Mediagazer: Facebook has pulled Instant Articles off Messenger, says it's now focusing its resources on Instant Articles on its core app (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

1:55 PM ET, September 12, 2017

Top News:

Graham Ruddick / The Guardian:

Murdoch's Sky takeover bid faces six-month investigation after the UK's Culture Secretary Karen Bradley announced she's referring it to the competition watchdog — Culture secretary says she is minded to refer £11.7bn deal to regulator over media plurality and broadcasting standards

Stewart Clarke / Variety: 21st Century Fox backs legal challenge to CBS' bid for Australia's Ten Network; opponents say alternative bid from Murdoch, and another company not considered

Jason Schwartz / Politico:

Yale study: a “disputed” tag has only a tiny impact on perception of headlines on Facebook as being true or false; Facebook questions methodology — A Yale survey of 7,500 people shows little benefit, and possible detriments, to fact-check programs.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, SSRN, Fast Company, Vanity Fair, ThinkProgress, @mantzarlis, @mantzarlis, @_joshberman, @sub8u and @jason_kint

Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Discovery, Viacom, A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Scripps to launch streaming service without sports called Philo at $20/month in coming weeks — Discovery, Viacom, A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Scripps band together for new service — People who are tired of paying for TV sports channels …

Discussion: Fast Company, Variety, FierceCable, Awful Announcing, Engadget and Mashable

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Facebook has pulled Instant Articles off Messenger, says it's now focusing its resources on Instant Articles on its core app — While Facebook prepares to offer readers a way to subscribe and pay for news directly from inside its app, the social network continues to tinker with how it presents publishers' content elsewhere.

Discussion: Adweek, Tubefilter, BetaNews, Engadget, MacRumors, ZDNet and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Dan Merica / CNN:

Hope Hicks named permanent White House communications director — Washington (CNN)Hope Hicks, who was named interim White House communications director in August, will now hold the job on a permanent basis, a White House spokesperson told CNN Tuesday. — Hicks, a longtime aide …

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, @wsj, Refinery29, AOL, Politico and The Week

Jessica Toonkel / Reuters:

Time Warner Inc's Bleacher Report says Facebook is paying it millions of dollars for a reality show on NFL player Marshawn Lynch, called “No Script” — (Reuters) - Facebook Inc FB.N is paying Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N) Bleacher Report millions of dollars for a reality show …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Apple announces Apple TV 4K, with 4K HDR video and Dolby Vision, powered by A10X Fusion chip, and introduces 4K iTunes content — Apple's streaming box is now a better match for the latest and greatest TVs — Apple has just unveiled a long anticipated upgrade to its Apple TV set-top box …

more at Techmeme »

Sam Biddle / The Intercept:

Amid unanswered questions on reach, content of Russian ads, Zuckerberg should testify before Congress on how Facebook can be used to influence political process — Last week, after what must have been a series of extremely grim meetings in Menlo Park, Facebook admitted publicly that part …

Discussion: Axios, Sunlight Foundation, Philly.com, Recode, The Daily Caller, Fortune, Mashable, @pierre, @ronfein, @kerrymflynn and @profcarroll, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:

Hulk Hogan will discuss the Gawker case and its impact on his life for the first time in an interview with TMZ's Harvey Levin on Levin's Fox News show — The show, ‘OBJECTified,’ premieres Sept. 17. — The first episode of Harvey Levin's new show on Fox News, OBJECTified, actually aired last year …

Max Kutner / Newsweek:

RT says people associated with the US arm of its media network were asked to register as foreign agents by US Department of Justice — The United States Department of Justice has apparently asked people associated with the American arm of RT, formerly Russia Today, to register as foreign agents, the media outlet said on Monday.

Discussion: Yahoo, RT and Washington Examiner

Yahoo:
The FBI is investigating Sputnik News Agency for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act; agency questioned site's former White House correspondent

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Business Insider, Vanity Fair, Meduza, Newser, @michaeldweiss, VICE News and @selectedwisdom, more at Techmeme »

Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:

Pew survey: nearly half of US adults have high distrust of information sources, especially news organizations, and low interest in improving digital literacy — News organizations often tend to see their “readers” as one monolithic group whose members have similar needs and respond to the same kinds of stories.

Discussion: Pew Research Center

Tony Biasotti / Columbia Journalism Review:

How the San Francisco Chronicle became profitable again and gained respect: better economy, lean-years cutbacks, experiments, a commitment to watchdog reporting — The San Francisco Chronicle is for sale inside a newspaper box on October 13, 2013 in San Francisco.

Discussion: Talking New Media

John Williams / New York Times:

Interview with Ian Buruma, new editor of The New York Review of Books, on maintaining quality, adding fresh eyes about ideology, and finding younger writers — Some shoes are harder to fill than others. Robert Silvers, the editor synonymous with The New York Review of Books …