Top News:
Davey Alba / New York Times:
Facebook and Twitter shut down a network of fake accounts using AI-generated faces to “masquerade” as Americans; Facebook links the network to Epoch Media Group — Researchers said the profiles, linked to the Epoch Media Group, used photos generated by artificial intelligence in a preview of an …
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Snopes.com, About Facebook, NBC News, The Verge, Twitter, CNET, @amy_siskind, Variety, @carolecadwalla, FOX31 Denver, @snopes, Wired, @tonyromm, @oneunderscore__, @ndiakopoulos, @snopes, @jeffstone500, @cristianafarias, @mczub, @heathercampbell, Fast Company, @debunker, @karankanishk, @dfrlab, @nytimes, @kevinroose, @olivia_gazis, @poppy_haze, @mattnavarra, The Daily Beast and CNN, more at Techmeme »
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Stephen Gregory / The Epoch Times:
Epoch Media Group asks Facebook to withdraw claim that it is involved with The BL, which was tied to fake accounts, says Epoch Times Vietnam publishes The BL — Facebook claims that it has removed accounts operated by the website BL that are linked to The Epoch Media Group.
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
ViacomCBS acquires 49% stake in Miramax, which is owned by BeIN, for $375M — The L.A.-based company, which has been owned by Doha-based BeIN Media Group and run by CEO Bill Block, has a library with 700-plus titles, including such Oscar winners as ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Chicago.’
Discussion:
Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, @viacomcbs, @richlightshed, @variety, MediaPost and Axios
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
Columbia University finds Monica Crowley committed “localized instances of plagiarism” in a dissertation but concludes she did not commit research misconduct — An investigation concluded that the Treasury Department's top spokeswoman did not commit research misconduct, but required extensive revisions.
Discussion:
Breitbart, @arappeport, CNN, @kenvogel, @dburbach, @emilybell, @dfriedman33, @peterbakernyt, @greenfield64, @dandrezner, @dangillmor and Mediaite
John Ourand / Sports Business Daily:
CBS says it will end its SEC football contract after 2023; sources: ESPN/ABC in final talks to take over, paying over 6x the $55M/year that CBS currently pays — CBS will walk away from the SEC when its contract ends after the 2023 football season, and all indications are that the package will move to ESPN/ABC.
Discussion:
@ourand_sbj, @smittysbj, @ourand_sbj, @dolphinstalk, @futbolvisionary, Awful Announcing, @johnfischesser, @wildcatnews, @twesq, @crupicrupicrupi, @claytravis, @alex_kirshner, @richlightshed, @mikeconti929, @walsha, Sports Illustrated, @mattscalici, @jbenton, @ralphdrussoap and @petesampson_
Deanna Ting / Digiday:
Small publishers see more traffic from mobile news aggregators like TopBuzz, News Break, and Flipboard, than Facebook and Google — This November, Inquisitr CEO Dominick Miserandino noticed that TopBuzz News, the news aggregator app from ByteDance, the same company behind wildly popular …
Discussion:
@managewski, @chartbeat, @adriana_lacy and @mpamagmedia
Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:
Q&A with WarnerMedia's Bob Greenblatt on pitching streaming at NBC in 2015, the limits of HBO without HBO Max, and how streaming gives a home to midlevel movies — AT&T's new streaming service chief opens up about his strategy to expand a treasured brand with 10,000 hours of programs targeting a younger demo.
Discussion:
@laceyvrose, @thrmattbelloni, @lucas_shaw, The Streamable and Observer, more at Techmeme »
Lisa Kaplan / Lawfare:
TheSoul, a Russian web publisher with YouTube channels like 5-Minute Crafts, has the most reach among entertainment groups on YouTube, after Disney, WarnerMedia — What the heck is TheSoul Publishing? I'm still honestly not sure. — Here's what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers …
Discussion:
@lawfareblog
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
NY judge dismisses appeal by Michael Leidig of Central European News in libel case against BuzzFeed, saying he failed to prove BuzzFeed's reporting was false — News agency boss Michael Liedig has had his appeal against a libel judgment that backed Buzzfeed's 2015 story dubbing him the “king of bullshit news” thrown out.
Discussion:
@craigsilverman
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: NBC's Peacock to integrate NBC News Now, have a free, limited-content tier, a limited-ads tier for $5/month, and an ad-free tier for $10/month — - NBCUniversal is looking to differentiate its streaming service Peacock from rivals through its pricing structure and user interface.
Business Wire:
Triton to start publishing monthly reports on top networks and podcasts ranked by weekly downloads; NPR, Stitcher, Radio.com, and Cumulus have signed on — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Triton Digital®, the global technology and services provider to the digital audio and podcast industry …
Stanford Internet Observatory:
Microsoft's Bing appears to return an alarming amount of disinformation for user queries, far more than Google does, based on a test of 13 queries — Bing's importance in the information landscape of the U.S. shouldn't be overlooked. While its share of the search market in the U.S. might …
Discussion:
The Keyword, @alexstamos, @jackshafer, MediaPost, @alexstamos, @whatthebit, @mathewi, @brendannyhan, @majorhayden, @welhai, Search Engine Land and Softpedia News
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