by tyler | May 18, 2023 | CNN, media
In a second legal victory for Ed Sheeran this month, a federal district judge dismissed another lawsuit that claimed Sheeran’s hit “Thinking Out Loud” copied the 1973 Marvin Gaye hit “Let’s Get It On.”
The lawsuit, brought by Structured Asset Sales LLC, investment banker David Pullman’s company that owns one-third of the copyright to “Let’s Get It On,” is connected to a previous lawsuit Sheeran won earlier this month against the family of Gaye’s co-writer Edward Townsend.
In the Townsend family suit, a jury at trial in the same Manhattan federal court found Sheeran independently created “Thinking out Loud” and so did not infringe on the copyright of “Let’s Get It On.”
The SAS lawsuit similarly alleges “Thinking Out Loud” copies elements of “Let’s Get it On.”
Federal District Judge Lewis Stanton, the presiding judge in both cases, dismissed the SAS case Wednesday in a written ruling that said the combination of the chord progression and harmonic rhythm of “Let’s Get It On” is “too commonplace to merit copyright protection.”
“The selection and arrangement of these two musical elements in ‘Let’s Get It On’ is now commonplace and thus their combination is unprotectable. If their combination were protected and not freely available to songwriters, the goal of copyright law ‘[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts’ would be thwarted,” Stanton wrote.
Judge Stanton also asserted that Sheeran did not infringe on the protected elements of “Let’s Get It On.”
“There is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants infringed the protected elements of “Let’s Get It On.” The answer is that they did not,” the judge wrote.
“It is an unassailable reality that the chord progression and harmonic rhythm in ‘Let’s Get It On’ are so commonplace, in isolation and in combination, that to protect their combination would give ‘Let’s Get It On’ an impermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block.”
Sheeran’s co-writer Amy Wadge and other companies involved in the publication, distribution and copyright of “Thinking Out Loud” were also named defendants in the suit.
The suit was filed in 2018 after SAS unsuccessfully tried to join in as a plaintiff in the Townsend family’s suit.
Still, the legal battle over “Thinking Out Loud” is not over for Sheeran and his co-defendants.
SAS will appeal the ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Pullman told CNN.
Representatives for Sheeran declined to comment on Stanton’s dismissal of the case.
Another lawsuit that splintered from the original SAS suit against Sheeran and his co-defendants is also still pending in Manhattan federal court.
Pullman is especially optimistic about that case, he told CNN, because if the case gets to trial, a jury will likely be able to consider the sound recording and the sheet music for “Let’s Get It On.”
A true recording of the Marvin Gaye hit was not admissible as evidence for the jury to consider in the most recent trial.
Jurors instead heard computer-generated clips of the song at issue in the suit.
Pullman says the sound recording of “Let’s Get It On” coupled with its sheet music, both of which are registered with the US Copyright Office, will prove their case against Sheeran.
by tyler | May 15, 2023 | CNN, media
Vice Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday to facilitate a sale of the company and safeguard its future, according to court documents and a statement from the struggling media group.
The company, which publishes news, technology and lifestyle websites such as Vice, Motherboard and Refinery29, made the filing in the Southern District of New York. The filing stated that the company had assets and liabilities worth between $500 million and $1 billion.
A group of creditors, which includes Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, had made a conditional bid for “substantially all of the company’s assets,” Vice said. The lenders had agreed to provide approximately $225 million, and would assume “significant liabilities” upon closing of the deal.
The sale process, which should conclude in the next two to three months, would allow other parties to submit “higher or better bids” for the company, it added. Vice’s international entities and Vice TV, a joint venture with A&E Networks, are not part of the chapter 11 filing or the sale process.
The plan to sell the company comes weeks after the company announced a major restructuring that will result in dozens of job cuts and the end of its popular program “Vice News Tonight.”
News, entertainment and technology companies have been buffeted by falling advertising revenue in recent months, leading several to slash their workforces and shutter unprofitable divisions. In April, Buzzfeed said it would close down its news division altogether, and last week Paramount Media called time on MTV News.
Vice, however, is hopeful that the sale will give the company a new lease on life.
“This accelerated court-supervised sale process will strengthen the company and position Vice for long-term growth,” said co-chief executive officers Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala.
“We will have new ownership, a simplified capital structure and the ability to operate without the legacy liabilities that have been burdening our business. We look forward to… charting a healthy and successful next chapter at VICE.”
According to the court filing, Vice has more than 5,000 creditors. The three creditors involved in the bid process have provided $20 million in cash to the company, alongside other financing commitments.
“Vice anticipates that this financing, as well as the cash generated from ongoing operations, will be more than sufficient to fund its business throughout the sale process,” it said.
“The company expects to continue to pay employee wages and benefits without interruption and pay vendors and suppliers on normal terms.”
by tyler | May 12, 2023 | CNN, media
America’s most-watched PBS station is on the verge of going dark.
The Republican governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, recently vetoed a bill that would have renewed the license and provided millions in funding for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the statewide PBS network that reaches more than 650,000 viewers a week. Stitt took issue with what he alleged was LGBTQ-inclusive programming on the station, claiming to Fox News that it amounted to the “indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children.”
“It doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values,” Stitt told the right-wing network this week in an interview about the decision.
The move from Stitt to attack the home of family friendly programs such as “Sesame Street,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” and “Mister Rogers” is representative of a new and quickly expanding front in the culture wars. Republicans, most prominently Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have over the last year laced into Disney, claiming the intentionally inoffensive brand is really a “creepy” company engaged in “grooming” children with radical gender ideology. That strain of attack is now spreading to PBS.
A spokesperson for the public broadcaster defended its programming, saying it provides “curriculum-based content that for generations has educated and inspired children in Oklahoma and across the country.”
“The threat to funding puts Oklahoma families at risk of losing access to the local free content they trust to help kids reach their full potential. The fundamental goal of PBS KIDS remains supporting children as they learn and grow through programming they have come to know and love. Now is not the time to take that away from any child,” the spokesperson said.
While rhetoric from politicians can often be empty and merely aimed at exciting supporters, the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from the GOP is leading in recent months to real actionable consequences. Cheered on by the most powerful entities in right-wing media, politicians like Stitt and DeSantis are moving to use the power of the state to punish organizations for their inclusivity.
While the Oklahoma station receives $6.3 million in funding from donors and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $2.9 million comes from the state government. If Stitt’s veto is not overridden by the state legislature, it would send the station into uncharted territory and could prompt painful decisions to be made.
Not only is OETA the home of educational children’s programming, but it also plays an important civic role. It produces and airs the “Oklahoma News Report,” the only state news program that reaches every county in Oklahoma. And, crucially, it is the broadcast network that state authorities rely on to disseminate emergency alerts to the public, including for severe weather, a frequent and dangerous occurrence in the Tornado Alley state. In just the last year alone, the network has transmitted more than 200 emergency alerts.
State Sen. Carri Hicks, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma City, blasted Stitt’s decision, saying she is “deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to politicize an institution that is so meaningful to generations of Oklahomans.”
“I grew up in a rural community where we did not have access to cable or satellite television, but I did have high-quality educational content on PBS,” Hicks said in a statement. “Because of OETA, I spent my afternoons after school practicing math and reading. Our governor wants to rob our children of that programming and opportunity to learn just so that he can score some political points. It is truly a shame and a disservice to the people of Oklahoma.”
Bob Spinks, a board member and past president of the Friends of OETA non-profit, also spoke out against the governor’s move.
“Since we are Oklahoma’s only statewide television broadcasting system, serving all citizens in the 77 counties in our state, the loss of OETA will leave an enormous gap in providing educational programming, public safety support, and civic engagement for the hundreds of thousands who depend on us weekly,” Spinks told CNN.
“I am not sure of how it will develop if the veto isn’t overridden,” Spinks candidly said. “Clearly, there could be an effect on emergency alert capability.”
“But since we’ve never faced this before,” Spinks added, “we just don’t know.”
– CNN’s Jon Passantino contributed to this report
by tyler | May 9, 2023 | CNN, media
CNBC said on Tuesday that it will part ways with Hadley Gamble, the anchor and senior international correspondent who filed a sexual harassment complaint that led to the firing of NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Shell.
“Gamble has been a distinguished journalist for more than a decade for CNBC, undertaking highly visible and challenging assignments, and developing deep expertise in the Middle East and beyond,” a CNBC spokesperson said in a statement announcing her departure.
“Her initiative and drive have secured valuable interviews with several world political leaders,” the spokesperson added. “We wish her every success in her future endeavors.”
Comcast said in late April that it had fired Shell after it corroborated a female employee’s allegations of sexual harassment. Gamble’s lawyer, Suzanne McKie, said that it was Gamble’s complaint that led to the probe into Shell.
McKie did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN on Tuesday
by tyler | May 9, 2023 | CNN, media
Bret Baier’s standing as a “fair and balanced” newsman is being called into question like never before.
The Fox News chief political anchor has long enjoyed a strong reputation in Washington circles and among viewers, anchoring major news events for the network and moderating presidential debates. While its never been a secret that Baier’s program carries a conservative bent, he’s widely been considered a respected figure who adheres to traditional journalistic ethics and standards.
That reputation, however, has been ruptured in recent months by the release of leaked private text messages sent in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, casting the “Special Report” anchor in a dramatically different light.
On Thursday, the Daily Beast reported that Baier and now-former host Tucker Carlson engaged in a conversation on November 4, 2020, about potentially delaying Fox News’ call of the election. Both men complained that they were receiving blowback from their Trump-supporting viewers over the network’s controversial early projection that then-candidate Joe Biden would win the state of Arizona, putting him on the brink of capturing the White House.
“We need to do something to reassure our core audience,” Carlson wrote Baier in the wake of the Arizona call, according to The Beast. “They’re our whole business model.”
Baier replied that he had been “pushing for answers.” He then added, according to The Beast, “I have pressed them to slow. And I think they will slow walk Nevada.”
Days later, the network was, in fact, last to call the presidency for Biden.
When reached for comment Monday, a Fox News spokesperson pointed me to a previous statement from the network.
“Fox News stood by the Arizona call despite intense scrutiny,” the statement said. “Given the extremely narrow 0.3% margin and a new projection mechanism that no other network had, it’s hardly surprising there would be postmortem discussions surrounding the call and how it was executed, no matter the candidates.”
While much attention has been paid in recent months to the shocking comments Carlson made about Trump and his colleagues inside the right-wing network, Baier has managed to escape much of the scrutiny in the press. But the leaked messages exposed that Baier, like others at the outlet, feared its Trump-supporting audience and seemingly went as far as to urge that editorial decisions be made to placate its viewers, a brazen breach of journalistic norms.
The report in The Beast followed an explosive March story from The New York Times that quoted Baier pushing Fox News President Jay Wallace to pull the channel’s Arizona call and “put it back in [Trump’s] column,” even though it was never in Trump’s column.
Typically, anchors are not involved in discussions related to making election calls. That process is left up to a network’s decision desk. And normally, decision desks base their calls off of data and voting statistics, without taking into consideration politics or potentially alienating a channel’s audience.
“There has been some misdirection in the sense that all of the coverage tends to flow to the most outrageous behavior and less outrageous behavior, but still extremely troubling behavior, gets less attention,” Erik Wemple, a media critic at The Washington Post, told me. “I think that’s the case with Baier.”
That’s not to say, however, that certain circles in politics and media are not taking notice of it all. In Washington, Baier’s peers in the news media are paying close attention. I’m told that over the weekend there was consternation among other network anchors about the latest embarrassing revelation involving Baier.
The revelations about Baier are especially noteworthy given that he is the face of Fox News’ so-called “straight news” division. The channel has long argued that its right-wing talk show hosts, which make up the bulk of the outlet’s programming, operate in a separate world fire-walled from its journalists. This argument makes it easier for Fox News to pitch itself to advertisers who might otherwise be wary about marketing their products.
“I am one of those people who does observe some distinction between Bret Baier and Sean Hannity … but the text messages show they are all panicking about the same thing,” Wemple told me. “And the news operation sees its existence as hinging on the crazy. They see their future as imperiled if the fringe isn’t happy.”
In the wake of departures of Fox’s stable of even-handed news anchors in recent years — including Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace — Baier has effectively stood alone as the final member of the old guard. But after the leaked messages showed an attempt to meddle in the race calls, Wemple said, Fox’s ability to use Baier as a fig leaf will be much more difficult to maintain.
“It’s clear now that the fig leaf is translucent,” he said. “It’s not covering anything up.”
by tyler | May 9, 2023 | CNN, media
Despite a turbulent and expensive few weeks, Fox News isn’t changing course.
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said there will be no change in strategy at the company’s top rated right-wing network, despite the firing of its top rated anchor Tucker Carlson and a massive $787.5 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems that resulted in the company swinging to a loss in the just completed period.
“There is no change to our programming strategy at Fox News,” Murdoch said in response to an analyst who asked about Carlson’s ouster during the investor call Tuesday to discuss its financial results.
Murdoch described Fox News as “obviously a successful strategy” and suggested Carlson’s firing was a tweaking of its strategy, not a departure from it.
“As always, we are adjusting our programming and lineup and that is what we continue to do,” Murdoch said.
His comments came after the company reported a $50 million net loss for the just completed quarter, compared to $290 million in profit a year earlier.
The reason was a $719 million charge including the cost of the Dominion settlement, other legal settlements related to its news division and other legal costs, including attorney fees, which was partly offset by equity earnings of it affiliates and a change in the market value of some of its investments.
The earnings statement didn’t mention Dominion Voting Systems, although it does refer to charges related to legal settlement costs at Fox News Media. On the company’s call with investors Murdoch referred to the settlement with Dominion as in the best interest of the company and its shareholders, given rulings by the Delaware court that he said limited its defense. He said going to trial could have led to two to three years of appeals.
“We’re proud of our Fox News team, the exceptional quality of their journalism and their stewardship of the Fox News brand,” he said. “So as we look ahead, we are confident in the strength of the Fox brands and the strength of our balance sheet.”
And he again defended the company’s post-election coverage of the false conspiracy theories made against Dominion, even though internal communications among Fox anchors made public during the discovery process showed many of them didn’t believe the claims being made.
“We always acted as a news organization reporting on the newsworthy events of the day,” Murdoch told investors Tuesday. “Now we have been and remain confident in the merits of our position that the first amendment protects a news organization’s reporting and allegations being made by a sitting president of the United States. However, the Delaware court severely limited our defenses and trial through pre-trial rulings.”
Fox did not have to apologize or admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement in Dominion’s defamation suit against it, although its statement did say it acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
Fox still faces a lawsuit from another voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which is seeking $2.7 billion in damages. Murdoch told investors that case is “fundamentally different” from the Dominion case and that Fox will have greater defenses available to it than in the Delaware court hearing the Dominion case. He predicted that case won’t go to trial until 2025.
The Dominion settlement was reached on April 18, but it was still reported in Fox’s fiscal third quarter, which concluded March 31. Excluding the legal costs and other special items reported Tuesday, it was a pretty good financial quarter for Fox.
It reported adjusted earnings of $494 million, or 94 cents a share, up from $459 million a year earlier. That was better than the 87 cents a share forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The company was helped by the profits and revenue gain it received from airing this year’s Super Bowl.
Revenue at the company rose 18% to $4.1 billion, slightly higher than analysts’ forecasts. Most of that gain was due to a 43% surge in advertising revenue, helped greatly by $650 million in Super Bowl ads. Fox did not broadcast the Super Bowl in 2022.
Fox had plenty of money available to pay the settlement. It said it had $4.1 billion in cash and cash equivalent on hand as of March 30, about three weeks before the settlement was reached. It also announced it repurchased $1.8 billion of its shares in the nine months ending March 31, as part of a $7 billion share repurchase plan. So far, Fox has repurchased $4.4 billion worth of shares as part of its plan.
Murdoch said Fox is better positioned than many other media companies to ride out the delays and lost revenue that could take place from a prolonged strike by the Writers Guild of America. Some programming, such as late night shows, have already gone dark due to the strike that started last week, and production on other shows has been halted.
But Murdoch said the fact that Fox has more of its revenue and profit coming from sports and news, which are not affected by the strike, puts it in a better position.
“Our healthy balance of scripted and unscripted content on the network puts us in a tremendous position,” he said.
The hit from the settlement was well known by investors ahead of the report. But even with the better than expected results, Fox
(FOX) shares were up only about 1% in trading at the market open following the report.
