Mediagazer: Sources: Comcast's bid for 21st Century Fox was $60B+, 15% higher than Disney's winning offer, but was rejected due to antitrust concerns (Wall Street Journal)

1:50 PM ET, February 12, 2018

Top News:

Charles Riley / CNNMoney:

Unilever marketing boss Keith Weed is to threaten to pull advertising from Facebook, Google, and other digital platforms, citing fake news, among other concerns — Social media giants grilled on ‘fake news’ — Unilever is threatening to pull its advertising from digital platforms …

Wired:

A behind-the-scenes look at two tumultuous years inside Facebook as it struggled with fake news, its impact on the 2016 election, and its battle with News Corp — ONE DAY IN late February of 2016, Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo to all of Facebook's employees to address some troubling behavior in the ranks.

Karl Taro Greenfeld / Los Angeles Times:

Former writer at Time Inc. offers anecdotes about how the publisher was “overspending horrendously” on salaries and unlimited expense accounts before AOL merger — I started as a writer at Time Magazine on a Monday in 1998. I turned up that morning to find the 23rd floor …

Discussion: @nbj914, @poniewozik and @editorialiste

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

A week after Meredith takeover of Time Inc., sources speculate about potential buyers for some of the magazines, especially Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated — The sudden Midwesternizing of a Manhattan media empire. — It's been a little more than a week since Time Inc. ceased to exist …

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Comcast's bid for 21st Century Fox was $60B+, 15% higher than Disney's winning offer, but was rejected due to antitrust concerns — Cable giant's offer for Fox's entertainment assets was in the low $60 billions, exceeding Disney's winning offer — Cable giant Comcast Corp. CMCSA 1.00% …

Discussion: @asharma, FierceCable, @claytravis, @asharma and felix.substack.com

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Technologist who predicted “fake news”, Aviv Ovadya, and other experts warn new AI-powered tools to manipulate perception could erode people's trust in reality — In mid-2016, Aviv Ovadya realized there was something fundamentally wrong with the internet — so wrong that he abandoned his work and sounded an alarm.

Brian Beutler / Crooked Media:

Conservatives treat liberal bias in mainstream media as fact; reporters should stop conciliatory approach, accept that Conservatism and journalism conflict — If you get your news from conservative media these days, you probably don't know that President Donald Trump's lawyers believe …

Avi Selk / Washington Post:

NBC apologizes to Koreans for remarks by Olympics commentator Joshua Ramo who said Koreans viewed Japanese occupation of the country as a positive thing — Friday's Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in South Korea were, by most accounts, spectacular.

Discussion: Deadline, Vanity Fair, The Korea Times, New York Times, Awful Announcing and Mediaite

The Guardian:

Sweden wanted to drop its extradition case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2013 but was dissuaded by the UK's prosecution service — UK prosecutors tried to dissuade Swedish counterparts from doing so, exchange shows … Swedish prosecutors attempted to drop extradition proceedings …

Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:

Fusion partners with Cheddar to air a weekly 30-min show, The Point with Jon Steinberg, premiering on February 15 — ‘The Point with Jon Steinberg’ premieres February 15 — Fusion and Cheddar, the financial news network focused on younger audiences, have teamed on a ten-episode …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Thanks:@jonsteinberg

Brenda Goh / Reuters:

Alibaba signs multi-year deal to offer 1000+ episodes of Disney shows on its Youku video streaming platform — SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's entertainment arm has signed a licensing agreement with Walt Disney Co in a deal that will provide the Chinese group's Youku video …

Discussion: Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Sources: Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is in discussions with Trump about a book project to counter Michael Wolff's “Fire and Fury” — Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News personality and longtime friend and champion of President Trump, has discussed with him the possibility of a book project …

Discussion: Slate, New York Magazine and The Guardian

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