At last night's world premiere of "The Post," a movie about the Pentagon Papers case of 1971, the Washington audience burst into applause when Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, played by Meryl Streep, made her epic decision to challenge the Nixon White House on years of lies about Vietnam.
Rupert Murdoch, executive co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, said sexual misconduct allegations at Fox News were "all nonsense," and "largely political because we are conservative," according to Politico.
Murdoch told Sky News: "It's all nonsense...There was a problem with our chief executive [Bill Shine], sort of over the year, isolated incidents...As soon as we investigated, he was out of the place in hours. Well, three or four days..And there has been nothing else since then."
Why it matters: TV networks are being rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct, and none moreso than Fox News. This attitude toward such allegations is exactly the opposite of what other networks are trying to encourage, at least publicly. Murdoch said "the liberals are going down the drain," but that not all allegations should be treated with the same merit, Politico reports.
Walmart announced Wednesday that it will start allowing its workers to claim already-earned wages before their scheduled payday, in order to help its associates meet unexpected expenses. It's working with FinTech firms Even and PayActiv to offer workers a suite of financial services, including the ability to take advances on pay up to 8 times per year.
Don't get too excited: Walmart has been investing in higher hourly pay for workers, but its starting wage of $9 per hour still trails that of rivals Target and Costco, and labor advocates say that allowing advances is little help for those who simply don't earn enough money.
42% of working women in the U.S. say they have faced gender discrimination on the job, ranging from earning less than their male counterparts to being overlooked for important assignments and new positions, according to new Pew Research Center data. Only 22% of working men say the same.
Why it matters: The survey — which was conducted over the summer, prior to the #MeToo movement — reveals that the scales are still vastly tipped in men's favor.
Longtime New York Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. is retiring at the end of the year, a position he's had for roughly 25 years since 1992. His son, Arthur Gregg (A.G.) Sulzberger has been named the new Times Publisher.
Why it matters: The family business lives on. A.G. becomes the fifth generation-Publisher to lead the news company, since his great, great grandfather Adolph S. Ochs bought the paper and was named publisher in 1896. The company has since gone public, but the Sulzberger family owns stock that gives it control over company functions.
Late-night talk show host Tavis Smiley, who was suspended by PBS after an internal investigation led to several allegations of sexual misconduct, said he was shocked by the way PBS handled their investigation. "Variety knew [about my suspension] before I did," he said in a Facebook post.
His side of the story: "To be clear, I have never groped, coerced, or exposed myself inappropriately to any workplace colleague in my entire broadcast career ... PBS overreacted and conducted a biased and sloppy investigation, which led to a rush to judgment, and trampling on a reputation that I have spent an entire lifetime trying to establish. This has gone too far. And, I, for one, intend to fight back."
