Mediagazer: FCC's Ajit Pai tells House Energy and Commerce Committee that he stands by decision on Sinclair-Tribune merger (John Hendel/Politico)

12:20 PM ET, July 26, 2018

Top News:

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

White House bans CNN's Kaitlan Collins from press event after she asked “inappropriate” questions while serving as pool reporter; CNN calls move “retaliatory” — The White House took retaliatory action against Kaitlan Collins, a White House reporter for CNN …

Discussion: TVNewser, Washington Post, Mediaite, New York Post, Washington Post, American Press Institute, @ndrew_lawrence, The Wrap, Multichannel News, Fox News, Poynter, @cnnpr, CBS Boston, ThinkProgress, @bretbaier, @johnrobertsfox, NBC News, Reuters, Daily Wire, Restoring Liberty, Fortune, The Week, @chueyburns, NPR, Newser, TVNewser, WHCA, @briankarem, Multichannel News, Contemptor, @renato_mariotti, @stevenportnoy, @chrismegerian, @brendannyhan, @whca, @nbcnews, @ellisonbarber, @peterbrack, @brianstelter, @poppyharlowcnn, @evanvucci, @philiprucker, The Daily Beast, @mauricemichael, @thomasaroberts, @lisabloom, @kazweida, @ryanjreilly, @megynkelly, @halagorani, @peterbakernyt, @peterbakernyt, @kylegriffin1, @mkraju, YouTube, @halliejackson, Slate, @indira_l, @sahilkapur, @brianstelter, Hollywood Reporter, @jaketapper, @swin24, @nprscottsimon and @kairyssdal

Jon Levine / The Wrap:

Twitter CEO addresses claims about some Republican leaders not appearing in search auto-suggestions, points to a thread that offers explanation and vows changes — Twitter has hit back against accusations of shadow banning prominent Republicans on Wednesday, with founder and CEO Jack Dorsey insisting …

Bloomberg:

Donald Trump criticizes Twitter for “shadow banning prominent Republicans”, says “we” will look into what he calls a “discriminatory and illegal practice” — - Tweet comes as social media increasingly targeted by GOP — Twitter says it doesn't rank user behaviors based on politics

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hit & Run, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, @defensebaron, @tictoc, @tedlieu and VICE News

Business Wire:

Comcast Q2 earnings: $21.7B in revenue, a 2.1% increase YoY; high-speed internet revenue rose 9.3% YoY with 260K new broadband customers; NBCU revenue was flat — Consolidated 2nd Quarter 2018 Highlights: — Consolidated Revenue Increased 2.1%; Net Income Attributable to Comcast Increased 27.6%; Adjusted EBITDA Increased 4.8%

Discussion: Digiday, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, Multichannel News, Fast Company, The Wrap, CNBC, Los Angeles Times, Reuters and @claireatki

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's share price closed Wednesday at $217.50, a record high, but fell to around $172 after its Q2 earnings call, a market cap drop of roughly $123B — Facebook's share price fell over 20 percent in after-hours trading today after the company announced its slowest-ever user growth rate …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Street Fight, Talking Biz News, Recode, @alexeheath, MarketWatch, Slate, Recode, Mumbrella, MediaNama, Fortune, @caseyjohnston, Multichannel News, @gilbert, @joshconstine, @joshconstine and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Sydney Morning Herald:

Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media announce AU$4B merger to happen by end of 2018; Nine CEO to run the combined company which will be called Nine — Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment have announced plans to merge by the end of 2018 in a deal they say will create Australia's largest …

Washington Post:

WhatsApp, the main platform for disinformation in multiple non-US countries, steps up efforts against rumors after violent and sometimes deadly consequences — SAN FRANCISCO — Americans associate misinformation with Facebook and the ways it shaped debate around the 2016 presidential election.

Discussion: @justinhendrix and @alanmillernlp

Steve Dent / Engadget:

Spotify adds 8M paid subscribers in Q2, up 40% YoY, for a total of 83M subscribers and 180M MAUs, with revenue of €1.27B, up 26% YoY, and operating loss of €90M — For its second ever earnings report, Spotify said it now has 83 million paid subscribers, up 8 million …

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Business Wire, Hollywood Reporter and Yahoo! Finance, more at Techmeme »

John Hendel / Politico:

FCC's Ajit Pai tells House Energy and Commerce Committee that he stands by decision on Sinclair-Tribune merger — FCC Chairman Ajit Pai didn't bend Wednesday to pressure from President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday night slammed as “disgraceful” and “unfair” the FCC decision …

Discussion: Brookings, Techdirt, Slate, USA Today, Broadcasting & Cable, @jrosenworcel, Politico, @esaagar and @ryan_deitsch

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

NBC News begins its experiment with a streaming news network with “Space is Awesome”, a special report on space, to air Friday on NBCNews.com and other outlets — A countdown is about to begin. NBC News is getting ready to launch a special report on space that could also serve …

Stewart Clarke / Variety:

Sky reports a 5% increase YoY in annual revenue to £13.6B with a presence in 23M households; CEO promises 25% increase in programming spending — Sky has turned in strong numbers in its last full-year results before it is taken over by either Comcast or 21st Century Fox.

Discussion: Reuters

Kate Lamb / The Guardian:

Inside Indonesia's “buzzer teams”, filled with political supporters and students who post thousands of times a day to create religious and political divides — ‘Buzzer teams’ are a growing part of politics, helping to churn up religious and racial divides

Andrew Liptak / The Verge:

Chris Hardwick will return to his AMC talk shows on August 12 following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct — AMC said that it conducted a ‘comprehensive assessment’ — Chris Hardwick will once again host AMC's The Walking Dead after show The Talking Dead …

Discussion: EW.com, @thr, The Week, Deadline, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast and Variety

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 12:20 PM ET, July 26, 2018.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Cheddar has signed deals to make its programming available on WOW! and the National Cable Television Cooperative, which represents 840 small cable operators

Discussion: @jonsteinberg

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Hulu signs exclusive deal with Apple, making premiere episode of original series “Castle Rock” available for free on Apple TV in the US, no Hulu sub required

Discussion: /Film

Dawn C. Chmielewski / Deadline:
Herb Scannell, CEO of Latino-focused Mitú, and founder Beatriz Acevedo step down amid layoffs of about a third of the staff

Discussion: Tubefilter, @forbesent and Variety

BuzzFeed News:
Source: Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey to testify before Senate Intelligence Committee in September; Sundar Pichai has not yet responded to committee's invite

Discussion: The Verge, The Hill and KTLA, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Overview of the questions Facebook dodged in a conference call with the press Tuesday on its efforts to fight election interference and false information

Discussion: GeekWire, Facebook, @kevinroose, @joshconstine and The Hill, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:
A look at longstanding ties between Michael Cohen and American Media, including talks amid 2016 campaign and $30K paid in late 2015 to an ex-doorman for Trump

Discussion: Washington Post, @the_war_economy, @the_war_economy, The Week, Mashable, New York Post, @rebeccaballhaus, @mattdpearce, CNBC, @bradheath, CNN, @mrbromwich, @bkesling, @harounrashid2, @kylegriffin1 and @kylegriffin1

Earlier Picks:

Tim Baysinger / The Wrap:
HBO Programming President Casey Bloys said the network would not dilute its brand in favor of increasing output under new parent company AT&T

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Sources: YouTube removed four videos from Alex Jones' channel for hate speech and child endangerment, but counted the takedowns as one strike toward the channel

Caleb Ecarma / Mediaite:
Don Trump Jr. tweets an old false smear against ABC News' Martha Raddatz as he criticizes her WaPo column on the importance of media coverage of the military

Discussion: @secupp, @colleenmnelson, @christinawilkie, Contemptor, Washington Post, @votevets, @eugene_scott, @kendilaniannbc, @philiprucker, The Four Horsemen, @mlcalderone and The Daily Caller

Dan Kennedy / WGBH:
Boston Globe owner John Henry has no plans to sell the newspaper, says it now has 94.7K digital subs but “cannot ever seem to meet budgets”

Discussion: Poynter, @bobmcgovernjr, @dankennedy_nu, @dankennedy_nu, @wgbhnews, @dabeard, @bosbizdon, @jbenton and Dan Kennedy

Politico:
Reports: a private equity company has made a bid for Tronc, at $19-$20 a share; deal could be announced within a few weeks and may be close to $1B

Discussion: New York Post, @jbarro, @mattdpearce, @phildavis_cg, @bfishbfish and @juliewestfall

Chantal Fernandez / The Business of Fashion:
Troy Young will succeed David Carey as president of Hearst's magazine division, overseeing 300 print editions and 240 digital brands

Discussion: Folio, Ad Age, Digiday, @richantoniello and @jason_kint

From Techmeme:

Qianer Liu / The Information:
Sources: Intel and TSMC have reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture that will operate Intel's chipmaking facilities; TSMC will take a 20% stake

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Tech stocks fall after President Trump announced new global tariffs: Amazon closed down 9%, Meta 9%, Nvidia 7.8%, Alphabet 3.9%, and Microsoft 2.4%

Jake Bleiberg / Bloomberg:
Sources: Oracle told some clients this week that a hacker stole old login credentials, the second breach that Oracle acknowledged to clients in the past month

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page