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As Democrats scrambled to shore up support for Kamala Harris, two megadonors openly challenged one of the core tenets of Joe Biden’s agenda, to rein in corporate power, in a move that could prove to be bitterly divisive within the party if Donald Trump is defeated in November.

On July 25, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman went on CNN to call for the vice president, if she is elected, to oust Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, who he said is operating “outside the scope” of her job. “Antitrust is fine,” said Hoffman, who has donated $7 million to a Democratic super Pac and sits on the board of Microsoft, a tech giant whose acquisition of Activision was challenged by the FTC. “Waging war is not.”

A day later, Iac media mogul and former Ticketmaster chair Barry Diller offered another glimpse into corporate America’s perspective on merger regulation under Khan. Asked...

Independent filmmakers and enthusiasts have a new resource to demystify the often-complex world of film distribution. Distribution Advocates Presents, a podcast hosted by Avril Speaks, filmmaker and co-founder of Distribution Advocates, officially launches on January 31st.

Distribution Advocates is a collective advocating for filmmakers and maintaining plurality and originality. Members currently include Avril Speaks, Karin Chien, Abby Sun, Amy Hobby, and Carlos Gutierrez. Their singular goal is to collectively reclaim power for independent storytellers in the current systems of distribution and exhibition.

This podcast aims to shed light on the inner workings of independent film distribution, by addressing a crucial question: how can we understand and improve the current ecosystem to create more equitable distribution systems?

From the role of sales agents to the functions of film festivals, each episode is a journey into understanding the challenges of distribution and the potential for transformative change. Think of it less as...

San Francisco, Jan 3 (Ians) Microsoft’s lawyers have claimed that they have no idea why the ‘Call of Duty game’ is special and when it came out.

On Twitter, Matt Stoller, author of ‘Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy’ book, posted Microsoft’s 37-page reply to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit seeking to block the Activision Blizzard deal, reports The Verge.

“Microsoft avers that it lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations concerning industry perceptions of ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Call of Duty’s’ original release date,” the page mentioned.

“Or as to the truth of the allegations concerning ‘Call of Duty’s’ launch and typical release schedule and the resources and budget Activision allocates to Call of Duty, including the number of studios that work on ‘Call of Duty’,” it added.

In January last year,...

In this week’s quarantine episode of our Useful Idiots podcast, hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper are joined by Matt Stoller, author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly, Power and Democracy, a book that Matt describes as having “venom for all the right people.” He is also the Research Director at the newly formed American Economic Liberties Project.

They discuss the Covid-19 bailout, how economics factors into partisan politics in 2020, what the Democrats and Republicans are both getting wrong, and what Stoller calls “concentrated financial power and consumerism.