Mediagazer: Wikipedia Zero, which partnered with 97 mobile carriers in 72 countries to provide 800M+ users access to Wikipedia at no data cost, is being discontinued (Manish Singh)

6:45 AM ET, February 20, 2018

Top News:

Nicholas Thompson / Wired:

Sources: Rob Goldman apologized internally at Facebook for his tweetstorm about Russian interference, saying “I conveyed my view poorly” — ON FRIDAY MORNING, just before 10am on the West Coast, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller published his indictment of 13 Russian operatives …

Discussion: New York Times, @om, Washington Post, Digiday, The Drum, @boztank, @mosseri, @karaswisher and The Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:

Fact-checking the tweetstorm by Facebook VP of ads Rob Goldman on the Mueller indictment and Facebook's role in election interference by Russia — Rob Goldman, Facebook vice president for ads, tweeted about Russia's disinformation effort. President Trump then cited him. We fact-checked Mr. Goldman.

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook's focus on Groups, and the tools to build and promote them, can be easily exploited by bad actors like Russia, Mueller indictment shows

Discussion: RT and Deadline

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Fox News working on Fox Nation, a standalone streaming subscription service with original shows and right-leaning commentary, expected to debut by year's end — Thanks to a relentless news cycle — and a dedicated fan in the Oval Office — Fox News has defied the downward trends in the television business …

Discussion: Fast Company, Fortune, @dylanbyers, @walthickey, @charliepick, @tomilahren, @lolgop, Variety, @perlberg, The Wrap, Multichannel News and Deadline

New York Times:

Sources: how American Media Inc., which owns The National Enquirer, Star, Us Weekly, and Radar, helped Trump lawyer Michael Cohen bury scandals — As accounts of past sexual indiscretions threatened to surface during Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign, the job of stifling potentially …

Discussion: The Week and @amosposner

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Following changes to News Feed, publishers including the NYT and BuzzFeed are experiencing reported declines in traffic from Facebook of 6-14% — Just a month after Facebook said it'd show less news in its news feed, news publishers are already feeling the brunt, multiple data sources show.

Discussion: @digiday

Manish Singh:

Wikipedia Zero, which partnered with 97 mobile carriers in 72 countries to provide 800M+ users access to Wikipedia at no data cost, is being discontinued — In an unexpected development, the Wikimedia Foundation announced on Friday that it is discontinuing Wikipedia Zero …

Discussion: Wikimedia Blog, Boing Boing, Android Community, BetaNews, MediaNama, TechCrunch, The Next Web and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

The Guardian:

The Guardian appoints Jim Waterson, political editor of BuzzFeed UK since 2013, as media editor; he will lead on all media coverage across print and digital — Guardian News & Media is pleased to announce that Jim Waterson has been appointed media editor. He will lead on all media coverage …

Discussion: @jimwaterson, Guido Fawkes, @pressgazette and Press Gazette

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

NewsMatch's October-December drive raised $4.8M from participating donors and foundations; donors gave $33M total, including gifts not covered under match terms — The non-profit news sector has been a favorite of foundation journalism philanthropy for more than a decade.

Discussion: PR Newswire

Katharine Schwab / Co.Design:

ProPublica reporter outlines how they are developing their own machine learning algorithms and chatbots as investigative tools against big tech companies — The nonprofit is fighting fire with fire, developing algorithms and bots that hold Facebook and Amazon accountable.

Discussion: @lilianedwards

Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:

Q&A with John Oliver: How Last Week Tonight tries to limit Trump coverage, does segments that don't feel timely, and how it satirizes controversy — The world keeps changing, and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” keeps staying the same. As it begins its fifth season on Sunday …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Report: ~15M indie content creators in US used Amazon Publishing, eBay, Etsy, Instagram, Shapeways, Tumblr, Twitch, WordPress, or YouTube to earn ~$6B in 2016 — Visit EveryoneCreates.org to read stories of creation empowered by the internet, and share your own! »

Discussion: @daveambrose, Recode, recreatecoalition.org and Boing Boing

Robert Feder:

Mark Konkol forced out on Saturday as executive editor of alt-weekly The Chicago Reader, following controversy over front cover — Mark Konkol, who promised to “set a new vibe, take risks and make waves” at the Chicago Reader, was forced out Saturday as executive editor of the alternative weekly …

Discussion: @jesshopp and @chicagotribune

Chris Lehmann / The Baffler:

Political commentary on op-ed pages is driven by social media renown, where writers are brands and stabs at arguments and analysis amount to forgettable takes — On the op-ed pages, the mediocrity is the message. DURING MY LONG-AGO TENURE as a newspaper op-ed editor …

Ali Breland / The Hill:

US lawmakers are worried that advances in video manipulation technology could herald a new era of fake news — Lawmakers are concerned that advances in video manipulation technology could set off a new era of fake news. Now legislators say they want to start working on fixes to the problem before it's too late.

Discussion: @noupside