NEWS MEDIA BOTCH TORNADO REPORT

Once again the news media today (Tuesday) were being criticized for failing to question official pronouncements about a tragedy. After reporting most of the day that 91 persons had been killed in the Oklahoma tornado, with that figure likely to rise, and comparing the calamity with previous weather-related disasters, the cable news networks were forced […]

POTTER WRITER, ACTRESS BLAST PAPARAZZI

British actress Sienna Miller and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling have told the Leveson hearing into U.K. media ethics about how they have been hounded by reporters, photographers and television cameramen, who have intruded on their privacy, and, in Rowling’s case, her children’s as well. Miller, whose romance with Jude Law became fodder for the […]

STOCKS FALL; MEDIA STOCKS FALL FARTHER

As the overall stock market experienced another plunge in its recent roller-coaster ride, some investors in media stocks hung on for dear life Thursday. The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting & Entertainment Total Stock Market Index fell 4 percent, but media companies that rely the most heavily on advertising revenue plunged far more deeply. For a […]

NETFLIX REPLACES NEW YORK TIMES CO. ON S&P 500

In a sign of the times, Netflix will replace the New York Times Co. and Cablevision Systems Corp will replace King Pharmaceuticals Inc. on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (S&P 500), following the close of trading on Friday, Dec. 17, The changes were among several announced by Standard and Poor’s on Friday. Shares in […]

RICK SANCHEZ’S WIFE COMMENTS ON FIRING

Former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez has yet to comment publicly on his firing last week, but his wife Suzanne has. Writing on her Facebook “wall,” Suzanne said that her husband apologized to Jon Stewart for his remarks during a radio interview last week. “Jon was gracious and called Rick ‘thin-skinned.’ He’s right,” she wrote. She […]

UNIONS, STUDIOS BATTLE OVER THE HOBBIT

The three studios that are due to produce and distribute the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit, have responded to the decision by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to instruct their members not to work on the film, an action taken in support of Australia’s Media, […]

EISNER SAYS HE’S NOT INTERESTED IN HEADING TRIBUNE

Former Disney chief Michael Eisner has scoffed at reports that he is in line to take over the chairmanship of the Tribune Co. In an interview on KTRS in St. Louis on Tuesday, Eisner insisted that he hadn’t even “thought of running” Tribune, which owns 23 television stations and a slew of newspapers that include […]

ACTRESS LATEST TO SUE BRITISH TABLOID OVER HACKING

British actress Sienna Miller, last seen costarring in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, has said she will file a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s London tabloid News of the World after learning that it had hacked into her telephone voicemail. The lawsuit could force authorities to disclose what some reports have indicated are thousands of […]

NEW LAWSUITS FILED IN BRITAIN’S HACKERGATE SCANDAL

Chris Bryant, the former Foreign Office Minister for Europe in the British Labor Party government, and Brian Paddick, a former Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) senior officer, have filed a lawsuit against the Yard, claiming that other officials of the agency engaged in a strategic cover-up of widespread phone hacking by the Sunday tabloid News of […]

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER TO GET MAKEOVER

Ending an 80-year struggle to supplant Daily Variety as the trade paper of record for the entertainment industry, The Hollywood Reporter will become a weekly print magazine next month, featuring a mix of “analytical” and feature articles and photo spreads, accompanied by a daily digital publication in PDF format, the New York Times reported today […]