated a strategic transformation. EVC streamlined operations, prioritized dividends, and realigned executive incentives toward performance and long-term value creation. Management's decision to forgo cash bonuses in favor of RSUs and PUs with 200–600% stock price hurdles highlight deep alignment with shareholders. A simplified capital structure following the founder's passing has further increased the company's attractiveness as an acquisition target. EVC operates in two segments: Media and Ad-Tech. While Media EBITDA has declined, the segment retains significant strategic value in a deregulated environment, especially as the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr may lift ownership caps and renew auction authority. The Ad-Tech segment, growing at 42% annually, now represents 40% of sales and may surpass Media, making it a strong candidate for a partial or full sale at a premium valuation. EVC's underappreciated spectrum licenses, valued at up to $276M using MHz-pop metrics, could be monetized through a future FCC auction. A complete or piecemeal sale—Media, Ad-Tech, or spectrum—could unlock an EV of $700M, over 3x the current valuation. Risks remain, including execution, regulatory setbacks, and macro headwinds, but with industry tailwinds, a leaner cost base, and high insider ownership, EVC offers compelling upside. With a dividend yield nearing 11%, shareholders are paid to wait for multiple catalysts to close the gap between price and value. Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC) is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 12 hedge fund portfolios held EVC at the end of the fourth quarter which was 12 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of EVC as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than EVC but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Paramount, Skydance must scrap DEI to pass FCC's ‘public interest' litmus test: sources
The Federal Communications Commission has been reviewing M&A deals in the media space for decades and a key concern for the agency is whether such combinations are in the 'public interest.' Skydance's $8 billion purchase of Paramount and its CBS News subsidiary might just pass the FCC's public interest litmus test — a loosely defined concept that involves promoting fairness in broadcasting and how companies are managed — if and only if the guys in charge of the new company ditch any allegiance to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, On the Money has learned. In fact, as long as Trump appointee Brendan Carr remains at the helm of the FCC, getting rid of so-called DEI will be a prerequisite for any media deal that needs FCC approval, people with knowledge of Carr's thinking add. The good news for the Skydance-Paramount combo is that the new management will be led by David Ellison. The Skydance boss – and son of Trump pal Larry Ellison of Oracle fame – and his partners at Redbird Capital are no fans of DEI, I am told. They are likely to dump the racial- and gender-based hiring policies without much of a fuss, my sources say. The bad news for the rest of the media industry: The super woke companies will have to decide to give up on their lefty political biases if they want to survive with Team Trump in charge. A Skydance spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter as did press reps for Comcast and Disney. An FCC rep didn't return a call for comment. Carr, for the unacquainted, is a longtime telecom attorney (he was an FCC commissioner before Trump appointed him chair) and conservative activist. He also believes he's on firm ground demanding that all companies seeking his 'public interest' merger approval start by nixing DEI. The acronym is better known as racial- and gender-based quotas and it is pervasive in hiring and promoting for on-air talent, and in the broader workforce, for most media companies. While Skydance might be willing to ditch DEI, it will be a bitter pill for the broadcast industry, one of the most woke businesses on the planet. Media and theme park giant Disney, as I point out in my book, 'Go Woke Go Broke; The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America,' mandated DEI in everything from characters in its cartoons to the hiring of interns. DEI goes beyond media, of course. It's why a trans woman was featured in a Bud Light commercial, sipping a beer and giggling about March Madness. DEI is why retailer Target featured a month of gay pride displays that were so graphic that its Middle America customer base rebelled. DEI is why Harvard skewed its admissions against high-achieving Asian students, and white males found it difficult to get hired and promoted at large companies, particularly after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. The incident ushered in calls for 'racial justice' and soon quotas in employment by many leftist politicians and their supporters in corporate America. But times are changing, or to be more precise they have changed. The courts have ruled that racial preferences are unconstitutional, whether it's in college admissions or hiring. Donald Trump was elected on a platform of getting rid of DEI when the federal government has a say over issues. Corporate mergers — which need approval from Trump-run regulatory agencies including the FCC – falls well within those issues, my sources say. Carr, I am told, believes it's within the 'public interest' to throttle deals by using the FCC power to withhold local broadcast licenses (as opposed to cable which doesn't have the same FCC rules) if new companies don't agree to ditch DEI. In just a few months, Carr has opened DEI-related cases against Disney and Comcast-owned NBC. Expect more if media mergers pick up as they should given Trump's lighter regulatory agenda. Carr's investigation into the Paramount-Skydance deal has been delaying the merger for months. He's looking if the merger comports with anti-trust and public interest rules, including the Trump administration's contention that DEI is illegal and definitely not in the public interest. He is also investigating CBS for allegedly deceptively editing a controversial '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris during the campaign, whether the news magazine edited out her famous word salad answers to make her sound more coherent, as many critics contend. That investigation has teeth given the FCC's authority over public airwaves like local broadcasting (as opposed to cable), which again must comport with FCC public interest guidelines that stipulate fairness in news broadcasting. Like Skydance, Shari Redstone, the current principal owner of Paramount, is eager to ensure that Carr's demands are met to get the deal completed and cash in on her payday of around $2 billion, On the Money has learned. She's also looking to settle a separate $20 billion lawsuit brought by Trump against CBS News over the alleged unfair editing of the Harris interview. CBS has stated that the lawsuit is meritless despite Redstone's reported current plan to settle for as much as $20 million or maybe more, any day now.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's FCC delays multilingual emergency alerts for natural disasters, sparking concern in L.A.
California Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán urged the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to follow through on plans to modernize the federal emergency alert system and provide multilingual alerts in natural disasters for residents who speak a language other than English at home. The call comes nearly five months after deadly fires in Los Angeles threatened communities with a high proportion of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — some with limited English proficiency — highlighting the need for multilingual alerts. In a letter sent to Brendan Carr, the Republican chair of the FCC, Barragán (D-San Pedro) expressed 'deep concern' that the FCC under the Trump administration has delayed enabling multilingual Wireless Emergency Alerts for severe natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. 'This is about saving lives,' Barragán said in an interview with The Times. "You've got about 68 million Americans that use a language other than English and everybody should have the ability to to understand these emergency alerts. We shouldn't be looking at any politicization of alerts — certainly not because someone's an immigrant or they don't know English." Multilingual emergency alerts should be in place across the nation, Barragán said. But the January Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires served as a reminder that the need is particularly acute in Los Angeles. Not only does L.A. have a significant risk of wildfires, flooding, mudslides, and earthquakes, but the sprawling region is home to a diverse immigrant population, some of whom have limited English proficiency. "When you think about it, in California we have wildfires, we're always on earthquake alert," Barragán said. "In other parts of the country, it could be hurricanes or tornadoes — we just want people to have the information on what to do." Four months ago, the FCC was supposed to publish an order that would allow Americans to get multilingual alerts In October 2023, the FCC approved rules to update the federal emergency alert system by enabling Wireless Emergency Alerts to be delivered in more than a dozen languages — not just English, Spanish and sign language — without the need of a translator. Then, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau developed templates for critical disaster alerts in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the US. In January, the commission declared a 'major step forward' in expanding alert languages when it issued a report and order that would require commercial mobile service providers to install templates on cellphones within 30 months of publication of the federal register. 'The language you speak shouldn't keep you from receiving the information you or your family need to stay safe,' then-FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a January statement. But shortly after, Trump took control of the White House. Under the chairmanship of Brendan Carr, the commission has yet to publish the January 8 Report and Order in the Federal Register — a critical step that triggers the 30-month compliance clock. 'This delay is not only indefensible but dangerous,' Barragán wrote in a letter to Carr that was signed by nearly two dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. 'It directly jeopardizes the ability of our communities to receive life-saving emergency information in the language they understand best.' Barragán noted that Carr previously supported the push for multilingual alerts when he was a member of the commission, before taking over leadership. 'Your failure to complete this ministerial step — despite having supported the rule itself — has left this life-saving policy in limbo and significantly delayed access to multilingual alerts for millions of Americans,' she wrote. Asked by The Times what explained the delay, Barragán said her office had been told that Trump's regulatory freeze prohibited all federal agencies, including the FCC, from publishing any rule in the Federal Register until a designated Trump official is able to review and approve it. "It's all politics," she said. "We don't know why it's stuck there and why the administration hasn't moved forward, but it seems, like, with everything these days, they're waiting on the president's green light." Barragán also noted that multilingual alerts helped first responders. "If you have a community that's supposed to be evacuated, and they're not evacuating because they don't know they're supposed to evacuate, that's only going to hurt first responders and emergency crews," she said. "So I think this is a safety issue all around, not just for the people receiving it." Read more: Asian communities faced language barriers during L.A. wildfires, UCLA study says A study published earlier this year by UCLA researchers and the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Equity Alliance found that Asian communities in harm's way during the January L.A. fires encountered difficulties accessing information about emergency evacuations because of language barriers. Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of 50 community-based groups that serves the 1.6 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who live in Los Angeles, told The Times the FCC's failure to push alerts in more languages represented a 'real dereliction of duty.' Over half a million Asian Americans across L.A. County are classified as Limited English Proficiency, with many speaking primarily in Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese, she noted. 'President Trump and many members of his administration have made clear they plan to go on the attack against immigrants,' Kulkarni said. 'If this makes the lives of immigrants easier, then they will stand in its way.' During the January L.A. fires, Kulkarni said, residents complained that fire alerts were sent only in English and Spanish. More than 12,000 of the 50,000 Asian immigrants and their descendants who lived within four evacuation zones — Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Hughes — need language assistance. 'There were community members who didn't realize until they were evacuated that the fire was so close to them, so they had little to no notice of it,' Kulkarni said. 'Really, it can mean life or death in a lot of cases where you don't get the information, where it's not translated in a city and county like Los Angeles.' Read more: Signs of human error grow in failure to evacuate Altadena during fire. But who is to blame? Community members ended up suffering not just because of the fires themselves, Kulkarni said, but because of federal and local officials' failure to provide alerts in languages every resident can understand. 'It is incumbent that the alerts be made available,' she said. 'We need those at local, state and federal levels to do their part so that individuals can survive catastrophic incidents.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
