Mediagazer: DirecTV and U-verse drop Esquire Network, owned by NBCUniversal and Hearst; network will still be carried in 45M homes (Mike Farrell/Multichannel News)

5:20 AM ET, December 15, 2016

Top News:

Mike Flynn, Trump's pick for national security adviser, has deleted a tweet that linked to a fake news story about Hillary Clinton — Gen. Mike Flynn quietly deleted a tweet that promoted a baseless story about Hillary Clinton's “sex crimes.” — Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, The Hill and Media Matters for America

Alex Griswold / Mediaite:

Michael Flynn Jr., son of Trump's national security advisor General Michael Flynn, slammed the Washington Post and questioned if it should continue to operate — Michael Flynn Jr., the son of incoming Donald Trump national security advisor Gen. Michael Flynn, attacked The Washington Post Wednesday …

Discussion: Washington Post, RT, @usaredorchestra, The Wrap, @washingtonpost, Mother Jones, Business Insider, @badpressawards, @globalfreemedia and @anthony

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Memo: Politico ends Julia Ioffe's contract after she sends vulgar tweet about Trump, reiterates that its journalists should not share opinion on any platform — Politico has terminated its contract with magazine writer Julia Ioffe after she sent a tweet that referenced a possible incestuous …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Trump has gone 36 days without holding a press conference since becoming President-Elect, twelve times longer than Bush and Obama — The president-elect postpones this week's press conference, his first planned since July, while holding four “Thank You” rallies — and meeting Kanye.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week, @mlcalderone, @danpfeiffer, Vox, bookforum.com, Business Insider, The Verge, Mashable, Gothamist and Politicus USA

Hugh Hewitt / The Hugh Hewitt Show:
In radio interview, Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus says there are “different ways” to do WH daily briefing, seemingly suggesting it could be abolished

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, CNNMoney, The Daily Caller, @toddruger, @hughhewitt, @hughhewitt, @sahilkapur, @hughhewitt, @chrisgeidner, @seungminkim and Washington Post

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Press conferences are reporters' most effective means of cross-examining Donald Trump, which is why he's so reluctant to have one

Discussion: The Week, @pbump, @thefix, @ammboston, @digiphile and @digiphile

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

150 prominent filmmakers sign an open letter to major camera makers, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others, asking for default storage encryption — In the summer of 2013, when documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras was shooting a still-secret NSA leaker named Edward Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel room, she took security seriously.

Discussion: Freedom of the Press …, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Mashable, The Verge, @snowden and @freedomofpress

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Twitter's rule against inciting harassment means it could ban President-Elect Trump, but free speech advocates argue his tweets have value — If Twitter wanted to, it would be well within its rights to suspend Donald J. Trump's account. — After the president-elect used Twitter last week …

Discussion: @rubibarragan, @joshua_pederson, New York Magazine, @claystockton, @max_read, @fmanjoo and @ronlieber

Claire Reilly / CNET:

Australian federal court orders ISPs to block torrenting sites, including The Pirate Bay, within 15 business days under new site-blocking law — Goodbye Pirate Bay, farewell TorrentHound — Australia's ISPs have been ordered to block a raft of torrenting sites under new site-blocking laws.

Discussion: Softpedia News, ABC, The Guardian and Techly

Mike Farrell / Multichannel News:

DirecTV and U-verse drop Esquire Network, owned by NBCUniversal and Hearst; network will still be carried in 45M homes — Net will still be available in about 45 million homes — AT&T's DirecTV and U-verse subscribers will be without the Esquire Network as of about 1 a.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 15 …

Discussion: Deadline and Variety

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Facebook is in talks with TV shows and video producers about licensing content including original, licensed, scripted, unscripted, and sports programming — The company says it wants to “kickstart” its video efforts. — Facebook, which has long relied on other people to provide it with content …

Discussion: eMarketer and Newsroom Posts, Consumerist, Gizmodo, Engadget, Marketing Land, SocialTimes, TechCrunch, Variety, Mashable, Business Insider, @mims and @jwherrman

Joel Stein / Bloomberg:

Imzy, founded by two former Reddit employees, launched in October to be a gentler version of Reddit; site has 50K members and $11M in seed funding — Imzy, started by two former Reddit employees, wants to be a kinder, gentler version of the controversial discussion site. — by — Subscribe Reprints

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Sports-focused streaming service FuboTV signs deals with Fox Networks Group, NBCUniversal, NBA TV, the Weather Channel, and A&E Networks — Virtual pay-TV startup signs Fox, NBC, A+E, among others — Coming into the TV marketplace as a new digital entrant and getting the rights …

Discussion: The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, @keachhagey and @keachhagey

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Commenting platform Disqus lays off 20% of its workforce, or 11 people, as it shifts business models to focus on data services for publishers and advertisers — Some downsizing and refocusing is underway at Disqus, the startup incubated at Y-Combinator that became an early mover in the business …

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / WWD:

Amid increased concerns about fake news, The New Yorker adds a “not the news” tagline and banner to The Borowitz Report — The New Yorker has taken steps to clarify that The Borowitz Report is not actually true. — What it looks like when The Borowitz Report is shared on social media.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Slate, MyNewsLA.com, Springfield News-Leader, FishbowlDC and The FJP

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More News:

Kelsey Sutton / Politico:
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith and ex-Politico editor Susan Glasser say it's worrisome press didn't stand up sooner when Trump blacklisted some news orgs

Hadas Gold / Politico:
CQ Roll Call Chief Content Officer David Ellis is leaving the company, as it reorganizes its senior executive team

Jane Martinson / The Guardian:
In letter to the Culture Secretary, former UK PM Gordon Brown urges UK government to delay Fox-Sky deal until after second part of the Leveson inquiry

Discussion: @mediawisemj and @jpublik

Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Virtual reality startup WEVR launches Netflix-style subscription service for cinematic VR titles, available on HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR initially

Discussion: Fortune, Forbes and VentureBeat

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Sources: Time Inc. wants to offload xoJane and xoVain which it acquired just over a year ago; founder Jane Pratt is searching for an investor or new publisher

Discussion: Media Wire Daily

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Twitter adds live video broadcast to its iOS and Android apps; Periscope will continue as a standalone app

Discussion: Gear, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Variety, Forbes, Recode and VentureBeat

Earlier Picks:

Sahil Patel / Digiday:
Bloomberg Media's flagship app receives 2.5M unique visitors a month, will soon feature a personalized feed of 3-5 relevant stories, adjusted by time of day

Discussion: Media Wire Daily, @msh200, @mathewi and @digiday

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Sources: The Daily Mail's US political editor David Martosko interviewed for a position in the Trump administration

Discussion: @timobrien

Patrick Frater / Variety:
Amazon Prime Video's absence in China reflects other Internet giants' struggles to break into that market where web services are governed by strict regulation

Discussion: ZDNet, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and Fortune

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Memo from publisher Fred Ryan: Washington Post is profitable, and traffic increased nearly 50% with digital subscription revenue more than doubling in past year

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, FishbowlDC and @fawfulfan

New York Times:
Amplified by the US media, Russia executed an effective cyber offensive against the DNC, aided by a sluggish FBI response

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Nvidia starts making its Blackwell chips at TSMC's Phoenix plant and says it aims to make up to $500B of AI infrastructure in the US in the next four years

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Sony hikes PlayStation 5 prices in Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, citing a “challenging economic environment”; the PS5 Pro remains the same price

Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple asked suppliers in India, Vietnam, and Thailand to ramp up production earlier in 2025; Indian factory utilization rates are already at the limit

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