Mediagazer: Universal Music Group reported $1.73B revenue for Q3 as streaming revenue hits $767M, a 37.6% increase YoY; parent Vivendi narrows bankers for partial UMG sale (Ed Christman/Billboard)

12:20 PM ET, November 16, 2018

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Sources: DOJ is preparing to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; exact charges are unclear but could possibly involve the Espionage Act — Over the past year, U.S. prosecutors have discussed several types of charges they could potentially bring against the WikiLeaks founder

Washington Post:

Court filings in an unrelated case and sources reveal prosecutors have charged Julian Assange under seal, but the nature of charges remains unclear — WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange has been charged under seal, prosecutors inadvertently revealed in a recently unsealed court filing …

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CNN:

Judge orders White House to return Acosta's hard pass immediately citing violation of due process, thus granting CNN's request for a temporary restraining order — (CNN)Federal judge Timothy J. Kelly sided with CNN on Friday, ordering the White House to reinstate chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass.

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CBS News:

In interview, Sheryl Sandberg says “we absolutely did not pay anyone to create fake news” and says she didn't know Facebook had hired Definers — A day after a searing investigation into Facebook by The New York Times, the company's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is defending herself and the social media giant.

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Karl Bode / Techdirt:
Facebook's use of Definers Public Affairs is by no means unique, mirroring the way the telecom industry uses think tanks, PR firms, and bogus news operations

Discussion: New York Times, The Guardian, Mercury News, Recode, The Daily Beast, @karlbode and @daphnehk

NBC News:
Definers, the lobbying firm used by Facebook, runs a “news” site with positive posts on clients, negative posts on rivals, and a Facebook page followed by 120K+

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Facebook to demote “borderline content” in News Feed by default and let users appeal content moderation decisions to an independent body — The new term is ‘borderline content’ — Facebook is once again tweaking how stories spread through the News Feed, this time going after posts that are …

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Adam Bernstein / Washington Post:

William Goldman, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, dies at 87 — Badly hung over, the detective rises from a foldout couch in his office. He turns off the TV that has been on all night, dunks his head in ice water …

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Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox Sports and MLB extend their rights deal through 2028, expanding the network's digital and Spanish-language rights and adding more broadcast games — The pact keeps the World Series and All-Star game at Fox Sports, which also airs weekly games on its broadcast network.

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Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Journalists at The Capital, where five died in a shooting in June, continue their push to unionize with other nearby newsrooms as the Chesapeake News Guild — The Capital, a Maryland community newspaper where five employees were killed in June in a mass shooting, is pushing to unionize under …

Discussion: Baltimore Fishbowl, @ckrewson, @phildavis_cg and The NewsGuild - CWA

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Viacom tops Q4 expectations with profit of $386M down from $674M in 2017, with revenue from cable operations falling 1% to $2.52B due to ad revenue shortfall — Viacom Inc. said net income in its fiscal fourth quarter fell as revenue slumped overseas and stayed flat with year-earlier results …

Discussion: MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, Reuters and Hollywood Reporter

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Reuters smart speakers study: 18% of owners in US use them daily for news, CNN, NPR lead as most popular news brands, users find news briefings too long — People are still much more likely to use smart speakers for music and weather than news. But that could change as news organizations …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Techdirt and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Ed Christman / Billboard:

Universal Music Group reported $1.73B revenue for Q3 as streaming revenue hits $767M, a 37.6% increase YoY; parent Vivendi narrows bankers for partial UMG sale — Parent company Vivendi says it is narrowing down banks to help sell as much as half of the major record label.

Discussion: RAIN News, Variety and Financial Times

Benjamin Oreskes / Los Angeles Times:

After covering last year's Oroville dam failure, Chico Enterprise-Record editor David Little knew to prioritize nuts-and-bolts information for the CA Camp fire — It's an iconic if horrifying shot of the Camp fire pulverizing Paradise — a large ball of grayish-black smoke with fire radiating on the right …