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Jim Trotter Joining The Athletic

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Former NFL Media columnist Jim Trotter has joined The Athletic, the company announced.

Trotter exited NFL Network and NFL.com last month as the organization cut several positions from its staff. His departure coincided with Trotter questioning NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the lack of diversity in executive roles in the league’s newsroom. Trotter repeatedly reiterated that he didn’t view questioning Goodell as an “attack”, but an attempt at holding the Commissioner accountable after he said the league would have a better track record of hiring more diverse candidates in the league’s media organization.

After exiting NFL Media, Trotter claims he declined a three-month severance package that would have required him to sign an NDA.

“I’m honored and humbled by the opportunity to work with such a talented staff, and I’m excited about having the freedom and support to go where the news leads me,” Trotter said.

The New York Times — the owner of The Athletic — says Trotter will work for the digital publication’s “new opinion desk and report to Deputy Managing Editor Jorge Rojas”. He will continue to cover the NFL, while also writing columns on other sports.

“We are really excited to bring Jim on board,” said The Athletic’s Executive Editor Steven Ginsberg. “Jim has a deep understanding of the NFL and the issues that resonate in the world of sports, an extensive source network, and an innate sense for a great story. He will be a powerful new voice for The Athletic that will continue to make our coverage stand apart.”

Trotter’s first day with The Athletic will be Monday, May 8th.

ESPN 1000 Debuts Chicago Bears Radio Network Programming and Personnel

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The 2023 NFL season will mark the debut season for ESPN 1000 as the flagship radio home of the Chicago Bears, and the station announced the personnel that will helm the new radio network.

As previously reported, Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer will remain the franchise’s radio crew. Jason McKie will serve as the sideline reporter. Joniak is embarking on his 23rd season as the radio voice of the Bears.

ESPN 1000 afternoon host Mark Silverman, better known as Silvy, will helm the network’s pregame show. He’ll be joined by Dionne Miller and former Bears linebacker Lance Briggs. Silvy will also host the network’s halftime show by himself, which the station says “will provide a fresh, fan-focused take on what fans expect from a typical halftime show”.

Carmen & Jurko host John Jurkovic will anchor the network’s postgame show. He’ll be joined by Peggy Kusinski of the station’s weekend program Peggy & Dionne.

“The hometown radio call continues to be an integral part of Bears football,” added Chicago Bears Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications Scott Hagel. “It provides the unique soundtrack of each season. Bears fans expect informed commentary and a shared passion for their favorite team as pillars to their experience. Good Karma has assembled a talented cast to deliver on both while providing a fresh take on Bears football not only for ESPN 1000 listeners but for fans across the entire national Chicago Bears Radio Network.”

Additionally, the station will launch The Chicago Bears Podcast. The daily offering will be hosted by local YouTube personality Pat the Designer. Each weekday, he will be joined by a different ESPN 1000 or Bears Radio Network member to discuss topics related to the team. That podcast will debut on Monday, April 24th.

“I am ecstatic for ESPN Chicago to enter a new era for exclusive Bears content 365 days a year while bringing together a diverse, energetic, and passionate group of talent with a deep knowledge of Chicago sports,” said ESPN 1000 Director of Content Danny Zederman. “Our talent has a real understanding of the importance of the Chicago Bears and what the team means to the fans because our team is made up of fans. We are counting down the days until kickoff!”

The Athletic SVP/GM Evan Parker Announces Exit

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Evan Parker, a Senior Vice President and General Manager at The Athletic, has announced he is departing the digital outlet.

In a post on LinkedIn, Parker shared that Friday, April 21st will be his final day with the company.

“To call this experience a dream is an understatement,” wrote Parker.

Parker joined The Athletic in July 2019 after spending 8 years working in content for NASCAR.

“A big part of my motivation for joining The Athletic was to help create something long-lasting that would thrive well beyond my time with the company,” he added.

“I’m proud that we’ve done that, and under the ownership of The New York Times (which acquired us 14 months ago), I have zero doubt I’ll be able to read The Athletic until I’m old and gray.”

Parker did not share what his next step would be, simply stating that he is “going to be partnering with a few people I deeply respect and admire on a new project”. He added that he would share more details soon.

Nielsen Gets Accreditation Back For National TV Ratings

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Nielsen got some good news this week. The Media Rights Council has reinstated accreditation to the company’s national television ratings. It had been suspended 18 months ago.

The accreditation was revoked because Nielsen’s data was consistently undercounting audiences during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Nielsen has undertaken strong efforts to correct the issues that led to its loss of MRC accreditation 19 months ago and to restore key aspects of its panel performance,” George W. Ivie, executive director and CEO of the MRC, said in a statement. “The MRC’s audit has shown these efforts have been successful, and as a result, our TV Committee and board agreed that accreditation should be reinstated.”

The work is not yet done for Nielsen. The company did not get accreditation reinstated for its local television ratings, which are also suspended. Nielsen One, a program designed to measure a show’s audience across multiple platforms, is still under audit.

While the Media Rights Council is satisfied with the improvements, Nielsen has not been without its issues. Earlier this year, a study found that the company’s data undercounted the audience for Super Bowl LVII by twenty percent.

Mark Simone: C-SPAN ‘Just as Corrupt’ As Other News Networks

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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was questioned by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee yesterday, and the hearing was absent from the airwaves at C-SPAN. 710 WOR host Mark Simone believes it’s because the network is complicit in silencing conservatives.

During The Mark Simone Show Monday, the New York host shared his disbelief in C-SPAN’s claims that it was understaffed.

“This is a big Congressional hearing. Normally, you’d see it on C-SPAN. But C-SPAN is refusing to cover it,” Simone argued. “In case you didn’t know, C-SPAN is a biased, left-wing network just like most of them. Totally biased. They say they can’t cover it. They don’t have the manpower. That’s their job! That’s all they do, is cover Congressional hearings. Suddenly, they don’t have the personnel needed to cover this. It just goes to show you, C-SPAN is just as corrupt as the rest of them.”

In an email exchange reported on by Fox News Digital, C-SPAN Congressional Editor Robb Harleston shared that the network was “concerned about the absence” of Democratic members at the committee’s hearings. He later added “While we understand the gravity of this issue, without a balanced member representation it’s been decided we’re going to pass on coverage. We’re also operating under a limited manpower situation, which forces us to make tough coverage decisions.”

Staff for the House Judiciary Committee replied by noting a 2019 hearing that aired on C-SPAN that only involved Democratic members.

“Strange, one-party involvement didn’t seem to be an issue when Democrats were in charge of the House,” a staffer told Harleston.

Keith Olbermann: Fox News Only Offered Settlement to Dominion After It Found An ‘Atomic Bomb’

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The defamation lawsuit between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems was reportedly delayed until today because the two sides were working out a settlement agreement that ultimately did not materialize. Podcast host Keith Olbermann is questioning why the cable network waited as long as it did to offer a settlement.

“Why on earth would Fox News try to settle the Dominion lawsuit? Now? Why on earth would Fox quote News unquote wait until the scheduled eve of jury selection, so late even against that deadline, that the trial itself had to be postponed to a day until today? Why on earth after everything that has already come out?” Olbermann questioned during his Coutndown With Keith Olbermann podcast.

He then went down the laundry list of evidence that Dominion has uncovered that purports that Fox knowingly peddled falsehoods around Trump’s election claims, mentioning the texts from Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Rupert Murdoch specifically.

“Why, after all that and not before all that, did Fox make the offer that delayed the trial until today? Because, obviously, there is something else that will come out at trial that is even worse. There has to be something else that Dominion found in discovery some other quote from somebody’s inbox, so self-damning that it is worse than Carlson’s hatred and Murdoch’s confession and Ingram’s insults put together and added to the cash value of the hundreds of millions of dollars pots offered to make the thing go away at this late date.”

Olbermann then shared that in his own deposition with his former cable home — Current TV — he inaccurately shared that he had sent less than 100 emails with a subject including the term “Litigation Strategy. In actuality, he authored 665 emails with the phrase in the subject line. He argued that that was true of just one person, considering the magnitude and scale of the Fox News operation, it was likely that someone in the organization said worse things than what Carlson, Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo, or another on-air host uttered in private.

“I firmly believe that as Dominion began to release these trenches of damning texts and emails, one or two or 30 Fox lawyers were assigned to go over every single document given to Dominion, and they found something else. Something worse. Something like the email equivalent of the atomic bomb, only landing on Fox and they all held their breath. And when the day before yesterday came around in the window in which Dominion could find a way to make that something public. and Dominion did not make it public, that’s when Fox offered to settle,” Olbermann concluded.

Denny Hamlin: Kevin Harvick Will Bring Chemistry FOX TV Booth Needs

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Every Monday, Dirty Mo Media drops a new episode of Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin. The NASCAR star is never shy with his opinions about the sport and in the latest episode, he takes aim at both FOX and fans.

Hamlin took issue with some fans’ complaints about FOX’s NASCAR coverage. He said that their complaints aren’t completely wrong. There are just times when what they are pointing out seems insignificant.

He does think there are issues with the way the FOX cameras and production truck follow the race. He highlighted what he saw watching the dirt track race in Bristol.

“The announcers would be talking about some side-by-side battle and the camera wasn’t on it,” Hamlin said. “So you didn’t know, ‘What are they talking about? Let me see this battle.’ And then you see, I did notice too, as soon as some action would start to heat up on a side-by-side battle, they cut to 12th place and these guys are battling, you see the second place guy working over the first place guy, right on his ass and about to make a move, and they cut to side-by-side for 12th. And it’s like, ‘Oh, well shit, let’s just let’s keep it in the battle that’s about to dictate who’s going to be leading this race.’”

Another issue Denny Hamlin pointed out is the inconsistency of excitement from the play-by-play crew. Next season, Kevin Harvick will join the team. This year though, FOX is bringing in a different guest analyst for each race to join Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer.

Hamlin noted that the consistency of MRN’s play-by-play crew makes the radio call more exciting than the television call sometimes. He wonders if that will be remedied next season when Joy and Bowyer have the opportunity to build real chemistry with the third member of their team.

“I think some at times we get very monotone when there’s an exciting moment going on that certainly would bring a level of excitement, I think, to a casual race fan that, ‘Oh man, I need to be paying attention. This is big.’ I think that Harvick going into Fox next year certainly will, hopefully, bring in some of that chemistry that those two permanent guys definitely need.”

Gretchen Carlson: Dominion ‘About to Prove Something Very Big’ in Fox News Case

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Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson has taken to social media to urge Dominion Voting Systems not to settle its lawsuit with the conservative cable news outlet.

Late last week, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis delayed the start of Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News by one day. The Wall Street Journal reported the delay allowed a last-chance settlement negotiation between the two entities, which ultimately did not come to fruition.

Carlson filed a lawsuit against then Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes claiming she was sexually harassed by him. Subsequently, several more colleagues admitted they experienced the same treatment from Ailes. She settled the lawsuit for a reported $20 million in September 2016.

On Twitter, Carlson urged Dominion not to settle with Fox News, arguing that the election machine company was “about to prove something very big” in its case.

“Here’s my take on Fox-Dominion case (as I’m sending telepathic messages to Dominion to not settle!),” Carlson wrote in a separate tweet. “I can talk about the current case-but I can’t then answer next logical question (b/c of my NDA)-‘Did Fox ever ask you to make up shit when you were there?’ Therein lies the problem.”

The Fox News and Dominion lawsuit began as scheduled Tuesday morning, with neither side reaching a settlement agreement.

Tavis Smiley Looks to Complete Purchase of KBLA

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After agreeing to purchase KBLA 1580 in November 2020, Tavis Smiley has filed to acquire the Los Angeles signal completely.

A former BET, PBS, and NPR host, Smiley agreed to purchase the station for $7.15 million. After operating the station under a local marketing agreement since June 2021, Smiley will now pay an adjusted total of $6.896 million for the signal.

After Smiley Radio Properties took over the signal, it began airing a Black talk format, under the slog “Unapologetically Progressive”.

In addition to owning the station, Smiley currently hosts the midday timeslot on the station from 9:00 AM-12:00 PM.

A class B 50,000-watt station, KBLA is licensed to Santa Monica and was a brokered Spanish station before Smiley took over operations.

Smiley exited PBS after being accused of sexually harassing multiple female colleagues. A jury found he had broken the morality clause in his contract, and was ordered to pay $2.6 million to the public broadcaster. However, he said he has put that situation behind him.

“On this side of the PBS drama, what you hear in my voice is a sincere depth of gratitude to be back in the game, back in the business, to be in this space,” Smiley told the Los Angeles Times last month. “The sweet spot for me has always been talking to people. These three hours on the radio are the best part of my day.

“But everywhere I went, I continued to hear from people. They would tell me how much they missed my voice,” Smiley continued. “It became clear to me that if I was going to get back to what I was placed here on Earth to do, I would have to create it myself. So it’s no longer about asking for a seat at the table. It’s about building your own table.”

FBN Prime Returns to FOX Business With COPS Joining Lineup

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FBN Prime, the popular primetime programming slate of Fox Business Network (FBN), will return for its fourth season on Monday, April 24th. FBN President Lauren Petterson announced that the new season would feature some of the favorite shows of previous seasons, including Stuart Varney’s American Built, My Dream Car with Danielle Trotta, and Mansion Global featuring Katrina Campins.

 “We are thrilled to debut the fourth season of FBN Prime. The lineup once again features touching and inspiring stories that showcase the individuals that make this country so special,” said Petterson.

 The popular series COPS will also join the lineup, airing on Thursdays at 9 PM/ET. The network will air all-new episodes during the 9 PM/ET hour from Monday to Thursday, with favorites re-airing on Fridays.

The new season of American Built, hosted by Varney, will take viewers inside the creation of famous landmarks and items such as the Pebble Beach golf course, the space shuttle, the Stinger Missile, and the Mars Rover.

My Dream Car, hosted by Trotta, will showcase families finding and restoring the cars their parents once owned and loved. Mansion Global, hosted by Campins, will feature an insider’s look at the most luxurious and extraordinary real estate listings on the market.

COPS, an iconic series that shines a light on the daily experiences of law enforcement officers, will air on Thursdays at 9 PM/ET. The streaming service FOX Nation greenlit the return of the program in 2021. The previous seasons of these shows have garnered a significant increase in total viewership and have attracted a high-income audience.