“The Washington Post editorial this morning essentially equating Biden’s questionable pardons with Trump’s outrageous Jan. 6 pardons was unconscionable,” David Maraniss, a 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner who has been with the paper nearly 50 years, wrote on Bluesky. “The newspaper I’ve been part of for 48 years has utterly lost its soul.”

Maraniss didn’t link to the editorial in question, but he appears to be referring to one actually published late Tuesday by Jason Willick, titled “The Biden-Trump pardons show collapsing executive restraint.”

Among its arguments, the op-ed says “it’s debatable which president’s abuse of the pardon power on Monday… was more damaging,” and describes them as “tit-for-tat escalations.”

While it does refer to Trump’s mass-pardons for Jan.6 insurrectionists “indefensible,” it largely treats Biden’s preemptive pardons of people Trump has threatened to persecute with state power as, effectively, morally equivalent.

Maraniss didn’t follow up on the comment, and as of this writing he has not announced he is resigning from the paper. But it’s not the first time he’s called out his employer in such direct terms. In October, after owner Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, Maraniss wrote on Twitter, “Once again but this time more than ever I am embarrassed for my newspaper. The decision in this of all years to not endorse when democracy is on the line is contemptible.”

“The paper I’ve loved working at for 47 years is dying in darkness,” Maraniss added, referring to slogan it adopted during Donald Trump’s first term, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

And he’s far from the only WaPo vet to revolt as Bezos forces the paper in a decidedly conservative, clearly pro-Trump direction. Among them was columnist Michele Norris, who called the decision to spike the Harris endorsement “a terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard.”

Editor at large Robert Kagan also resigned, while writer Molly Roberts and Pultizer Prize-winning journalist David Hoffman both resigned from the board in protest. And the Post’s most famous alumni, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, condemned the decision strongly.

More recently, longtime WaPo editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned on Jan. 3 after editors pulled a cartoon that criticized Bezos.

Bezos has steadfastly stuck by the stark changes he’s imposed on the Post since last fall, enacted at the same time the billionaire visibly became one of Trump’s most prominent courtiers. But the changes have been a disaster for the paper, cratering subscriptions and revenues.

The post Washington Post Editor Slams Paper for Op-Ed ‘Essentially Equating’ Biden, Trump Pardons: ‘Utterly Lost Its Soul’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Burgess claimed to have videos of the rapper sexually assaulting celebrities and minors who were clearly inebriated. Burgess was later subpoenaed by federal prosecutors and testified in front of a grand jury about the alleged videos.

The defamation suit, which was filed on Wednesday in New York claims Burgess, Mitchell and Nextstar engaged in “willful scheme to fabricate and broadcast outrageous lies.” The suit goes on to say that these falsehoods were leveraged “to gain social media fame, enrich themselves, and strip Mr. Combs of his reputation, livelihood, and a right to a fair trial.”

“Combs is taking a stand against the malicious falsehoods that have been fabricated and amplified by individuals seeking to profit at his expense.” Combs’ attorney Erica Wolff shared in a statement with Variety. “These defendants have willfully fabricated and disseminated outrageous lies with reckless disregard for the truth. Their falsehoods have poisoned public perception and contaminated the jury pool. This complaint should serve as a warning that such falsehoods, which undermine Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial, will no longer be tolerated.”

In the original interview with NewsNation, Burgess said he was working in the Atlanta music industry when Combs’ ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, who shares four children with the rapper, gave him 11 flash drives that contained sex tapes involving at least eight celebrities. 

Burgess allegedly also received Porter’s personal memoir “Kim’s Lost Words: A Journey for Justice, from the other side.” The book reports of physical abuse and acts of sexual coercion and violence that the rapper committed. Ariel Mitchell, who is also a defendant in the lawsuit, said the tapes “tell the story of what Diddy has done over the past 30 years” including his “deviant activities.” 

Combs was charged on September 16, 2024. He pleaded not guilty to multiple counts including allegations he coerced and abused women and sex trafficking by force. The indictment also states he silenced victims through tactics like blackmail, kidnapping and physical beatings. He was denied bail and remains incarcerated. His trial is scheduled to begin on May 5th, but it is unclear if new evidence will further delay the proceedings.  

The post Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Files $50 Million Defamation Suit Against Grand Jury Accuser appeared first on TheWrap.

The complaints were filed by The Center for American Rights, a self-described “nonpartisan public interest law firm.” The firm accused ABC Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV of favoring Vice President Kamala Harris when the network hosted the September presidential debate, New York’s WCBS-TV for “news distortion” for the way Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview was edited, and New York’s WNBC-TV of violating the FCC’s equal time rule when Harris appeared on “Saturday Night Live” during the weekend leading up to the presidential election.

In her decision last week, Rosenworcel said that the complaints had aimed to “weaponize” the agency and were “at odds” with the First Amendment. In the order denying the complaints against WPVI and WCBS, the FCC said that the First Amendment restricts the agency from interfering with the free press. In the order denying the complaint against WNBC, the agency noted that the station complied with the equal time rule by giving Trump airtime the next day during a NASCAR race and an NFL “Sunday Night Football” game. She added that the FCC “should not be the President’s speech police” or “journalism’s censor-in-chief.”

But Carr argues that Rosenworcel’s order was “issued prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record for the station-specific conduct at issue.”

“We therefore conclude that this complaint requires further consideration,” he added. “Thus, on our own motion and pursuant to our existing authority under section 1.113 of the Commission’s rules, we hereby set aside the Letter Order and reinstate the complaint.”

The decision to reinstate the complaints come as president Donald Trump has previously called for the broadcast licenses of ABC, NBC and CBS to be revoked over their coverage during the campaign.

Meanwhile, a fourth complaint filed by the Media and Democracy Project, which pushed to revoke the broadcast license of Fox Philadelphia’s WTXF-TV, will not have its dismissal reversed. The complaint, which was supported by former News Corp. government relations head Preston Padden, alleged that the Dominion Voting System lawsuit against Fox Corp. showed that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch lacked the “character” to hold a broadcast license.

In the order denying the complaint against WTFX, the FCC said the character assessment requested is “at odds with the First Amendment and continued freedom of the press” and that previous actions that revoked broadcast licenses for “character” issues “involved the station’s clear failure to comply with agency rules (not at issue here) or a clearly adjudicated felony for the station owner (also not at issue here).”

In a joint statement, the Media and Democracy Project and Padden said they “look forward to presenting on appeal the multiple court decisions that raise serious questions about the Murdochs’ and Fox’s character qualifications to remain broadcast licensees.”

They noted that the petition is based on “judicial findings that Fox made repeated false statements that undermined the electoral process and resulted in property damage, injury and death; that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch engaged in a ‘carefully crafted scheme’ in ‘bad faith’ to deprive Lachlan’s siblings of the control to which they are entitled under an irrevocable trust; and that ‘Murdoch knowingly caused the corporation to violate the law.’”

“As renowned First Amendment scholar Floyd Abrams stated in his filing with the Commission, the First Amendment is no bar to Commission action given the facts of this case. Our petition is clearly distinct from the other politically motivated complaints,” they added. “It simply will be wrong if the Murdochs and Fox escape any responsibility for their prominent role for the riot at the Capitol on January 6th and the efforts to overturn the results of a presidential election.”

Carr has previously said that the “news distortion” complaint against CBS is likely to arise in the context of the agency’s review of Paramount Global’s pending $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. The deal, which is on track to close in the first half of 2025, is subject to regulatory approval from the FCC due to a required transfer of broadcast licenses.

The Center for American Rights has asked that approval of the merger be conditioned upon Paramount’s commitment that it will avoid foreign influence and promote viewpoint diversity – going as far as suggesting the agency coordinate with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) or other national security agencies to review the transaction.

It argues that an investment in Skydance from Tencent Holdings raises questions about “troubling questions about undue foreign influence from China.” It also claims that CBS News has “exhibited improper ideological bias” and that CBS Television has “apparently engaged in illegal racial quotas for its hiring.”

Skydance and Paramount have asked the FCC to dismiss the firm’s objections to the merger, arguing the viewpoint neutrality condition would “improperly encroach on broadcasters’ editorial discretion” and violate the First Amendment. They also said that the allegations of Chinese influence have “no factual foundation and are legally unavailing” and that Tencent’s “entirely passive, non-attributable, minority interests present no basis for concern about undue influence.”

The post Complaints of Bias, ‘News Distortion’ Against CBS, ABC and NBC Reinstated by Trump-Appointed FCC Chair appeared first on TheWrap.

The layoffs come as the news organization plots a new course for the future through a broader global audience with an emphasis on digital. The cuts will reportedly help CNN cut production costs and consolidate teams according to the report.

The job cuts are also reportedly not expected to affect CNN’s biggest names as they are under contract. The news organization employs about 3,500 people.

A spokesperson for CNN would not confirm CNBC’s report but told TheWrap more information is forthcoming.

News of the layoff has been expected for weeks but now the cuts seem to be just around the corner. It was announced last week that CNN’s net worth had been cut in half in the last two years. In 2021, their worth was $4.4 billion which fell to $2.3 billion in 2023. That represents a 47% drop according to what the company shared during the network’s defamation trial last Friday.

“The numbers represent the Plaintiff’s interpretation of a subset of data as presented in litigation, and they do not represent financial data for the whole of CNN’s business,” a CNN spokesperson told TheWrap.

The net worth decline is in lock step with the networks viewership issues the past couple years. Following the 2024 election, CNN – along with MSNBC – both suffered a serious ratings hit. TheWrap reported in November that CNN’s viewership declined 27% in the weeks following Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris, with CNN averaging 367,000 total viewers post-election.

If the layoffs at CNN come to pass, they would join a number of outlets hit with cuts in the last few months. Vox, The Washington Post and the Huffington Post have all laid off a number of workers since the start of 2025.

The post CNN Layoffs to Impact Hundreds of Staffers as Soon as Thursday | Report appeared first on TheWrap.

CBS 58 Milwaukee employees were informed Wednesday that Sam Kuffel “is no longer employed” at the station. The day before, Kuffel posted a photo of Musk from the event to her personal Instagram account, saying, “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration.” She added, “You (f–k) with this and this man, I don’t (f–k) with you. Full stop.”

She then shared a gif from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” in which Rob McElhenney says, “Screw that old bi–h. He’s a Nazi.” Her account has since been changed to “private.”

On Tuesday, conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell of 1030 WISN protested that Kuffel was “spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute” and called her post “vulgar.”

By Wednesday, Kuffel’s biography and picture had been removed from Channel 58 site, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League called Musk’s salute an “awkward gesture,” but others agreed with Kuffel.

“Strongman” author Ruth Ben-Ghiat tweeted, “Historian of fascism here. That was a Nazi salute – and a very belligerent one too.”

The post Milwaukee Weather Reporter Fired After Anti-Elon Musk Instagram Post: ‘Dude Nazi Saluted Twice’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The 300 Writers Guild of America East members at the company demand that the 20-employee PS unit be recognized under the union. As of Wednesday, PS remains Vox Media’s only non-union website in its portfolio.

The union is also seeking “fair increases in compensation that account for inflation and cost of living, expanded worker benefits, a commitment to diversity initiatives, protections around artificial intelligence and enhanced protections in the event of layoffs or termination,” TheWrap has learned.

“In its 18-year history, PS has become known as a place for joy, thoughtful criticism and catharsis. Following a relaunch in 2024, PS has continued to evolve and grow along with readers, but behind the scenes, staffers have endured acquisitions, structural overhauls and several mass layoffs resulting in understaffing,” the union committees said in a joint Wednesday statement. “It’s time for PS employees to have a greater say in these decisions that affect our workplace. We are looking forward to PS joining the Vox Media Union and we expect a swift recognition process without delay or division.”

“WGAE members at Vox Media have endured many recent challenges, but the union remains committed to making Vox Media the best possible place to work. We expect the company to come to the table in good faith to negotiate over key protections our members deserve,” WGAE president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen added. “WGAE stands with Vox Media workers as they fight to win a contract that reestablishes trust with management and wins important workplace gains and protections.” 

This update comes after Vox Media has undergone three different rounds of layoffs in just two months’ time. In early December 2024, Eater and Thrillist were particularly decimated, followed by a dozen more employees at Vox.com being let go earlier this month and yet another round of director-level cuts last week.

Starting Thursday, separate negotiations with management will begin for The Dodo Union, since Vox Media keeps that group separate from the Vox Media Union.

The post Vox Media Union Demands Recognition for PS (Pop Sugar) appeared first on TheWrap.

“As many of you know already, Griff is a journalistic force, who has led his 50-person team at The Post with energy, creativity, smarts and ambition,” The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a memo to staff. “His experience on the democracy beat, in particular, will help us in our coverage of the various challenges to the American way of governance.”

Witte will report to deputy executive editor Yoni Appelbaum and work closely with deputy editor Juliet Lapidos and other editorial leaders.

Prior to serving as democracy editor, Witte was the Post’s deputy foreign editor and bureau chief in Berlin, London, Jerusalem, Islamabad and Kabul. Before that he roamed the United States as a national correspondent. His award-winning reporting for The Post has taken him to more than 30 countries, where he has covered wars, elections, uprisings, revolutions, disasters both natural and man-made and everyday life.

In addition, Witte was previously a reporter for the Miami Herald and served as the researcher for Steve Coll’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Ghost Wars.” 

Witte is the latest departure from The Post after its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos nixed the editorial board’s plan to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president before the 2024 election — marking the first time in 36 years the paper didn’t endorse a presidential candidate.

Others who have exited since the decision include columnists Jen Rubin and Michele Norris, cartoonist Ann Telnaes, editor Philip Rucker, investigative reporter Josh Dawsey, political correspondents Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer and White House reporter Tyler Pager.

Additionally, WaPo laid off roughly 100 employees earlier this month.

The post Washington Post Democracy Editor Griff Witte Exits After 23 Years appeared first on TheWrap.

“[We offer a] full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators,” the settlement read, per The AP.

“NGN further apologizes to the duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years,” it continued. “We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him substantial damages.”

That payment, according to People, is reportedly somewhere in the eight figures. The trial was set to begin Tuesday, but was delayed. Harry was not present in court on Wednesday.

In turn, Prince Harry shared a statement of his own through his attorney, David Sherborne: “This represents a vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling without being able to get to the truth of what was done to them.”

Of the 1,300+ people who initially accused NGN’s papers of allegedly hacking their phones and other corrupt activity — including Hugh Grant — only Harry and another man remained on the case ahead of trial, as the others had all previously settled or backed down.

Furthermore, Sherborne accused NGN of crafting “an extensive conspiracy” in which “senior executives deliberately obstructed justice.” While they had admitted fault in the past by shuttering News of the World, this apology also places some blame on The Sun for decades of intrusion.

“At her trial in 2014, Rebekah Brooks said, ‘When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,’” Harry’s statement noted. ”Now, 10 years later when she is CEO of the company, they now admit, when she was editor of The Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise.”

This update also comes more than a year after the royal won his similar lawsuit against British tabloid publisher Mirror Group Newspapers.

The post Prince Harry Receives ‘Full and Unequivocal Apology’ From Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers Upon Settlement appeared first on TheWrap.

Fanone, who also testified at the House Select Committee hearings about the attack, told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “I mean, it’s outrageous, but not surprising.”

He added that Trump’s grandstanding to extremists is nothing new. “If you rewind to the beginning of Donald Trump’s candidacy for the office of the president of the United States, which he announced in Waco, Texas, the scene of a violent confrontation between members of the American extremist movement and law enforcement, in which law enforcement officers lost their lives.”

Watch a clip from his CNN appearance below:

Fanone added, “He’s been promising these pardons since day one, and so the American people should be well aware, or should have been well aware, that this was coming, and they ultimately own this, this decision and these pardons.”

On Jan. 6, rioters dragged Fanone down the steps of the Capitol, beat him with pipes, tased him and sprayed him with bear spray. He suffered a concussion and a heart attack in the middle of the assault, he testified.

CNN later aired footage of the assault on Fanone taken from his own body camera.

After being labeled a “crisis actor” by Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham following his testimony, Fanone told CNN, “The facts are the facts. What happened to me, the injuries I sustained — you don’t have to take my word for it. You can watch the video.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was among those condemning Trump’s pardons, saying that the 47th president is “immunizing his followers from committing violence in his name.”

The post Capitol Hill Cop Attacked on Jan. 6 Reacts to Trump Pardons: ‘Outrageous, but Not Surprising’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The MSNBC host explained in detail that Trump’s choice to pardon almost every rioter from the Capitol Hill riots in 2021 – regardless of whether they were violent toward police officers or not – is essentially the 47th president embracing political violence on his behalf.

“Trump pardoning and releasing from prison the January 6th defendants, including the paramilitaries, means he is effectively immunizing his followers from committing violence in his name,” Maddow said. “He’s making clear, you know, if you support me, the law doesn’t apply to you.”

She continued, “Not incidentally, the people he’s pardoning and their families will feel like they owe Trump everything, and that they therefore should, and now can, do absolutely anything for him.”

In total, Trump pardon or commuted sentences of around 1500 people who rioted on and in the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. 2021. Maddow called the choice to do this for almost everyone involved was a “maximalist option.” She also drew plenty of parallels to what Trump was doing and some of the most famous autocrats in history and called the pardons “textbook authoritarian takeover 101 tactics.” The MSNBC host wrapped her Inauguration Day coverage with a plea of vigilance to the America people.

“More than ever, this is not a time to pretend this isn’t happening,” Maddow said. “You’re going to want to have a good answer when you get asked what you did for your country when your country started to take a turn this radical.”

She finished, “We are here. It’s happening in our lifetimes. Well, we are citizens responsible for the fate of our country. All hands on deck.”

The other headline-making executive order Trump passed in the first day as president was to postpone the TikTok ban for 75 days. He said the extension will give his administration “an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok,” which has 170 million American users.

Watch the full Rachel Maddow video above.

The post Rachel Maddow Warns Trump’s Jan. 6 Pardons Are ‘Immunizing His Followers From Committing Violence in His Name’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.