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Showing posts from April, 2022

Tucker Carlson privately mocked Trump and declined a phone call from the former president to his Fox News show: report

Fox News host Tucker Carlson discusses 'Populism and the Right' during the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel March 29, 2019 Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Tucker Carlson criticized then-president Trump on his prime time show for breaking campaign promises. Carlson mocked Trump's habit of calling to head off on-air attacks, The New York Times reported. In one instance, Carlson declined a call from Trump, a Fox News employee told The New York Times Despite promoting Donald Trump's platform issues on his prime time television show, Fox News host Tucker Carlson privately mocked the former president, according to reporting by The New York Times .  Carlson, who has topped ratings charts with his inflammatory rhetoric surrounding immigration , white supremacy and replacement theory , has some connection to Trump, though the nature of their relationship is unknown. Carlson has, on occasion , criticized Trump and his policies,

Fox News and Tucker Carlson use 'minute-by-minute' ratings that show their audience loves 'white nationalism' talking points, report says

Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The New York Times published a three-part series on Tucker Carlson Saturday. The series said segments on immigration and demographic change are a hit with Carlson's audience. "Every second that goes on that network now gets scrutinized," a former Fox employee told The Times. Fox News and host Tucker Carlson look closely at minute-by-minute ratings that show there's an appetite among its audience for talking points embraced by white nationalists, according to a report published Saturday by The New York Times. The Times published a three-part series called "American Nationalist" that's all about Carlson, cable TV's highest-rated primetime pundit. Three former Fox employees told the Times Carlson specifically relied on "minute-by-minute" ratings data. Such data is more expensive than "quarter-hour" ratings used by other cable newsrooms, but it provides feedback do

Netflix CEO was warned that Dave Chappelle specials would cause 'internal strife and bad press' for the streaming service, report says

Actor Dave Chappelle attends 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images A former exec told CEO Ted Sarandos that Netflix would see "internal strife" for Dave Chappelle specials, THR reported. Chappelle's comedy special "The Closer" led multiple Netflix employees to criticize the platform. On April 19, Netflix announced the loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter. Cindy Holland , former Vice President of Original Content at Netflix and a figurehead for the streaming service's successes, told CEO Ted Sarandos that bringing Dave Chappelle back for a comedy special might not be a great idea, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "It was also Holland who warned Sarandos, to no avail, that continuing to order specials from one of his comedy heroes, Dave Chappelle, would lead to internal strife and bad press," a THR reported. Chappelle's 2021 comedy special "The Closer" contained transphobic rhetori

Amazon is ending its paid COVID-19 sick leave policy for workers

An employee handles packages at the Amazon's Bretigny-sur-Orge warehouse in France. THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images Amazon is ending its paid time off policy for US employees diagnosed with COVID-19. The company told employees on Saturday that workers with COVID-19 will receive up to five days of excused, unpaid time. Amazon also said it was changing some COVID-19 policies as part its "safe return to normal." Amazon announced to its employees on Saturday that the company is ending its paid time off policy for employees with COVID-19 and is "returning to standard sick leave policies." Amazon employees in the US will now receive up to five days of excused, unpaid time after receiving a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, according to the company announcement that was viewed by Insider. As of early January, Amazon had offered employees up to one full week of paid sick leave for employees diagnosed with COVID-19. Prior to that, the company had granted employ

Netflix cancels 'Space Force' after two seasons

Netflix has canceled Space Force , according to Deadline . The comedy series from Parks and Recreation co-creator Greg Daniels won’t get a third season. The cancelation comes only weeks after season two of Space Force premiered on February 18th. Very much inspired by the Trump administration’s decision to create a space force, the series starred Steve Carell as a four-star general. And despite surrounding Carell with a star-studded cast that included the likes of John Malkovich and Ben Schwartz, the show never lived up to its premise. Deadline reports Netflix caned Space Force for its usual reasons. The series failed to attract enough of an audience to justify its production budget. The cancelation comes mere days after Netflix laid off a significant number of the writers and editors it had hired to run its Tudum fan site website . On April 19th, the company revealed it lost about 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, its first such loss in a decade. from Engadget

Lyft and Uber will cover legal fees of drivers sued under Oklahoma abortion law

Much like they did in Texas, Lyft and Uber have pledged to cover drivers sued under Oklahoma’s forthcoming SB1503 law . The so-called Heartbeat Act prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy – a timeframe before many women know they’re pregnant. And like its Texas counterpart, SB8, the legislation allows private individuals to sue anyone who assists a woman attempting to skirt the ban, including rideshare drivers who face fines of up to $10,000. The Oklahoma House passed SB1503 on Thursday, and Governor Kevin Stitt is expected to sign the bill sometime within the next few days. Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/npCUyLAYUJ — Logan Green (@logangreen) April 30, 2022 On Friday, Lyft CEO Logan Green said the company would extend its commitment, first announced in September , to cover 100 percent of legal fees for drivers sued under SB8 to include those impacted by SB1503. Additionally, Green said Lyft was working with healthcare providers to create a program to cover the cost of

Rep. Jim Clyburn blamed progressives for alienating white voters in 2020, saying 'racialized voting' caused Democratic losses in the House: book

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn reportedly blamed progressives for Democratic losses in 2020. A forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters features Clyburn's newly unveiled comments. Clyburn's office did not respond to Insider's request for comment. During heated backroom discussions following the 2020 election, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn blamed progressives for nearly scuttling the Democratic Party's House majority, according to a forthcoming book. Despite President Joe Biden winning the popular vote by 4.5 percentage points, House Democrats lost 13 seats in the same election and entered 2021 with a tight 222 to 213 majority. Those losses quickly became a source of tension among Congressional Democrats, as New York Times reporters Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin detail in their forthcoming book "This Shall Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," a copy of whi

Daily Crunch: Musk’s Twitter purchase plan calls for new CEO, monetization strategies, job cuts

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here . Friday, more like Fri-yay! It’s April 29, 2022, we’re here with the latest headlines, but honestly our brains are mostly focused on all the hardcore fun we’re going to have this weekend. Like doing laundry, napping, playing with our pets, reading a book for a while and sleeping in. I know, we’re old and boring, deal with it. — Christine and Haje The TechCrunch Top 3 Selling Tesla, getting a pretty tweet deal: Everyone’s favorite social media-acquiring billionaire is selling $4 billion worth of Tesla stock  and supposedly has a new Twitter CEO lined up. He also shared that he has the beginnings of a plan for how to monetize tweets. Wait, companies have to make money?  Robinhood’s stock price is going off a cliff  as competition gets stiff and its business model is more and more skew-whiff. Home is where the benefits are: Airbnb employees receive

Jack Dorsey says he’s against permanent Twitter bans, with an asterisk

On Friday afternoon, former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey turned to the platform that he co-created to speak about its future, days after the company was bought for $44 billion by Elon Musk. In the vague thread , Dorsey said he doesn’t believe in permanent bans, with the exception of illegal activity. “As I’ve said before, I don’t believe any permanent ban (with the exception of illegal activity) is right, or should be possible. This is why we need a protocol that’s resilient to the layers above,” said Dorsey, who stepped down from his role at Twitter in November 2021 and currently works as the Block Head of Block. I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently, but I must say: the company has always tried to do its best given the information it had. Every decision we made was ultimately my responsibility*. In the cases we were wrong or went too far, we admitted it and worked to correct. — jack (@jack) April 29, 2022 While Dorsey’s thread didn’t name names, there’

CWA accuses Activision of threatening employees for discussing work conditions

The union working to organize Activision Blizzard workers — the Communications Workers of America — filed a complaint today with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), accusing the video game company of forbidding workers from discussing ongoing sexual and workplace harassment lawsuits . This isn’t the first time Activision has been accused of shutting down workplace dissent. Last September, CWA accused Activision of union-busting and intimidating workers who engaged in walkouts and other protests. CWA filed its latest complaint after an incident in which an Activision worker posted a link to an article on their departmental Slack channel about an ongoing California Department of Fair Housing and Employment lawsuit against the company. The union shared no details about whether the worker was fired or reprimanded. Engadget has reached out to CWA for more information about the incident and will update when we hear back. Under federal law, employees have the right to discuss matte

The best gifts for the woman in your life

Picking out gifts for a woman in your life is a special opportunity to show her just how much you care about her. Taking the generic route sends the opposite message. A gift for the lady in your life should be just that: A gift for her . Specifically. There’s a wealth of unique gift items littered across the internet, but having too many choices isn’t always helpful. Sometimes, product overload can trick you into impulse-buying something your special person may not even want. Consider how a mug looks to someone whose mug shelf is overflowing or how a heart necklace looks to someone who never wears mushy jewelry. SEE ALSO: Best Mother's Day gifts: Show Mom some love We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to get you started on your important mission: Finding the gift of all gifts for the lady in your life, filled with classics and items you've never even heard of. from Mashable https://ift.tt/ZHswUT5 via IFTTT

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby gets emotional talking about the 'depravity' of the atrocities Putin's forces are committing in Ukraine

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby holds a news briefing at the Pentagon on April 19, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby got emotional while talking about Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Kirby told reporters on Friday that it's "hard to look at" what Putin's forces are doing. The US, and much of the West, accused Russian forces of war crimes and crimes against humanity.   Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby got emotional on Friday while speaking about the "depravity" of the atrocities that Russian forces are committing during the ongoing war in Ukraine. "It's hard to look at what [Russian President Vladimir Putin is] doing in Ukraine — what his forces are doing in Ukraine — and think that any ethical, moral, individual could justify that," Kirby said during a briefing after a reporter asked if he thought Putin is a rational actor.  Kirby then chokes up and pauses for a fe