Variety

Following an unscheduled, two-day soft launch thanks to the U.S. military action in Venezuela to capture dictator Nicolas Maduro, Monday marked the first official episode of the new CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil that, aside from a teleprompter snafu, came off as refreshingly down-the-middle and normal. One might suggest normal might convey a feeling of boredom or staleness. But…

There's something hilarious in the lefty Hollywood trade magazine Variety channeling George Clooney attacking CBS News as falling apart and apparently not holding Donald Trump accountable. The leftist press never holds George Clooney and his fellow Hollywood Democrats accountable.

The ladies hosting The View are fans of the Paramount+ series Landman. In November of 2024, they were gushing over the star Billy Bob Thornton. So they might be shocked to hear a brutal critique of their show and them coming out of the mouth of his character Tommy Norris.

Writing Thursday night at his newsletter site Status, conservative media Benedict Arnold and former senior CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy threw a fit over the company now overseeing the Golden Globes – Jay Penske’s Penske Media Company (PMC) – allowing conservative and other non-liberal podcasters like Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson to be eligible for a new category for best podcasting.

CNN finally launched on Monday its long-hyped streaming channel entitled CNN All Access, hoping it lives beyond the 32 days its first iteration — CNN+ — lasted and that it won’t lose $300 million. CNN said in a press release their “new All Access subscription tier” will include “access to stream a selection of live channels, a library of award-winning CNN Original Series and CNN Films, day-of…

The headline to Tuesday’s screed in Variety by Michael Schneider, the Hollywood-based entertainment mag’s executive editor for TV, was as subtle as a Michael Bay movie: “As Fascism Takes Hold in the U.S., How Will — and Should — the TV Landscape Depict Our Real-Life Horrors?” He wrote: "….Will political dramas depict the crumbling of America’s place and influence in the world? Will…

Before CBS decided to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel was pessimistic about the future of the late night comedy show. Now that Colbert has been cancelled, Kimmel is singing a different tune in order to advance the narrative that Colbert’s cancellation had something to do with President Trump and that, actually, the state of late night is quite strong.

Skydance Media — the company seeking to purchase for $8 billion Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS — said in a letter dated Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr that, among the changes they’d make to the company, they would hire an ombudsman to ensure “viewpoint diversity” and avoid “complaints of bias.”

Before Congress and on television, PBS CEO Paula Kerger has repeatedly pretended she has seen no evidence of liberal bias on PBS, which is like saying you were not being able to find the sun outside. But last week, Variety's Todd Spangler wrote a long leftist editorial on "Trump's War on Truth," and Kerger spoke more like someone who knew they were at war with Trump.

In a shocking turn-around, the White House Correspondents’ Association canceled plans to have extremely anti-Trump comedian Amber Ruffin perform at its annual dinner on April 26. President Trump, as well as his press secretary Karoline Leavitt, will not be attending the typically tilted proceedings. 

The eager-beaver publicists for "legacy media" in the Hollywood trade magazines can be expected to write some puketastic PR in the leadup to Election Night coverage. But this headline for Brian Sternberg's valentine in Variety should come with a complimentary air sickness bag: Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Joy Reid are the Primetime Avengers.

John Nolte at Breitbart pointed out on Wednesday that the Hollywood trade magazine Variety attacked director Ron Howard -- aka the beloved actor who played Opie Taylor/Richie Cunningham -- for having "created a monster" by making a movie based on the best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, now Donald Trump's vice presidential nominee.

Dan Rather tweeted "I am humbled and honored to share some exciting news.  A lot of very talented people have produced a documentary about this reporter’s life." A puff piece movie honoring Rather with actors wasn't enough. Now there's a gushy Rather "nonfiction" film.

Few films have stirred the cultural pot quite like “Civil War.”