Mediagazer: HBO's five-year deal for The Big Bang Theory is the clearest sign yet of AT&T's intention to transition HBO from a premium brand to a mass-market broadcaster (Dylan Byers/NBC News)

Sources: AT&T is considering parting ways with its DirecTV unit, including spinning it off into a separate public company or combining assets with Dish — Telecom giant considers fate of DirecTV satellite unit — AT&T Inc. is exploring parting with its DirecTV satellite unit …

Discussion: Ad Age, Los Angeles Times, @brianstelter, @the___spy, Ars Technica, Multichannel News, The Wrap, CNN, Engadget, The Streamable, CNBC and CNET, more at Techmeme »

Aaron Rupar / Vox:

CNN booked Corey Lewandowski for an interview just hours after telling Congress he has “no obligation to be honest with the media” — Believe it or not, cable news networks are not obligated to showcase liars. — You might think that Corey Lewandowski's admission during …

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

After Corey Lewandowski pronounced his freedom to lie to media, a look at how a Fox News “straight news” anchor interviewed him and sidestepped the lying issue — Fox News and its peers in the mainstream media seldom find common cause, though extraordinary circumstances occasionally give them opportunity to do so.

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @badfoxgraphics, @rachellarris, @sophiatesfaye, @politidope, @theplumlinegs, Mediaite and Vox

Robert Iger / Vanity Fair:

Book excerpt: as he exits Apple's board, Disney's Bob Iger recounts talks with Steve Jobs before Disney bought Pixar, and how their friendship grew — As he exits Apple's board, the Disney chief reminisces about his relationship with its mercurial founder—and how their radical visions aligned to save two companies.

Discussion: @alexweprin, CNBC, @loudmouthjulia, @scottgustin, @benfritz, @mousterpiece, @mousterpiece, @ballmatthew, @dlthings, Deadline, CNET, Business Insider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and New York Post, more at Techmeme »

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Researchers: many smart TVs and streaming dongles from Roku, Samsung, Amazon and others are sending user data to companies like Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook — The smart TVs in our homes are leaking sensitive user data to companies including Netflix, Google and Facebook even when some devices are idle …

Discussion: Washington Post, @geoffreyfowler, @justinbrookman, @geoffreyfowler, @faizsays, @mmnjug, @dhh, @upma23, @hoofnagle, @valaafshar, Wired, The Mac Observer and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Medium adds a “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature that lets users save articles to a reading list via sharing extensions on mobile and in Chrome — Most sites don't load in reading mode — Medium's “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature is now live, letting you save articles …

Discussion: blog.medium.com, @caseynewton, @ckrewson, @medium and Medium Help Center, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / NBC News:

HBO's five-year deal for The Big Bang Theory is the clearest sign yet of AT&T's intention to transition HBO from a premium brand to a mass-market broadcaster — Analysis: Like Netflix, HBO could become home for a lot of good content and even more not-as-good content — but not the edgy, prestige work it became known for.

Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:

Nielsen acquires a minority stake in OpenSlate, which evaluates brand safety of video content on YouTube and Facebook; source: deal values OpenSlate at $100M+ — Measurement company will offer customers digital content-quality ratings — Nielsen Holdings PLC has acquired a minority stake …

Discussion: @bjqool, @digitalshields, @roomnoise and @nielsen, more at Techmeme »

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Survey of nonprofit outlets: foundations supplied under 50% of funding for the first time on record in 2018, as earned income and individual giving increases — “Nonprofit news organizations have much in common even if their scope or mission differs. Their journalistic missions …

Megan Graham / CNBC:

CBS, Viacom, and WarnerMedia say they will no longer run e-cigarette advertising on their networks, a week after WarnerMedia's CNN announced a similar ban — KEY POINTS — The decision comes days after WarnerMedia's CNN said it would no longer run ads for vaping products.

Discussion: Times of India, New York Times, The Verge, USA Today, The Wrap and The Hill

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Plex adds Lionsgate as a worldwide content partner for its ad-supported streaming service, joining Warner Bros., which was previously announced as a US partner — Plex has added a new content partner for its soon-to-launch ad-supported video service. The company announced this morning …

Discussion: Variety, @media_evan, Windows Central, The Streamable and 9to5Mac

Washington Post:

Congress grills Google, Facebook, and Twitter again as lawmakers weigh creating a commission with subpoena power to study and monitor social media weaponization — House lawmakers are planning to unveil legislation to probe social media and online extremism

Discussion: Mashable, @tonyromm, @tonyromm, Newser, CNET, Engadget and MarketWatch, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Only one of The Correspondent's five full-time hires for its English-language version is based in the US, with others in Italy, Nigeria, India, and London — The Dutch journalism site De Correspondent raised $2.6 million to launch a U.S. — strike that, English-language — office.

Discussion: @jbenton and @niemanlab