Mediagazer: Google adds “Upsetting-Offensive” tag for its quality raters to use in flagging search results; Google engineer says “demonstrably inaccurate” info is a target (Danny Sullivan/Search Engine Land)

11:55 AM ET, March 15, 2017

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Maddow's teasing of Trump tax return release, in bid to boost ratings, backfires as White House distributes the document in question during show — NBC coined the slogan “Must-See TV” more than two decades ago; tonight, MSNBC invented “hurry-up-and-wait” TV.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @donaldjtrumpjr, New York Times, DCReport, New York Times, CNBC, The Wrap, @lpolgreen, The Hill, The New York Observer, Slate, @jeneps, Quartz, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Business Insider, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Breitbart, Fox News Insider, @bobleyespn, Fast Company, Mediaite, Fortune, Hollywood Reporter, The Week, @zekejmiller, Variety, Junkee, New York Daily News, twitchy.com, @nytimes, The Seattle Times, @lpolgreen, @numbersmuncher, The Daily Caller, MLive.com, @lopezlinette, @dylanbyers, @mjfree, @dmartosko, @keitholbermann, @braddjaffy, @charlescwcooke, Melville House Books, Raw Story, @adamblickstein, @peterhamby, Forbes, @harrysiegel, @ggreenwald, @jdawsey1, Hollywood Reporter, Associated Press, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Deadline, Refinery29, Mashable, Hot Air, Voice of America, TheBlaze, Hit & Run, Jezebel, The Huffington Post, IndieWire, Boing Boing, AOL, The Gateway Pundit and Axios

Donald J. Trump / @realdonaldtrump:

In a tweet, Trump questions tax return story on Maddow, calls it “fake news”, even though the White House confirmed the story by distributing the document — Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, “went to his mailbox” and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!

Discussion: The Wrap, Washington Post, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Mediaite, TVNewser, New York Times, @jaketapper, CBS Philly, @katyturnbc, @davidcayj, The Week and AOL

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

The journalist who received Trump's 2005 tax return, Pulitzer award-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, believes POTUS himself may be the source — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston says he received two pages from the 2005 document in the mail from an unknown source.

Discussion: CNNMoney, Mediaite, @michaelcohen212, TVNewser, Deadline, @joenbc, Business Insider, @bobbierman, @joenbc, Washington Post, The Week and New York Times

BuzzFeed:

Docs sent to journalists linking ExxonMobil to Trump via a $1.6B bank transfer are fake, part of a broader trend of elaborate scams designed to fool reporters — In the third week of — January, an Israeli named Yoni Ariel flew from Tel Aviv to Rome carrying $9,000 in cash on a secret mission to bring down Donald Trump.

Discussion: @ggreenwald, @jimwaterson and @buzzfeedben

Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:

Erin McPike, White House correspondent for the Independent Journal Review, lands only press spot on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's trip to Asia — Erin McPike, the White House correspondent for the Independent Journal Review, was the only journalist to have a seat on the trip.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, PEN America, US Department of State, @isaacdovere, @oknox, @jason_kint, @eliselabottcnn, @anthony, @sdkstl, @moira, @cfcamerer, @daveclark_afp, @scottnover, @perlberg and @mlcalderone

Ken Doctor / TheStreet.com:

Sources: American Media, owner of the National Enquirer, is likely to buy Us Weekly as soon as this week for close to $100M as Tronc pulls out of deal — At this moment in matrimonial M&A, TroncUs has split, but the latter isn't content with the single life.

Discussion: @alexckaufman, Vanity Fair, @kdoctor, @kdoctor, New York Post, Adweek and Los Angeles Business …

Kari Howard / Nieman Storyboard:

Q&A with Diarmid Mogg, the Scottish creator of Small Town Noir, a website unearthing old mugshots from a Pennsylvanian town and the stories behind them — The Scotsman's website is a rabbit hole of midcentury mug shots and the stories of the everyday people of a Pennsylvania town at probably the worst moment in their lives

Meg Watson / Junkee:

Serial's first spinoff podcast, S-Town, will launch with all episodes at once on March 28 — Here we go, again! The team behind Serial — Sarah Koenig, Julie Snyder, and Ira Glass — have just released details for the first of three new spinoffs from the landmark podcast.

Discussion: Metro.co.uk, USA Today, NME, JOE.co.uk, Time Out London, The Forward, Huffington Post Australia … and Mashable

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Fox News says it let Kelly out of her contract on March 9, but a spokesperson for the anchor says they're still negotiating her termination agreement — Is Megyn Kelly free to work for NBC News or isn't she? According to Fox News Channel, Kelly no longer has ties to the 21st Century Fox owned cable-news outlet.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Clifton Leaf named editor-in-chief of Fortune magazine, Time Inc.'s Chief Content Officer Alan Murray adds President to his title, Lashinsky named exec editor — Clifton Leaf, currently the deputy editor, has been named editor in chief of Fortune magazine.

Discussion: Fortune and @talkingbiznews

RT:

Russia Today launches fact-checking project, FakeCheck, cites examples of “anti-Russian and anti-Assad propaganda” like WaPo power grid hack story — In a post-truth world, it's sometimes hard to distinguish between what is real and what is fake news.

Discussion: @jamesrbuk, @craigsilverman and @twlldun

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Senator Jeanne Shaheen introduces bill to give DoJ additional authority to investigate RT America for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act

Discussion: @adamjohnsonnyc, @frostnhstaterep and @ggreenwald

Reuters:

Judge orders ABC to face trial in $5.7B “pink slime” defamation lawsuit brought by Beef Products Inc., but drops Diane Sawyer as a defendant — A South Dakota state judge has ordered ABC Broadcasting to face a potential $5.7 billion defamation lawsuit claiming it damaged Beef Products Inc …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, @nicknotned, Sioux City Journal and Talking Biz News

Melissa Etehad / Los Angeles Times:

Once a channel for political expression in Iran, Telegram now seen by some as censorship tool; in one province, 80 channels shut down, 32 users arrested in Jan. — This picture taken on Sept. 15, 2016, in Paris shows an illustration of the Telegram messenger application on a smartphone.

Discussion: @melissaetehad and @mdubowitz

Alan Travis / The Guardian:

MPs grill representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google over online hate speech and other offensive material — Committee tells Twitter, Facebook and others they should get tough on online abuse, with one MP accusing them of ‘commercial prostitution’ — Social media companies including …

Discussion: BBC and Daily Mail

Kelly Fiveash / Ars Technica UK:
Facebook says moderation “was not working” in response to BBC probe of sexualized photos of children on FB, where 82 of 100 reported posts were not removed

Discussion: RT, The Guardian and BuzzFeed, more at Techmeme »

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Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, approves AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner

Sahil Patel / Digiday:
Sources: Snap plans to prioritize placement of original shows for Snapchat Discover; media firms split in choosing licensing fee, sticking with ad revenue share

Discussion: @sizpatel

David Folkenflik / NPR:
The many ties between Murdoch and Trump offer mutual benefits, with the tenor of Fox News in particular echoing Trump's nationalism and hostility to other media

Discussion: @mikecarlton01, @tommcilroy, @mikelevinca, BBC, @davidfolkenflik, @mmfa, @dangillmor, @democracyfail, @triciagottesman, @ahmed, @ariherzog, @michaelsocolow, @davidfolkenflik, PEN America and New York Times

Dominic Patten / Deadline:
Former TV anchor Willow Bay, spouse of Disney CEO Bob Iger, becomes first female dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Discussion: @hannahstormespn, @billritter7, @willow_bay, @deadlinedominic, USC News, Variety and TVNewser

Earlier Picks:

Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:
Axios plans to hire about a dozen more before end of 2017 and is now expanding into science coverage

Discussion: @emorwee, @mlcalderone, @alisonmsnyder, @axios, @danprimack, @sarafischer, @libbycwatson and @mlcalderone

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google adds “Upsetting-Offensive” tag for its quality raters to use in flagging search results; Google engineer says “demonstrably inaccurate” info is a target

Discussion: The Guardian, @techjust, @dannysullivan, @chiprolley and @katecrawford, more at Techmeme »

Amanda Hess / New York Times:
An iTunes chart-topping podcast, Missing Richard Simmons, crosses ethical and moral lines, invading the privacy of a reclusive celebrity

Discussion: Forbes, @beck_sullivan, @lpolgreen, Death and Taxes, The Awl - Medium and @amandahess

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Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Coinbase, and 140+ companies join Open Standard to launch Open USD, a stablecoin that shares earnings from its reserves

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Source: OpenAI engineers earlier this month told some colleagues they had figured out a way to more than halve the cost of inference

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