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Jack Benjamin

@jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social
836 followers 1.1K following 2.3K posts

Senior reporter and podcast host for The Media Leader, a trade publication focused on all things commercial media. Writer, journalist, American in London.

PostsRepliesMedia
Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 39m
The most interesting part of this to me is the extent to which the right wing media coverage appears manufactured. The Axios story, the Hannity/Benny Johnson posts, the Charlie Kirk show appearance. Begs the question of who got advanced warning on this “bombshell” and how often this stuff happens.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 3h
There's something super off-putting about both Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots being dressed up as cuddly avatars. Like the executives know the only way to convince people to give their companies all your personal data is to look cute while doing it.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026
Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin...
Summary
Companies
• Anthropic IPO could value the company at more than $2
trillion
• Anthropic lost $42 billion in 2025
• Al lab spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure last year
• Operating loss widened to $8.06 billion in 2025 from $2.98 billion in 2024
• Execs, industry analysts have expressed concerns over harms of Al tech
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic is making a massive bet that Al will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
But the cost to get there will be staggering. Anthropic reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming year, according to the
prospectus.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The solidarity was nice while it lasted 😪 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/b...
nytimes.com
TV Networks to Resume Trump Coverage, Even as White House Excludes CNN (Gift Article)
The White House TV pool went dark this past week amid a standoff between CNN and the president. Network leaders, however, believe an indefinite suspension may be untenable.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Control Resonant is cracked. Game is insanely fun and inventive.
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Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Modi, Orban, Erdogan, Trump, Farage. They all learn from each other on how to deal with journalists, and how create their own propaganda channels. app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/75066/...
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk
Trump is trying to control the news, and Farage is desperate to follow him
Banning the media from the White House appears to have backfired, but the bigger fight for press freedom—when so much of our information is controlled by a handful of billionaires—is very much on
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The same companies caught running ads for literal CSAM won’t run ads for the Musk doc. Let that sink in.
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Oligarch solidarity www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
hollywoodreporter.com
The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing "political" content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
this story is truly 2026 in a nutshell. AI is super intelligent. but it's expensive. so it'll pass off your task to a grunt in the phillipines. www.404media.co/meta-tests-m...
404media.co
Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center
"This has potential for so much negative PR. It could portray us as ‘their AI is not good enough so they still need humans’ kind of coverage for this launch."
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Is it just me or has NYT's Style section become the go-to way for broligarchs and MAGAs to get some positive PR? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/s...
nytimes.com
Mark Zuckerberg Is Trying Something On
Meta’s C.E.O. talks for the first time about his style evolution.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Bruh www.semafor.com/article/09/2...
semafor.com
Exclusive: Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investment
A cash injection from SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk could reduce investor Larry Ellison’s financial burden and bolster the deal’s investor base.
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Status @status.news · 23/09/2026
The anonymous source behind one of the stories the White House cited to justify banning POLITICO was none other than Vice President JD Vance, we have learned. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/white-hous...
status.news
The Source Behind The Ban
The anonymous source behind one of the stories the White House cited to justify banning POLITICO was none other than Vice President JD Vance, Status has learned.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ofcom is now investigating the company behind Pornhub's age checks. "We are concerned that Aylo’s process may not be highly effective at preventing children from seeing pornography." www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...
ofcom.org.uk
Ofcom launches investigation into Pornhub’s age checks
Ofcom has opened an investigation into Aylo – the service provider of Pornhub – under the UK’s Online Safety Act, to determine whether it has complied with its duties to prevent children from encounte...
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Connecticut AG William Tong: “Connecticut wanted and demanded full divestiture of CNN and CBS News. [...] “I am deeply disappointed that we could not do more.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/m...
nytimes.com
After Crucial Paramount Agreement Come Relief, Anger and Concern
Few seem totally satisfied by the settlement that will let Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery move forward.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“Oh my God, all of it is for sale. It’s all for sale.”
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Reece @thiccreese.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Meta's new AI agent wanted my passport info. Not to help me. To train on me. Actually, it wanted everything: bank accounts, email inboxes, ID info. No surprise coming from Meta. But always worth reminding readers that AI automations come with major privacy risks. www.wired.com/story/metas-...
wired.com
Meta's Muse Is Better at Surveilling Than Helping Me
The Muse app continues Meta’s trend of opting users into data collection for AI training. It also nudges you to share your bank account, email, and passport information.
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This description of the CNN/CBS “editorial independence board” is not reassuring, because there is no sign that it has any actual power. Also, the requirement that the journalists on the board be from different political parties is exceptionally weird. Via @brianstelter.bsky.social
Under the settlement terms, that board must be established within 180 days of closing and comprise of five "established journalists (active or retired)," each with at least 10 years of experience.
The panel will resolve disputes over
"alleged reporting bias or failure to meet agreed reporting fairness standards" and monitor "editorial independence,
including from... ownership and shareholders." Members will be appointed by the company's board of directors, and "no more than two" may be
"affiliated" with the same political party.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21/09/2026
LMFAO -- Trump is holding an event at the White House right now but there's no audio because the press pool isn't there. The Newsmax host notes that this is an example of Trump's attacks on the press "backfiring just a little bit"
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The Ellisons will own (in full or in part): - TikTok US - CBS/CBS News/Sports - CNN - Paramount (+) - Nickelodeon - Comedy Central - Miramax - MTV - Showtime - BET - Channel 5 (UK) - Pluto TV - Warner Bros Pictures - New Line Cinema - Castle Rock - DC Entertainment/Studios/Comics - HBO (Max) 1/2
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Per NYT, Paramount is settling with states to push its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery through. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/b...
nytimes.com
Paramount to Resolve Antitrust Lawsuit, Clearing the Way for Warner Bros. Acquisition
The deal would remove the last significant hurdle the media mogul David Ellison faced to create a news and entertainment empire, home to movie studios, HBO, CBS and CNN.
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Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
BREAKING: TV pool will not be providing coverage of presidential events until further notice b/c of CNN's ban, pool chair and FOX News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton said. It's effectively a boycott by the fellow members — ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Joint statement from MS NOW, Politico and CNN: @ms.now @politico.com @cnn.com
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are suing over blocked access to the White House. edition.cnn.com/2026/09/21/p... Hearings and legal arguments could commence as soon as this week, per CNN. Couldn't be a more straightforward 1st Amendment violation.
edition.cnn.com
CNN, MS NOW and Politico to sue Trump administration over White House access | CNN Politics
The three national news outlets President Donald Trump banned from the White House — CNN, MS NOW, and Politico — are filing a critical First Amendment lawsuit to restore their access.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Snip snap snip snap www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/u... (Gift link)
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MS NOW Public Relations @msnowcomms.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
@ms.now statement on its journalists being denied access to the White House grounds:
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
AI agents are now being used by states to spam social media platforms with propaganda, per NYT. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/t...
nytimes.com
Iran and China Create First-of-Their-Kind Autonomous A.I. Influence Campaigns (Gift Article)
The countries, along with Israeli firms, combined Chinese open-source A.I. models and A.I. agents for the campaigns, foreshadowing future online manipulation.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The court filing dug up by @kint.bsky.social is the most They Admit It i have ever seen in my life www.404media.co/doom-loop-op...
404media.co
‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
"Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
this is so fucking crazy. huge huge huge scoop www.404media.co/inside-proje...
In a dashboard available to the workers, human reviewers are able to select which “task” they want to take on. Once they click that, they are presented with the real ChatGPT user’s prompt. 404 Media has seen multiple real prompts but is not quoting any of them for source protection reasons. Some of the prompts indicate the ChatGPT user does not expect that a human may end up reading their conversation, because they ask ChatGPT to keep the content to themselves.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“Comfort class authoritarianism” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/w...
nytimes.com
The New Moscow: A Digital Utopia Doubling as a Surveillance Trap
Cutting-edge technologies have reshaped the Russian capital, making it safer, more convenient — and more closely watched.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Enjoying these new ads for Control Resonant on my road in London
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Daniel Radosh @radosh.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"We report nearly a million users a month for looking at kiddie porn!" may not be the ironclad defense of your platform that you think it is
The company blocks users who post or engage with exploitative material and reports them to authorities, X said in its statement, including 780,000 users in the past month alone.
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 11/09/2026
Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...
nytimes.com
Elon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It Persists
Reviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“The Miami Herald will no longer have a Miami beat” is the state of local journalism in a nutshell. Really, really bad.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Call me crazy, but I don't think a journalist should be part of a venture capital fund, let alone one that invests in companies in the very same sector they cover. sources.news/p/joining-so...
sources.news
Joining Sound Ventures
I’m becoming an investor, and Sources will continue.
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Zahra Hirji @zhirji.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
EXCLUSIVE: The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly removed multiple online resources for companies on how to measure the carbon footprint of their supply chains, called Scope 3 emissions. Gift link @bloomberg.com: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
EPA Removes Online Scope 3 Emissions Guidance for Companies
As the Trump administration rolls back environmental rules, it’s also taking down resources that help corporations understand their environmental risk.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Very real-sized right hand you got there, Apple hand model.
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Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“The idea that you could be here for the next 10, 15 years and you’d still have no legal right to remain in the country … how the hell do you plan?..It cuts across any effort to integrate at all.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘Fundamentally unfair’: Burnham must overhaul migration reforms, says TUC general secretary
Paul Nowak says changes to immigration rules risk overstretching social care and fuelling far-right sentiment
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
A folding iPhone is cool and all but really all I want is a budget Mini option that has a headphone jack, doesn't listen to my conversations, and doesn't have any AI features.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The Guardian has published its 2025/26 accounts. Some takeaways: - Total revenue up 2% to £282m. - Non-UK revenue grew 8% to £115m to comprise 41% of total revenue. - The Guardian US now has over 500,000 recurring supporters. - Ad revenue was down 1.5% to £63m. www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-of...
theguardian.com
Guardian Media Group publishes 2025/26 statutory accounts
Guardian Media Group publishes 2025/26 statutory accounts – Digital reader revenue up 17% with 15% growth in US operations
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Guillermo del Toro is currently giving an all-time great AMA on r/movies: old.reddit.com/r/movies/com...
old.reddit.com
Hello reddit. I'm Guillermo del Toro. AMA!
Hello reddit, I'm Guillermo del Toro. I've written & directed **Cronos**, **The Devil's Backbone**, **Blade II**, **Hellboy**, **Pan's...
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The winners here are almost entirely American media companies. Streamers like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, etc, yes, but also Big Tech: Meta, YouTube, TikTok et al. The platforms have siphoned away ever larger ad budgets despite lacking independent and robust media measurement.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Channel 4 has formally announced it will be reducing its staff headcount by 28%, equivalent to ~340 roles, by the end of this year.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Want to show up more on Google's AI search results? Why not launch a YouTube show and give Google a cut of your ad revenue. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
John Lewis to launch YouTube chatshow to improve AI search results
Department store chain’s Gift List ‘vodcast’ will be hosted by TV presenter Angela Scanlon
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Lucy Fisher @lucyfisher.ft.com · 09/09/2026
EXC: Anthropic declined to submit its latest model to Britain’s AI Security Institute for testing before release, the first time a major model withheld from AISI Move has prompted fears in UK govt that tech firms are falling into line with Trump admin’s AI protectionism www.ft.com/content/560e...
ft.com
Anthropic withheld latest AI model from UK testing agency
Decision to exclude Aisi has prompted fears inside British government of protectionist shift among tech groups
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Rob Davies @byrobdavies.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"You should support everything Israel does because you're Jewish" and "You should be held responsible for everything Israel does because you're Jewish" are both ignorant and reprehensible positions.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
New: Brits aged 16-34 now spend nearly half of their commercial media time in isolation from others. Men now spend more time, and a greater share of that time, consuming media alone than women. Details: uk.themedialeader.com/personalisat...
uk.themedialeader.com
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Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It's finally happened: the improved quality of machine transcription and the greater ability to extract value from unlabelled data means "your tech is eavesdropping on you for marketing purposes" has crossed from "false conspiracy theory" to "true and concerning" www.theverge.com/tech/991190/...
theverge.com
LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby
Gamers Nexus comes for LG again.
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andy™ @andylevy.net · 08/09/2026
werner herzog on AI filmmaking (from here www.indiewire.com/features/int...)
Q: A couple years ago at IDFA, I saw this movie "About a Hero," which is this partly Al-generated hybrid documentary that tries to recreate the atmosphere of your films.

A: The intention of this young filmmaker was never to remake any [of my films], but making something in the spirit. And I immediately said, "You will fail. It is such a stupid idea. It's phenomenally, abysmally stupid. I will not take part in it." He wanted me to explain things and have my voice in it.
I said, "You are alone. There's such a thing as free speech, which I respect. So go ahead and fail." And it is a failure, period.
It's so standardized that Al can step in because there's not real storytelling. It's mimicry of something that has happened before. And I welcome Al to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating until it's ad nauseam.
When it's ad nauseam, please, please, please let Al step in and do the job.
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Jack Benjamin @jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
PSBs continue to shrink. Brutal indeed. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Channel 4 to axe about 300 jobs in biggest layoffs in its history
Exclusive: Staff expect ‘brutal’ cutbacks as broadcaster seeks to reduce costs amid advertising slowdown
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