Tommy Vietor: Last News

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Crooked Media is looking to take its progressive-politics podcast empire to the next level. The L.A.-based media company, which produces more than 30 podcasts including the flagship “Pod Save America,” has hired Lucinda Treat, chief legal officer at Vice Media Group for the last four years, as its first CEO. Crooked Media also announced an investment from Soros Fund Management, the investment firm founded by billionaire George Soros, which is taking a minority stake in Crooked. Crooked Media didn’t disclose the amount of funding it received from Soros Fund Management, which represents its first outside financing. The company remains majority owned by founders and “Pod Save America” co-hosts Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor.

The content creators of the Crooked Media Union are staging a walkout Monday, after more than a year of bargaining with management on its first contract since organizing under the Writers Guild of America East.

Selome Hailu Jon Stewart is not backing down on his criticisms of President Joe Biden. In Thursday’s episode of his “Weekly Show” podcast, he compares Biden to Donald Trump, during a conversation that features “Pod Save America” hosts Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor and CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers. The four analyzed Biden’s performance in his recent debate with Trump as well as his subsequent refusal to consider stepping down as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November election.

Michaela Zee Patrick Dempsey is People‘s sexiest man alive for 2023. The “Ferrari” actor and “Grey’s Anatomy” alum was revealed as this year’s honoree during Tuesday night’s broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Prior to unveiling Dempsey as the sexiest man alive, the actor participated in a Q&A with the audience while wearing a realistic lizard face filter, followed by a donkey filter on the late-night talk show.

Podcast content creators at Crooked Media, complaining about the “degradation of our working conditions,” have unionized with the WGA East. According to the guild, an “overwhelming majority” of the podcast company’s 55 content creators have signed cards to unionize and are calling on management to voluntarily recognize the guild as their collective bargaining representative.

Barack Obama has made a rare confession about raising his two daughters, admitting that he knows that if they were white boys their experiences would be very different.STORY: Malia Obama looks so much like her famous mother, Michelle, in remarkable throwback photoSpeaking on the Pod Save America podcast, Barack shared that he wants them to feel that as they "move through the world that they are not having to put up with nonsense".WATCH: Barack Obama compares Queen to grandmother in sweet tribute"As someone who has two black daughters, I want them to feel that as they move through the world that they are not having to put up with nonsense, [like] if I had a white son - which biologically might be difficult - but that they be treated fairly [like he would be]," he told hosts Dan Pfieffer, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau.He made the comments as part of a conversation about the upcoming midterm elections and the struggles the Democratic Party is facing.MORE: Michelle and Barack Obama's vast living room inside $8.1million home is gorgeousMORE: Malia Obama's style evolution - see how she's changed"I also think when we are talking about durable majorities we have to be able to speak to everyone about their common interests, and what works for everyone is the idea of basic equal treatment and fairness," he continued."That's an argument compatible with progress on social issues and economic issues.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorCrooked Media, the progressive media company that produces the top-ranked “Pod Save America” and other podcasts, signed a multiyear, multiplatform agreement with SiriusXM.The agreement gives SXM Media, the advertising-sales arm of Sirius XM Holdings, exclusive global ad sales rights to Crooked Media’s lineup of podcasts starting in May. SXM Media also gets sales and sponsorship rights to digital video, social media and live events produced by Crooked Media.As part of the agreement, Crooked Media’s podcasts, including “Pod Save America,” “Lovett or Leave It” and “Pod Save the World,” will join the SiriusXM network through the 2024 election cycle and beyond, distributed on the Stitcher, SXM App and Pandora platforms.

Will Smith shared his personal experiences of racism as a black man in America, as he addressed the idea of one day running for office.