Top News:
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
With “Who Is America?”, Sacha Baron Cohen pits bad faith against bad faith political actors of the Trump era that traditional outlets have struggled to cover — Sacha Baron Cohen — a consummate troll himself — is a perfect foil to the current political climate of grift and trolling.
Discussion:
@davidklion, The Daily Beast, The A.V. Club, Slate, @oneunderscore__, @tomgara, @tomgara, @myecoll, @annehelen, @amandakhurley, @tomgara, @tomgara, @hcjustinn, @jayrosen_nyu, The Guardian and Mediaite
Cindy Chang / Los Angeles Times:
Judge orders LA Times to remove details from a story about a sealed plea agreement made public by mistake on PACER; LAT does so but plans to contest order — A federal judge on Saturday ordered the Los Angeles Times to remove information from an article that described a plea agreement between prosecutors …
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times, @dangillmor, @jamilsmith, HuffPost, @vdbaranetsky, @joelrubin, @profepps, Reason, @calpolicy, @raju, @gaufre, @jenniferm_q, @scboi67, @obarcala, @mgafni and KTLA
Christine Emba / Washington Post:
The removal of Daniella Greenbaum's article from Business Insider doesn't mean mobs are threatening free speech; cultural sensitivity is just common courtesy — Which beleaguered free-speech champion is being silenced today? — As it happens, it's writer Daniella Greenbaum, a former columnist for the website Business Insider.
Discussion:
@eriksherman, @hiattf, @jonathanchait and @brithume
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Daniella Greenbaum / Washington Post:
As the policing of speech, largely by mobs on social media, becomes normalized, the would-be targets of censorship must reject the notion of “acceptable” views
As the policing of speech, largely by mobs on social media, becomes normalized, the would-be targets of censorship must reject the notion of “acceptable” views
Discussion:
New York Post, @rjcc, @hollybell8, @karaswisher, @jeffjarvis, @charlesarthur, @karaswisher and @daviduberti
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Hearst Inc reached a $50M settlement of a lawsuit claiming it violated Michigan privacy law by selling its magazine subscribers' personal info — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hearst Communications Inc on Thursday reached a $50 million settlement of a lawsuit claiming it violated Michigan privacy law …
Discussion:
@travelfish
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
The Washington Post is launching a channel on Amazon-owned livestreaming site Twitch, broadcasting two shows initially — The Washington Post is looking to Twitch's livestreaming gamers of all places to reach new video audiences, with a new channel starting this week. — The channel will kick off with two shows.
Discussion:
MediaPost
Pew Research Center:
Retransmission revenues for US local TV stations grew to $9B in 2017 from $8B in 2016, but the audience for local TV news dropped 15% YoY — MORE FACT SHEETS: STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA — While television remains the most common place for Americans to get their news, with local TV outpacing cable …
Discussion:
Pew Research Center
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Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:
Profile of UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, who gave Facebook a £500K fine over Cambridge Analytica and is investigating data misuse during Brexit — With the publication of an interim report on her investigation into the Brexit referendum, the information commissioner …
Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:
UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom said tweets and questions read out on ex-Scottish FM Alex Salmond's show on RT were from people connected to the program — One of the “tweets” was a question posed by a “friend of the cameraman”, who only tweeted the question once he saw it got to air.
Sam Forsdick / Press Gazette:
Finland's largest daily newspaper erected ~300 billboards along Trump and Putin's route to Helsinki summit highlighting importance of free press — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were greeted with almost 300 billboards and posters that bring attention to their “turbulent relations with the press” …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Fortune, Fox News Insider, @pourmecoffee and The Daily Caller
Sahil Patel / Digiday:
USA Today Network's feel-good video series HumanKind, AnimalKind, MilitaryKind on Facebook Watch have 9M+ followers and generated 140M views in May and June — USA Today Network has found that people still love to watch feel-good videos on Facebook — and they're helping the publisher make some money on the platform.
Discussion:
Variety
Marlee Baldridge / Nieman Lab:
How a small Alabama paper grew its digital ad revenue in 2017 from $56k to $104k with mobile video reporting and by filming sports on Facebook Live — A bet on live video, a busy news year, and maximizing staff talents let the Alexander City Outlook increase its digital ad revenue 80 percent in a year's time.
Discussion:
@liziarbogast
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
Sources: HBO employees were not alarmed by AT&T CEO John Stankey's comments, with many agreeing that the network needs to scale — Within HBO, many view the reaction to new overlord John Stankey's occasionally ham-fisted comments as overblown. “They need this to work,” says one producer …