Bb 14 reporters grill housemates

Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, the former Wall Street Journal reporters who together led the team that broke open the 1MDB scandal, are launching Project Brazen , a journalism studio that will tell true stories and develop IP for multiple formats including series and podcasts. The pair also co-penned the book Billion Dollar Whale, about the fraud’s mastermind, Malaysian playboy Jho Low. The $6 billion scandal brought down a government and forced Goldman Sachs to pay the largest ever penalty under U.S. bribery laws. A series based on the book is in development with SK Global. Project Brazen was the codename Wright and Hope gave to a three-year investigation that spanned the globe from Curaçao to Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Los Angeles, and is being repurposed for the duo’s new outfit. The company is aiming to create and develop IP across podcasts, books, documentaries, television series and films. It is initially being self-funded using revenue from the pair’s projects but Hope … [Read more...] about Pulitzer Finalist 1MDB Scandal Reporters Bradley Hope & Tom Wright Launch Journalism-Focused Production Co Project Brazen

ViacomCBS topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations for its fourth-quarter results, reporting diluted earnings per share of $1.04 and total revenue of just shy of $6.9 billion. The consensus forecast by analysts was for earnings of $1.01 and revenue of $6.9 billion, up 13% and 3%, respectively, from the same quarter in 2019. Because the merger of Viacom and CBS was completed in December 2019, the financials reflect pro-forma and adjusted results. The financial results were released just before the start of a multi-hour presentation to investors and press showcasing rebranded streaming service Paramount+, which launched in 2015 as CBS All Access. Paramount+ will go live next Thursday in the U.S. and Latin America. The Nordics and Australia are on deck later this year. Related Story Paramount+ Pricing And Tiers Revealed: What's In The $5 And $10 Monthly Plans Like its media peers, ViacomCBS has faced a serious challenge during Covid-19, which has buffeted … [Read more...] about ViacomCBS Reports Q4 Results Above Forecasts As Curtain-Raiser To Streaming Showcase

Within the last three weeks, TV’s documentary explosion has given us two damning close-ups on decades-old celebrity scandals. In one, an insatiable media-industrial complex takes a vulnerable young woman into its maw, judging her sexuality and questioning, then actively undermining, her sanity. In the other, it happens again. The main difference between them lies in who the celebrity is at the center of each public maelstrom — and how that simple fact determines who survives in its wake. Framing Britney Spears , a New York Times -produced documentary that premiered February 5th and is now streaming on Hulu , forces us to look anew at Spears’ shot-out-of-a-cannon rise as a teenager and public implosion several years later, both a function of relentless media attention. Some of that attention was courted, sure, as it would be by any young pop star, male or female. But the tenor of the media fervor, the implicit slack-jawed drooling and pawing, the pure … [Read more...] about How the Media Failed Britney Spears and Dylan Farrow

YouTube , which has faced fierce criticism for allowing inappropriate content into its dedicated kids area, is adding new controls designed to help parents monitor viewing by tweens and teens. In a blog post, James Beser, director of product management, kids and family, described the initiative as “a new choice” for parents. It will launch in beta in the next several months. In 2015, the Google-owned video operation created YouTube Kids, which was designed as a protected arena for users under 13. It now attracts more than 35 million viewers a week in 80 countries. Like social media companies, YouTube has always maintained that it is meant to be for viewers aged 13 and up, so its efforts to safeguard young users, whose access exploded with the rise of sophisticated mobile devices, started a decade after the company’s founding. Related Story Disney Plus Launches Star, A Streaming Outlet With More Grown-Up Fare, In Europe And Other Global Territories Reports in … [Read more...] about YouTube Adds New Controls For Parents Monitoring Tween And Teen Viewing

Zachery Ty Bryan , the actor best known for his role as eldest son Brad Taylor on Tim Allen’s Home Improvement , pleaded guilty to two felony counts in a domestic violence case in Oregon yesterday. He received a sentence of three years of probation, and must participate in a batterer intervention program. Bryan pleaded guilty to menacing and assault in the fourth degree. The charges stem from an incident in Eugene, Oregon last October in which the 39-year-old actor assaulted his 27-year-old girlfriend. He was arrested and booked into the Lane County Jail and initially charged with harassment, coercion, strangulation, interference with making a report and second counts of menacing and assault in the fourth degree. Those charges were dismissed in return for his two-count guilty plea. Bryan’s sentencing was first reported yesterday by KEZI-TV in Eugene, Oregon. Though Bryan is best known for his 1991-99 Home Improvement role, his other TV credits include Veronica … [Read more...] about ‘Home Improvement’ Actor Zachery Ty Bryan Gets Probation In Domestic Violence Case