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☆ Fact Check-Fabricated Jim Cramer tweet about Donald Trump getting indicted taken seriously online
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A tweet in which Jim Cramer, a U.S. television personality and host of Mad Money on CNBC, appears to say that he does not think former U.S. President Donald J. Trump will get indicted is fabricated. The posts come amid news of Trump being criminally charged in New York on Thursday, March 30, following an investigation about hush money paid to porn film actress Stormy Daniels, as reported by Reuters (here). However, the tweet does not appear on the official Twitter account of Cramer (twitter.com/jimcramer) or in archived snapshots of his page (here), (here) and (here). A spokesperson for CNBC told Reuters via email that “this is not a real tweet from Jim Cramer.”VERDICTFalse. The tweet was not posted by U.S. television host Jim Cramer.

☆ TV ratings for Sunday's Oscars rise to 18.7 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Lisa Richwine | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The audience rose 12% from last year, when 16.7 million people tuned in, ABC said. While the Oscars audience increased compared with last year, it ranked as the third-lowest on record for the ceremony. ABC said Sunday's awards were the subject of 27.4 million interactions on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The highest-rated Academy Awards telecast took place 25 years ago, when megahit "Titanic" swept the honors. In 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oscar ratings hit their low point with 10.5 million viewers.

☆ Chris Rock Is Finally Ready to Talk About Will Smith’s Oscar Slap
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( John Jurgensen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chris Rock, by saving his ammunition for Netflix, has set up a rare thing: a stand-up special with a timely hook. Chris Rock is poised to hit back on his own terms and his own turf: a stand-up comedy special that will stream live on Netflix a week before the Academy Awards. Since Will Smith clobbered him at last year’s Oscars in front of their Hollywood peers and about 15 million onlookers on U.S. television, Mr. Rock has avoided the forums where celebrities typically go to unburden themselves. No prime-time interview with Oprah. In short, no milking of the moment.

☆ Why Pizza Hut’s red roofs and McDonald’s play places have disappeared
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

As fast-food chains spread across the US after World War II, new roadside restaurant brands needed to stand out. So restaurant chains turned to architecture as a key tool to promote their brand and help create their corporate identity. Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesBut the fast-food architecture of today has lost its quirky charm and distinctive features. Googie style fell out of fashion in the 1970s as fast-food style favored dark colors, brick and mansard roofs. But in the effort to modernize, some say fast-food design has became homogenized and lost its creative purpose.

☆ NFL says Super Bowl watched by 113 million viewers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LOS ANGELES, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Sunday's Super Bowl attracted an average of 113 million viewers across traditional television and digital platforms, the National Football League said on Monday, citing preliminary data. The NFL said that figure represented a six-year high for its championship game, which this year was broadcast on the Fox TV network (FOXA.O) and streamed on Fox digital properties and NFL+. A final audience tally will be released by Nielsen on Tuesday, the NFL said. The Super Bowl ranks as the most-watched event on U.S. television every year, though viewership has been dwindling since it peaked in 2015. Viewership increased during the halftime show starring pop and R&B superstar Rihanna, averaging 118 million people on TV and digital platforms, the NFL said.

☆ Down-to-the-wire Super Bowl draws game's second-largest audience, Nielsen says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Lisa Richwine | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nielsen's figure includes people who watched on the Fox or Fox Deportes TV networks (FOXA.O) or streamed the game on Fox digital properties or NFL+. Football - NFL - Super Bowl LVII - Half-Time Show - State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, United States - February 12, 2023 Rihanna performs during the halftime show REUTERS/Caitlin O'haraThe Super Bowl draws the biggest audience on U.S. television each year. The most-watched Super Bowl took place in 2015, when an average of 114.8 million people watched the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks. Viewership rose roughly 11% from last year, when Nielsen reported an audience of 101 million people. Fox said the audience increased during the halftime show starring pop and R&B superstar Rihanna, averaging 118 million people on TV and digital platforms.

☆ Nonalcoholic Beer Ad in Super Bowl Spotlights ‘Dry Economy’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Heineken USA plans to run a 30-second Super Bowl ad for its Heineken 0.0 nonalcoholic beer, enlisting actor Paul Rudd as Marvel’s Ant-Man to make the pitch. Sales volume in low- and no-alcohol was $2.5 billion, while the overall U.S. alcohol market totaled $188.3 billion. Ad spending to promote nonalcoholic beer on national television, by comparison, totaled $9.7 million in January, up from $1.4 million in January 2019. Boisson Inc., a retailer of nonalcoholic beer, wine and spirits with 10 stores in New York and California, said it is increasing its marketing spending. SipSteady co-hosted a Dry Vibes event in January in Kansas City that included tastings of nonalcoholic beverages.

Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address at about 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday). It will be broadcast live on major U.S. broadcast television networks and online by the White House and the House of Representatives. The speech could deliver Biden his largest television audience of the year. The White House has also invited Brandon Tsay, who disarmed a gunman responsible for a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California. Republicans have picked Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as White House press secretary under Donald Trump, to deliver their response.

☆ Powerful quake rocks Turkey and Syria, kills more than 3,400
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

A man carries a girl following an earthquake, in rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria February 6, 2023. People search through rubble following an earthquake in Diyarbakir, Turkey February 6, 2023. Rescuers carry out a girl from a collapsed building following an earthquake in Diyarbakir, Turkey February 6, 2023. He said their shared four-story building collapsed just as he, his wife and three children ran toward the exit. Rescuers stand on rubble of a collapsed building, following an earthquake, in Latakia, Syria, February 6, 2023 in this handout image.

☆ MoneyGram boss says no peak in sight for F1's U.S. growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Alan Baldwin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The number of female viewers was up 34% and averaged 28% of the audience, while significantly younger fans were also watching. "I have kids of college age and they have friends and those friends have watch parties on Sunday mornings. It’s not what I was doing in college, it really wasn’t there," MoneyGram's marketing head Greg Hall told Reuters. Holmes said MoneyGram's global business made Formula One a good fit to reach a younger, digitally-aware consumer demographic. "For us to push the brand as faster, more interesting, cooler... the association with Formula One makes a huge difference."

☆ Explainer: When is the State of the Union 2023? Date of Biden's address and what to expect
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Biden will deliver his 2nd State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at about 9 p.m. Eastern time (0200 GMT Wednesday). An estimated 38.2 million people watched the speech on U.S. television last year, according to the data provider Nielsen. WHAT IS BIDEN EXPECTED TO SAY? Last year, Biden's speech came just days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and focused heavily on explaining Washington's response. Republicans have not yet announced who will be picked to give the traditional opposition party response to Biden's remarks.

Host and comedian Jerrod Carmichael opened his monologue with a blunt assessment: that he was there because "I'm Black." Carmichael recalled being called by Golden Globes producer Stephen Hill and being asked to host the awards. On the silver carpet, this year’s Golden Globe winner for best actress in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Michelle Yeoh and “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann also expressed the importance of celebrating all the talented people involved in Golden Globes. “I think it’s important because this is an international Golden Globe, right? Luhrmann echoed similar sentiments, saying, “I think the Golden Globes has really walked the walk, not just talked the talk.

☆ Bolsonaro supporters invade Brazil presidential palace, Congress, Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro take part in a protest to ask for federal intervention outside the Army headquarters in Brasilia, on November 2, 2022. Supporters of Brazil's far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday invaded the country's Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court, in a grim echo of the U.S. Capitol invasion two years ago by fans of former President Donald Trump. Television images showed protesters breaking into the Supreme Court and Congress, chanting slogans and smashing furniture. The Supreme Court was ransacked by the occupiers, according to social media images that showed protesters shattering the windows of the modernist building. "Violence has no place in a democracy," Douglas Koneff, the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Brasilia, wrote on Twitter.

☆ Pioneering U.S. television journalist Barbara Walters dead at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Bill Trott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Television personality Barbara Walters arrives for the premiere of the film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in New York September 20, 2010. "I asked Yeltsin if he drank too much, and I asked Putin if he killed anybody," Walters told the New York Times in 2013. "These two men were really quite brutal to me and it was not pleasant," Walters told the San Francisco Examiner. The New York Times called her "arguably America's best-known television personality" but also observed that "what we remember most about a Barbara Walters interview is Barbara Walters." Walters' three marriages - to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson - ended in divorce.

☆ Factbox: Key facts about pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The following are key facts about the life and career of pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, the first woman to anchor an American network evening newscast, who died on Friday:* Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, but she did not like to reveal the year, which reportedly was 1929, 1930 or 1931. * Walters started at NBC's "Today" show as a writer in 1961 and in 1976 became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news broadcast on U.S. television. * Walters singled out her "Today" co-host Frank McGee and Reasoner on ABC News for making her life miserable. * Walters felt she was unfairly mocked for her asking actress Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would like to be. * Walters' marriages to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson all ended in divorce.

Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, the longtime DJ on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, has died, according to his wife. Boss was pronounced dead just before 11:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday in Encino, the medical examiner said. Stephen 'tWitch' Boss in 2018. Holker Boss said her husband valued family, friends and community, adding that "leading with love and light was everything to him." Ellen DeGeneres said she was left “heartbroken” by news of Boss’ death, calling him "pure love and light."

☆ Georgia runoff: Democratic U.S. Senator Warnock beats Trump-backed rival
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

With 99% of the estimated vote counted, he led Walker by 50.8% to 49.2%, according to Edison Research. The result cements Georgia as a battleground state certain to play a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) speaks during an election night party after a projected win in the U.S. midterm runoff election between Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., December 6, 2022. It is his second runoff victory in two years, after he won the seat in January 2021. Venkayla Haynes, 28, said Warnock's win was especially meaningful after months of organizing get-out-the-vote efforts for both the general election and then the runoff.

☆ Democratic U.S. Senator Warnock wins Georgia runoff, Edison Research projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Senator Raphael Warnock won re-election in a hard-fought Georgia runoff on Tuesday, expanding his party's razor-thin majority as he turned back a challenge by Republican former football star Herschel Walker, Edison Research projected. With 97% of the expected vote counted and Warnock commanding a lead of 50.6% to 49.4%, Edison projected that Warnock had won reelection. Warnock's victory cements Georgia as a battleground state certain to play a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election. [1/17] Reverend Raphael Warnock, Democratic Senator for Georgia, delivers remarks during a visit at a campaign office during the midterm Senate runoff elections in Norcross, Georgia, U.S., December 6, 2022. It is the second runoff victory in two years for Warnock, who first won his seat in January 2021.

In 2019, Martin Scorsese said that Marvel movies were “not cinema” and worried cinema was being “invaded” by them. As it happens, I’m not a fan of Marvel films either. For almost the entire history of movies, women haven’t had access to the capital required to make them. There were at least 15 women directors in the commercial film industry during that time. That’s dismal but more than twice as high as the number of female film directors of the same era.

☆ Search effort intensifies after Indonesia quake killed 268
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

With many missing, some remote areas still unreachable and more than 1,000 people injured in the 5.6 magnitude quake, the death toll was likely to rise. Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images Adek Berry | Afp | Getty ImagesBy Wednesday morning, the government appeared to be focused on finding bodies, and wherever possible, survivors. But he said that he will not give up until they can pull his sister and his nieces out of the mud. Villagers salvage items from damaged houses on Nov. 22, 2022 following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 162 people in Cianjur, Indonesia. Aditya Aji | AFP | Getty Images

☆ 'The Walking Dead' series finale review: Episode 24 of the extended 11th season finally comes to an end, after biting off more than it could chew (SPOILERS)
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Review Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers about “The Walking Dead” series finale, “Rest in Peace,” which premiered November 20. CNN —Forgive AMC, at least a little bit, for almost drunkenly celebrating “The Walking Dead” in its heyday by feeding audiences as much content related to the zombie drama as they possibly could. In its early seasons, “The Walking Dead” excelled in part because of its unpredictability, as the montage of characters who had died reminded the audience. Those plans later morphed into a limited series, but the sense that “The Walking Dead” was no longer the priority in AMC’s “Dead” universe had been pretty well cemented. Television is always hungry for another hit, and at its height “The Walking Dead” was the TV equivalent of a supernova.

☆ Polls close in Brazil’s polarizing Bolsonaro-Lula contest
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The runoff shaped up as a close contest between President Jair Bolsonaro and his political nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There were multiple reports of what critics said appeared attempts to suppress the turnout of likely da Silva voters. Most opinion polls gave a lead to da Silva, universally known as Lula, though political analysts agreed the race grew increasingly tight in recent weeks. But while da Silva topped the Oct. 2 first-round elections with 48% of the vote, Bolsonaro was a strong second at 43%, showing opinion polls significantly underestimated his popularity. "If da Silva wins, we're going to have a problem," said Pedro Correia, 40, who joined his wife and two children in Copacabana.

☆ Judge orders Meta to pay $10.5M in legal fees to Washington
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Facebook parent company Meta has been ordered to pay $10.5 million in legal fees to Washington state atop a nearly $25 million fine for repeated and intentional violations of campaign finance disclosure laws. The money is to go to the state Public Disclosure Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws. In 2018, following Ferguson’s first lawsuit, Facebook agreed to pay $238,000 and committed to transparency in campaign finance and political advertising. It subsequently said it would stop selling political ads in the state rather than comply with the requirements. Nevertheless, the company continued selling political ads, and Ferguson sued again in 2020.

☆ Meta fined $24.7M for campaign finance disclosure violations
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SEATTLE — A Washington state judge on Wednesday fined Facebook parent company Meta nearly $25 million for repeatedly and intentionally violating campaign finance disclosure law, in what is believed to be the largest campaign finance penalty in U.S. history. Where’s the corporate responsibility?”In 2018, following Ferguson’s first lawsuit, Facebook agreed to pay $238,000 and committed to transparency in campaign finance and political advertising. It subsequently said it would stop selling political ads in the state rather than comply with the requirements. “Meta was aware that its announced ‘ban’ would not, and did not, stop all such advertising from continuing to be displayed on its platform,” North wrote last month in finding that Meta violation’s were intentional. North fined Meta $30,000 for each of its 822 violations — about $24.7 million.

☆ Comic actor Leslie Jordan, 67, killed in Hollywood car accident
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jordan apparently suffered an unspecified "medical issue" at the wheel of his car, and the vehicle struck the side of a building on his way to the Warner Bros studio set of the Fox television series "Call Me Kat," according to his agent, Don LeClair. He became famous to a younger generation of fans with a series of video Instagram posts that went viral during the pandemic. "The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan," his agent said in a statement. What he lacked in height he made up for in generosity and greatness as a son, brother, artist, comedian, partner and human being." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting in Los Angeles by Steve Gorman; Editing by Will DunhamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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