Mediagazer: Rotten Tomatoes adjusts critics criteria for its Tomatometer rating system in bid to boost diversity of voices, will include reviews from podcasts and more (Beatrice Verhoeven/The Wrap)

4:40 PM ET, August 28, 2018

Top News:

James Vincent / The Verge:

Trump accuses Google of rigging its search results to suppress positive news about him and says the situation “will be addressed” — The president said that Google had “rigged” its search results to suppress positive coverage — The perceived leftwing bias of big tech companies …

Washington Post:

Trump's economic adviser Kudlow says White House is “taking a look” at whether Google results should be regulated, amid concerns about alleged conservative bias — The Trump administration is “taking a look” at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government …

Discussion: ABC News, USA Today, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, The Verge, Media Matters for America, Fast Company, Techdirt, Gizmodo, USA Today, CNN, Hit & Run, Deadline, RT, 9to5Google and The Week, more at Techmeme »

Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:

14 organizations including Amnesty International, EFF, and Committee to Protect Journalists tell Google to cancel its censored Chinese search engine project — Leading human rights groups are calling on Google to cancel its plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China …

Discussion: @accessnow, @ishrglobal and Al Jazeera English, more at Techmeme »

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Following Trump's tweets about alleged prejudice, Google releases statement saying it doesn't “bias our results toward any political ideology”

Discussion: Mediaite, Mediaite, MediaPost, @danprimack, GeekWire, Politico and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed News:

CNN is facing backlash after it was revealed Lanny Davis was a source for its Trump Tower story on July 26, the substance of which he has since backtracked on — Attorney Lanny Davis says he was an anonymous source in a July CNN story that reported his client, Michael Cohen …

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

18 newsrooms, including Scalawag Magazine and The Daily Tar Heel, receive $100K+ in grants from the Community Listening and Engagement Fund — This is the second round of grants from the Community Listening and Engagement Fund. — In April, 34 news organizations received grants to help them better listen to their communities.

Discussion: The Lenfest Institute …

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: HuffPost owner Oath has been pitching advertisers on a service that analyzes its 200M+ Yahoo Mail inboxes; source says practice began 10+ years ago — Web giant analyzes more than 200 million inboxes for clues about what products people might buy—a practice much of Silicon Valley has declared off-limits

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable, Business Insider, @jamesvgrimaldi, @djtgallagher, @reaganbrad and @keachhagey, more at Techmeme »

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

BuzzFeed launches a Wirecutter competitor, BuzzFeed Reviews, with the site potentially getting a cut of revenue from products purchased — Digital media company looks to generate revenue from e-commerce — BuzzFeed has launched a new product-review site that recommends products to consumers …

Discussion: Digiday, @jbenton and @gustavgoosen

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

The Associated Press signs deal with blockchain startup Civil, licensing its content to Civil newsrooms and collaborating on blockchain tech for news — Civil Media Company is a startup that aims to support a network of high-quality news outlets through the sale of cryptocurrency.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @mattcoolidge, @ursulaok, @rachelholliday, @nguyetv and @lillian_ruiz

Beatrice Verhoeven / The Wrap:

Rotten Tomatoes adjusts critics criteria for its Tomatometer rating system in bid to boost diversity of voices, will include reviews from podcasts and more — Additionally, RT has set up a $100,000 grant program to help critics gain access to film festivals

Discussion: Rotten Tomatoes, Fast Company, New York Times, /Film, EW.com, Star Tribune, Mashable, Variety and IndieWire

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Amazon opens its Prime Book Box service, which sends kids books on a regular basis for $23/box, to all Prime users in the US — Amazon has launched yet another Prime perk for members across the U.S. — The latest benefit isn't a free offering, like many of the other perks that come as part of an annual Prime membership.

Discussion: MediaPost, Fast Company, Amazon.com, GeekWire, Fortune, TechCrunch, Neowin and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Ben Collins / NBC News:

InfoWars, Gateway Pundit, Mike Cernovich, and Daily Caller reporter Ian Miles Cheong wrongly identified a Reddit user as the Jacksonville shooter — The person who was misidentified as the Jacksonville shooter told NBC News, “My takeaway on this is there are a lot of idiots on the internet ... ”

Discussion: @cwarzel

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Quartz launches a twice-weekly cryptocurrency newsletter Quartz Private Key at $15 per month or $150 annually — Newsletter will cost $15 per month, or $150 annually — Quartz is the latest media company attempting to cash in on the growing enthusiasm for cryptocurrency.

Discussion: @joelight and @rafat

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More News:

Jessica Toonkel / The Information:
Sources: Amazon hires former ESPN executive Marie Donoghue to oversee sports for Prime Video

David Beard / Poynter:
USA Today triples its investigative reporting staff from eight to 24, hiring CIR EIC Amy Pyle to help run the expanded operation

Discussion: USA Today and Poynter

Joe Concha / The Hill:
San Diego State University study: 2% of teens regularly read a newspaper, while one-third polled said they had not read a book for pleasure in the last year

Tim Arango / New York Times:
Sonoma West, composed of four newspapers in Sonoma County, CA, launches a direct public offering, likely a first for a local paper, with a goal of raising $400K

Curt Adrano / Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
The editor of New Eden Report, a news site for the massive multiplayer online game Eve Online, on the stories they cover, impartiality, and cultivating sources

Brian Crecente / Rolling Stone:
How Grand Theft Auto became a powerful tool for music discovery where gamers have listened to more than 75B minutes of music in the last five years

Discussion: Variety, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Ian Parker / New Yorker:
Profile of Glenn Greenwald as he cuts the Twitter use, still thinks media oversells Russian election interference effects, and his audience expands to the right

Discussion: @taber, bookforum.com, Glenn Greenwald, @praddenkeefe, The Week, Deadspin, @hannahgais, @ggreenwald, @jason_a_w and @mattbors

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
CBS hit with a shareholder class action lawsuit that claims the company misled investors by failing to disclose sexual harassment allegations against Moonves

Discussion: Ad Age, Radio & Television …, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Multichannel News, The A.V. Club, The Wrap, TVWeek.com and TV Tattle

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Scottish craft beer company BrewDog to launch a streaming video service for $4.99 a month featuring licensed and original content focused on drinking culture

Discussion: The Wrap, MediaPost, @ewolffmann, @eringriffith, Broadcasting & Cable, Columbus Business Journal, Variety and Deadline

Reuters:
FCC inspector general's report found no evidence of impropriety in failed Sinclair-Tribune Media merger after two House Democrats accused Ajit Pai of bias

Discussion: Gizmodo, New York Times, Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Bloomberg, CNET, The Hill, Deadline and The A.V. Club

Shannon Liao / The Verge:
Tumblr changes community guidelines to more explicitly ban hate speech, speech glorifying violence, and revenge porn; the new rules go into effect on Sept. 10

Discussion: Engadget, Polygon, Tumblr Staff and Neowin

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
Inside True Pundit, a pro-Trump misinformation site run by Michael D. Moore, who has a journalism background and a history of illegal business practices

Discussion: The Verge, Sputnik International and @margarita

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers detail a “nearest neighbor attack” by Russia's APT28, which remotely breached a target's Wi-Fi by hijacking a laptop in a building across the street

Wall Street Journal:
Elon Musk, as Trump's efficiency czar, is singling out ordinary federal staffers, including some with climate-related jobs, on X and unleashing his fans on them

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