Mediagazer: Amazon's Prime Video streaming service criticized for selling films by conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and David Icke (Christopher Williams/Telegraph)

12:35 PM ET, June 18, 2018

Top News:

Katherine Maher / WIRED UK:

As tech firms like Facebook and Google lean more on Wikipedia to fight disinformation, Wikimedia Foundation says they should do more to support the site — If big tech companies are going to use Wikipedia as a resource, they should better support its important work, says the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation

Discussion: Poynter, @johnbattelle, @lorcand, @jay_nath, @carnage4life and @brianmcc

Whitney Curry Wimbish / The Baffler:

Business journalism rarely does investigations and reporters worry that if they step outside of common economic explanations they'll be excluded — Things are going great, according to the Wall Street propaganda machine — The lingering effects of the last crash. Jay Santiago — W — O

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Patrick Soon-Shiong / Los Angeles Times:

A copy of the letter to readers from new LA Times owner Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong that appeared in Sunday's paper and the San Diego Union-Tribune — Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong will become the new owner of the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday, when the sale is expected to be finalized.

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Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
Tronc's sale of Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune to Patrick Soon-Shiong closes Monday after long negotiations over service agreements

Robert Feder:

Chicago Sun-Times sells alt-weekly The Chicago Reader to group led by Dorothy Leavell, publisher of the African-American Chicago Crusader — The Chicago Reader, the city's leading alternative weekly for 47 years, has been sold to a group led by Dorothy Leavell, publisher of the African-American Chicago Crusader.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune and Gary/Chicago Crusader

Ken Doctor / Nieman Lab:

Sources: Tronc is in talks about selling nine of its properties, including the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, and the Baltimore Sun — What will happen to the price of Tronc shares as investors, a good number of speculators among them, assess the post-L.A. Times value …

Discussion: @newsbyschmidt

Nancy Cook / Politico:

The White House press and communications teams, left without an official director since Hope Hicks left in March, are struggling with in-fighting and departures — Amid the ongoing exodus, staffers are happy to let the president act as his own top spokesman.

Discussion: Splinter, @kenvogel, @mathewi, @michaelkruse, @jonlemire, @keithboykin and @hatewatch

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Indian police have linked dozens of murders and serious assaults to fake news being spread via WhatsApp — App blamed for circulating false information in India, Brazil, Kenya and now the UK — Abijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das were driving back from a visit to a waterfall in the Indian province …

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Startup reallyread.it hopes to foster dialogue among commenters via a plugin that tracks how much of the article has been read and a homepage for debate — The battle against the uncivil comments section is also a battle against high bounce rates for reallyread.it.

Discussion: @niemanlab, @jacobwe, @sarahdrinkwater and @niemanlab

Tim Peterson / Digiday:

Publishers like Vox Media and BuzzFeed Studios signing deals with Hollywood talent agencies to help them land video deals for original programming — Vox Media likely wouldn't have been able to sell its upcoming show, “American Style,” to CNN without the help of Hollywood talent agency WME.

Discussion: @digiday, @digiday and @katelaurielee

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

Amazon's Prime Video streaming service criticized for selling films by conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and David Icke — If this persists, please email our dedicated team at digitalservices@telegraph.co.uk — Amazon's television service is showing films by prominent conspiracy theorists claiming …

Discussion: Mashable, Fast Company, Engadget and Gizmodo

ProPublica:

A look at some of the journalism ads flagged as political by Facebook, showing how Facebook's screening policies are creating problems for media organizations — One ad couldn't have been more obviously political. Targeted to people aged 18 and older, it urged them to “vote YES” …

Discussion: @vogon and @propublica

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

YouTube Music and YouTube Premium launch in 12 new markets, including Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, and Russia — YouTube today expanded YouTube Music and YouTube Premium to the services' first new markets since they officially debuted last month. — The Google-owned video-streaming …

Discussion: Variety, YouTube Blog and Thurrott.com

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