If Jeff Zucker, the former head of NBC, does take over at CNN, he'll face one of the most baffling corporate identity crises in media. The cable channel is on its way to its most profitable year, but in the United States it suffers from poor ratings, layers of management and little sense of direction.
Angus Jones, the half in “Two and a Half Men,†who lashed out at the hit show in a video he made with a preacher from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, calling the show “filth†and urging people not to watch it, has now apologized to his colleagues. But the incident is not likely to have any effect on the show, a longtime ratings powerhouse which has already had to replace former star Charlie Sheen when we went on the offensive against the show's creator, Chuck Lorre.
NBC has hired Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downton Abbey,†to produce a new period drama about the Gilded Age in New York City. In a statement released by the network, Mr. Fellowes ca lled the period, “a time when money was king,†although he may have been discussing the television business.
Rona Fairhead, the head of the Pearson group that controls The Financial Times newspaper, will leave the company in April, another sign perhaps that the paper will soon be on the market. Bloomberg LP and Thomson Reuters are seen as the most likely bidders.
The People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, has been widely mocked after it apparently fell for a parody from The Onion and reported that the North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un was named the “Sexiest Man Alive for 2012.†But the slide show that accompanied that article â€" 55 photos of the Kim Jong-un in a variety of absurd official poses â€" may indicate that at least one editor at The People's Daily was in on the joke.
Tom Ricks, the military author who said on Fox News Monday that the network was hyping the Benghazi story, insists he did not apologize after the se gment and that the Michael Clemente, Fox's vice president for news, is “making it up.â€
TMZ has denied reports that it is interested in buying a drone to spy on celebrities. The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed that the gossip outlet has not applied for authorization to operate an unmanned aircraft system, otherwise known as a drone.
