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Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski say White House officials told them a negative story in the National Enquirer would be spiked if they apologized to Trump — Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have accused President Donald Trump of effectively blackmailing them over a story …
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A look at the ugly descent of Trump's relationship with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, from Trump's guest appearances on Morning Joe to today's tweets — President Trump's relationship with the hosts of the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” — which devolved into cringeworthy tweets …
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Sources: Jared Kushner told Joe Scarborough he would need to apologize to Trump in order for the National Enquirer to kill a story on his affair with Brzezinski — As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump used his close alliance with the National Enquirer to attack his enemies.
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In a statement, the National Enquirer says it had no knowledge of discussions between the White House and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski — “We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story, and absolutely no involvement in those discussions," COO says
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CNNMoney, TVWeek.com, Mediaite, Vanity Fair, Vox, RedState, Newser and Variety


During a speech at a private fundraising event in DC on Wednesday night, Trump asked the audience if he should sue CNN — President Donald Trump kicked off his re-election campaign's financing efforts with a major fundraiser at his own Washington hotel Wednesday night, excluding media but charging attendees $35,000 each.
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Washington Post, The Wrap, Mediaite, Variety, @ryangrim, @braddjaffy, @brianstelter, AOL, The Wrap, The Week and The Daily Caller


Sources: The Wall Street Journal is ending its print edition in Europe, sharpening its focus on digital, with its online subscriptions growing 48% YoY in Europe — News Corp-owned newspaper to focus on digital subscriptions in Europe and Asia — Read next
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New York Times, Ad Age, Talking Biz News, Business Insider, Poynter, The New York Observer and HuffPost


Facebook says it will identify and demote links from users who post more than 50 times a day in News Feed — People who post 50-plus times per day are likely sharing spam or false news, Facebook says. — Facebook has a new way of identifying false news and spam in users' feeds …
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Facebook and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »


Infowars, the alt-right media organization favored by President Trump, aired a report claiming NASA is running a child slave colony on Mars — A report on Alex Jones' InfoWars claiming child sex slaves have been kidnapped and shipped to Mars is untrue, NASA told The Daily Beast on Thursday.
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Mashable, @davidfrum, @scalzi, @carlzimmer, @davidmackau, RedState and @oneunderscore__


Germany passes law allowing fines of up to $57M for social media companies if they do not delete illegal, racist, or slanderous content within 24 hours — BERLIN — Social media companies operating in Germany face fines of as much as $57 million if they do not delete illegal …
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The Guardian, The Hill, Gizmodo, Refinery29, Mashable, @goddersbloom, Engadget, The Verge and Newsy, more at Techmeme »

Internet has ushered in an age of “distributed truth”, widely spreading little known knowledge that used to be confined offline — Apparently, for years, Nora Ephron, who was once married to Carl Bernstein, would openly tell people that Deep Throat was FBI Associate Director Mark Felt.
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TechCrunch, New York Magazine, The Information, Bloomberg, the fifth wave, mathewingram.com/work, Axios and Recode, more at Techmeme »


DirecTV Now, AT&T's OTT pay TV service, adds 35+ local TV stations affiliated with ABC, NBC, and Fox — DirecTV Now, AT&T's over-the-top pay TV service, is adding more than 35 local TV stations affiliated with ABC, NBC and Fox starting next week — more than doubling its local broadcast footprint since launching last November.
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Broadcasting & Cable, TVWeek.com and Awful Announcing


Twitter keeps growing its live streaming business, adds San Diego's Comic-Con and behind-the-scenes coverage of Wimbledon via The All England Club — Twitter is continuing to grow its live streaming business, with a series of new deals announced over the past week or so …
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The Wrap, Forbes, Adweek and TrekMovie.com