When you sit down to watch the Oscars, what you are really watching is the final battle in a months-long war of financial engineering and campaign strategy. Because in Hollywood, every year is an election year. A small army of Oscars campaign strategists help studios and streamers deploy tens of millions of dollars to sway Academy voters. And the signs of these campaigns are everywhere — from the endless celebrity appearances on late night TV to the billboards along your daily commute.
On today's show, we hit the Oscars campaign trail to learn how these campaigns got so big in the first place. And we look into why Hollywood is still spending so much chasing gold statues, when the old playbook for how to make money on them is being rewritten.
This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
The leaders of six journalism schools discuss the ongoing media bloodbath, the cost of a journalism degree, and how to prepare journalists for the future.
The newsroom union at TheNew York Times accuses the paper of targeting staffers of Middle Eastern descent during an inquiry into leaks about internal debates over a story on the Hamas attacks.
The American journalism industry is in crisis - layoffs, strikes, and site shutdowns have some people talking about the potential extinction of the the news industry as we know it. Just last week, VICE Media announced their plans to layoff hundreds of employees and halt website operations. Taylor Lorenz, the Washington Post online culture and technology columnist, joins the show to unpack what is at stake with the continued media closures and layoffs.
Then, Brittany is joined by Deva Woodly, a professor of Political Science at Brown University. They discuss Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation outside the Israeli embassy in DC. They look at how this extreme act of protest is unique and how it might impact the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The Baltimore Sun was bought last month by David D. Smith, a media executive known for his conservative political advocacy. He's already changing the nearly 200-year-old newspaper.
Tucker Carlson did not ask Putin about how so many of his opponents wind up imprisoned and murdered, or the warrant the International Criminal Court has out for his arrest for war crimes in Ukraine.
Under Poland's Law and Justice party, the country's public broadcaster was turned into a propaganda tool for the far-right government to use as it wished. That era has come to an end.
Journalists have walked out of two dozen newsrooms over layoffs, budget cuts and fraught contract talks in just the past few weeks. All of them belong to the leading newspaper union, the NewsGuild.
"As a news reporter ... I am confident to report that you are so special and amazing," Grover tweeted. Some responded with jokes about him getting laid off, a common occurrence in today's media world.
Edwards, a consummate newsman, hosted NPR's morning show for more than two decades. "He sort of set the tone and the bar for all of us," says one former NPR executive.
The right-wing provocateur flew to Moscow to interview the Russian president, becoming the first American to do so since the invasion of Ukraine. They spoke for two hours.
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The platform will include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, including the men's and women's NCAA Tournament, as well as golf, tennis and the FIFA World Cup.
Bogus pornographic images purporting to show pop superstar Taylor Swift have emerged on social media, highlighting a growing challenge to privacy rights.
