Paramount Global's triumvirate of leaders try to quell company anxiety, ProPublica fires back after Justice Samuel Alito is caught on tape blasting the outlet, the news industry remembers Howard Fineman, Sony Pictures acquires Alamo Drafthouse, Apple shares continue to soar, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. makes cuts in the land Down Under, The WSJ explores Elon Musk's "boundary-blurring relationships with women" at SpaceX, critics bless "Inside Out 2" with stellar reviews, and so much more. But first, the A1.

A Toxic Ticket

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Ticketmaster is linking arms with right-wing extremists, boosting their ability to reach mainstream audiences and profiting off their dangerous and hateful rhetoric ahead of the November election.

The ticketing sales giant is the distributor of the forthcoming live speaking tour from Tucker Carlson, who announced plans this week to criss-cross the country with a 15-city arena tour, inviting fellow conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene to join him along the way.

On the Ticketmaster website, Carlson is referred to as "the leading voice in American politics" and "an alternative to corporate media dedicated to telling the truth about the things that matter — clearly and without fear." While it is hard to imagine that Ticketmaster conjured this glowing description of Carlson itself, it is remarkable the company would approve it and promote it on its site.

That is because there is not a morsel of truth to how Ticketmaster is presenting Carlson to its customers. Carlson, a former mainstream conservative who over the course of Donald Trump's presidency traveled to the fringes of American politics, has for years promoted dangerous disinformation and damaging conspiracy theories. Carlson lied about the Covid-19 vaccines, discouraging his fans from receiving the life-saving shots. He sowed doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, suggesting that it was rigged by sinister forces against Trump. And he reprehensibly peddled the false notion that the January 6 insurrection was a so-called "false flag" operation staged by the "deep state."

In addition to those corrosive lies, Carlson has been one of the top promoters of the Great Replacement Theory, the idea favored by White supremacists that falsely accuses the Democratic Party and wealthy Jewish figures, such as George Soros, of importing third-world migrants into the U.S. to shift the country's demographics to win elections. For his repugnant promotion of such lies, The New York Times noted that while Carlson was at Fox News, he "constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news."

Ultimately, Carlson grew to be too much of a problem even for Fox News, and the Rupert Murdoch-controlled right-wing channel dispensed of him last year. Evidently, Fox News has higher standards for whom they will do business with than Ticketmaster, a remarkably low bar for the events giant to trip over.

Asked for comment this week, representatives for the Live Nation subsidiary chose not to respond. In fairness to the company's public relations division, it is difficult to see how they can defend such conduct. How can any decent person not only participate in enabling Carlson's poisoning of the public discourse, but also justify profiting off of his hateful rhetoric in the process?

We also posed questions to the venues hosting Carlson, which include the Honda Center, T-Mobile Center, Delta Center, Dickies Arena, Intrust Bank Arena, and others. Spokespeople representing each respective venue did not provide a comment.

These are uneasy questions that major businesses will be confronted with in the years ahead as the Republican Party veers further and further toward the fringe. Far-right and conspiratorial figures like Jones, the founder of Infowars who openly fantasized this week about executing Dr. Anthony Fauci and other Trump critics, were once banished to the shadows of the conservative movement, mocked by people like Carlson. Now, Carlson and others openly celebrate Jones, fully aligning themselves to assail the nation's institutions.

Companies with basic ethics should, of course, reject doing business with dishonest figures who profit by dumping toxic waste into the country's information environment. But doing so puts them at risk of being targeted by those very same people who, like Trump, have tremendous sway over the vast majority of Republicans and a lightning rod for painful boycotts.

But, while the politics of 2024 makes for a thorny business environment for companies to navigate, from an ethics perspective, the questions that lie before them come with clear and obvious answers. Those uncomfortable decisions risk catapulting them squarely into the center of the information wars, where grifters like Carlson thrive.

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Shari's Hangover Mountain: After a chaotic roller coaster ride over the last 24 hours, Paramount Global's Office of the CEO — made up of Brian Robbins, Chris McCarthy, and George Cheeks — tried to quell some of the anxiety coursing through the company. In an email to staffers, the triumvirate said the board will "remain open to exploring strategic alternatives that create value for shareholders" while they execute on their own plan, which calls for reducing costs by $500 million and exploring a potential joint venture in streaming. "As we advance each of these initiatives, we will continue to prioritize investment in our world class franchises, films, series and sports, which are the core of our business," the trio wrote, adding that they will hold their town hall later this month, on June 25. Variety's Todd Spangler has more here. 

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Remembering Fineman: The world of journalism grieved the loss of an industry giant on Wednesday. Howard Fineman, the legendary political correspondent who covered presidents for decades, died of pancreatic cancer, his wife, Amy Nathan, announced on X. "I am heartbroken to share my brilliant and extraordinary husband passed away late last night surrounded by those he loved most, his family," Nathan wrote. "He valiantly battled pancreatic cancer for 2 years. He couldn't have been adored more. The world was a better place because he lived in it and wrote about it." Tributes poured in from across the industry, with HuffPost, where Fineman once served as global editor, hoisting a banner on its homepage that read, "THE NEWSMAN."

► The NYT obit, by Clay Risen: "He was part of what might be called the post-post-Watergate generation of journalists. No longer directly fired by the scrappy, crusading spirit of the young Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Mr. Fineman and his cohort brought a polished professionalism to their task matched with a dogged ambition that fit the Ronald Reagan era in Washington." 

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Alito's ProPublica Attack: Samuel Alito is not a fan of ProPublica. The conservative Supreme Court justice blasted the non-profit newsroom in yet another secret recording made public this week. Asked by an activist disguised as a supporter why the media supposedly attacks the high court, Alito responded, "They don’t like our decisions." Alito added that there "are groups that are very well-funded by ideological groups that have spearheaded these attacks." When asked to identify the groups, Alito didn't hesitate. "ProPublica," he said. "ProPublica gets a lot of money, and they have spent a fortune investigating Clarence Thomas, for example. You know, everything he’s ever done in his entire life." Alito then complained that ProPublica has "done some of that" to him too. "They look for any little thing they can find, and they try to make something out of it," the justice said. Rolling Stone's Adam Rawnsley and Tim Dickinson have more here. 

► ProPublica's response: "ProPublica exposes abuses of power no matter which party is in charge and our newsroom operates with fierce independence. No donors are made aware of stories before they are published, nor do they have a say as to which stories reporters pursue. More than 55,000 donors of every stripe actively fund our investigative, nonpartisan journalism."

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Appetite for Apple: Investors are continuing to show strong enthusiasm for Apple's foray into A.I. The company's shares closed up nearly 3% Wednesday, after having already risen 7% the day before. In fact, at one point during the trading day, the Tim Cook-led tech behemoth surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable company in the world, boasting a market capital of $3.3 trillion. Why the excitement for Apple's stock? The thought is that Apple's decision to limit Apple Intelligence to new phones will "kick off an iPhone super cycle," as Evercore declared. CNBC's Rohan Goswami has more.

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'Inside Out' Set to Ignite: It is looking more and more like Disney's Pixar could have a big — and much-needed — hit on its hands. The review embargo for "Inside Out 2" lifted Wednesday, and with 85 critics offering their take so far, the PG-rated family film is boasting a solid 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. In other words, the word of mouth should be strong. In fact, over at Box Office Theory, analyst Shawn Robbins has upped his opening weekend forecast, projecting the film will likely top $100 million. "Late tracking trends have accelerated this week and now point to potential for a nine-figure opening at the box office," Robbins wrote. More from Robbins here.