Sinclair Videos Renew Debate Over Media Ownership

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by Business Day Sinclair Videos Renew Debate Over Media Ownership Photo Sinclair Broadcast is trying to expand by buying Tribune Media for $3.9 billion. Credit Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times The internet lit up over the weekend after videos showed dozens of local newscasters across the country using the same script to criticize the news industry. The newscasters said they were “concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country.”
The statements were part of a promotion that stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group were required to deliver. The promotions, highlighted by the websites Deadspin and Think Progress, led to concern on social media about how the company wields power over its news broadcasts.
Read more about the promotional script.
President Trump went to Sinclair’s defense on Monday, posting on Twitter that the company’s stations, which often run commentary that is favorable to his administration, are ..

Stock Markets Tumble Amid Worries Over Tech Firms and Trade Tensions

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by Business Day Stock Markets Tumble Amid Worries Over Tech Firms and Trade Tensions A broad market sell-off hit Wall Street on Monday, with major stock indexes slumping more than 2 percent by the early afternoon as a recent blitz of bad news about technology companies and festering worries about a trade war between the United States and China continued to leave investors jittery.
Shares in major tech firms were among those hit hardest.
Amazon’s stock price was down 6 percent by midday after President Trump, who has repeatedly assailed the online retail giant over what he says is its abuse of the Postal Service and failure to pay adequate taxes, took another swipe at the company on Twitter.
Market Snapshot View Full Overview Facebook, which has experienced a rash of defections by users since becoming embroiled in a scandal over data privacy last month, saw its shares drop more than 3 percent.
Shares of the electric carmaker Tesla slid about 8 percent after the company’s..

Sidelined by Scandal, Mario Batali Is Eyeing His Second Act

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by Food Sidelined by Scandal, Mario Batali Is Eyeing His Second Act Photo The celebrity chef Mario Batali speaking at a benefit for Teens for Food Justice at his restaurant La Sirena in November. In news reports the next month, several women described a decades-long pattern of abusive behavior in his empire.
Credit Krista Schlueter for The New York Times On a gloomy Friday afternoon in February, Mario Batali sat down for coffee at the Marlton Hotel, a few blocks from Babbo, his restaurant in Greenwich Village. His guest was the food consultant and writer Christine Muhlke.
Mr. Batali had called the meeting, as he has with several other people whose opinions he trusts, to figure out how his life and career might recover from a disastrous turn.
In December, a series of news reports about the celebrity chef began tumbling out. Several women described a decades-long pattern of abusive behavior both in his empire and at restaurants owned by friends that ranged from lewd, drunk..

Wall Street Dragged Down by Amazon, Tech Weakness

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by

Business Day

Wall Street Dragged Down by Amazon, Tech Weakness

(Reuters) – A dreadful week for technology stocks worsened on Monday as Amazon and Tesla shares fell further, setting a grim tone for markets already worried about China's decision to raise import tariffs on U.S. products.
Amazon dropped as much as 3 percent after President Donald Trump launched his latest attack over the pricing of the world's biggest online retailer's deliveries through the U.S. postal system and promised unspecified changes.
The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq and weighed the most on the S&P consumer discretionary index, which fell 1.32 percent.
The Facebook data scandal, self-driving car crashes and Trump's intervention against Amazon pushed the S&P technology sector to post its worst monthly losses in nearly two years in March.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Facebook was down 1.7 percent on Monday, while the other FAN..

DealBook Briefing: Elon Musk’s April Fool’s Joke

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by DealBook Briefing: Elon Musk’s April Fool’s Joke Photo Credit Twitter: @elonmusk Good Monday morning. The Trump administration is expected to announce this week the list of Chinese products that will be hit with tariffs. The Chinese government this morning retaliated to the steel and aluminum tariffs that have already been announced. Some links require subscriptions.
“So bankrupt, you can’t believe it.”Elon Musk finally responded to last week’s bad news with some April Fool’s tweets saying that Tesla had “gone completely and totally bankrupt.”
Elon was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by “Teslaquilla” bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks.
The context
Analysts have warned of serious financial strains as the electric-car maker struggles to reach production targets for its Model 3.
Tesla has been racing to increase output to help burnish numbers for its earnings report. Its Fremont, Calif., delivery hub was packed on Saturday..

Why Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by Media Why Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script Photo “Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think,” dozens of news anchors said last month, reading from a script provided by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Credit fro nch, via YouTube On local news stations across the United States last month, dozens of anchors gave the same speech to their combined millions of viewers.
It included a warning about fake news, a promise to report fairly and accurately and a request that viewers go to the station’s website and comment “if you believe our coverage is unfair.”
It may not have seemed strange until viewers began to notice that the newscasters from Seattle to Phoenix to Washington sounded very similar. Stitched-together videos on social media showed them eerily echoing the same lines:
“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social ..

Steven Bochco, Producer of ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘NYPD Blue,’ Dies at 74

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by Obituaries Steven Bochco, Producer of ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘NYPD Blue,’ Dies at 74 Photo Steven Bochco at his office in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2016. Credit Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press Steven Bochco, a celebrated television writer and producer whose sophisticated prime-time portrayals of gritty courtrooms and police station houses redefined television dramas and pushed the boundaries of onscreen vulgarity and nudity, died on Sunday in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 74.
Mr. Bochco died from complications of cancer, a family spokesman said. He had received a stem cell transplant in October 2014 for leukemia.
Over three decades starting in the early 1980s, Mr. Bochco, whose earlier shows “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law” upended the traditional hourlong drama, was one of Hollywood’s most prolific and sought-after producers. He mixed elements of daytime soap operas — like story lines that stretch over multiple episodes and feature a rich ensemble ..

How to Fill Unpleasant Jobs in Undesirable Places: Recruit Refugees

ECONOMYLeave a comment

How to Fill Unpleasant Jobs in Undesirable Places: Recruit Refugees SILVER SPRING, Md. — With forecasters expecting the unemployment rate to sink further this week, the chorus of complaints about worker shortages — from custodians to computer prodigies — has swelled.
Yet companies that turn to labor recruiters like Ray Wiley tend to have an especially tough time: The jobs they offer are in out-of-way places; the work is low-paid and disagreeable; and native-born Americans, particularly white men, are generally not interested.
“We have employers call us all the time,” said Mr. Wiley, who primarily works with meat-processing plants and lumber mills that have trouble retaining workers even when the jobless rate is well above its historically low level of 4.1 percent.
Now that the economy is on solid footing during its ninth year of recovery, even entry-level workers have more options. So in Atlanta, San Diego and other cities, Mr. Wiley’s company, East Coast Labor Solutions, finds workers..

Elon Musk Makes Light of Tesla’s Troubles in April Fool’s Tweets

BUSINESSLeave a comment

Supported by Business Day Elon Musk Makes Light of Tesla’s Troubles in April Fool’s Tweets Photo Elon Musk joked that Tesla was “Bankwupt!” in an April Fool’s Twitter post that made light of the company’s worrying financial picture. Credit Mark Brake/Getty Images For the past week, as the electric-car maker Tesla has been buffeted by a barrage of negative news, Elon Musk, its chief executive, has offered no public comments on the company’s shaky finances, its slumping stock price or the increasing questions about the safety of its self-driving technology.
He finally responded Sunday — with an April Fool’s joke that the company was going bankrupt.
“Despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs, we are sad to report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt,” Mr. Musk wrote on Twitter. “So bankrupt, you can’t believe it.”
Tesla Goes Bankrupt
Palo Alto, California, April 1, 2018 — Despite intense efforts to raise money, including ..