The multiplatform network owned by the once popular talk show host is facing financial struggles for which it finds its partner, Trinity Bro
Merit Street Media, the multiplatform network owned by former daytime talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw, has filed for bankruptcy less than two years after its launch.
The television and entertainment company filed the motion for Chapter 11 protection on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas. The filing comes just weeks after the struggling company laid off 40 employees in a second wave of job cuts following the dismissal of roughly a third of its staff in August of 2024.
Merit Street Media launched in 2023 with ambitions of becoming "one of the most widely distributed startup networks in modern history," according to an announcement at the time. The company's broadcast network, formed in partnership with Christian-based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), offered a broad lineup of programming featuring popular TV personalities including Nancy Grace, Bear Grylls and Steve Harvey, in addition to McGraw, the face of the network.
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Dr. Phil's Merit Street JV Media filed for Chapter 11 and sued business partner Trinity Broadcasting for breach of contract.
Jill Goldsmith and Ted Johnson at Deadline:
Dr. Phil’s Fort Worth-based JV Merit Street Media filed for Chapter 11 on Wednesday, simultaneously suing business partner Trinity Broadcasting for breach of contract that it claims destroyed its new television network and pushed it into bankruptcy.
The TV personality’s high-rated daytime Dr. Phil show ended a 21-year run after the 2022-23 season although it lived on in syndication. The suit centers around his latest venture, Merit Street Media, a JV of McGraw’s Peteski Productions and Trinity Broadcasting Group. The latter was founded by American televangelist Paul Crouch and his wife Jan in 1973 and is currently overseen by president and CEO Matthew Crouch. The network has had carriage on over-the-air broadcast television as well as multichannel platforms and streaming.
A Merit Street spokesperson said, “Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is being sued by Merit Street Media (MSM) for failing to provide clearly agreed-upon national distribution and other significant foundational commitments critical to the network’s continuing success and viability. The suit is part of a restructuring proceeding also initiated by MSM.”
A spokesperson for TBN did not immediately return a request for comment.
The JV called for Peteski to provide Merit Street with certain new original episodes of the Dr. Phil show, as well as primetime specials to air on the new TV network. For its part, TBN agreed to provide, at no cost to Merit Street, carriage to distribute Dr. Phil’s shows and specials to a nationwide audience … in exchange for which TBN would have a controlling equity interest in the network,” according to the lawsuit.
[...]
Since its launch last year, Merit Street has featured McGraw’s interview with Donald Trump following his conviction on New York state charges, as well as the host’s embed with federal immigration agents back in January.
Merit Street says that it will continue to broadcast shows as long as it can, but it will be library programming.
Right-wing charlatan “Dr.” Phil McGraw’s Merit Steet Media venture with Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is going up in smoke, as it sues TBN for contract breaching.
She said that parents are blocking their kids from joining the military because it's too focused on inclusion...
Alex Bollinger at LGBTQ Nation:
Nikki Haley, who’s currently second place in the polls for the GOP primary after Donald Trump, blamed trans people for the military not being able to meet its recruitment goals in a rant full of false statements.
The former South Carolina governor and Trump administration official said that U.S. military recruitment is “down 25%” while appearing on a show from the Christian web-based media company Center Point. Recruitment was actually down 2.7% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to a Department of Defense release from two months ago.
“For the first time, military parents are telling their kids, don’t do it,” Haley claimed. “The reason is, look at what’s happening in the military. They’re not mission-focused anymore.”
“For goodness sake, stop making them take gender pronoun classes,” she said, exasperated over something that does not exist. “It’s demoralizing to our military. Stop all these programs that don’t matter!”
Appearing on the November 30th, 2023 edition of TBN's Centerpoint in an interview with Scott Brown, 2024 GOP candidate Nikki Haley baselessly blamed trans people for the declining rates of military enlistment, including the lie that it went down 25%.
Former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee opened the most recent episode of his
Kyle Mantyla at RWW:
Former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee opened the most recent episode of his “Huckabee” program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network by warning that if former President Donald Trump fails to win the 2024 election because of the multiple indictments he is facing, “it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.”
“Do you know how political opponents to those in power are dealt with in third-world dictatorships, banana republics, and communist regimes?” Huckabee asked during his opening monologue of Saturday night’s episode. “The people in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made-up crimes in an attempt to discredit them, bankrupt them, imprison them, exile them, or all of the above.”
“If you are not paying attention, you may not realize that Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024,” Huckabee claimed.
“Here’s the problem,” Huckabee warned. “If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.”
On last Saturday's edition of his TBN program Huckabee, host Mike Huckabee went on an unhinged monologue asserting that the upcoming election "is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets" if Donald Trump loses.
Actor and Trinity Broadcasting Network host Kirk Cameron and other right-wing media figures are visiting libraries across the country to promote a line of conservative children’s books and peddle false claims of victimhood.
According to language that was on its website until at least March 28, the “Freedom Island Tour” (sponsored by Christian children’s book company Brave Books) is a joint effort by the publisher and Cameron intended to “win back Story Hour and stand up for truth and Biblical values.” The tour, named after a Brave Books series about a fictional “Freedom Island,” features Cameron and guests traveling to libraries and reading their books to children. The tour bills itself as a response to the right-wing boogeyman of drag queen story hours.
Cameron, author of the Brave Books title As You Grow, has been promoting the books and library events through appearances on Fox News programs and in Fox web articles, as well as on his own show, Takeaways with Kirk Cameron, on the Christian network Trinity Broadcasting Network.
At least one previous library event on the Freedom Island Tour has caused problems for the host library and its staff. In Hendersonville, Tennessee, news station WKRN reported that after Fox covered Cameron’s complaints that a library wasn’t welcoming enough for the tour, the library staff was harassed and a bomb threat was called in. This continued harassment campaign also resulted in a community librarian being fired.
Until late March, Brave Books’ website encouraged community members to hold their own events and to seek its guidance if a library denied them. Changes to the website in recent weeks have removed that guidance.
“Are you tired of story hour being held captive by ideas and values you don’t hold and people you don’t trust?” asked the site until it was scrubbed. “Are you willing to do something about it?”
The website also provided resources for organizing Brave Books story hours at local libraries, including advice on how to talk to library staff about the event. For instance, organizers were advised only to discuss the biblical content of the books “if they push” and to stress that “all are welcome.” Brave Books also gave an email address to contact if the library says no, as according to the website, “they may have broken the law.”
Brave Books stories connect patriotism to conservative Christian values
Brave Books was founded in 2021 by Texas-based ophthalmologist Trent Talbot, who told the New York Post that he created the publishing company after he had his first child and realized “that there is a real war going on for the hearts and minds of our kids.”
Brave Books’ goal is to shape “the next generation of heroes. Children empowered to combat the lies and destruction of woke culture. Children who embody the principles and values that made America great. Children who place God, family, and country ahead of self.”
The books are intended to “instill pro-God, Pro-America values” that will “empower your children against woke culture.” This rhetoric tying American identity and patriotism to explicitly conservative Christian values echoes some tenets of Christian nationalism, which contends that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs.
TBN host and far-right actor Kirk Cameron is partnering up with Brave Books to promote children’s books that have heavy doses of right-wing indoctrination at various libraries as a counterweight to Drag Queen Story Hours.
To build a "Christian lifestyle brand" rather than just "preaching and teaching."
Sara Fischer at Axios:
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which calls itself the world's largest Christian television broadcaster, is launching a news show called “Centerpoint” with Fox News alums.
Why it matters: TBN is looking to build a "Christian lifestyle brand" rather than just "preaching and teaching," TBN VP of Marketing Nate Daniels told Axios.
Details: "Centerpoint" will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on weekdays and will be replayed at 10:30 p.m. ET so that West Coast audiences get it at 7:30 p.m. their time. In the fall, TBN plans to add another half hour to the show.
It will be anchored by former Fox News Washington correspondent Doug McKelway and produced by Michael Clemente, former Newsmax CEO and Fox News EVP of News.
The show "will cover news of the day and other top stories," said Clemente, who joined the network full-time this year.
The programming isn't meant to be politically biased, but will lean into Christian values. The show plans to feature newsmakers as guests with the possibility of recurring panelists down the line, McKelway said.
Clemente plans to hire more reporters in the future, but will also leverage existing partnerships with TBN's overseas bureaus. Clemente hopes to launch more news programs.
TBN launched its news show, Centerpoint, at the end of March. Former Fox “News” reporter Doug McKelway is one of the hosts.
