Mediagazer: Vice News files FOIA suit seeking FBI documents about discussions on Trump, Hatch Act violation allegations, communications with Breitbart News and Fox, more (Jason Leopold/Vice News)

6:45 PM ET, December 13, 2016

Top News:

Amplified by the US media, Russia executed an effective cyber offensive against the DNC, aided by a sluggish FBI response — WASHINGTON — When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along …

Discussion: Politico, Vox, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Mediaite, Business Insider, @nycsouthpaw, @jesselehrich, @mathewi, @uid_, emptywheel, @iansams, @jacobhyphenated, TheBlaze, @daveweigel, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, Advocate, The Verge, The Week, Boing Boing, RT, ABC News, NPR and Washington Post

Emily Steel / New York Times:

21st Century Fox faces new lawsuit that claims Roger Ailes sexually harassed reporter Lidia Curanaj in 2011 — Nearly five months after Roger Ailes was ousted from his position as chairman of Fox News Channel, the sexual harassment accusations against him continue.

Discussion: Mediaite, TVSpy, Jezebel, @emilysteel, @emilysteel, Politico and New York Magazine

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Elizabeth Ailes, wife of Fox News' Roger Ailes, sells her two newspapers, excluding buildings, in upstate New York to Editor-in-Chief Douglas Cunningham — Elizabeth Ailes, wife of former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, announced on Tuesday that she's selling two newspapers in Putnam County, New York.

Discussion: @gabrielsherman, New York Magazine and The Putnam County Courier

Jason Leopold / Vice News:

Vice News files FOIA suit seeking FBI documents about discussions on Trump, Hatch Act violation allegations, communications with Breitbart News and Fox, more — VICE News is suing the FBI, demanding the bureau release records related to its curious disclosures, behind-the-scenes actions …

Discussion: @jasonleopold, @obscurica, @kyhenderson and Sparrow Media

Matt Drange / Forbes:

Court approves Gawker liquidation plan: $31M payout to Hogan, writers released from future liability; suits with Shiva Ayyadurai and Ashley Terrill also settled — Gawker Media's bankrupt estate will begin paying its long list of creditors after a federal bankruptcy judge approved its settlement …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, @goldbergryan, Law News and @felixsalmon

Eve Peyser / Gizmodo:

Google refuses to change search results for ‘Did the Holocaust happen?’, despite previously manipulating results to favor its own products — If you Google “did the Holocaust happen” the first result is a link from Stormfront.org, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist forum that's widely regarded …

Discussion: The Daily Dot, @dannysullivan, @carolecadwalla, @owillis, @erikhinton, @carolecadwalla, @obsoletedogma, @dannysullivan, @dannysullivan, @dannysullivan, @melaniehannah, @evepeyser, @mkonnikova, @holden, @_psonice and Fortune

Taylor Owen / Columbia Journalism Review:

Pondering the possibilities and the challenges for journalism in virtual worlds as VR becomes mainstream — In June 2003, the San Francisco company Linden Labs launched a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game called Second Life. It quickly grew to over a million users …

Discussion: Oculus, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, @tim and Fortune

Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Virtual reality game-maker Survios raises Series C round led by film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Discussion: The Wrap and VentureBeat

James Vincent / The Verge:

Judge clears Backpage.com CEO and co-founders of pimping charges, says the listing site is not liable for user-generated content — A judge ruled the operators of the classified listings site could not be held accountable for users' content — The executives of classified listings site Backpage.com …

Kelsey Sutton / Politico:

Time Inc.'s president and COO of sales and marketing, Mark Ellis, is leaving the company; Chief Revenue Officer Mark Ford is stepping down from his role — Mark Ellis, Time Inc.'s president and COO of sales and marketing, is leaving the company in March, part of a handful of executive changes …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Folio and Media Wire Daily

Rick Gladstone / New York Times:

Committee to Protect Journalists: at least 259 journalists jailed in 2016, the highest number since CPJ began its annual census of imprisonments in 1990 — At least 259 journalists have been jailed around the world this year, a press advocacy group reported on Monday, the most since it began …

Discussion: @pamelapaulnyt, @hakbuyuk, @mike_giglio, @jmalsin and @conradhackett

Eric Hananoki / Media Matters for America:

Infowars takes down some content that pushed Pizzagate conspiracy theory after one video was cited in a criminal complaint stemming from Washington DC shooting — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is scrubbing online content pushing the false and dangerous conspiracy theory …

Discussion: @hadas_gold, Washington Post, New York Magazine and Mother Jones

Scott Dadich / Wired:

Wired will publish its first ever fiction-only issue in January, featuring sci-fi stories by different authors — Why fiction? Glad you asked. We live in uncertain times. One of this publication's most important jobs is to see the big trends, spot important business models …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Jim VandeHei's new site, Axios, will have a hub in its Washington D.C. HQ called Newsdesk; the site is currently recruiting reporters in D.C. and Silicon Valley — Politico founder Jim VandeHei is hiring for his new startup, and the job descriptions give a few clues about what he and co-founder Mike Allen are up to.

Discussion: @poynter

Trevor Timm / Freedom of the Press Foundation:

How the Obama administration laid the groundwork for Trump's coming crackdown on the press, starting with killing the ‘media shield’ bill — In the summer of 2009, less than a year after President Obama took office, one of the first orders of business for the newly empaneled …

Discussion: @johncusack

Jason Guerrasio / Business Insider:

Director Craig Atkinson claims Netflix blacklisted him from the service after he declined their offer to purchase the rights to his film — In just four years, Netflix has become by far the most watched destination for documentaries, beaming titles to 190 countries and an astounding 83 million global subscribes.

Discussion: @heymerrill, @alexeheath and @andybrodie

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Sources: Apple is exploring a push into smart glasses by conducting an internal study, codenamed Atlas, to gather employee feedback on products on the market

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Sources: Canadian authorities arrested Alexander “Connor” Moucka, who is allegedly behind hacks in June and July of up to 165 Snowflake customers including AT&T

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