Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) has asked the Federal Communications Commission to review whether ABC, NBC and CBS violated their obligation to “serve the public interest” after choosing not to run President Trump’s speech on election security last Thursday, Fox News reports. "Broadcasters may criticize, analyze, or fact-check the President's statements," Carter wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. "However, refusing to air a major presidential address because executives disagree with its content raises serious concerns that they intended to keep Americans in the dark about potential foreign interference in our elections."

ESPN has laid off dozens of employees as it rolls out changes to its business, The Hill reports. Included were notable names like baseball broadcasterer Karl Ravech, NFL analyst Ryan Clark and reporter Tom Pelissero, but these were not the only employees affected. This is tied to the changes following the acquisition and integration of NFL assets. “While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted,” said Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN president. 

Gray Media has hired Cogent Strategies LLC for exclusive federal lobbying, Legis1 reports. Gray has spent $130,000 on lobbying in each of the two quarters so far this year. A filing by Cogent Strategies cites issues such as TV innovation, competition, local broadcasting, streaming, AI, FCC, local station ownership issues, and Next Generation TV. The lobbying team includes these Cogent Strategies operatives: Claudia James, Dave Oxner, Andrew Kauders, Shellie Purvis, Randall Gerard, and Kimberley Fritts.

A new Gallup poll finds that news media are among the least-trusted institutions in the U.S., The Hill reports. A mere 17% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot of confidence in newspaper reporting, one point less than last year. Television news rates even lower, at 14%. However, only 9% trust Congress, making that the country’s most distrusted entity. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be suspicious of the media. 

OpenAI is struggling to meet its advertising goals, and will miss its five-year ad revenue projections by 90%, Futurism reports, sourcing an analysis by Emarketer. The combined 2025 advertising total for OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will total less than $1 billion, compared to the $2.5 billion OpenAI had predicted it would hit this year, the analysis projects. 

French Parliament is on the path toward banning social media for children under age 15, Reuters reports. The compromise bill will have a final vote on Tuesday, and would take effect at the start of the school year in September. The measure is strongly backed by French President Emmanuel Macron. A report published last December found that the use of social networks leads to reduced self-esteem and exposure to content associated with self-destructive behaviors, including suicide. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides. 

The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger may not receive UK clearance, by the deadline of September 30, Deadline reports. The House of Commons has gone into recess, and it is not yet known whether UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy will issue a “public interest intervention notice,” which would lead to investigations. The merger could close without UK support, but Paramount intends to respect the U.K. process.

President Trump’s threat to revoke the broadcast licenses of media that anger him, including those that decided not to run his speech last Thursday — namely, ABC and NBC — is drawing pushback from media firms and commentators, Politico reports. “We’ve never in this country had a law that permits a royal decree for news coverage,” said Robert Corn-Revere, a former top FCC who is now chief counsel for the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression. “If you expressly link a licensing proceeding to whether or not the networks are airing coverage that the president wants covered, then whatever legitimacy …

Madison Square Garden Entertainment has sued Wired magazine over its report alleging that the Garden keeps a secret watchlist of LGBTQ celebrities and that it assigns “risk scores” while also tracking their race and gender identity, Fox News reports. The Garden contends in its defamation suit that Wired used stolen data to invent a false narrative. Wired says it stands behind the reporting. 

A federal judge has blocked South Dakota from banning advertising for abortion pills, saying that it violates freedom of speech, Associated Press reports. The state had passed law prohibiting the distribution and advertising of abortion services, including the pills. “This ruling says the state cannot ban information about abortion, no matter what you think about abortion or anything else,” says Jim Leach, the attorney representing Mayday Health.