Jon Passantino

Paramount Press Express | ERIKA KIRK, CEO OF TURNING POINT USA, WILL TALK ABOUT THE MURDER OF HER HUSBAND, CHARLIE KIRK, RISING POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN AMERICA, THE FUTURE OF THE RIGHT, AND FAITH IN A O... “CBS NEWS PRESENTS: A TOWN HALL WITH ERIKA KIRK” Will Be Broadcast Saturday, Dec. 13 at 8:00 PM ET/PT on CBS and Streaming on Paramount+ Three months

Why would CBS hold a town hall with Erika Kirk? www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and...

🚨Paramount Skydance in letter to David Zaslav: “It has become increasingly clear, through media reporting and otherwise, that WBD appears to have abandoned the semblance and reality of a fair transaction process.”

Vanity Fair’s West Coast Woes The Olivia Nuzzi scandal has become a slow-burn crisis inside Vanity Fair, engulfing Condé Nast leadership and raising broader questions about the magazine’s future.

Scoop: While Olivia Nuzzi’s contract as Vanity Fair’s West Coast editor might be left to expire at the end of the month, she will still grace the masthead of the magazine’s February print edition, set to be buttoned up this week

www.status.news/p/olivia-nuz...

The 'Huddle' in Washington Rachael Bade is teaming up with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine on a new venture, Status has learned, braving the crowded independent media space with a new political show.

Spicer acknowledged he had "self-inflicted wounds” from defending Trump's lies as press secretary, telling @status.news “Sometimes, I made mistakes doing that" www.status.news/p/sean-spice...

The 'Huddle' in Washington Rachael Bade is teaming up with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine on a new venture, Status has learned, braving the crowded independent media space with a new political show.

Sean Spicer recently broke up with Mark Halperin's 2WAY to launch his own YouTube show and is being joined by... ex Playbook author Rachael Bade. The scoop in @status.news www.status.news/p/sean-spice...

The 'Huddle' in Washington Rachael Bade is teaming up with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine on a new venture, Status has learned, braving the crowded independent media space with a new political show.

Scoop: After parting ways with Politico, Rachael Bade is teaming up with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine to launch "The Huddle," a morning streaming show and digital media venture intended to compete in the DC tip sheet space

www.status.news/p/sean-spice...

Some terrific publications here that are worth your time and support.

@status.news is also on sale today for less than $2/week. A crazy deal for the amount of exclusive, scoop-driven reporting we deliver. Check us out: www.status.news/upgrade

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.

Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.

Thanksgiving Table Tactics For those dreading their annual go-round with that crazy uncle, media pros discuss how they get through the holidays and partisan times with minimal drama.

Media pros and top political reporters tell @nataliekorach.bsky.social how they navigate partisan politics and that crazy uncle at the thanksgiving dinner table in @status.news www.status.news/p/thanksgivi...

Thanksgiving Table Tactics For those dreading their annual go-round with that crazy uncle, media pros discuss how they get through the holidays and partisan times with minimal drama.

On Thanksgiving eve, I chatted with 10 media professionals across the industry, including Kara Swisher, Mike Allen, and Robert Costa, to find out how they approach the politics conversation at the dinner table—or how they escape it

www.status.news/p/thanksgivi...

Part 3: Catch and Kill If you are new to this series, read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

"Olivia had essentially become a private political operative for Bobby Kennedy, while publicly posing as a hard-nosed reporter. In other words, what you have been reading about here is not really a scandal about sex, but a scandal about journalistic ethics." www.telos.news/p/part-3-cat...

Business Insider’s Paywall Backslide The Axel Springer-owned outlet is pivoting back to clicks this holiday season, Status has learned, as internal pressures mount and its subscription bet shows new cracks.

Tough times at Business Insider, where @oliverdarcy.bsky.social has learned the outlet has pulled the paywall for the rest of the year in hopes of bolstering ad impressions. The scoop in @status.news www.status.news/p/business-i...

The Blaze reporter (who was also convicted for his involvement on Jan 6) portrayed this story as perhaps “the biggest scandal and conspiracy in American history.” His tweet alone has 16 million views

Now the question remains: who was the “person affiliated with a media organization" who called Tulsi’s office with this bogus claim that then became an official government document and made its way to The Blaze?

And here’s why this story matters: The claim that a former Capitol police officer had laid the Jan. 6 bombs was used by The Blaze and MAGA to suggest that Trump supporters were framed by law enforcement, part of a long running effort to rewrite the history of the attack

But perhaps most interesting about this entire disaster is this nugget from CBS, which reports that "a person affiliated with a media organization" had tipped off Tulsi's office about the supposed suspect, which then wrote up a memo and sent it around the Trump admin

Now, The Blaze is attempting to walk back its story—not with a correction or retraction, of course—in an editor's note buried at the bottom of the piece that effectively states the premise of the entire report was bogus

How an innocent woman's name was tied to the Jan. 6 pipe bombs The FBI has ruled the woman out as a suspect in the 2021 plot, sources said, but only after her name circulated on social platforms and a conservative news site.

Where did this suspect suddenly come from? "Multiple sources said that a unit overseen by DNI Tulsi Gabbard drafted a memo identifying the woman and describing allegations that she had placed the explosive devices." That memo then leaked to The Blaze which ran with it www.cbsnews.com/news/jan-6-p...

How an innocent woman's name was tied to the Jan. 6 pipe bombs The FBI has ruled the woman out as a suspect in the 2021 plot, sources said, but only after her name circulated on social platforms and a conservative news site.

Two weeks after The Blaze made the explosive claim that a former Capitol police officer was responsible for planting bombs on Jan. 6—identifying her by name and in photos—CBS News reports the FBI ruled the woman out because she has an alibi www.cbsnews.com/news/jan-6-p...

AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet — And Thanksgiving Dinner Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures

"In interviews, 22 independent food creators said that AI-generated “recipe slop” is distorting nearly every way people find cooking advice online, damaging their businesses while causing consumers to waste time and money." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

MAHA promised to clean up our food, water and air and is doing exactly the opposite

President Trump may have had enough of Kash Patel, according to sources The president is weighing whether to oust the FBI director after scrutiny of Patel's stewardship of bureau resources, including his girlfriend’s security detail and use of a government jet.

Uh oh www.ms.now/news/trump-k...

I teased this last night in What I’m Hearing but now confirmed: Paramount WILL release Rush Hour 4 after prodding from Trump on behalf of Brett Ratner. Distribution deal. Producer Tarak Ben Ammar is lining up financing. Get ready for the dumbest possible state-controlled media.

Musk’s AI supercomputer, used by U.S. military, secretly relies on Chinese hardware Records obtained by Oligarch Watch reveal that the facility relies on Chinese transformers, creating a major security vulnerability.

1. EXCLUSIVE

Musk’s xAI has secretly built its AI supercomputer, Collusus, using Chinese-made transformers, a security risk that leaves it vulnerable to espionage or sabotage

The use of Chinese components was previously unreported

Collusus performs sensitive work for the U.S. military

Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors How X blew up its own platform with a new location feature

“the scale of the deception…suggests that in his haste to turn X into a political weapon for the far right, Musk may have revealed that the platform he’s long called ‘the number 1 source of news on Earth’ is really just a worthless, poisoned hall of mirrors.” www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

What happened at Fox News after the 2020 election? Documents reveal new details Tens of thousands of documents were released as part of Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against the network

Also in the filings: Tucker Carlson called Trump a “total piece of shit," Sean Hannity said Covid "masks should have been embraced" by Trump, and (wrongly) predicted he would concede the election: “That will happen. I know it for a fact.” www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Subscribe to @status.news to read more "dangerous" reporting about Fox News: status.news/subscribe

Pulling back the curtain on the Fox News machine in the latest Smartmatic lawsuit dump:

In wake of the 2020 election, Fox PR acknowledged "problematic" and "crazy" interview, with execs "screaming at @brianstelter.bsky.social" and declaring @oliverdarcy.bsky.social "dangerous" and an "absolute ass"

A federal judge has dismissed the charges against former FBI director James Comey, ruling that the former Trump attorney who brought the charges was not legally serving as the U.S. attorney.