Mediagazer: Musical.ly founder Alex Zhu, who now heads TikTok, claims that TikTok doesn't share data with China or ByteDance and doesn't censor videos at China's behest (Raymond Zhong/New York Times)

Raymond Zhong / New York Times:

Musical.ly founder Alex Zhu, who now heads TikTok, claims that TikTok doesn't share data with China or ByteDance and doesn't censor videos at China's behest — Alex Zhu, the head of the Chinese-owned viral video app, is trying to assuage Washington's fears. “I am quite optimistic,” he said.

Discussion: Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, @alexstamos, @puiwingtam and @isaacstonefish, more at Techmeme »

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:

Sources: ByteDance is in talks with record companies to launch a music streaming service as soon as December, initially in Brazil, India, and Indonesia — The Chinese company behind the popular video app TikTok is set to go head-to-head with the likes of Spotify and Apple in the music streaming market …

Discussion: CNN, Music Business Worldwide, TechSpot, Music Industry Blog, Digital Trends, 9to5Mac and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

AP poll finds that ~60% of Americans say they regularly see conflicting reports about the same facts from different sources, as people tune out from the news — Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin.

Discussion: @whatthebit, @will_bunch, @joshuahol, @katestarbird and @jakesnyt

Taylor Telford / Washington Post:

FedEx CEO Fred Smith blasts NYT article on its tax affairs, without identifying any specific errors, and challenges A.G. Sulzberger to debate him on tax policy — Fred Smith blasts the report — without identifying any specific errors — detailing how the shipper's tax bill went from $1.5 billion in 2017 to zero a year later

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, The Hill, Business Insider, CBS News, Telegraph and New York Post

Knight Foundation:

Gallup/Knight study: 86% of Americans believe people should have access to local news, but only 1 in 5 subscribe or donate to local news organizations — WASHINGTON, DC (Nov. 17, 2019) Most Americans - 86 percent - think people should have access to local news - even if they don't pay for it …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Talking Biz News, CNN, American Press Institute, @fitzthereporter, @brianstelter and @jboren4507

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet says Trump puts journalists' “lives at risk” when he subjects them to personal attacks and calls them names — Dean Baquet decries abuse of journalists and defends not calling president racist — The executive editor of the New York Times …

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Examiner, The Hill, The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

AI-powered news aggregation app SmartNews raises $92M, including a $28M raise in August, at a valuation of $1.2B, bringing its total raised to $182M — Looks like there's still money to be made in news aggregation — at least according to the investors backing the news app SmartNews.

Discussion: @simonowens and @whatthebit, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / Politico:

The Hill says it's reviewing, annotating, and when appropriate, correcting former columnist John Solomon's opinion pieces referenced in the impeachment inquiry — The columnist's attacks on a U.S. ambassador, which were hailed by Trump, have come under congressional scrutiny. — John Solomon.

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, @jayrosen_nyu and Fox News

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

A look at BuzzFeed's Creators Program, which has 31 in-house and 5 external creators and has brokered 65 branded content campaigns in 2019, up ~2x from 2018 — Two years ago, a series of “Why I Left BuzzFeed” videos popped up on YouTube, with past employees complaining they were not allowed …

Nick Visser / HuffPost UK:

House Minority Leader McCarthy pens letter to ABC News president, asking for more info on its decision not to run Amy Robach's interview with an Epstein accuser — “It is clear that ABC News' enabling of Mr. Epstein has consequences,” the House minority leader wrote to the network's president.

Discussion: TVNewser and The Wrap

Mike Murphy / Quartz:

Profile of Mixhalo, an app which aims to improve sound quality at concerts by sending Hi-Fi audio directly from the soundboard to attendees' phones — Think back to the first time you saw a high-definition TV program. — After a lifetime of looking at standard-definition shows …

Discussion: @dangillmor

Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:

Amazon is shortening the theatrical release window and not reporting box office numbers for some films, including The Report — The new policy — which mirrors Netflix's strategy — will apply to such awards contenders as ‘The Report’ and ‘The Aeronauts.’ — Don't bother asking Alexa …

Discussion: @thatrebecca