Top News:
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Sinclair Broadcast Group acquires Tribune Media in a deal valued at $3.9B, paying $43.50 a share, a 25% premium over its average share price in Feb — Sinclair Broadcast Group has set a $3.9 billion merger agreement with Tribune Media, a deal that will bring more than 200 TV stations under …
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CNNMoney, Broadcasting & Cable, @cnbcnow, Fortune, New York Times, @davidfolkenflik, CNNMoney, Radio & Television …, TVSpy, TVNewsCheck, @davidfolkenflik, Politico, Financial Times, @davidfolkenflik, The Wrap, Chicagoist, Hollywood Reporter, C21Media, Chicago Sun Times, @brianstelter, @m_delamerced, @brianstelter, @yashar, Pro Wrestling Dot Net, Engadget, Deadline, TVWeek.com and Reuters
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
Comcast and Charter, the two largest cable operators in the US, announce wireless partnership, will work together to compete with AT&T and Verizon — Cable giants will collaborate to negotiate better contracts — Companies to work only with each other on new wireless deals
Sam Gustin / Motherboard:
John Oliver urges internet users to defend net neutrality again — HBO comedian John Oliver is a strong supporter of net neutrality, the principle that all internet content should be treated equally. He made that clear in 2014 when he urged viewers to flood the Federal Communications Commission's website …
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YouTube, TechCrunch, Washington Post, Hit & Run, ValueWalk, The Hill, SlashGear, CNET, Vanity Fair, @waywardwinifred, IndieWire, Softpedia News, Business Insider, @avinash, VentureBeat, Above the Law, DSLreports, Engadget, Techdirt, Fortune, Mashable, Recode, Los Angeles Times, The Verge and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme », Thanks:@otisjgustin
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Prosecuting Julian Assange under the Espionage Act, for publishing leaked information, would create a massive threat to press freedom in the US — Lady Gaga — all in black and wearing a witch's hat — is interviewing Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he's been holed up for years.
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@sulliview, The Guardian, @kombuchababy, @trevortimm, @reaganbattalion, @indexcensorship, @jimrutenberg, @wikileaks, @freedomofpress, @infinnnerty and @dangillmor
BBC:
Ahead of June 8 UK general election, Facebook publishes ads in UK papers, including The Times, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, to raise awareness about fake news — Facebook has broadened its campaign to raise awareness about fake news, by publishing adverts in the UK press.
Paul Colgan / Business Insider Australia:
TPG Capital bids for Fairfax Media's metro papers, including Sydney Morning Herald, digital unit that publishes BI, HuffPost in Australia, and real-estate unit — Fairfax Media is considering a fresh proposal from US private equity giant TPG Capital to buy the Domain real estate business …
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Financial Review, @jeffjarvis, National Business Review, Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Post-election in France, the Google-and-Facebook-backed fact-checking project, CrossCheck, is reviewing its work before deciding what's next — The experiment might be replicated in other countries, but “it'd be showing a lot of hubris to say ‘everybody should now do CrossCheck’ without doing …
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Forbes and @charliebeckett
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Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Advertisers should stop rushing to Facebook and Google, and combat fake news by supporting the real news ecosystem, by giving newspapers their business again — PHILADELPHIA — Hey, America's Advertisers: You got some good news last week, didn't you? — Facebook, where you are increasingly placing …
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@jimrutenberg, @jmandese, @jackmarshall, @sulliview, @anthony, @anthony and @perlberg
Hadas Gold / Politico:
Washington Post columnist George Will has joined MSNBC and NBC News as a contributor — Washington Post columnist George Will has joined MSNBC and NBC News as a contributor. — Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, was most recently a contributor at Fox News, though he became …
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New York Magazine, @alexweprin, @mattyglesias, @juddlegum, @davidsirota, @jeffjarvis, @heerjeet and HuffPost
Shadia Nasralla / Reuters:
Austrian court rules Facebook must remove postings deemed as hate speech across the platform and not just in Austria, strengthening an earlier ruling — Facebook must remove postings deemed as hate speech, an Austrian court has ruled, in a legal victory for campaigners who want to force …
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TechCrunch and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Richard Simmons sues National Enquirer, Radar Online, and American Media, Inc. for libel and invasion of privacy over “cruel and malicious” sex-change stories — In a libel complaint, the fitness star says the publication knew its source wasn't credible and that he has …
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The Guardian, @tatianasiegel27, @eriqgardner, @thrmattbelloni and @eriqgardner
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
The Christian Science Monitor launches Monitor Daily, an emailed daily news digest that will cost $11/month, with the goal of reaching 10K subscribers in a year — “The Daily is really in the service of this mission of making people more thoughtful, less neurotic, more calm, and seeing the world through the lens of progress."
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@laurahazardowen, @shanbow, @lauraelizdavis, @henrygass, @busta_ and @wfederman