TV News LIES

Two former Fox News employees have joined a defamation lawsuit against the network and ex-star host Bill O’Reilly.

Andrea Mackris and Rebecca Gomez Diamond, who both reached settlements with O’Reilly and Fox after accusing the host of sexual harassment, joined the lawsuit filed by former Fox producer and fellow O’Reilly accuser Rachel Wittlieb Bernstein.

“These women were specifically identified in the NY Times article, to which O’Reilly and Fox responded with false and defamatory statements,” the trio’s lawyer said in a statement.

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Matt Lauer, a familiar face in morning news as the anchor of "Today" for two decades, was fired by NBC News after a detailed complaint about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace that took place during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

The accusation also noted that the alleged behavior continued after the games, NBC News confirmed.

"Today" co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb were emotional as they announced Lauer's firing Wednesday, telling viewers at the top of the live broadcast that they were "heartbroken" over his departure but didn't yet know all of the details.

Meredith Corp. agreed to acquire Time Inc. for $2.8 billion including debt, swallowing the once-mighty home of Fortune and Sports Illustrated after the internet age wreaked havoc on even the most prestigious magazine titles.

The $18.50-a-share offer is an all-cash one, Meredith said in a statement Sunday. The deal gives Meredith, publisher of Better Homes & Gardens, a larger audience at a time when publishers need to get bigger to compete with Facebook and Google in advertising.

The acquisition also gives the billionaire Koch brothers, who agreed to support Meredith’s offer with an equity injection of $650 million, a foothold in the struggling magazine industry.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will reveal plans to his fellow commissioners on Tuesday to fully dismantle the agency's Obama-era net neutrality regulations, people familiar with the plans said, in a major victory for the telecom industry in the long-running policy debate.

The commission will vote on the proposal in December, some seven months after it laid the groundwork for scuttling the rules that require internet service providers like Comcast or AT&T to treat web traffic equally.

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media are part of a global trend of hostility to freedom of speech and damage the U.S. public interest, a U.N. human rights expert said on Friday.

David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of expression, said Trump’s attacks, such as a Feb. 17 tweet listing news outlets that he considered “the enemy of the American People”, were not without purpose.