Hollywood Week: Google, Microsoft, Media News: Murdoch Saga, Matthew Dowd, Kirk Firings, E. Jean Carroll
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Saturday, 13 September 2025 11:46
- Written by Janet Walker
The assassination of right-wing conservative political activist Charlie Kirk has reverberated throughout the media world as parent companies sought to minimize the fallout from political commentators who proffered comments on his Trump aligned pro-nationalism position with terminations.
Google Avoids Breakup
Big Tech companies Google and Microsoft each managed to satisfy both U.S. and EU regulators with barely there changes meant to appease courts as they seek to de-monopolize Big Tech.
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Google managed to secure a quasi-victory, when a federal judge ordered the tech company to share data with competitors, but stopped short of the government's request to have the behemoth divest itself of its chrome browser.
"The decision, by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, . . .in the 223-page ruling that Google must share some of its search data with "qualified competitors" to resolve its monopoly. The Justice Department had asked the judge to force the company to share even more of its data, arguing it was key to Google's dominance," The New York Times reported.
The search wars, in which Google has dominated, is relatively new area in law, as is most advanced technology issues, and as the court depend on precedent in rulings the only cases available are those which break-up monopolies like Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and AT&T, clearly outside the scope of Big Tech.
However, utilizing simple user choice did not seem to have the importance that one would expect. And it is not simply choice; it is squeezing competitors by bundling products and forcing total usage or purchase of the bundle which adds obstacles for competitors to gain traction as all Big tech is chasing the came outcomes.
Microsoft Removes Teams
Microsoft, in order to appear EU regulators, has removed Team from its office product bundle.
"The settlement, announced Friday morning, comes more than five years after Slack filed its initial complaint, and more than two years after EU regulators opened their investigation. In the meantime, Slack has been acquired by Salesforce, Teams has climbed to about 300 million monthly average users, and the attention of the world has shifted to AI," reported Geekwire.com.
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Media News: Murdoch's Succession Finalized
The speculation over Rupert Murdoch, 94, and his son Lachlan Murdoch, 54, control of the Murdoch empire, after years of litigation, family infighting, denigrating media campaigns, and a saga that spawned the hit HBO drama "Succession," finally came to a close in a Nevada courtroom.
The Murdoch family, who own controlling stake in media companies across three continents, including the right leaning conversative news station, Fox Corp and News Corp, have agreed to created a trust for his three eldest children to buy out their shares, in the media empire securing Lachlan's control over the dynasty.
"The long-running succession battle was the product of a deal that Rupert made when he divorced his second wife, Anna Mann. At the time, he agreed to bequeath equal control of his empire after his death to his four oldest children, Prue, Liz, Lachlan and James — in effect relinquishing his ability to lock in his preferred successor," reported The New York Times.
The settlement provided the three challenging siblings with a better deal than Lachlan, who is said to be more aligned with his father's conversative ideologies than his siblings, ever offered, and were well above current market value. The trust total $3.3 billion, to be divided equally between the three siblings, Prudence, Liz, and James. A separate trust was created for Lachlan and Murdoch's two other children from his third marriage.
The settlement dissolves all previous litigation and allows both sides to claim victory. As Lachlan had been running the empire for some time, the creation of the new trusts, which buys up all shares held by all family members, secures the conservative leaning empire will remain in the hands of Murdoch family, at least for the foreseeable future, and remain committed to furthering the conservative political agenda.
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Matthew Dowd Among Dozens Terminated for Kirk Remarks
Fallout over the assassination of Charlie Kirk has continued to reverberate throughout the United States as organizations and parent companies are acting swiftly to terminate employees who have used social media to respond or react to the events in Utah.
MSNBC Political Correspondent Matthew Dowd, stated on air, "You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place. He later apologized in a post on Bluesky," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Interpreting Dowd's comments, one could say, hate begets hate, which is straight from the Bible, and Christian teachings. Of course, the notion is that when a liberal pundit explains harsh truths, it is the fault of the liberal. Perhaps Dowd's comments were simply too soon and as the dust had yet to settle, and a suspect was not in custody, his comments were construed as politically charged.
As the conservative media mourned a man that few knew, elevating him in death to a position of reverence, the fact remains that the senseless violence did not send the United States to the edge of a political precipice.
The bigger story behind the rash of terminations is the limits being placed on First Amendment freedoms. The opinions of Dowd and others should have been considered protected speech as they were not screaming "Fire" in a crowded theater.
Even if we remove the boundaries of the theater, the analogy, and use the concept of a large gathering of people or even further the entire population of the United States, the rhetoric and polarizing political landscape has already created the incendiary device, and private and public citizens with opposing opinions are now limited in their speech simply due the fact that elected officials take to social media and impress, with sound bites on the masses, the demonization of political parties and a pro-nationalism movement.
Fallout over free speech noted online include Gerald Bourguet, a writer for the Phoenix Suns who was fired over a post that refused to "respect an evil man who died." A Secret Service employee, Anthony Pough was placed on administrative leave for a social media post that called Kirk's commentary "hate and racism" and suggested his death was "karma."
"At least a dozen employers, including the Carolina Panthers, the University of Mississippi and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have put staff members on leave or dismissed them for their online activity, as well as apologized for and publicly disavowed their remarks," reported The Washington Post.
A Marble Falls city employee in Texas was fired for online statements about the death. An Ohio judge, Ted Berry, who served on the advisory board of the Joe Burrow Foundation was removed from the board after posts about Kirk's death. Terminations even reached across the pond when Dawn Wild, British politician on the Burnley Council resigned after reportedly making comments online and facing blowback.
With each termination over clearly protected speech, America becomes less free.
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E. Jean Carroll Defamation Award Upheld
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld an $83 million dollar defamation award determined by a lower court to journalist E. Jean Carroll, who alleged that Mr. Trump, before he became politically active, sexually assaulted her in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan.
"In a 70-page decision, a three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit concluded that "the jury's damages awards are fair and reasonable" and that there was "ample evidence that Trump was recklessly indifferent to Carroll's health and safety," The New York Times reported.
As the climate is changing and women are becoming more aggressive in attempts to hold those accountable for sexual assault and rape, Carroll's ability to succeed in the court system that once so heavily favored the aggressor, is encouraging.
As more women step out of the shadow, rapists are become more creative in an effort to defame them for having the audacity to demand justice, even to the point of using other women as their representatives, creating hostile work environments (if work is even possible), reaching out to HR to block all attempts at employment, stalking, and circumventing, with the expectation of driving them from the city of their choice, creating desperation, and attempting the big erase.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
