Mediagazer: Inside the Desperate, Year-Long Hunt to Find Donald Trump's Rumored Apprentice Outtakes (Nick Bilton/Vanity Fair)

3:45 PM ET, December 20, 2016

Top News:

Nick Bilton / Vanity Fair:

Inside the Desperate, Year-Long Hunt to Find Donald Trump's Rumored Apprentice Outtakes — Throughout the election, both the media and the Clinton camp were obsessed by outtakes from the reality show, amid allegations of hair-raising things said by the now president-elect.

Discussion: Washington Post, @nickbilton, @john_overholt, @yashar, @yashar, @panger2016, The Daily Beast and Mediaite

Eric Mandel / MyNorthwest.com:

Comedian Tom Arnold claims to have unreleased footage of Trump's outtakes on The Apprentice, says they feature the President-elect using racist language — While visiting with KIRO Radio's Dori Monson on Friday to talk about his upcoming performance in Seattle, comedian Tom Arnold revealed a bombshell …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, FishbowlNY, @tomlevenson, @feministabulous, Jezebel, The Wrap and Mediaite

Don Kaplan / New York Daily News:

Roger Ailes makes a rare call to the New York Daily News in an unsuccessful effort to get an apology for “Gropey old men” headline — Former Fox News chief Roger Ailes called the Daily News' MediaBlast Monday — to complain about a headline. — “I was hoping you would be a gentleman …

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, @brianstelter, @azi, WVXU, New York Magazine, FTVLive and The Week

Ginny Marvin / Marketing Land:

Russian hackers use “Methbot” botnet to steal $3M-$5M video ad revenue per day from over 6K premium publishers in largest ad fraud uncovered to date — The botnet has been siphoning an estimated $3 to $5 million in ad revenue per day, making it the largest ad fraud scam uncovered to date.

Discussion: Fast Company, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, @moorehn, @weldpond, Krebs on Security, @leahmcelrath, AdExchanger and ZDNet

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Live Audio launches with select publishers and authors including the BBC, LBC, and Harper Collins, will open up to more next year — Book readings, interviews, and news radio are coming to Facebook thanks to its new Live Audio feature launching today with a few publishers and authors before opening up next year for everyone.

Discussion: The Drum

Politico:

Memo: Politico's Editorial Director Blake Hounshell appointed editor of Politico Magazine — FIRST PERSON - “Witness to an assassination: AP photographer captures attack,” by Burhan Ozbilici in Ankara: “The event seemed routine, the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Q&A with Megyn Kelly on her next move in TV news, diversity on the staff of The Kelly File, her relationship with Trump, Fox's campaign coverage, and more — In the tour for her new book “Settle For More,” Fox News host Megyn Kelly has spoken at length about a certain progression over her career.

Discussion: New York Daily News, @washingtonpost, @hadas_gold, @edatpost, @sulliview, @erikwemple, @dmontyjr, Inside Cable News, TIME, Mediaite, TheBlaze and Media Matters for America

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:

Twitter tests breaking news push notifications, sends news updates on the Berlin Christmas market attack and Fidel Castro's death — Twitter wants to be a news app, having recently moved to that category from the “social networking” category in the iOS App Store.

Discussion: AppAdvice.com Latest, Softpedia News, Digital Trends, @bri_sacks, 9to5Mac, @taylor_soper and Digital Trends

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Twitter agrees to hand over user's data in a civil suit brought after Newsweek journalist Kurt Eichenwald was sent a seizure-inducing tweet — Four days ago, an unidentified Twitter user tweeted a seizure-inducing animation at Newsweek and Vanity Fair writer Kurt Eichenwald, who has epilepsy.

Discussion: BBC, Business Insider, Mediaite and Ars Technica

Jacob Soll / Politico:

Despite media handwringing, fake news has been around since news became a concept 500 years ago with the invention of print, often provoking violence — Bogus news has been around a lot longer than real news. And it's left a lot of destruction behind. — The fake news hit Trent, Italy, on Easter Sunday, 1475.

Discussion: bookforum.com

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Source: White House press secretary job likely to go to RNC strategist Sean Spicer; Daily Mail's US Political Editor David Martosko turned down for role — Dodging an ethical bullet, the Daily Mail's Donald Trump-friendly U.S. political editor, David Martosko—who had been interviewing …

Discussion: @isaacdovere

Charles Ornstein / ProPublica:

ProPublica sues the US Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming the department did not properly process a FOIA request for correspondence about Agent Orange — ProPublica has sued the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming the agency failed to promptly process a request for correspondence …

Discussion: @charlesornstein

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Nielsen to acquire Gracenote from Tribune Media for $560M; the proceeds will be used to repay debts, Tribune Media CEO Peter Liguori says — “We are pleased to be streamlining our company so that we can focus even more intently on seizing future opportunities for our local television …

Discussion: The Hour, Reuters, TVNewsCheck, Deadline, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal and Nielsen

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

News orgs including The New York Times and Axios defend the off-the-record event with Donald Trump, say OTR is a good way to get closer to the truth — Reporters hung out with Donald Trump over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, though American news consumers won't be reading too much about the event.