Free Republic

Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal has started laying off employees across its entertainment portfolio, including its sports and cable channels, movie studio and theme parks, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

NBCUniversal’s vast television group is bracing for a significant downsizing as part of the pending layoffs that are expected to hit next month. A plan for layoffs and restructuring of operations have been signaled recently by newly appointed NBCU CEO Jeff Shell. Multiple sources said division heads in TV, including NBCU Television and Streaming chairman Mark Lazarus and NBCUniversal Content Studios chairman Bonnie Hammer have been evaluating production, programming, marketing and distribution operations in light of a fast-changing market for content. At NBCU’s film studio Universal Pictures, global operations are also expected to take a hit.

Key Points Vox Media has informed its unions that it plans to cut jobs as advertising revenue has slumped in the first and second quarters. Vox Media is preparing staff cuts to both unionized and non-union workers. Vox was 40% off its revenue forecast for the second quarter and plans to miss its full-year target by 25% ============================================================================ Vox Media, the owner of media properties including New York Magazine, The Verge, SBNation and Eater, has informed its worker unions to prepare for company-wide layoffs, according to people familiar with the matter. Vox spoke with union leaders Monday to inform them...

Robert De Niro says he’s running out of dinero. The coronavirus dealt a massive financial blow to the actor’s finances he revealed in court, as his estranged wife asked for an emergency order to raise her monthly American Express card credit limit from $50,000 to $100,000. The “Irishman” actor appeared by phone on a Skype call in his Manhattan divorce case with Grace Hightower as her lawyer told a judge that De Niro unfairly cut her monthly Am-Ex allowance from $100,000 to $50,000 and said she and their children had been banned from an upstate compound where De Niro is...

Memo outlines steps to combat 'culture of white supremacy' The turmoil at the New York Times has taken a dramatic turn, according to the text of a staff memo circulated among the newspaper's editorial staff. The combative document is reposted in full below: From: The People's Liberation Faction of the New York Times Editorial Guild To: Cis White Editors and Bari Weiss Since the illegitimate election of "President" XXXXXX X. XXXXX, We the People have lived in constant fear. Every day, the newspaper, and particularly its opinion section, has promoted the words of white supremacists intent on harming our Black,...

Microsoft is to replace dozens of contract journalists on its MSN website and use automated systems to select news stories, US and UK media report. The curating of stories from news organisations and selection of headlines and pictures for the MSN site is currently done by journalists. Artificial intelligence will perform these news production tasks, sources told the Seattle Times. Microsoft said it was part of an evaluation of its business. The US tech giant said in a statement: "Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and,...

After President Trump announced he would be suspending immigration to the United States to protect the jobs and wages of millions of newly unemployed workers during the pandemic, the Spectator USA reported an “internal battle” broke out in the White House. Sources familiar with the situation told the Spectator that Kushner “is one of the loudest voices pushing back on a full ban and is seeking to carve out exemptions for refugees, temporary workers under the H1B visa program, and farmworkers under the H-2A visa program.” If that’s true, then Kushner achieved a total victory. The ban applies only to...

The coronavirus pandemic has brought significant challenges to our families and our communities. From schools to the workplace, our daily routines have been turned inside out. We have witnessed a heartbreaking loss of life. And millions have lost their jobs. The response to this pandemic is the biggest story of our lives. At The Sacramento Bee, we feel a significant responsibility to report and share with you the full picture. Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article242198816.html#storylink=cpy

MUMBAI/AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Parts of India have recorded dramatic falls in mortality rates after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to fight the new coronavirus, suggesting there has not been an undetected surge in virus-related deaths.

President Trump signed an executive order slowing some green card processing, though a prior draft of the order was much more expansive and broad, Breitbart News has learned. The executive order, which can be modified in 60 days, halts a modest level of legal immigration from employment-based green card categories and extended family green card categories while exempting all visa worker programs.

After instituting pay cuts across its nonunion employees earlier this month, Tribune Publishing announced it will furlough employees across the company. Staffers will take three-week furloughs in one-week increments between May and July of this year to “ensure financial stability,” but will retain health benefits during those periods. Furloughs effect nonunion employees who make between $40,000 and $67,000 per year, the Chicago Tribune reports. As an alternative to a furlough, employees have the option of receiving a severance package and leaving the company. The move comes as the company experiences a further decline in advertising revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic....

Amid rapid growth in AI deployments across a variety of industry sectors, Intel has decided to address the skills shortage in AI-savvy developers by partnering with online technology learning platform Udacity to offer a course in edge AI for developers. “Historically, students have learned how to build and deploy deep learning models for the cloud. With Udacity, we are training AI developers to go where the data is generated in the physical world: the edge,” said Jonathan Ballon, Intel vice president and general manager, Internet of Things Group. “Optimizing direct deployment of models on edge devices requires knowledge of unique...

Official title:Covid-19 update: Requested PM Modi to release US order of hydroxychloroquine stockpile, says Trump President Trump did not shy away from saying he too will take a tablet of hydroxychloroquine after announcing that he has requested Prime Minister during his telephonic conversation earlier today to lift a hold on the US order of the medicine. US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply Hydroxychloroquine tablets that can be used to treat Covid-19 patients. “After call today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is giving serious consideration to releasing the...

Gwyneth Paltrow is offering her Instagram followers some advice while they self-quarantine. The Goop founder recommends that everyone transform enforced isolation into an opportunity to “write a book, learn an instrument or a language or learn to code online, draw or paint.” Paltrow, 47, shared a photo of herself wearing gloves and a mask after a trip to the farmer’s market assuring fans that her and hubby, “Glee” co-creator Brad Falchuk, only removed their masks and gloves once they neared their home and with no other pedestrians around.

Reporters at the Chicago Tribune are trying to find a new owner for their newspaper. They're doing it because they're afraid of Alden Global Capital's plans for all of the papers owned by Tribune Publishing. Alden, a New York-based hedge fund, recently became the largest shareholder in the struggling publishing company. Alden has a terrible reputation in the newspaper industry due to its history of slashing jobs and sucking up short-term profits from other papers it controls. "We're doing everything in our power to try to stop them," Gary Marx, a 31-year veteran of the Chicago Tribune, told CNN Business....

It's not a good morning for Iowa Democrats. They are trying to do damage control the morning after one of the most disastrous election nights in recent memory. Hours after the Hawkeye State voting ended, and there are still no results. The only thing we do know, is that the Democrats really bungled this process.  In in their new statement Tuesday morning, the party tried to give some kind of an explanation as to what the bleep happened. It was not any kind of cyber intrusion, they admit. It was purely technical incompetence. NEW statement from @iowademocrats -- "While the...

Last spring, during my first week as a janitor at a Dave & Buster’s, I struck up a conversation with a co-worker who served 17 years in prison. Swapping life stories, I sheepishly divulged that I used to work for The Washington Post, that I had a book published by HarperCollins, and that I had been the editor of a popular website. SNIP For the life of me, I couldn’t begin to explain how I went from having a life and career I felt proud of, to being publicly shamed by my peers and punished for things I didn’t do....

<p>In October 2017, I was one of roughly 70 men included in the Shitty Media Men list, a crowdsourced spreadsheet of anonymous, unvetted allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. No words can describe my astonishment and horror at finding myself accused of “harassment,” “stalking” and “physical intimidation.” In the decade leading up to the list, my work was regularly published by more than a dozen outlets and I was frequently offered work. After the leak, that work screeched to a stop.</p>

CNN and the Des Moines Register have scrapped the planned release of a key poll on Saturday, less than two days before the Iowa caucuses after concerns that an apparent coding error left one of the leading contenders out of at least one survey. The media outlets decided to nix a planned live televised release of the survey after a supporter of former Mayor Pete Buttigieg received a call from the pollsters — and Buttigieg’s name was not one of the options offered. The New York Times first reported the network’s decision to cancel the poll’s release. The Des Moines...

Founded in 1881, The Buffalo News will have its third owner in its nearly 140-year history, thanks to a sale to Lee Enterprises. Spectrum News reports that the sale, for $140 million in cash, includes the Berkshire Hathaway Media Group publications with print and digital operations of 30 daily newspapers and more than 49 paid weekly publications and 32 other print products. Lee has managed the BH Media Group since the summer of 2018. For The Buffalo News, the sale announced Wednesday morning signals the end of a 40-year ownership by Warren Buffett. Lee Enterprises will be the third owner...