Horizon

Late night yesterday, the US President signed an Executive Order for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding PBS and NPR. There have been statements from all three public media institutions who have expressed strong disagreements with the President's move, including NPR which threatened legal action. --- CPB: Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), issued the following statement today regarding the President’s Executive Order on public media: “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government. “In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors…’ 47 U.S.C. § 398(c).” --- PBS: Statement from Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS: “The President’s blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years. We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.” --- NPR:

Christiane Amanpour is joining Global UK Audio to launch new original podcasts. Global's most notable podcast is called "The News Agents" with Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, and Lewis Goodall, former BBC presenters. Amanpour will still remain at CNN and PBS with all of her current TV programs.

Two notes on Don Lemon from the Daily Beast. - He was called out by Chris Cuomo, as he claims that the CNN relationship they had together was never real. He also said he wouldn't want to do a podcast again with Lemon. - As for Lemon himself, he spoke to the Beast earlier this month about his past work at CNN and expanding his Social Media news brand.

And evolving it is... What lead to Bill Owens' resignation seems to have come from, according to Semafor's reporting, Paramount owner Shari Redstone's watch on 60 Mins. She wanted to know upcoming stories they were reporting on with President Trump that sparked a chain of events that resulted in Owens' departure. However, Redstone's spokesperson denied any involvement she had.

A forum topic discussing the longest running news magazine on network television. The New York Times reporting major news that will affect the future of 60 Minutes. Executive Producer Bill Owens will exit the program. He cites the fact that he doesn't feel like he has editorial control and freedom to be separated from the overall control of CBS News and its parent company, Paramount. This comes as they've been facing turmoil from the current administration. "Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience. So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward."

A forum topic to check up on former Cable News anchors who have decided to return via podcasting, YouTube, Substack, and other forms of new media platforms. Former Fox and CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota, and former Fox anchor Dave Briggs, have returned and will co-host a new Mediaite-backed podcast called "Sanity".

Well, the trend has been (mainly with former news anchors) starting their own platforms, Substack, Podcasts, etc. She jumped on the podcast bandwagon, but also did something that may surprise some of you. She started her own AI clone to provide her own Weather AI company in partnership with The Weather Company.

Hopefully in return, Sony has the full freedom to distribute it to streaming services....especially on free platforms.

According to Deadline, CBS has abandoned the 12:30am slot. The news comes after “After Midnight” host Taylor Tomlinson decided to end her time hosting the program and move on to other comedic projects, resulting in the show's cancellation. That means NBC is the only network with two late-night programs. Not that ABC ever had a second late-night program, but this is notable in terms of the late-night landscape's direction. It's not dying yet, but it is bleeding a bit more.

WSVN has formally announced the adding of ABC to its affiliation lineup on the air. WPLG also announced the ending of its ABC affiliation on TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF4ISfI7QJU

Fox Kansas City (WDAF) has switched to the graphics that was first debuted by Fox Indianapolis (WXIN) last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbehyeetv0

The CBS News Local graphics have come to Milwaukee ...to me, nothing to really write home about. It looks the same as the CBS O&Os, except it's in teal. But they got everything almost to a T with this.

He started yesterday (Wednesday), and his first story was on drug abuse.

Well, I guess it's been 2 to 3 weeks since the rumored reverting to the old CNN look. I guess it's safe to say I was wrong, and so was the original "source" who spark my thinking. My apologies.

Give it a few weeks, as I think that source said. The changes started yesterday, and they're slowly going back to the old one. I think they're recreating it from scratch, or finding the files to help do it from.