Top News:
Jason Le Miere / Newsweek:
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 …
Discussion:
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Brian Flood / The Wrap:
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
Discussion:
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Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Some inside the White House see Trump's media feud as “winning” because it energizes Trump supporters — To President Trump, no place is more comfortable than the middle of a fight. — This week had it all: Vicious tweets, nasty nicknames, an entrenched foe in the mainstream media …
Discussion:
@sahilkapur, PressThink, The Wrap, Mediaite and New York Times
Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
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.
Discussion:
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Bloomberg:
Sources: Jared Kushner tried to buy The National Enquirer's owner, American Media Inc., three years ago — Tabloid newspaper bandied about in Trump's MSNBC Twitter war — White House offered to help spike story, MSNBC hosts say — The National Enquirer's ties to President Donald Trump …
Discussion:
@stevekopack, @goldengateblond, Washington Post, Mediaite and The Week
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
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
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
Discussion:
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Josh Gerstein / Politico:
BuzzFeed subpoenas federal agencies for details of probe into Trump-Russia dossier, as part of discovery in libel suit filed by tech exec Aleksej Gubarev — Media outlet seeks to use Russian tech executive's libel suit to seek records from spy agencies. — Add this surprising entry …
Discussion:
@txtianmiller
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
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.
Discussion:
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Katy Waldman / Slate:
How journalists line the walls on Capitol Hill, hoping to catch senators saying more than just evasive, boilerplate answers on the US health insurance bill — The Capitol Hill unit of the country's fake news operation—50 or so crisply attired journalists with their faces deep in their phones …
Discussion:
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New York Times:
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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Kurt Wagner / Recode:
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 …
Discussion:
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Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
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
Discussion:
New York Times, Business Insider, Talking Biz News, Ad Age and Poynter
Ben Collins / The Daily Beast:
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.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Mashable, RedState, @davidfrum, @scalzi, @carlzimmer, @davidmackau and @oneunderscore__