Journalism

Newly-installed Daily Beast boss Joanna Coles is anxious to hire boldface names like ousted CNN host Brian Stelter — as she sharpens the ax to slash more than a third of the staff. Coles — who was brought in by media mogul Barry Diller along with Disney bigwig Ben Sherwood last month to resuscitate the floundering news site, sources close to the situation said on Tuesday.

Jeffrey M. McCall: Solid journalism is, indeed, essential to the functioning of the nation. The constitutional framers knew that well, but they also knew that journalism’s function of watchdogging the government had to be done with independence, completely separate from government strings, financial or otherwise.

He previously served as unscripted portfolio director at BBC Studios and has held the Fremantle role on an interim basis since January.

Tom Wills retires from WJXT Jacksonville, Fla., after 49 years. Don Alhart says goodbye to WHAM Rochester, N.Y., after coming onboard in 1966.

The new partnerships feature content-sharing agreements with nonprofit outlets based in California (CalMatters), Hawaii (Honolulu Civil Beat), Montana (Montana Free Press), Nebraska (Nebraska Journalism Trust) and South Dakota (South Dakota News Watch).

In January 2021, the Washington Post’s Supreme Court reporter and his editors agreed: The upside-down American flag seen flying outside Justice Samuel Alito’s Virginia home was not, on its own, a story. Earlier this month, that same story broke in The New York Times, which reported that Alito said his wife had raised the flag — a symbol adopted by supporters of former President Donald Trump who believed the election had been stolen from him — amid a neighborhood dispute.

The right-wing cable channel Newsmax denied Friday that it intentionally destroyed or concealed internal emails in an ongoing defamation case filed by voting technology company Smartmatic over the network’s airing of false claims about the 2020 election.

As tech companies race to perfect machines that can already produce humanlike text, summarize long documents and describe images and videos, media companies, including Barry Diller’s IAC, are struggling to figure out where they fit into the new gold rush.

WWL Louisiana, Tegna’s CBS affiliate in New Orleans, aired a series of reports about Lawrence Hecker, an admitted pedophile priest, detailing some of his actions and the archdiocese’s leaders’ reactions to them.

Basketball Hall of Fame legend Bill Walton laughs during a practice session for the NBA All-Star basketball game in Cleveland, Feb. 19, 2022. Walton, who starred for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins before becoming a Basketball Hall of Famer and one of the biggest stars of basketball broadcasting, died Monday, May 27. He was 71. (Charles Krupa/AP)

Media Matters for America, the progressive watchdog journalism organization, underwent a round of layoffs, as its president cited the shifting media landscape as well as its defense against legal action. A spokesperson said that more than a dozen staffers were impacted.

Anderson Cooper humbles Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow, while Lester Holt is the standout in a new THR/Morning Consult poll.