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Trump defends Bill O'Reilly amid sex assault claims: “I don't think Bill did anything wrong” — President Donald Trump called Bill O'Reilly a “good person” who did nothing wrong in an interview Wednesday with The New York Times, jumping to the defense of one of his most vocal …
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How Trump insiders reward pro-Trump media figures including Mike Cernovich, who earlier spread Pizzagate rumors and false theories of a Hillary Clinton illness
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Over 20 firms including Allstate, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bayer have pulled ads from Fox News' O'Reilly Factor amid sex assault allegations against Bill O'Reilly
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How student reporters at a Kansas high school dug into the background of a new principal and found questionable credentials, causing her to resign — Days after student reporters at Pittsburg High School in Kansas dug into the background of their newly hired principal and found questionable credentials …
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Washington Post, Boing Boing, Mediaite, Mashable, The Rural Blog, Fox News Insider, @bryanlowry3, @sopandeb, @laura_nelson, @adamsteinbaugh, @mattdpearce, @dankois, @jaycaspiankang and AOL


Docs show Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch copied structure and language used by others in book, failed to cite sources; White House calls it a “false attack” — The White House rejects any suggestion of impropriety. — Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch copied the structure …


Sources: NFL and Amazon strike $50M deal to stream 10 Thursday night games to Prime members; price is five times that of NFL's agreement with Twitter last year — Deal for 10 Thursday night games will be available only to Amazon Prime members — Amazon is ready for some football.
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Omidyar Foundation to give $100M over 3 years to support investigative journalism, fight misinformation, and counteract hate speech, with $4.5M going to ICIJ — The philanthropy established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar will contribute $100 million to support investigative journalism …
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YouTube's $35/mo TV streaming service debuts in Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco Bay area, with 4 major networks, 40+ cable channels — Young people in the United States have already made the switch from traditional television to streaming services.
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Adweek, TechCrunch, Hollywood Reporter, Recode, CNBC, USA Today, Wired, New York Times and Variety, more at Techmeme »


Profile of MicroChip, who says he's a software developer in Utah that built a pro-Trump bot-infested Twitter network that sways trending topics — At 7:23 on Sunday evening, the conservative internet personality Mike Cernovich tweeted that former national security adviser Susan Rice had requested the …

FCC's Ajit Pai and FTC's Maureen Ohlhausen on why FCC's ISP privacy rules were bad, and how FTC's authority to police ISPs' privacy practices will be restored — Ajit Pai is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Maureen Ohlhausen is acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
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Fortune, The Verge and The Verge, more at Techmeme »


ESPN issues new guidelines that recommend connecting political discussions to sports whenever possible — ESPN has issued new political and election guidelines for its employees that, while allowing for political discussion on the network's platforms, recommend connecting those comments to sports whenever possible.
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Washington Post, Fortune, Mediaite and Deadline


Sources: a rift is opening at Breitbart between EIC Alex Marlow, who wants to take the site mainstream, and DC editor Matt Boyle, who remains anti-establishment — “There's no hierarchy, there's no office, there's no honest brokers. It's just controlled chaos."
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@vanityfair, @mattgertz, @jasfly, The Daily Beast and BuzzFeed


German cabinet approves plan that could fine social networks up to $53M if companies do not remove hate speech quickly — The German cabinet approved a plan on Wednesday to fine social networks up to 50 million euros ($53 million) if they do not remove hateful postings quickly, prompting concerns the law could limit free expression.
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The Daily Caller, CNET, TechCrunch, Reuters, DW.COM and Fortune, more at Techmeme »


Adblock Plus parent company Eyeo says it has acquired Sweden-based micropayment service Flattr — Eyeo, the Germany-based company behind perennially popular adblocking service Adblock Plus, has today announced that it has acquired Flattr, a micropayment and microdonation service headquartered in Sweden.
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TechCrunch, Business Wire, Adblock Plus and …, The Drum, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, Business Insider and Tech.eu, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg announces it will merge Bloomberg Government with Bloomberg BNA, which focuses on legal, tax, and compliance topics — Bloomberg L.P. announced today it will merge its government policy business, Bloomberg Government (BGOV), with its legal and regulatory business arm, Bloomberg BNA …
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Bloomberg L.P.