Top News:
Gavin de Becker / The Daily Beast:
Bezos' security chief says AMI demanded he claim Bezos story didn't result from hacking or external forces, and says he's confident Saudis accessed Bezos' phone — The National Enquirer's lawyer tried to get me to say there was no hacking. — For 40 years, I've advised at-risk public figures …
Discussion:
USA Today, Business Insider, Page Six, Quartz, Al Jazeera, NBC News, @alexstamos, @quatraingleam, @juliettekayyem, @maxwelltani, The Wrap, The Verge, @sriramk, @brianstelter, Mashable, @alexstamos, @joshnbcnews, @alexstamos, Engadget, Financial Times, The Guardian, New York Times, Raw Story, Raw Story, Reuters, Mediaite, Hollywood Reporter and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »
Columbia Journalism Review:
Survey: 19 out of 21 news organizations studied had no documented policies for preservation of their web content and none were preserving social media posts — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY — This research report explores archiving practices and policies across newspapers, magazines, wire services …
Discussion:
@spj_tweets, @fheinderyckx, @michaelbolden and Columbia Journalism Review
Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
The Federalist fires its writer Denise McCallister after a series of homophobic tweets — Internet famous “You were at my wedding, Denise” and now-former The Federalist blogger Denise McCallister tweeted her way out of a job Saturday when a Twitter feud quickly escalated into a homophobic screed.
Discussion:
Daily Mail, @yashar, @bdomenech, @secupp, @jayrosen_nyu, Contemptor and Raw Story
Britta Lokting / OneZero:
As cannabis gets legalized around US, High Times struggles to keep up with a changing culture, losing readers, money, and half of staff in the past few years — For decades, High Times was the flagship of cannabis culture. Now it's struggling to keep up.
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
April Fools prank stories share many attributes with fake news stories, like using more first-person pronouns, and can help researchers better detect fake news — April Fool's. On Monday morning, be prepared for this year's assortment of April Fool's Day pranks across the web …
Discussion:
@niemanlab, @niemanlab and @niemanlab
Rob Price / Business Insider:
Facebook says it “mistakenly deleted” some of Zuckerberg's old Facebook posts that were public and reported on, including a post about the Instagram acquisition — - Some old Facebook posts by CEO Mark Zuckerberg have disappeared, and the company says it “mistakenly deleted” them.
Discussion:
@gcluley, @vincemancini, @zeynep, CNET, Engadget, @robaeprice, @kevinroose, @robaeprice and Newser
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
BBC says it wants to improve public perception around its news impartiality and will make fact-checking service Reality Check a more visible part of news output — Improving public perception around its news impartiality is one of the BBC's four priorities for the year ahead, according to its latest annual plan.
Laura Wagner / Deadspin:
Current and former MLB Advanced Media employees say the company has fostered a toxic and overly demanding work environment for years under poor leadership — On the second Tuesday of February, at 3:00 in the afternoon, around 40 employees of MLB Advanced Media—one arm of MLB's media empire …
Discussion:
@timmarchman, @dannyoneil, @timmarchman, @megreenwell, @bubbaprog, @bittergiantsfan, @tobins, @spaldingballs, @mikevorkunov, @tobins and @spencerfordin
Blake Droesch / eMarketer:
eMarketer expects Amazon Music will pass 35M MAUs in the US this year, up 17.7% YoY, growing faster than any other digital audio service in its forecast — Amazon Music will cross 35 million monthly listeners in the US this year. At a growth rate of 17.7% year over year …
Discussion:
RAIN News
Cristina Tardáguila / Poynter:
Inside FactCheckEU, a collaboration between 19 EU media outlets from 13 countries that fact checks articles and debunks rumors ahead of upcoming EU elections — It's been more than a week since 19 European media outlets from 13 countries started collaborating to separate facts from fiction ahead …
MediaPowerMonitor:
Google gives a €50K grant to media company running Origo, a Hungarian pro-government news portal, baffling free expression activists and independent journalists — Google joins the Hungarian government of Viktor Orban and its allies in funding the company that runs Origo, a Hungarian pro-government news portal.
Discussion:
Media1 and Digital News Initiative
Sebastian Murdock / HuffPost:
Alex Jones of InfoWars, in a deposition, denies he had intentionally spread lies about Sandy Hook and rejects responsibility for Sandy Hook parents' pain — For all his dangerous talk about the Sandy Hook school shooting, Alex Jones couldn't even recall the date it happened.
Discussion:
@cwarzel, New York Times, @newtownaction, @aodespair, @jayrosen_nyu, @ruskin147, @sjdemas, @jessikkaaro, @cwarzel, @clarajeffery, YouTube, Slate, @ericgarland, @oneunderscore__, @parkermolloy, @kenvogel, NBC News, @ohheyjenna, New York Magazine, Daily Mail, BuzzFeed News, The Daily Beast, Law & Crime, CBS News, The A.V. Club, Mediaite and Boing Boing