Top News:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
CNN drops the series Believer with Reza Aslan after Aslan, an Iranian-American religious scholar, called Trump a “piece of s**t” in a tweet after London attack — CNN no longer believes in “Believer,” the non-fiction series it launched earlier this year with Reza Aslan, the Iranian-American author and religious scholar.
Discussion:
@rezaaslan, @seanhannity, Washington Post, New York Times, @shakestweetz, CNNMoney, Deadline, iMediaEthics, @kennycoble, @charlesjaco1, @reaganbattalion, @daveweigel, @brianstelter, @umairh, @imraansiddiqi, Infowars, Business Insider, IndieWire, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Mashable, @djrothkopf, @yashar, Fox News, BuzzFeed, Politico, Hollywood Reporter, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, Multichannel News, Fast Company, New York Magazine and TVWeek.com
Maxwell Tani / Business Insider:
GMG CEO Raju Narisetti cites revenue growth and 53 new hires as evidence of Fusion merger success, but some staffers say Gawker spirit wanes as talent leaves — The man tasked with overseeing Gizmodo Media Group after the demise of Gawker.com says he never regularly read the site in the first place.
Discussion:
@katiedrumm, @katiedrumm, @jeffjarvis and @ajs
BuzzFeed:
NowThis News requires its staffers to sign a non-compete that bars them for two years from taking a job at places like CNN, Vice, BuzzFeed, and Vox — New hires at the social news outlet must sign a contract that forbids them from taking a job at places including CNN, Vice, BuzzFeed and Vox.
Discussion:
@maggiekb1, @tomgara, @dangillmor, @johnaugust, @danrivoli, @mathewi, @ali_gharib, @perlberg, @mikeisaac, @perlberg, @rachelfeltman, @mathewi, @legalinspire, @commagere, @sarahfrier, @mattyglesias, @tomnamako, @maxwellstrachan, @pkafka, @benmullin, @perlberg, @nkulw, @mccarthyryanj, @clarajeffery, @mekosoff, @willsommer, @mikeisaac and @mattzeitlin
RELATED:
Amy Qin / New York Times:
A large number of Chinese celebrity news blogs have shut down in recent days as media censors tighten online publishing regulations — BEIJING — Whether read openly and voraciously or behind closed doors, celebrity gossip plays an integral role in the entertainment world …
RELATED:
Josh Horwitz / Quartz:
Tencent launches a new WeChat feature to collect and debunk online rumors, but government sources debunking political articles in the app may cause confusion — Today Chinese internet giant Tencent launched a new feature (link in Chinese) for its WeChat app designed to collect and debunk online rumors …
Hadas Gold / Politico:
Comey hearing draws nearly 20M broadcast and cable TV viewers, according to Nielsen, while Twitter says 2.7M viewers tuned into its Bloomberg stream — A congressional hearing rarely attracts much attention, but Thursday's testimony by fired FBI Director James Comey brought major ratings …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Recode, Los Angeles Times, Recode, The Outline, @sdkstl, Business Insider, New York Times, Mediaite, @grynbaum, Bloomberg Media, @pbump, Newser, @librab103, @algiordano, @pkafka, @pkafka, @simonowens, Nielsen Newswire, Washington Post and Poynter
RELATED:
Stephen M. Kohn / Washington Post:
Comey's leak to the press is constitutionally protected, despite hints from Trump's lawyer that the former FBI director may deserve prosecution
Comey's leak to the press is constitutionally protected, despite hints from Trump's lawyer that the former FBI director may deserve prosecution
Discussion:
Business Insider, @braddjaffy, @gortnacul_house, @davidjoachim, @davidjoachim, @davidjoachim, @eriqgardner and @rjmaclean
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Postmates acquihires Secret CEO David Byttow's startup Bold; Bold will shut down its enterprise blogging tool, plus the anonymous publishing space IO — The founder of one of Silicon Valley's most famous flameouts, anonymous social app Secret, is the new product lead for Postmates' app.
Discussion:
@joshconstine, more at Techmeme »
Robert Little / NPR:
Slain NPR journalists Gilkey and Tamanna weren't random victims; their convoy was targeted by attackers tipped off to the presence of Americans in Afghanistan — NPR journalists David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna died a year ago this week, ambushed on a remote road in southern Afghanistan …
Discussion:
Adweek, @chadgarland, Editor & Publisher, @davidvujanovic, @mevstatieva, @nprinskeep, @npr, @davidgura and @mthomps
Ricardo Baca / Columbia Journalism Review:
High Times' recent sale to a Los Angeles-based investment firm may give the magazine a chance to reinvigorate its neglected editorial operation — A display of High Times magazine covers during the High Times Cannabis Cup at Denver Mart in Denver, Colorado on April 20, 2014.
Jason Snell / Six Colors:
Apple's Podcasts app to report to podcasters how many people are listening and where listeners stop or skip, and will enable downloads of full seasons — Today at the Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple made some major announcements about improvements to its offerings to the podcast world.
Discussion:
Recode, @pkafka, MacRumors, @mlieber, @nwquah, @matthew_bogart and @dkiesow, more at Techmeme »
Hadas Gold / Politico:
Heat Street co-founder Noah Kotch named EIC and VP of FoxNews.com; Joanne Po from WSJ named head of digital content development and executive producer — Fox News is starting to focus on re-energizing its website, tapping Heat Street co-founder and former television producer Noah Kotch …
Matt Volz / AP News:
Prosecutor expects Gianforte to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault on Monday, with potential maximum sentence of 6 months in jail and $500 fine — HELENA, Mont. (AP) — U.S. Rep.-elect Greg Gianforte of Montana will plead guilty to assaulting a reporter the day before being elected the state's …
Discussion:
@carrasquillo, @mattdpearce, @paleofuture, Reuters, @jenesaispatrick, @reuters and @green_footballs