Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
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
Discussion:
New York Times, @trevortimm, @dangillmor, The Guardian, @sulliview, @wikileaks, Fast Company, @devlinbarrett, @charlie_savage, @colmorrisdavis, @bradmossesq, @evan_greer, @markszaidesq, @chipgibbons89, @caitoz, @emptywheel, @asharangappa_, @matthewamiller, The Week, Boing Boing, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Politico, Mediaite and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check
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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 …
Discussion:
@seamushughes, emptywheel, The Wrap, Associated Press, The Guardian, Slate, NPR, @mattzap, @mattzap, The Verge, @normeisen, Gizmodo, The Week, @sparrowmedia, @trevortimm, @jamesrbuk, The Daily Caller, Reuters, The Daily Beast, TechCrunch, Al Jazeera and Engadget
Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:
The Obama DOJ didn't prosecute Julian Assange because it would have been a threat to press freedom, a reason as valid now, post-DNC leak, as it was then — The Trump Justice Department inadvertently revealed in a court filing that it has charged Julian Assange in a sealed indictment.
Discussion:
Mediaite, CNBC, Law & Crime and The Week
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.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Press Gazette, TVNewser, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, @philiprucker, The Wrap, Ad Age, Mediaite, Newser, New York Times, @thr, Vox, @jameeljaffer, @farhip, @hadas_gold, @postbaron, Fortune, @erikwemple, @davidafrench and @erikwemple
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, The Daily Beast, Recode, @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+
Discussion:
Sheryl Sandberg, New York Times, Slate, Vanity Fair, Mashable, @natijomartinez, Business Insider, Investor's Business Daily, @buzzfeedben, Financial Times, Washington Post, Axios, @mikeisaac, Engadget, @sarahfrier, The Verge, @allmattnyt, @jacknicas, @allmattnyt, HuffPost, @bafeldman, @willoremus, @josh_emerson, @jank0, @jank0, @josh_emerson, @willoremus, @jank0, @yoda, @karlbode, @hunterschwarz, @mikeisaac, @donie, @zeynep, @oneunderscore__, @nbcnewstech, @oneunderscore__, @cwarzel and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »
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 …
Discussion:
Facebook, Facebook, CNN, @pt, @soleio, The Next Web, @goldman, @charliebeckett, @facebook, @tfranti, @rezendi, @mathewi, Engadget, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
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 …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Variety, TVWeek.com, Deadline, Business Insider, /Film, @realronhoward, Vanity Fair, @keitholbermann, @timobrien, NBC News, New York Times, The Week, io9 and Slate
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.
Discussion:
Multichannel News, Variety, SportsBusiness Daily, Broadcasting & Cable, Sports Video Group, Deadline, TVWeek.com, Ad Age and The Wrap
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:
The Wrap, MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable, 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 »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon says its Thursday night football games had 14.7M viewers on Prime Video and Twitch, up 22% YoY in the first seven weeks of the football season — Amazon has amassed a bigger crowd of gridiron fans so far in its second season streaming the NFL's “Thursday Night Football.”
Discussion:
MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable and The Wrap
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