Top News:
Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
Since 2016, American Media has made Karen McDougal professional promises and paid $150K in a catch-and-kill arrangement for her story of her affair with Trump — One woman's account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.
Discussion:
@maggienyt, Mediaite, Columbia Journalism Review, AOL, The Wrap, The New York Observer, Business Insider, FOX31 Denver, Fast Company, Coffee House, Washington Post, Jezebel, Axios, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, thecut, @isaacdovere, Hollywood Life, IndieWire, BloombergQuint, KTLA, @anthony, The Week, The Daily Caller, East Bay Times, Decider, @maggienyt, Variety, Refinery29, Splinter, Fortune, The Daily Beast, @eisingerj, @jimwaterson, bookforum.com, Hollywood Reporter, People.com, Slate, The Big Lead and TV Tattle
CNBC:
US indicts 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities, including Internet Research Agency, in Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 elections — - Special counsel Robert Mueller said a grand jury had indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Discussion:
New York Times, Mediaite, The New York Observer, HuffPost, Recode, Geller Report, The Guardian, WTKR-TV and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
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Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
New analysis shows 36K tweets from Internet Research Agency linked most often to Breitbart News, then Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle; RT ranked 19th — Russia's disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election relied heavily on stories produced by major American news sources …
Discussion:
Wired, Nieman Lab, Fast Company, Jonathan Albright, @nitashatiku, @wired, Jonathan Couser, @ilvestoomas, @profcarroll and @justinhendrix
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Covering Parkland shooting means balancing informing the audience with interviewing traumatized teenagers who may not be able to give informed consent — The morning after the school massacre in Parkland, Fla., NBC's “Today Show” aired a dramatic live interview Thursday.
Discussion:
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, @jennamargaretta, @jbenton, @mack_oxenden, @sulliview, New York Times and CNN
RELATED:
Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed:
Reporter's outreach to shooting survivors via Twitter was hindered by accounts falsifying her words and targeting her; Twitter said targeting didn't break rules — In the wake of the Florida high school shooting Wednesday, Twitter users began spreading doctored tweets targeting Miami Herald reporter Alex Harris.
Discussion:
Poynter, @cwarzel, @mat, @noupside, @emilybell, @derekwillis, @harrisalexc, @harrisalexc, @marxmedia and @hashtaggriswold
David Beard / Poynter:
Interview with The Intercept's Research Director Lynn Dombek on researchers, their skill sets, and their role in site's Dakota pipeline and Rob Porter stories — Move over, Woodward and Bernstein. — This era's great journalistic diggers include Julie Tate, Kitty Bennett, Alice Crites, Margot Williams and Sheelagh McNeill.
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
District court in New York rules that by embedding a tweet with copyrighted content, websites may violate copyright, rejecting years of settled legal precedent — The defendants including Breitbart, Time, Vox and the Boston Globe warned a loss would “cause a tremendous chilling effect on the core functionality of the web.”
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Fast Company, Electronic Frontier Foundation, @jbenton, The Daily Dot, PC Magazine, The Verge, Billboard, @cdgoldstein, Techdirt, TorrentFreak, @felixsalmon, The Outline, Boing Boing, Engadget, @eriqgardner, @bergmayer, @franklomonte, @theauburner, @jeffjarvis, @medialawprof, @craigcalcaterra, @ericgoldman, @petersterne, @andrewdfish, @jeffjohnroberts and @annalecta, more at Techmeme »
Aoife White / Bloomberg:
Belgian court rules Facebook is illegally collecting user data via cookies on third party sites, must remove data, threatens €250K/day fines for noncompliance — Fine of up to 250,000 euros a day if company doesn't comply — Social network to appeal, says cookies are industry standard
Discussion:
The Guardian and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Magna Global: TV ad sales in the US fell 7.8% to $61.8B in 2017, the biggest drop outside a recession in at least 20 years, with no sign of a pickup in 2018 — Sales drop last year was worst outside a recession in 20 years — The peak of the market was two years ago, Magna Global says
BBC:
Facebook complies with demand of Russia's internet censor to remove Instagram video by opposition activist Alexei Navalny, but the video remains on YouTube — Instagram has blocked posts in Russia relating to corruption claims made by the country's most prominent opposition leader.
Discussion:
CNBC, Fast Company, Gizmodo, @wendysiegelman, BuzzFeed, @paulachertok, TechCrunch, Washington Post, Associated Press and Telegraph, more at Techmeme »
Brian Dowling / Boston Herald:
Digital First Media has acquired the Boston Herald in a bankruptcy auction with an $11.9M bid, beating out GateHouse Media and Revolution Capital — Digital First Media won the Boston Herald in a five-hour bankruptcy auction with an $11.9million bid that all but settles who will carry …
Discussion:
BostonGlobe.com, @nickwoltman and @bobmcgovernjr
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
A look at the Guardian's new podcast player, available online and as an app, which provides show notes like links, graphics, and more in real time — The Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab's podcast player for the mobile web lets you listen to a show without using a podcast app …
Discussion:
The Guardian