Mediagazer: How a credulous media repeated dubious claims of a Turing Test milestone (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

7:00 PM ET, June 10, 2014

Top News:

J.K. Trotter / Gawker:

Fox News Retracts Fraud Claim Against Former Executive — When Fox News president Roger Ailes fired his close advisor Brian Lewis last year, the channel claimed—via a series of coordinated leaks to Fox-friendly outlets—that Lewis was terminated over “financial irregularities” and unspecified “breaches of his employment contract.”

Discussion: @gabrielsherman, @ericboehlert and @davidfolkenflik

Hadas Gold / Politico: Fox News pushes back on Gawker report

Jason Deans / Guardian:

BBC Radio to cut 65 more posts — Cost-savings drive aims to cut 15% of total staff, with stations moved into two ‘hubs’: pop music and classical and speech — BBC Radio director Helen Boaden said the division needed to be as small as possible to meet savings targets as part of the Delivering Quality First initiative

Discussion: broadcastnow.co.uk, BBC, MediaTel, Digital Spy, Telegraph, Prolific North, Gigwise and mirror

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
BBC journalists to ballot for strike action

Discussion: Poynter and Press Gazette

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

NY Times Mag Names Bill Wasik Deputy Editor — The New York Times Magazine has added a new deputy editor — Bill Wasik. Wasik comes to the magazine from Wired, where he served as a senior editor. Wasik previously worked as a senior editor for Harper's. He's also the author of And Then There's …

Discussion: Capital New York, WWD Media Headlines, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The New York Observer, FishbowlDC and Talking Biz News

Bryan Bishop / The Verge:

Sony formally announces PlayStation original sci-fi series ‘Powers’ — There were reports that it was in the works a few months ago, but Sony has now made it official: the first original television show for the PlayStation is coming, and it is called Powers.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Arcade Sushi, Observation Deck and TechRadar.com

Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:
Sony Sets Fall Launch For PlayStation TV

Discussion: Gigaom, Re/code, Telegraph, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, Softpedia News, Press Association, Variety and Home Media Magazine

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

Report: Global digital news audience increased by 23% in 2013 — Digital news audiences have risen by 23 per cent in the last year, according to the new World Press Trends report, but publishers are not making the most of their increased audience in terms of revenue.

Discussion: WAN-IFRA, Gigaom, @cswope and Kirk LaPointe's …

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

Andrew Sullivan's The Dish introducing ads for non-subs soon, keeping premium product ad-free — Is Big Online Media Doomed? — You only have to observe the painful and austere transition of Time Inc. to see the grim portents of a much leaner future. And a lot of this has to do with a double problem …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @jeffbercovici, @jason_pontin, @sullydish, @journo2go and @pernillet

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Top PR Firms Promise They Won't Edit Clients' Wikipedia Entries on the Sly — Edelman, Burson-Marsteller Among Those Signing Pledge — Smart Marketing Using Big Data — Several of the largest public-relations agencies issued a joint statement Tuesday promising to play by the rules of Wikipedia.

Discussion: TIME, Edelman, The Drum, In2, @noahchestnut and MarketingVox News & Trends, Thanks:@steverubel

The New Republic:

TNR promotes Linda Kinstler to Managing Editor, Amanda Silverman to Deputy Editor — Amanda Silverman Named Deputy Editor, Linda Kinstler Managing Editor, and Rebecca Leber Joins as Staff Writer — Washington, D.C.—Franklin Foer, Editor of The New Republic, announced two promotions and a hire today …

Discussion: @juliaioffe, @citizencohn, @jbenton, @chrishughes, Capital New York and FishbowlNY

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Marc Lavallee is NYT's new head of interactive news technology — Marc Lavallee is the The New York Times' new head of interactive news technology, according to a memo sent to staffers. He was previously deputy editor of interactive news. This is the one of roles Aron Pilhofer held …

Discussion: @pmaiorana

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

The Vice-Time Warner deal, HLN, and CNN — With the news that Time Warner is seeking a major investment in Vice, the possibility of HLN's involvement raises a number of questions. — HLN has been teased as possibly going to Vice as part of the deal, though there was enough wiggle room …

Discussion: TVNewser, BuzzFeed, Inside Cable News, @antderosa and Sky News

David Kravets / Ars Technica:

Google's university book scanning can move ahead without authors' OK — Court gives Google significant fair use protections. — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the right of universities, in conjunction with Google, to scan millions of library books without the authors' permission.

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Gigaom, Guardian, Courthouse News Service, The Berkeley Blog and Washington Post

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Ross Levinsohn Departs Guggenheim Digital Media — Well-known Internet exec Ross Levinsohn has left his latest gig as CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media. The former interim CEO of Yahoo, who also was president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Group, joined the investment firm in January last year …

Discussion: Deadline.com and VentureBeat

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Industry body representing Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others opposes Comcast/TWC merger — CCIA Opposes Comcast/TWC — Association says it threatens innovation and should be blocked — The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has come out against the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.

Discussion: Variety, Techdirt and The Wrap

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Time's International Editor Bobby Ghosh joins Quartz as Managing Editor — Time's Bobby Ghosh joins Quartz — Time magazine's Bobby Ghosh is joining Atlantic Media's Quartz site as managing editor, editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney announced to staff on Tuesday.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @glichfield, Talking Biz News, MediaWire Daily and MediaNama