Lawyers for Fox Corp and Dominion Voting Systems clashed in court on Wednesday over whether top Fox executives including Chairman Rupert Murdoch should be considered liable in the voting-technology company's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over 2020 U.S. election vote-rigging claims aired by Fox News.
Reuters reports Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis wrapped up a two-day hearing without ruling on requests by both sides that he decide elements of the case in their favor without moving to a full trial.
Dominion accused Fox in its 2021 lawsuit of destroying its business by airing false claims that its machines were used to rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election against former President Donald Trump and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. Dominion has argued that liability for the claims extends to the highest echelons of Fox.
A Fox lawyer disputed the claim on Wednesday, arguing that executives including Murdoch were not directly involved in the allegedly defamatory television appearances by Trump lawyers, who falsely claimed Dominion stole the election.
"They need to bring it home to someone who's directly involved in the publication," lawyer Erin Murphy said.
Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson argued that evidence amassed during the discovery phase of the case, including emails, shows that top Fox executives did not believe the claims but aired them anyway in pursuit of ratings.
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament helped “60 Minutes” draw its largest audience since Jan. 8 as CBS finished first in the network race for the sixth time in eight weeks.
The news magazine was the top ranked prime-time program between March 13 and Sunday, averaging 8.261 million viewers for a broadcast with a two-part report on the state of the U.S. Navy and a profile of billionaire businessman Rocco Commisso, owner of the Italian soccer team ACF Fiorentina, according to The L-A Times citing live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.
“60 Minutes” followed a 39-minute overrun of CBS’ afternoon coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in the Eastern and Central time zones. The Jan. 8 edition of “60 Minutes” averaged a season-high 11.215 million viewers for Prince Harry’s first American television interview in connection with the release of his memoir “Spare.”
The only two other prime-time programs to average more than 7 million viewers also aired on CBS — “NCIS,” second for the week averaging 7.187 million viewers and “FBI,” third averaging 7.164 million.
CBS had 11 of the top 12 prime-time programs and averaged 5.15 million viewers. Those included the highest rated prime-time sporting event, Texas’ 71-66 victory over Penn State in a second-round NCAA men’s basketball game Saturday, fifth for the week, averaging 6.631 million viewers; the top rated comedy “The Neighborhood,” eighth averaging 5.534 million viewers; the ratings leader for programs beginning at 10 p.m., “NCIS: Hawai’i,” ninth, averaging 5.153 million viewers; and the most popular first-season program, the police drama, “East New York,” 15th, averaging 4.745 million.
NBC finished second, averaging 2.94 million viewers. It had the leading non-CBS program, the March 13 edition of “The Voice,” which was fourth for the week averaging 6.99 million viewers. ABC was third, averaging 2.85 million viewers, with “American Idol” leading its lineup for the fourth time in the five weeks it has aired this season, averaging 4.884 million viewers, 14th for the week. The only interruption to that streak was the week that ABC aired the Oscars. Fox averaged 2.21 million viewers. The procedural drama “9-1-1” was its top program for the second consecutive week, finishing 17th, averaging 4.381 million viewers.
The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of nine CBS scripted programs, its news magazine “60 Minutes” and its alternative series “Survivor”; two editions of the NBC singing competition, “The Voice”; one NCAA men’s basketball tournament game each on CBS and TNT; three ABC programs — the alternative programs “American Idol” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and the scripted firefighters drama “Station 19” — and two Fox programs, “9-1-1” and the singing competition, “The Masked Singer.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office "canceled" the planned grand jury meeting as part of the investigation into former President Donald Trump, amid speculation of a possible indictment, two sources familiar told Fox News.
The grand jury was slated to meet Wednesday and was expected to hear from at least one additional witness, but Fox News has learned that Bragg's office "canceled" the proceedings.
The grand jury was placed "on standby" for Thursday, a source told Fox News. "We can’t confirm or comment on Grand Jury matters," Bragg's office told Fox News.
Two sources familiar told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the grand jury was canceled amid "major dissension" within the district attorney's office. One source claimed the district attorney is having trouble convincing the grand jury on potential charges due to the "weakness" of the case.
Despite rumors of a potential imminent indictment, sources familiar told Fox News Digital that Trump has not been formally notified about whether Bragg actually plans to bring charges against him.
Sources told Fox News, though, that there remains a real chance that Bragg does not choose to indict the former president.
Bragg, when he took over as district attorney in January 2022, stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation "indefinitely," according to one of the top prosecutors who resigned from the office in protest.
Prosecutors Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump.
The possible charges stem from the $130,000 hush-money payment that then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Chris Curtis, an executive producer and on-air personality on WEEI’s “Greg Hill Show,” used a racist slur during Wednesday’s program while the hosts were discussing the possibility of a ban on “nips” — miniature bottles of alcohol — in Boston.
Chris Curtis
During a segment about Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo’s plan to present a proposal to outlaw the small bottles, which often end up as litter, cohost Courtney Cox suggested that the show’s participants rank their favorite nips, according to The Boston Globe.
“Oh yes, that’s a great [topic],” said Hill, as he and Cox immediately mentioned a couple of brands of liquor.
As they were talking, Curtis interjected, “Oh, I’d probably go Mina Kimes.”
Kimes is a high-profile ESPN personality and NFL analyst who is of Korean descent on her mother’s side.
Hill, Cox, and cohost Jermaine Wiggins did not respond to Curtis and continued with the conversation. After his comment, Curtis glanced at producer Chris Scheim, who was laughing.
SiriusXM radio host Howard Stern slammed MSNBC and other mainstream media news outlets for "going f-----g berserk" about former President Donald Trump’s potential indictment and arrest.
The host claimed that media channels have been devoted a ton of coverage to something that no one, not even Trump, knows will happen or not.
Stern made his comments on Wednesday's episode of "The Howard Stern Show." The host seemed exasperated with the fever pitch surrounding the rumors that Trump would be arrested this week over an indictment related to hush money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Venting to his co-host Robin Quivers, Stern said, "I was watching MSNBC, they were going f------ berserk with, you know, Trump potentially being arrested."
Stern noted how the pundits seems to be repeating themselves over the news, saying, "'Oh, my God.' It’s the same discussion over and over again. They go, ‘It’s very possible that President Trump will be indicted according to…"
Laughing, Stern continued, "And then they all come on the air and they’re all discussing whether or not Trump’s gonna be indicted. I go, ‘You know, why don’t you sit tight and wait and see, instead of, like, speculating?'"
ESPN's broadcast of the Houston Astros' 2023 season opener next week will reportedly feature a special guest in the booth alongside announcer Karl Ravech and analysts Eduardo Perez and Buster Olney.
The Houston Chronicle reports seven-time Cy Young winner and former Astros pitcher Roger Clemens will join the trio as the Astros host the White Sox to kick off their World Series defense, according to the Houston Chronicle's Matt Young. Clemens will serve as the broadcast replacement for David Cone, who will participate in the Yankees' Opening Day broadcast on the YES Network.
"We've enjoyed working with Roger during his impressive KayRod Cast appearances and can't wait for him to join our opening night broadcast team as special guest game analyst," ESPN senior vice president Mark Gross told Young. "The insights Roger has gained from his storied career, including his ties to Houston, will help inform the audience as the Astros begin their title defense and the sport begins a new era of gameplay."
Clemens, 60, still lives in the Houston area. He attended Spring Woods High School, then pitched at San Jacinto College and the University of Texas before his MLB career. He spent three of the final four seasons of his 24-year career in Houston, a trio of impressive campaigns from 2004-06. Clemens won the American League Cy Young award in 2004, then was even better the next year as he posted a 1.87 ERA in 211 1/3 innings. Clemens tallied 354 wins and 4,672 strikeouts across his illustrious career, though he has still not been enshrined in Cooperstown due to speculation regarding performance-enhancing drugs.
Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is coming up fast, and fans who enjoyed watching games weekly on Apple TV+ will be happy to hear that games will return to the service on April 7. While the games had always been intended to be on Apple’s subscription TV service, the company made the entire 2022 season available to anyone with an Apple TV account in a series of regular announcements. Now in the second season of broadcasting games, the streamer has indicated that they will all air on the subscription side of the streaming service in 2023.
The Streamable reports the first game of the “Friday Night Baseball” double-header of the season on Apple TV+ will feature the Texas Rangers traveling to historic Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Cubs. Both of these squads missed the 2022 MLB playoffs, and both are looking for bounce-back years that will take them into the postseason in 2023.
The second game will pit two playoff squads from last season against each other. The NL East-winning Atlanta Braves will host the wildcard San Diego Padres. Atlanta and San Diego never met during the 2022 MLB postseason, so this game will give fans the chance to see what could have been if the Braves had beaten the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS.
“We can’t wait for ‘Friday Night Baseball’ to start up again, and we’re excited for fans to experience everything new we’re bringing this season,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services. “Apple TV+ truly has something for everyone, from two live baseball games every Friday night, to an incredible slate of award-winning original films and series — there’s never been a better time to sign up.”
Fox News Channel senior correspondent Alicia Acuna broke away from a live report on a shooting at a Denver high school when she saw her son—a student at the school—for the first time, pulling him into a hug. “Excuse me, my son just came up and I have not seen him,” Acuna said on America Reports. “I’m sorry. I have not seen my kid since this all went down.”
Denver-based Fox News reporter @aacuna1 sees and embraces her son as he leaves East High school after today’s shooting. pic.twitter.com/jPt60YhhO6
Forbes reports an emotional Acuna said she had been working on another story Wednesday morning when she started getting text messages from her son, who said police officers had interrupted an assembly and ordered the students to shelter in place. “I kept in contact with him over text because he had to stay silent.”
The shooting, which happened just before 10 a.m. in Denver, led to a citywide search for the gunman, who shot and wounded two teachers at the school before running from the building.
Cumulus Media’s Westwood One, the largest audio network in the U.S. and the official network radio partner of the NCAA, will broadcast live coverage of the Men’s Sweet Sixteen on Thursday, March 23 and Friday, March 24 beginning at 6 p.m. ET each night.
Westwood One will also broadcast live coverage of the Men’s Elite Eight on Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26 as well as the NCAA Men’s Final Four® on Saturday, April 1 and the national championship game on Monday, April 3 in both English and Spanish.
Westwood One’s schedule for the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight:
Additionally, the broadcasts will be available for free via the NCAA March Madness Live app or The Varsity Network app. Fans can also access live audio via Alexa-enabled devices by asking to “Open Westwood One Sports”. TuneIn premium subscribers can also hear all the action live.
Westwood One will produce an outstanding lineup of college basketball programming including Great Moments in Tournament History, a 60-second daily historical feature, plus one-hour preview shows The NCAA Tournament Today, The Final Four Show, and Championship Monday.
For a complete schedule of games, announcer bios, exclusive audio content, and a list of radio stations airing Westwood One’s broadcast of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, log on to westwoodonesports.com.
➦In 1910...Paula Winslowe was born Winifred Reyleche (Died at age 87 – March 6, 1996). She was a radio and television actress and is known for her role as Bambi's mother in the 1942 movie Bambi.
Winslowe played the role of Mrs. Martha Conklin in Our Miss Brooks on both radio and television. On radio, she played Peg Riley in The Life of Riley, She was also heard in Silver Theater, Big Town and Broadway Is My Beat.
She briefly portrayed Mrs. Foster on Big Town, which starred Edward G. Robinson. She starred in several episodes of Suspense, including June 14, 1955 ("The Whole Town's Sleeping") written by Ray Bradbury; July 11, 1956 ("Want Ad"); January 24, 1956 ("The Cellar Door"); and June 5, 1956 ("The Twelfth Rose").
➦In 1922...KMJ-AM, Fresno, California signed-on.
KMJ was originally owned by the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation. It was later acquired by the McClatchy Newspaper Company in 1925. It is also the 38th oldest licensed, and continuously operated radio station in the United States.
KMJ operated on a number of other frequencies between 1925 and 1932; some of the frequencies used included 820 and 1350 kHz.
McClatchy was intent on improving the signal, and competed with KTAB in Oakland for a new frequency (580 kHz), which was being made available by the newly created FCC.
Eventually, they were awarded the new channel, and KMJ moved to 580 kHz in 1932, operating with 1 kW non-directional from a building rooftop in Downtown Fresno.
In 1936, a new 5,000-watt non-directional transmitter site was constructed, which utilized a 5/8 wave antenna, and was located 5 miles east of Fresno, at the northeast corner of the Kings Canyon Road and Fowler Avenue intersection.
The Fresno Bee - April 1940
In 1941, Hammer Field (which later became Fresno Air Terminal) was constructed, as a training base for the Army Air Corps. The KMJ tower was directly in line with the runway, and the Army wanted the site relocated.
The site was then moved some 16 miles west of Fresno, the existing tower was unstacked and moved as well; however, it was only 660 feet in height. The remaining 330 feet were stored on the site, with the intention of creating a directional array, altough World War II interrupted the project and it never resumed.
The extra portion was eventually moved to Sacramento, and used in the construction of the KFBK transmitter site in 1945.
Today, KMJ-AM operates on the regional channel 580, with 50Kw and a directional antenna array.
KMJ 580 AM (50 Kw, DA2) Daytime 2 mV/m contour
From 1925 until 1987, KMJ was owned by McClatchy Company, who also owned KFBK in Sacramento, KBEE in Modesto, KERN in Bakersfield, and KKOH in Reno. McClatchy Newspapers also owned three daily newspapers in Fresno, Sacramento, and Modesto. In 1953, McClatchy signed on KMJ-TV on channel 24. The television station would be sold off in 1981 to become KSEE.
In November 2006, KMJ and its sister stations KFPT (AM), KWYE (FM), KSKS (FM), KFJK (FM), KOQO (FM), and KMGV (FM) were sold by CBS Radio to Peak Broadcasting, for $90 million.
In March 2009, Peak Broadcasting replaced the KFJK Jack FM format on 105.9 FM, with KMJ-FM; it is a partial simulcast of KMJ-AM.
In the fall of 2012, Premiere Radio Networks exercised a termination clause and ended its relationship with both the AM and FM KMJ stations. As of January 1, 2013, all Premiere-controlled syndicated shows were moved to Clear Channel-controlled stations in the greater Fresno area. From 6:00 A.M. until 6:00 P.M., Monday through Friday, KMJ-AM broadcasts all live and local talk shows.
On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which Townsquare Media would purchase Peak Broadcasting, and then immediately swap Peak's Fresno stations, including KMJ, to Cumulus Media in exchange for Cumulus' stations in Dubuque, Iowa and Poughkeepsie, New York. The deal is part of Cumulus' acquisition of Dial Global. Peak, Townsquare, and Dial Global are all controlled by Oaktree Capital Management. The sale to Cumulus was completed on November 14, 2013.
Today the station airs a news/talk format.
WEW Chief Engineer Gordon Sherman 1933
➦In 1922...WEW-AM, Saint Louis, Missouri began broadcasting.
Saint Louis University established the station 9YK around 1912, using Morse code to communicate seismological and weather information. George E. Rueppel, assistant director of the Meteorological Observatory at SLU, worked with 9YK before he founded WEW in 1921. Audio transmissions began at 10:05 a.m. on 26 April 1921; the first voice heard was SLU president Rev. William Robison. The station received radio license #560 to broadcast on 618.6 kHz (wavelength 485 meters) as WEW on 23 March 1922; KSD had been licensed on March 8.
The station has claimed to have broadcast the first quiz show, Question Box Hour, in 1923.
The station later moved to 833 kHz (360 meters). In April 1927 it was changed to 1210 kHz then 850 kHz; and changed in 1928 to 760 kHz, which was moved to 770 kHz on 29 March 1941 when NARBA took effect.
On April 28, 2016 the station was granted a Federal Communications Commission construction permit to move to a new transmitter site, increase day power to 10,000 watts and add nighttime operation with 200 watts while still protecting clear-channel station WABC (AM) in New York City.
Today the station is owned by by Birach Broadcasting and airs diverse ethnic programs.
➦In 1938...CBS Radio newsman Christopher Glenn was born (Died at age 68 from liver cancer – October 17, 2006). He was a news journalist who worked in broadcasting for over 45 years and spent the final 35 years of his career at CBS, retiring in 2006 at the age of 68.
Christopher Glenn
Glenn worked at various radio stations in New York, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. before joining CBS in 1971. He was a narrator for In the News, a long-running Emmy award-winning TV news program geared toward children and young people, which aired between the network's Saturday-morning children's shows. Glenn also appeared on camera as an anchor for the short-lived 30 Minutes, a young people's version of 60 Minutes.
He served as an anchor for two of the CBS Radio Network's signature news roundups carried by affiliates in the United States - The World Tonight (now the CBS World News Roundup Late Edition) from 1988 to 1999, and the morning CBS World News Roundup from 1999 until his retirement. Glenn's final morning broadcast occurred on February 23, 2006.
Glenn made his best-known report on January 28, 1986, when he anchored CBS Radio's live coverage of the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Glenn had just signed off—after what was thought to have been a normal launch—when the shuttle disintegrated, killing the seven astronauts on board. "I had to get back on the air real fast to describe that, and had a very difficult time doing that," he recalled. Glenn and correspondent Frank Mottek (now a reporter at CBS Radio Station KNX) covered the Challenger disaster from that point as a CBS NetAlert bulletin.
Ralph Edwards
➦In 1940...The game show “Truth or Consequences” was first heard on the NBC Radio Network.
Ralph Edwards stated he got the idea for a new radio program from a favorite childhood parlor game, "Forfeits". The show premiered on NBC Radio in March 23, 1940, and was an instant hit with listeners.
Edwards hosted the show from 1940 to 1957 and on television from 1950 to 1954. Other TV hosts were Jack Bailey (1954–1956), Bob Barker (1956–1975), Steve Dunne (1957–58), Bob Hilton (1977–1978) and Larry Anderson (1987–1988). The television show ran on CBS, NBC and also in syndication. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts.
Truth or Consequences was the first game show to air on broadcast television, airing as a one-time experiment on the first day of New York station WNBT's commercial program schedule on July 1, 1941. However, the series did not appear on TV again until 1950, when the medium had caught on commercially.
In the late 1940s, Hot Springs, New Mexico agreed to host a T or C radio episode, resulting in the community renaming itself to Truth or Consequences; it still continues to use that name today.
AFVN Saigon - 1972
➦In 1973...American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) radio and TV signed off permanently after serving the American fighting men and women for many years in Vietnam. During that time over a thousand military personnel served at one of the many in-country sites
➦In 2008…Big Jack Armstrong died at age 62 in High Point NC. (Born - John Charles Larsh on December 4, 1945). He was also known as Jack Armstrong, Jackson W. Armstrong, and Big Jack Your Leader, was a top-40 disc jockey of the 1960s through the 1980s, and an oldies DJ until 2006.
Jack Armstrong at WMQX
He held a Guinness World Record for "fastest talking human alive" at one point in his career. He developed two imaginary sidekicks - the Gorilla, who speaks in a raspy bass, and likes women, banana juice, and whiskey, in that order - and the Old Timer, who wheezes, tells lame jokes, and was always getting shot after one of them.
Larsh was known for his distinctive signoff. At WKYC, it was a few catchphrases, spoken over the instrumental version of The Beatles' "And I Love Her". On WKBW, he used "Shimmy Shimmy Walk II" by the Megatons. On most stations, he used no background music. Eventually, it became a Motormouth extravaganza, spoken so fast it was hard to understand.
He began his radio career at WCHL in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1960 at the age of 14 as an after-school and weekend job. He also worked at WCDJ in Edenton in the summer when his family would go back home during summer break. At some point, he worked for WSSB in Durham, but the time frame is unclear.
Upon graduating from high school in 1964, Larsh moved to Atlanta, where he got an FCC First Class engineer's license, while working on the radio at WDJK. His parents enrolled him in Guilford College in Greensboro in the pre-med course. Larsh dropped out almost immediately, having gotten a radio job at WCOG.
In early 1966, WAYS-AM in Charlotte had begun 24-hour operations. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at the time required that any station must have an engineer on duty at all times the station was on the air. When Larsh applied for a job there, the station quickly saw an opportunity to fill two sets of shoes with one person, since Larsh already had a First Class license. He was hired to fill the overnight shift.
At WAYS, Larsh met Jack Gale, a seasoned veteran of both the radio and music business who would become his mentor. Larsh later remarked, "Jack (Gale) has forgotten more about the radio business than I've ever known." When asked, he often cited Gale as one of his major influences.
Larsh's first big break came later in 1966, when he landed a job at WIXY-1260 in Cleveland, Ohio. The evening disc jockey at this station was always called 'Jack Armstrong' after the 1930s radio serial Jack Armstrong the All American Boy. With his fast-talking, young, friendly approach, Larsh became a huge hit in Cleveland - so huge that floundering WKYC-1100 asked him to break his WIXY contract, and come to work for the 50,000-watt station in January 1967.
'Jack Armstrong' was a copyrighted moniker in the market, so Larsh adopted the alias 'Big Jack Your Leader', and went to work for WKYC. He also occasionally taunted WIXY by calling himself Jackson W. Armstrong.
With WKYC heard all over the eastern half of the US, Larsh went national. He attracted fans all over the region, and became a huge hit. WKYC was listed as the number three record-buying influence in Miami in that era, no doubt due to 'Big Jack' and the 50,000-watt night signal that was so strong over the East Coast of the US.
Larsh moved on, working at other 50,000-watt stations such as WMEX 1510 in Boston; CHUM 1050 in Toronto (Click Here for aircheck) ; KFI 640 in Los Angeles, KTNQ 1020 in Los Angeles, and WKBW 1520 in Buffalo. Larsh was one of the original disc jockeys hired for the all-new 13-Q in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s. In the late '70s, he could be heard on Indianapolis' 1310 WIFE before it went dark.
Larsh also worked at KFRC, The Big 610 in the early 1980s, dominating the midday, late-night, and overnight shifts at the station. Later on, he became part of 93 KKHR in Los Angeles, doing afternoons. In the late 80s, he worked at Power 98 in Myrtle Beach. His late career was spent doing mornings at WMQX Oldies 93 in Greensboro, NC, and voice tracking nights on Entercom Communications sister station WWKB in Buffalo.
Larsh was working at WWKB-1520 in Buffalo, New York, when the sudden format change in 2006 to liberal talk put him in the unemployed ranks. Larsh took this opportunity putting pen to paper and wrote his biography, which was completed four months before his death. On March 22, 2008, Larsh died at his home in High Point, North Carolina as a result of a stroke or heart attack (an autopsy was not performed).
➦In 2009...former WABC-AM NYC and ABC Radio newsman, George Weber, was found murdered at age 47.
George Weber
George Weber was born in Philadelphia March 23, 1961 and was a radio newsman on the ABC Radio Network doing hourly news updates. For several years he was on the WABC 77 morning show, with Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby in New York City.
Weber began his radio career at WBUX (AM) in Doylestown. He then went on to WAEB in Allentown, where he worked for two and a half years as a reporter and news anchor. After contacting Phil Boyce, then news director at Denver station KIMN, he received an offer to be a street reporter and anchor with that station. Two and a half years later (after KIMN's demise) Weber went to crosstown rival KOA, where he began a new career as the host of a night-time talk show. Some other important stops on his way to a full-time job with WABC were KGO, KOGO, KTLK, and KMPC.
On March 25 police arrested 16-year-old student John Katehis of East Elmhurst, Queens, New York for the murder. Katehis was convicted in 2011 at retrial, and sentenced to 25 years to life.
Chaka Kahn is 70
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Singer Chaka Khan is 70.
Actor Amanda Plummer is 66.
Actor Catherine Keener is 64.
Actor Hope Davis (“The Matador,” ″About Schmidt”) is 59.
Actor Richard Grieco (“21 Jump Street”) is 58.
Drummer Kevin Griffin of Yankee Grey is 58.
Actor Marin Hinkle (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Two and a Half Men”) is 57.
Singer-keyboardist Damon Albarn of Blur and of Gorillaz is 55.
Actor Kelly Perine (“Knight Squad,” ″One on One”) is 54.
Drummer John Humphrey of The Nixons is 53.
Bandleader Reggie Watts (“The Late Late Show with James Corden”) is 51.
Actor Randall Park (“The Interview,” ″Fresh Off the Boat”) is 49.
Actor Michelle Monaghan is 47.
Actor Keri Russell is 47.
Actor Brandon J. Dirden (“For Life”) is 45.
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton is 45.
Singer Paul Martin of Marshall Dyllon is 45.
Actor Nicholle Tom (“The Nanny”) is 45.
Country singer Brett Young is 42.
✞DEATH ANNIVERARIES
In 1964..Peter Lorre, Hungarian-American actor (M, Casablanca, Beast with 5 Fingers), dies from a stroke at 59
In 1983..Barney Clark, 1st artificial heart recipient, dies after 112 days at 62
In 2011..Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress (Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), businesswoman, humanitarian, and serial bride, dies of congestive heart failure at 79
In 2016..Joe Garagiola, MLB catcher (4 teams, 1946-54), sportscaster, and TV host (Today Show), dies at 90
In 2016..Ken Howard, American actor (The White Shadow), dies at 71
In 2021..George Segal, Actor (Carbon Copy; Fun With Dick & Jane; Just Shoot Me!), and banjo player, dies at 87
The Academy of Country Music announced today ACM Radio Awards nominees for the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards™, including double nominations for Elaina Smith; KILT-FM in Houston, TX; KUZZ-FM in Bakersfield, CA; KXKT-FM in Omaha, NE; WBYT-FM in South Bend, IN; WMIL-FM in Milwaukee, WI; WQDR-FM in Raleigh, NC; WSIX-FM in Nashville, TN; WXTU-FMin Philadelphia, PA; and WYCT-FM in Pensacola, FL. Winners of the ACM Radio Awards will be announced ahead of the 58th ACM Awards, with more information to follow in coming weeks.
“Country Radio’s contribution in furthering the genre, promoting artists, and providing the soundtrack of our daily lives is incredibly impactful,” Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside said. “We’re excited to announce the nominees for the ACM Radio Awards and proud to celebrate these champions of the genre.”
The 58th Academy of Country Music Awards will take place Thursday, May 11, 2023, at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, TX and will stream live exclusively on Prime Video around the globe. The show will give fans in Texas and around the world a nonstop party to celebrate Country Music’s biggest stars. Tickets are available to purchase now at Seatgeek.
The full list of 58th ACM Awards nominations will be announced in the coming weeks, as will talent bookings for the show itself, including hosts, performers, and presenters, and detailed plans for ACM Awards week events in Frisco, including opportunities for fans to come out and take part in ticketed and free and open-to-the-public programming marking Country Music’s Party of the Year.
In what’s playing out like an extended preview to the $1.6 billion First Amendment prize fight between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News, both sides threw opening punches Tuesday in a Delaware court, where a judge is hearing summary arguments and other matters ahead of next month’s scheduled trial.
The Wrap reports Dominion Voting systems opened this round, arguing before Judge Eric Davis that Fox News made a “household name” out of Sydney Powell, let hosts “run wild” and developed what the judge called a “Lou Dobbs problem.” Fox countered in the afternoon, arguing that a “reasonable” viewer could easily discern that the network was reporting on allegations and newsmakers’ theories.
Both sides have asked Davis to rule summarily in their favor, a routine stop for any civil trial that rarely works. But Fox and Dominion each put significant resources into their summary arguments and supporting documents, which have been widely picked over and scrutinized. Davis was not expected to rule on the motions for summary judgment during the pre-trial hearing spanning Tuesday and Wednesday.
A Fox News producer who worked for hosts Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson filed a pair of lawsuits against the network Monday, alleging its legal team "coerced" her into giving misleading testimony in the ongoing defamation case brough by Dominion Voting Systems and accusing the company of fostering a "toxic" work environment.
Abby Grossberg, who joined Fox in 2019 as a senior booking producer on Bartiromo's Sunday morning show and eventually became head of booking on Carlson's primetime program, claimed that Fox's lawyers "coerced, intimidated, and misinformed" her while they were preparing her for deposition testimony in the $1.6 billion lawsuit filed by Dominion against Fox News.
Before joining the network, Grossberg worked for several other news outlets, including CBS News.
Abby Grossberg
In one complaint filed in federal district court in New York, Grossberg alleges that Fox's legal team indicated she should respond with a generic "I do not recall" to as many questions as possible during a September 2022 deposition, which she claimed was an effort to shift responsibility for the alleged defamation against Dominion onto her and Bartiromo "rather than the mostly male higher ups at Fox News who endorsed the repeated coverage of the lies against the Dominion."
Dominion has accused Fox News executives and its hosts of knowingly airing false claims about the company after the 2020 presidential election in an effort to boost its ratings. Revelations from Dominion's ongoing dispute with Fox News and the claims in Grossberg's lawsuits further have shed light on what was taking place behind the scenes after the presidential contest and the atmosphere surrounding the network's most popular hosts.
