Journalism

Former CNN Great Big Story VP Ashley Codianni is joining NBC as executive editor of Today Digital, and Missy Dunlop Parsons is being promoted to executive producer of Today All Day, the morning show’s 24/7 lifestyle streaming channel. In this new role, Codianni will manage the Today.com editorial and social teams, working in tandem with the Today broadcast team to highlight programming across all our digital platforms.

Facebook and Google’s market power, especially over digital advertising, has translated to a potential “extinction level event” for local news operations, broadcast, online and print. That was the underlying message of House Antitrust Subcommittee chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) at a hearing Friday on “Saving a Free and Diverse Press.”

As more of the population gets vaccinated and social-distancing restrictions are relaxed, many anchors have headed back to their familiar sets, where social distance is maintained. But the innovations and efficiencies discovered by the TV news business over the past year are likely to last when the pandemic is hopefully a distant memory.

When Mona Morrow joined the Scripps Cincinnati flagship WCPO in 2000 to run community affairs, she brought a simple idea with her — an idea that was way ahead of its time but two decades later is finally gaining widespread support as an important tool for local newsrooms — a community advisory board.

TV stations make meaningful contributions and connections in a variety of beneficial ways with their communities. Here’s a round-up of how some stations are helping and serving their communities.

Lobbyists for Facebook and Google threw their weight against new U.S. legislation that seeks to aid struggling news publishers by allowing them to negotiate collectively against the tech companies over revenue sharing and other deals. Google, which declined comment on the proposal, launched a website on Thursday asserting it is “one of the world’s biggest financial supporters of journalism” by virtue of the ad revenue and content licensing fees it provides to media.

Contributor Tomi Lahren has referred to facial coverings as ‘face diapers.’ Even news anchor Martha MacCallum has questioned their effectiveness.

The Pentagon said Fox News host Tucker Carlson “essentially demeaned the entire U.S. military” with a segment that decried increasing numbers of female service members and suggested they were weakening the U.S. armed forces.

The 30-year broadcast news veteran is tapped by Marquee Broadcasting to oversee news operations at its Albany, Ga., duopoly.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson devoted a lengthy portion of his show Tuesday night to attacking New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz over her accounts of facing online harassment, claiming that in fact she has “one of the best lives in the country.” After both she and the newspaper spoke out, with the Times calling his segment “calculated and cruel,” he returned to the airwaves on Wednesday to continue lambasting Lorenz. He labeled her a “deeply unhappy narcissist,” denied that she faces online abuse and allowed a guest to baselessly accuse her of “harassing kids and teenagers.”

Geraldo Rivera said that he is considering running the open U.S. Senate in Ohio seat being vacated by Rob Portman. He wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, “Pondering running for retiring @senrobportman seat in United States Senate. #GoBuckeyes.”

Don’t look now, but in the past few weeks, libel lawsuits are failing left and right in New York state. On Tuesday alone, the New York Times beat Donald Trump while the New York Post prevailed over a bad photo choice. The former suit got most of the attention, but it’s the latter that provides the best example why the world’s media capital is suddenly more hospitable — at least, legally — for media companies.

In a rare case, Andrea Sahouri, a Des Moines Register reporter, was prosecuted after she was arrested while covering a protest against racism and police violence last May.

Monday’s edition of CBS This Morning beat Today and Good Morning America for the first time, thanks to exclusive new clips of Sunday night’s blockbuster Oprah Winfrey interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. CBS, which drew 17 million viewers for the Sunday primetime special, got another lift the following morning when Winfrey appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss the sit-down and air previously unseen clips from the exchange.

After six years leading E.W. Scripps’ millennial-targeted news network, Blake Sabatinelli has left the company. He’ll be replaced by a yet-unnamed head of network news to oversee both Newsy and Court TV for Scripps.