Top News:
CNNMoney:
Brands like Nike, Expedia, Acer suspend ads on Infowars' YouTube channels when contacted by CNN; some wonder why YouTube filters failed to block ads on Infowars — Facebook, YouTube fail to blunt conspiracy theories — Some of the biggest brands in the U.S. had ads running on the YouTube channels …
Discussion:
BetaNews, TechCrunch, Mashable, Engadget, The A.V. Club and The Verge
RELATED:
Gardiner Harris / New York Times:
State Department has spent $0 of the $120M allocated by Congress since late-2016 to counter foreign efforts to meddle in elections or sow distrust in democracy — WASHINGTON — As Russia's virtual war against the United States continues unabated with the midterm elections approaching …
Discussion:
Slate and The Week, more at Techmeme »
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
A look at NewsGuard, led by Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, which has raised $6M and plans to use journalists to rate reliability of ~7,500 online news sources — Media entrepreneur Steven Brill thinks there's something missing from all the efforts to separate fake news from the real kind: Some smart and discerning humans.
Discussion:
CNNMoney
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Snopes fact-check of a satirical story led Facebook to flag it as false, flag removed after complaint; Snopes says it received several inquiries about the story — A recent debunk from Snopes exposed a grey area for Facebook's fact-checking tool. — It started as a joke.
Discussion:
@krazy_cat_katy and @prageru
Wayne Ma / Wall Street Journal:
Marriott US staffer says he was fired after HR questioned him on Tibet related tweet he liked via Marriott's account; China pressured Marriott over Tibet issue — The severity of the penalty—termination, not reprimand—highlights the unforgiving consequences for companies that offend China
Discussion:
@africasacountry, VentureBeat, @ethanwsj, @rwhelanwsj, Gizmodo, @martinsfp, @marcorubio and @marcorubio, more at Techmeme »
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Facebook says it doesn't know how many followed Russia's IRA accounts on Instagram; researcher finds that 27 of 170 deleted accounts had ~2.2M followers total — FOR MORE THAN a year, Jonathan Albright has served as something of a one-man General Accounting Office for the tech industry.
Discussion:
@rasmus_kleis, @justinhendrix, @wired and @benioff, more at Techmeme »
Zoë Beery / Columbia Journalism Review:
Journalists say the editing tests they're given during the hiring process amount to too much unpaid work and often receive no feedback — In the spring of 2015, GQ asked freelance writer and editor Beejoli Shah to produce a four-page front-of-book section for the magazine.
Discussion:
@wxdam, @angryblacklady, @srussellkraft, @octonion, @janine_j, @shafldn, @katzish, @britnidlc, @theronalisa, @michelleruiz, @andyrichter and @alexwexelman
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The world - and Hollywood - has changed since last year's Oscars, thanks to courageous reporting by the press on men like Harvey Weinstein — The world has changed since last year's Oscars — and for the better. — So let's not forget what got us there: great journalism.
Jackie Strause / Hollywood Reporter:
Ryan Seacrest hosts E! network's pre-Oscars show, following allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct claims by ex-stylist Suzie Hardy — YOUTUBE — Seacrest returned to his preshow post despite the move being seen as controversial by some ahead of Sunday night.
Discussion:
Washington Post and East Bay Times
Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed:
Profile of PragerU, a nonprofit site whose five minute explainer videos, presented by well-known conservative pundits, have amassed 1B+ YouTube, Facebook views — A right-wing online “university” is on track for a billion views in 2018, its professors are some of the best-known conservatives in media …
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Early estimates from Nielsen suggest ratings for Sunday's 90th Academy Awards dropped significantly since last year's show — Live viewership of the 90th annual Academy Awards ceremony was down significantly from the 2017 telecast, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings for ABC's nearly four-hour telecast.
Discussion:
Deadline, Mediaite, Rolling Stone and The Daily Caller
Mars Woo / DealStreetAsia:
Bilibili, China's biggest video streaming platform for anime, is planning an IPO in the US and hopes to raise $400M — Bilibili, China's top online platform for streaming Japanese animation, aims to raise $400 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, the company …
Discussion:
Variety