Top News:
Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:
Sources: Michael Wolff's book initially had a working title sympathetic to the President; aides say Hope Hicks endorsed speaking with him — Some of president's staff thought they were authorized to talk — Wolff's working title suggested sympathetic view of Trump
Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:
Sources: Fox News killed a story detailing alleged sexual relationship between porn actress Stephanie Clifford and Trump ahead of the 2016 election — Fox News had a story at the height of the presidential election that detailed an alleged sexual relationship between porn actress Stephanie Clifford …
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The Daily Beast, In Touch Weekly, Mediaite, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Slate, AOL, @laurenwern, thecut, The Week, The Wrap, @davidlaz, @davidlaz, Mother Jones, @oliverdarcy, @kathrynw5 and @passantino
Lawrence Bonk / Mediaite:
Katie Way, the reporter who broke the Aziz Ansari story, sent HLN host Ashleigh Banfield an email insulting her appearance after Banfield criticized Way — HLN's Ashleigh Banfield has not been shy in her dismissal of Katie Way, the Babe.net writer who reported anonymous allegations against Aniz Ansari …
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The Week
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Julianne Escobedo Shepherd / Jezebel:
Babe's post about “Grace” and Aziz Ansari showed inexperience and lack of understanding about reporting on sexual misconduct, prompting bad-faith reactions
Babe's post about “Grace” and Aziz Ansari showed inexperience and lack of understanding about reporting on sexual misconduct, prompting bad-faith reactions
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The Guardian, The Atlantic, thecut, The Verge, Vox, Fortune, @imleor, @carolqueen, @leighalexander, Washington Post, @lydsoneal, @rararahima, @britnidlc, Business Insider, @kelkord, @anastasiakeeley, @lizabeth_kiefer, @lizabeth_kiefer, @theahalpin, @ashnagesh, @dtohl, @millie, @junemcnaughton, @taymaple, @nostrhomo, @arielle_amara, Hit & Run, CNN, @williams_paige, @mattdpearce, Washington Post, @annanorthtweets, TVWeek.com, @davepell, www.wnyc.org, The Daily Beast, TVLine, Bookseller News, Refinery29, @priyakkumar, @queerxichisme, @tvoti, @lauren_kelley, @eugene_scott, @traciemorrissey, The Week, Emily Jane, Bilal Khan, KJ Park, Prisca Sebaratnam, Broadly, Rolling Stone, @annamerlan, @jawnita, @desi_bitch, @clovito, @lindsaykatai, CNNMoney, The Wrap, The Daily Beast, Sangeetha Bhaskaran, Junkee and Fast Company
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube says creators will need 4K hours of watch time in past 12 months and 1K subs to join Partner Program; Google Preferred videos to be reviewed by humans — YouTube is making its creator revenue-sharing program more restrictive and will start manually reviewing all videos …
Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Memo: Libby Leist succeeds Don Nash as executive producer of NBC's The Today Show, becoming the first female to lead the program's 7-8am time slot — NBC News announced Wednesday that Libby Leist would succeed Don Nash as executive producer at the “Today” show, making her the first female to lead to program's 7 and 8 a.m. hours.
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thecut
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John McCain / Washington Post:
Senator John McCain says Trump's continuing attacks on American news outlets has allowed repressive regimes to silence reporters and stave off media scrutiny — John McCain, a Republican, represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate. — After leaving office, President Ronald Reagan created …
Discussion:
CBS News, Variety, Politico, New York Times, @jeffflake, Jezebel, ABC News, The Daily Caller, KTLA, Mother Jones, The Week, @nickrhart, @limeylizzie, @danrather, @sunfoundation, @defensebaron, @henryjgomez, @mortonjhop, @paulachertok, Mediaite and AOL
Shona Ghosh / Business Insider:
Facebook says it will open a standalone investigation into potential Russian meddling in UK's EU referendum on its platform, after pressure from UK politicians — - Facebook will investigate whether Russian groups bought ads on its platform to influence the outcome of the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016.
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Swedish publishing conglomerate Bonnier lays off 17% of its US workforce, or 70 people, and shutters four magazines — Bonnier is also shuttering five magazines. — Bonnier, the Swedish publishing conglomerate, has laid off 70 people from its U.S. group. That represents about 17 percent* of the company's American workforce.
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Mediawire and @maxfalkowitz
The Awl:
The Awl announces it will end editorial operations at the end of January — It is with a mixture of disappointment and relief that we are announcing the cessation of editorial operations on The Awl at the end of this month. For nearly a decade we followed a dream of building a better Internet …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, New York Times, @tomgara, @blam, @choire, @mattdpearce, @jmikanowski, @michaelidov, @mikeriggs, New York Magazine, @askanyone, @hhavrilesky, @jwherrman, @williamfleitch, @maudnewton, @tcarmody, @silviakillings, @misterhippity, @michelledean, @annawiener, @pjmaciak, @tylercoates, @lindseyweber, @saramorrison, @sylvia__north, @imjasondiamond, @willsommer, @grahamdavida, @rafat, @nishachittal, @jonathanshainin, @jwherrman, @jonesieman and @jonesieman
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Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
22 attorneys general file lawsuit to stop FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules; Mozilla, other net neutrality advocates also filed suits against FCC — WASHINGTON — The legal fight against the Federal Communications Commission's recent repeal of so-called net neutrality regulations began on Tuesday …
Discussion:
@agschneiderman, New York State Attorney …, Light Reading, Techdirt, The Week, @pweiser, TechCrunch, The Mozilla Blog, Washington Post, @clarkstacey, Public Knowledge, Boing Boing, @xeni, @mozilla, Bangor Daily News, DSLreports, Wall Street Journal, KTLA, Recode, MacRumors, @wkyt, Engadget, Motherboard, The Verge, Fast Company, @b_fung, @mclyburnfcc, @agschneiderman, 9to5Mac, Mashable, TVWeek.com, @senmarkey and @joshstein_, more at Techmeme »
Ewen MacAskill / The Guardian:
Q&A with Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden on the ethics of whistleblowing, press freedom, and Steven Spielberg's new film about the Pentagon Papers, The Post — aniel Ellsberg, the US whistleblower celebrated in Steven Spielberg's new film, The Post, was called “the most dangerous man in America” …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook begins testing Watch Party, a new feature for groups that lets members watch videos simultaneously while continuing to comment and interact — A new feature for groups — Facebook today began testing Watch Party, a new feature available to groups that lets members watch videos …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Facebook exec Ricky Van Veen says new changes to News Feed will have little to no impact on Facebook Watch, and the site can filter out spoilers from comments — During an opening-day keynote at NATPE, Facebook's head of global creative strategy Ricky Van Veen said the social media giant's algorithm …
Jacob Hall / /Film:
YouTube has picked up the distribution rights to the Eminem-produced film Bodied and will bring it to Sundance this year — Joseph Kahn's Bodied made the festival rounds in 2017, but it didn't secure a distributor or find theatrical release that year. That's the one and only reason this satirical …