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China asks Alibaba to sell media assets amid rising clampdown – BNN

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The Chinese government has asked Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to sell its media assets as officials are increasingly concerned about the technology giant’s growing influence over public opinion in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Regulators have reviewed a list of Alibaba’s media assets and were shocked at how expansive the company’s interests have become and asked it to come up with a plan to substantially curtail the holdings, The Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, has built up a sprawling portfolio of media assets over the years, spanning BuzzFeed-style online outlets, newspapers, television-production companies, social-media and advertising assets. Alibaba has a major stake in the Twitter-like Weibo, as well as other online and print news outlets, including the leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, The South China Morning Post.

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The expansive influence is seen as posing serious challenges to the Chinese Communist Party and its powerful propaganda apparatus, the Journal said.

Representatives for Alibaba in China and the U.S. didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Ma is revered in China as one of the country’s most-successful entrepreneurs, for building up Alibaba and financial technology company Ant Group Co. into behemoths that have penetrated practically every corner of daily life, from shopping to food delivery to buying a home.

Ma’s fortunes have waned, however, since he rebuked Chinese efforts to strengthen financial oversight last year. Those comments set in motion an unprecedented regulatory offensive, including scuttling plans for Ant’s US$35 billion initial public offering and opening an antitrust probe into Alibaba. His media holdings could prove even more problematic. While concerns about Alibaba’s growing influence have been simmering for years, they took on new urgency following an incident last spring when several Weibo posts about a senior Alibaba executive’s alleged involvement in an extramarital affair were deleted.

China’s campaign to curb the influence of its technology moguls expanded last week with fines against Pony Ma’s conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. Top financial regulators see Tencent as the next target for increased supervision after the clamp down on Ant, Bloomberg reported.

It isn’t clear whether Alibaba will need to sell all of its media assets, the Journal reported. Any plan that Alibaba comes up with will need approval from China’s senior leadership, according to the newspaper. Alibaba’s U.S.-traded shares were down 1.9 per cent as the market opened Monday in New York.

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Jon Stewart Slams the Media for Coverage of Trump Trial – The New York Times

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Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.

Media Circus

Opening arguments began in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Monday, with much of the news media coverage homing in on as many details as possible about the proceedings.

Jon Stewart called the trial a “test of the fairness of the American legal system, but it’s also a test of the media’s ability to cover Donald Trump in a responsible way.”

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The Punchiest Punchlines (Insano Edition)

The Bits Worth Watching

Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, took the stage with Madonna in Mexico City over the weekend.

What We’re Excited About on Tuesday Night

The economist Stephanie Kelton will chat with Jordan Klepper and Ronny Chieng, the guest co-hosts, on Tuesday’s “Daily Show.”

Also, Check This Out

In “Under the Bridge,” Hulu’s chilling new series, Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone investigate the murder of a teenager.

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Jon Stewart lampoons media’s coverage of Trump’s first day at trial – CNN

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‘Decisive, definitive and regretful’: Iran’s foreign minister issues warning to Israel

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Jon Stewart rips media over coverage of ‘banal’ Trump trial details – The Hill

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Jon Stewart blasted the media for covering the “banal” details of former President Trump’s first of four criminal trials, which began with opening statements Monday following a week of jury selection.

In his Monday night broadcast of “The Daily Show,” Stewart poked fun at the TV news media for tracking Trump’s traffic route from Trump Tower to the courtroom, compiling footage from various outlets, as they tracked each turn his car made.

“Seriously, are we going to follow this guy to court every f‑‑‑ing day? Are you trying to make this O.J. [Simpson]? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting,” Stewart said. “So the media’s first attempt — the very first attempt on the first day — at self-control failed.”

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Media outlets have closely covered Trump in recent days, as he makes history as the first U.S. president to stand trial on criminal charges. Trump is also the presumptive GOP nominee for president this year.

Trump currently faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, who paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 ahead of the 2016 election to stay quiet about an alleged affair she had with the former president a decade prior. It is the first of four criminal trials Trump will face, and perhaps the only one that will go to a jury before the November election.

Stewart, in his broadcast, took aim at TV news outlets, suggesting they were covering small news alerts as significant breaking news developments.

Stewart pretended a producer was talking in his earpiece and paused midsentence, saying, “Hold on. We’re getting breaking news,” and cut to a clip from an earlier interview conducted by CNN’s Jake Tapper, who similarly cut off his guest momentarily to identify a photo displayed on screen to his audience.

“I’m sorry to interrupt. Just for one second. I apologize,” Tapper said in the clip. “We’re just showing the first image of Donald Trump from inside the courtroom. It’s a still photograph that we’re showing there. Just want to make sure our viewers know what they’re looking at.”

Stewart shot back, saying, “Yes, for our viewers who are just waking up from a 30-year coma, this is what Donald Trump has looked like every day for the past 30 years. Same outfit.”

Stewart ripped CNN again for analyzing the courtroom sketches so closely, saying, “It’s a sketch. Why would anyone analyze a sketch like it was — it’d be like looking at the Last Supper and going, ‘Why do you think Jesus looks so sad here? What do you think? It’s because of Judas?’”

“Look, at some point in this trial, something important and revelatory is going to happen,” Stewart said. “But none of us are going to notice, because of the hours spent on his speculative facial ticks. If the media tries to make us feel like the most mundane bullshit is earth-shattering, we won’t believe you when it’s really interesting.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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