“What critics of the prime-time cartoon either fundamentally misunderstood (or conveniently overlooked) was its core truths. Bart loved his parents. He went to church with them. The Simpsons sometimes struggled to make ends meet, and they didn’t always get along, but they stuck together. They were a typical middle-American family." - The Atlantic (Yahoo!)
And that’s almost no interference from network executives. Fox was the first new broadcast TV network in decades; new execs were intimidated by multiple Oscar-winner James l. Brooks, the animated series’s producer. So talented writers got to push envelopes with their scripts and were rarely overruled. - Slate (Yahoo!)
According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in March, 43 percent of Americans supported continuing federal funding for NPR and PBS, 24 percent backed ending funding and 33 percent were unsure. But the survey found a close correlation between partisan leans and views on funding. - Washington Post
Opening arguments before a judge at the British High Court began on Monday. The trial could last for three weeks followed by a written decision from the judge expected at a later date. - AP News
They are the first major Hollywood studios to file copyright infringement lawsuits, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing fight by artists, newspapers and content makers to stop AI firms from using their work as training data — or at least make them pay for it. - Washington Post
The bill, known on Capitol Hill as a “rescissions” proposal, is the closest NPR and PBS have ever come to a complete loss of federal funding. The bill would strip all federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. - CNN
Doechii, the Grammy-winning rapper, and entertainment mogul Tyler Perry made overt statements about the current administration and its multi-pronged attacks on communities of color. - The Contrarian
“Traditionally, TV creators pitch ideas for shows to big studios, which (front) the money to get the project rolling and then own the final product. … Duplass Brothers Productions acts as its own studio by assuming the financial risk to make its series itself (it knows how to keep budgets low).” - Vulture (MSN)
Less than a year after reducing its stateside payroll by 15% (roughly 2,000 employees), the entertainment conglomerate is eliminating another several hundred jobs — this as it awaits FCC approval of its long-planned merger with Skydance Media. - Variety
With the strike, the union took a stand against proposed AI terms that leaders claimed would have allowed companies to undercut members and their position in the workplace. - The Hollywood Reporter
The decision to split is a major about-face from the conventional wisdom in the industry when Warner Bros. Discovery was created three years ago — that media companies needed to get bigger to compete with streaming giants like Netflix. - The New York Times
Thalberg produced some three or four hundred movies in his years at M-G-M, ranging from big pictures like “Mutiny on the Bounty” to the Marx Brothers’ late-career hit, “A Night at the Opera,” though he left his name on almost none. - The New Yorker
While the U.S. District Court didn’t explicitly and directly reverse Trump’s removal of three CPB board members, it affirmed that Congress created CPB to be an independent, private nonprofit free of executive branch control. The Corporation’s CEO subsequently confirmed that board membership remains as it was. - Inside Radio
In December 2023, in an initial payment toward the Hulu purchase, Disney agreed to give Comcast/NBCUniversal $8.61 billion — one-third of the $27.5 billion guaranteed floor value for Hulu as of 2019. Following arbitration, Disney is paying a further $438.7 million — less than one-tenth of the valuation Comcast was seeking. - Variety
“This would disproportionately harm rural areas and smaller communities, where public media really is a lifeline,” said Tim Richardson of PEN America. - The Guardian
