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Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto departs in cost-cutting move

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Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto departs in cost-cutting move

Neil Cavuto, the first anchor hired by Fox News in 1996, is leaving the network, another casualty of cost-cutting in the TV news business.

Cavuto, 66, will make his final appearance on the network Thursday on “Your World,” his long-running daily business-oriented program. His current deal is up at the end of the month.

Cavuto chose to leave the company after being offered a new contract – likely at a lower salary – according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

“Neil Cavuto’s illustrious career has been a master class in journalism and we’re extremely proud of his 28-year run with Fox News Media,” the company said in a statement confirming the anchor’s departure. “His programs have defined business news and set the standard in the entire industry.”

Big-name anchors across the TV news business are being asked to take lower salaries as ratings and revenues are shrinking. Hoda Kotb of NBC’s “Today” and Chris Wallace of CNN both chose to leave their roles rather than take new deals at lower pay.

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Cavuto anchored 12 hours of programming a week on Fox News and its sister channel the Fox Business Network, where he also served as managing editor. He was a popular figure among colleagues.

Cavuto is one of the few Fox News anchors who frequently criticized President-elect Donald Trump, which did not always please the conservative viewers who make up much of the network’s audience.

The anchor had a sense of humor about the audience’s love-hate relationship with him. When he returned after one of his long medical leaves, he read messages from viewers who were disappointed that he was back.

Throughout his career, Cavuto has battled a number of health issues over the years. He has multiple sclerosis, underwent open heart surgery in 2016 and is a cancer survivor.

He was an original anchor at CNBC when it launched in 1989. He developed a bond with Roger Ailes when he ran the NBCUniversal-owned business news network and followed the executive to Fox News when it launched in 1996.

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Cavuto became the lead anchor of Fox Business Network when it was launched in 2007. He helmed a midday program, “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” on the network in addition to his daily and weekend shows on Fox News.

No successor was named for Cavuto, whose programs will continue. A permanent replacement is likely to come from within the ranks of the network.

Cavuto served as a moderator for the second Republican presidential primary debate in 2015, which delivered the largest audience in the history of Fox Business Network.

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Trump Pardons Paul Walczak, Whose Family Sought to Publicize Ashley Biden’s Diary

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Trump Pardons Paul Walczak, Whose Family Sought to Publicize Ashley Biden’s Diary

President Trump has pardoned a Florida health care executive whose mother played a role in trying to expose the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary.

The pardon of the executive, Paul Walczak, was signed privately on Wednesday and posted on the Justice Department’s website on Friday. It came less than two weeks after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution, for tax crimes that prosecutors said were used to finance a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of a yacht.

Mr. Walczak’s mother, Elizabeth Fago, who was also involved in the health care industry in Florida, is a longtime Republican donor and fund-raiser who played a role in a surreptitious effort to help Mr. Trump by undermining Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2020 presidential election.

During the campaign, Ms. Fago was contacted by a man who was in possession of a diary kept by Mr. Biden’s daughter, Ashley, as she recovered from addiction, The New York Times previously reported.

When first told of the diary, Ms. Fago said she thought it would help Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the election if it was made public, two people familiar with the matter later told The Times. The man, Robert Kurlander, circulated the diary at a fund-raiser at Ms. Fago’s house in Jupiter, Fla., in September 2020.

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Ms. Fago’s daughter passed along a tip about the diary to Project Veritas, a conservative group that had become a favorite of Mr. Trump’s. Project Veritas later paid $40,000 to Mr. Kurlander and an associate, Aimee Harris, for the diary.

The Justice Department investigated the theft and handling of the diary, which included scrutiny of Ms. Fago and her daughter. Neither they nor anyone from Project Veritas was charged, but Mr. Kurlander and Ms. Harris were convicted in connection with the scheme.

There is no evidence that Mr. Walczak was involved in the effort to acquire the diary, and the charges against him were unrelated to the matter.

He had donated a total of about $450 to Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign around the time of the fund-raiser at his mother’s home, but it is not clear whether he attended it.

Asked about the pardon, he declined to comment and did not respond to a follow-up message inquiring about the diary. Ms. Fago, who has donated more than $16,000 to Mr. Trump’s committees and was nominated by him in December 2020 to the National Cancer Advisory Board, did not respond to a request for comment.

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The pardon of Mr. Walczak comes as Mr. Trump is increasingly using his nearly unfettered clemency powers to reward allies, highlight his grievances about what he sees as the political weaponization of the justice system and swipe at perceived enemies, including the Bidens.

Last month, Mr. Trump granted clemency to Devon Archer and Jason Galanis. The men are former business partners of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter, and earned fans on the political right by testifying to Republican-controlled congressional committees about the overlap between the younger Mr. Biden’s business dealings and the elder Mr. Biden’s public service.

Raymond R. Granger, a lawyer who represented Mr. Walczak in his criminal tax case, confirmed that he had drafted the pardon application with assistance from two lawyers with whom he worked on the case, Richard Levitt and Dennis Kainen.

In a statement, Mr. Granger said “Paul and his family are truly grateful to the president, and Paul looks forward to returning his focus to his lifelong passion for improving the country’s health care system.”

The clemency grant for Mr. Walczak came on the same day as Mr. Trump issued a pardon to Michele Fiore, a Nevada Republican politician who was convicted last year in connection with a scheme to use charitable donations for personal expenses, including plastic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding.

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A White House official said, without providing evidence, that Mr. Walczak and Ms. Fiore had been the victims of biased prosecutions under the Biden Justice Department.

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Kennedy Center cancels LGBTQ+ Pride events to align with new priorities after Trump fired center's leadership

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Kennedy Center cancels LGBTQ+ Pride events to align with new priorities after Trump fired center's leadership

The Kennedy Center has canceled a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ people for the World Pride festival in Washington, D.C., amid a change in focus and the Trump administration firing the center’s leadership.

Multiple artists and producers involved in the center’s Tapestry of Pride schedule said their events had been quietly canceled or transferred to other venues. The Tapestry of Pride was planned for June 5 to 8 before the cancellation.

Washington’s Capital Pride Alliance disassociated itself from the Kennedy Center in response to the canceled events.

“We are a resilient community, and we have found other avenues to celebrate,” the alliance’s deputy director June Crenshaw told The Associated Press. “We are finding another path to the celebration … but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing.”

TRUMP FIRES KENNEDY CENTER BOARD MEMBERS CITING DRAG SHOWS, APPOINTS HIMSELF CHAIRMAN

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The Kennedy Center has canceled a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ people for the World Pride festival in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

The Kennedy Center’s website still has a section for Tapestry of Pride with a general description and a link to the World Pride site. No other information is provided on the website.

The cancellations come in the wake of massive changes at the Kennedy Center, including President Donald Trump firing both the president and chairman in early February. Trump replaced most of the board with loyalists, who subsequently elected him the new chairman of the institution.

The World Pride event is held every two years and this year’s event runs from May 17 through June 8 with performances and celebrations planned across the nation’s capital. But concerns arose about what kind of reception attendees will receive due to Trump administration policies targeting transgender people and comments about Kennedy Center drag performances.

“I know that D.C. as a community will be very excited to be hosting World Pride, but I know the community is a little bit different than the government,” said Michael Roest, founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra, which had its June 5 performance at the Kennedy Center canceled just days after Trump’s took control of the institution.

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Roest told The Associated Press he was in the final stages of planning the performance at the center. He was waiting on a final contract when Trump revealed on Feb. 7 the leadership changes and his plans to amend the institution’s programming.

The center then became unresponsive, he said.

Kennedy Center in Washington

Multiple artists and producers involved in the center’s Tapestry of Pride schedule said their events had been quietly canceled or transferred to other venues. (AP)

On Feb. 12, Roest said he received a one-sentence email from a Kennedy Center staffer saying that they “are no longer able to advance your contract at this time.”

“They went from very eager to host to nothing,” he told The Associated Press. “We have not since heard a word from anybody at the Kennedy Center, but that’s not going to stop us.”

After the cancellation, Roest said he was able to move the International Pride Orchestra performance to the Strathmore theater in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.

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Roest said he was never given an explanation for why the performance was canceled so late in the planning stages. He said his orchestra would no longer consider performing at the Kennedy Center and that most queer artists would likely make the same choice.

“There would need to be a very, very public statement of inclusivity from the administration, from that board, for us to consider that,” he said. “Otherwise it is a hostile performance space.”

Crenshaw said some other events, including a drag story time and a display of parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, would be transferred to the World Pride welcome center in Chinatown.

SEATTLE PRIDE FACES BUDGET SHORTFALL AS CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS DWINDLE AMID ANTI-DEI SHIFT

Kennedy Center

The cancellations come in the wake of massive changes at the Kennedy Center. (Getty Images)

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Monica Alford, a veteran arts and culture journalist and event planner, was set to organize an event on June 8 as part of Tapestry of Pride, but said she also experienced an abrupt end to communication within days of Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.

Alford has a long history with the Kennedy Center and organized the first-ever drag brunch on its rooftop last year. She said she viewed the institution as her “home base” and “a safe space for the queer community.” She also said she was disappointed to lose the partnership she had with the Kennedy Center.

“We’re doing our community a disservice — not just the queer community but the entire community,” she told The Associated Press.

She said she was still finalizing the details of her event, which she said was “meant to be family-friendly, just like the drag brunch was family-friendly and classy and sophisticated.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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'60 Minutes' is a TV news powerhouse brand. Can it withstand Trump pressure?

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'60 Minutes' is a TV news powerhouse brand. Can it withstand Trump pressure?

For nearly six decades, there have been few media institutions as durable and respected as the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes.”

Even as traditional appointment TV viewing fades, “60 Minutes” remains the most watched news program, approaching 10 million viewers in some weeks, according to Nielsen data.

Correspondent roles on the program are the most coveted positions in TV journalism. Its deeply reported stories have influence in an age when other mainstream news outlets’ clout has diminished in a fragmented media landscape.

But “60 Minutes” now faces an unprecedented crisis.

This week, the program lost its executive producer, Bill Owens, only the third person to hold the job in the show’s storied history. His farewell note to staff cited interference from the corporate owner, Paramount Global, which is seeking regulatory clearance from the Trump administration to complete an $8-billion merger with Skydance Media.

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Clouding the deal, which requires approval by the Federal Communications Commission, is President Trump’s $20-billion lawsuit against CBS over the program’s October interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The case goes before a mediator next week.

Trump alleges the program was deceptively edited to favor Harris, a charge that 1st Amendment experts say is spurious. But Shari Redstone, controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, and the Skydance partners want to clear the legal obstacle to close their deal, even if it means a settlement.

A Paramount Global representative declined to comment.

“60 Minutes” former executive producer Bill Owens, left, with correspondents Bill Whitaker and Lesley Stahl.

(Rick Loomis / For the Times)

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The staff of “60 Minutes” was shaken by Owens’ departure. But no one is expected to follow him out the door, largely because it would be seen as giving in to Trump, said one longtime member of the program who was not authorized to comment publicly.

In the short term, Owens’ exit is not likely to change the hard-charging journalistic values of the program, as many of his lieutenants share his ethos. Executive editor Tanya Simon, who is running the program on an interim basis, is the daughter of the late Bob Simon, a well-known correspondent for the program.

“She is one tough cookie,” said Tom Bettag, a former network news producer who worked on the program and is now a lecturer at the Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland. “The troops admire her.”

While Owens cited corporate interference, there was little evidence of it on the screen.

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“60 Minutes” remained dogged in covering the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency, with critical reports on the administration’s handling of Ukraine and the bird flu outbreak. The program brought together a Marine Corps band that was dissolved as part of the administration’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the military.

“60 Minutes” staffers credit the drive of Owens, a 25-year veteran of the program, to get tough Trump stories on the air.

CBS executives not authorized to comment noted that “60 Minutes” has a long history of operating independently and Owens was likely not used to the additional oversight implemented in recent months.

Former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky was enlisted last fall to oversee standards at the news division after Redstone became irritated over some of the network’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, including a “60 Minutes” piece that criticized former President Biden’s handling of the conflict.

But the larger fear at “60 Minutes” is that the company will settle the lawsuit with an apology and payment to Trump.

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Any willingness to placate the president could have the “60 Minutes” journalists and producers looking over their shoulders as they try to do their jobs.

Confidence, swagger and even a bit of arrogance are part of what made “60 Minutes” a TV news powerhouse since 1968. Those characteristics may be undercut by uncertainty over corporate support, making it difficult to aggressively cover the Trump White House.

“People want to work at CBS News and especially at ’60 Minutes’ because they want to work in a place that will stand up and fight for themselves,” Bettag said. “I have students who look at ’60 Minutes’ and say ‘that’s the kind of person I want to be.’”

“60 Minutes” has been subjected to corporate pressure in the past when network owners were involved in merger talks.

When Laurence Tisch owned CBS and was looking to sell the company to Westinghouse in 1995, the network killed a “60 Minutes” story that featured tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, a former Brown & Williamson executive who revealed that its cigarettes contained additives to boost the nicotine that keeps smokers hooked.

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Brown & Williamson threatened CBS with a lawsuit, claiming the interview would interfere with Wigand’s confidentiality agreement with the company. Under orders from its legal department, ‘’60 Minutes’’ did not broadcast the interview or air Wigand’s most damaging charges until after the Wall Street Journal reported on a deposition he gave in another case.

The conflict was dramatized in the 1999 Michael Mann film “The Insider” and stained the program’s stellar reputation.

“60 Minutes” survived that episode and maintained its stature as the gold standard of TV journalism. In recent years, the program has dominated investigative journalism in prime time as its competitors “Dateline” on NBC and “20/20” on ABC have moved exclusively into telling true crime stories.

What is baffling people who have worked on the program is why Paramount Global or Skydance would want to risk damaging the value of an asset that continues to generate millions in profit for the network and provides enviable stature.

“I pray they back off and see that there would be real glory in speaking up and supporting ’60 Minutes,’ which is truly a national treasure,” Bettag said. “It is also a cash cow and it has an identity for a network, which is truly important.”

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