Mediagazer: Facebook says it won't back down from allowing lies in political ads but will give users the option to see fewer political ads in their feed and in Instagram (Mike Isaac/New York Times)

7:50 PM ET, January 9, 2020

Top News:

Facebook says it won't back down from allowing lies in political ads but will give users the option to see fewer political ads in their feed and in Instagram — The company was under intense pressure to adjust its policies. But in this presidential election year, no big changes are planned.

Kathleen Kingsbury / @katiekings:

[Thread] NYT will film all interviews with presidential candidates that it uses to determine its Democratic primary endorsement and will post transcripts online — On Jan. 19, the @nytimes editorial board will publish our choice for the Democratic nomination for president. It won't be the first time we've endorsed a candidate — we've been doing that since 1860 — but we aim to make it our most transparent endorsement process to date. https://twitter.com/...

Discussion: @peterhamby, @peterhamby, @ahardtospell, @andrewfeinberg, @matthewkeyslive, @caseyseiler, @dominicholden, @mkrobertson, @betling, @freedaaron, @nytimes, @buzzfeedben and The Wrap

Molly Jong-Fast / The Daily Beast:

KTLA weekend anchor Courtney Friel appeared in none of her regularly scheduled anchoring slots the weekend after publicly accusing Trump of making a pass at her — Courtney Friel appeared in none of her regularly scheduled KTLA anchoring slots the weekend after publicly accusing the president of making a pass at her.

Discussion: Deadline, The Wrap, @bradmossesq, @mollyjongfast, @brianstelter and @kimmasters

Alex Pareene / New Republic:

Some “political fact-checkers” like Glenn Kessler place value judgments on facts, often against progressive candidates like Sanders, promoting moderate dogma — At the June 28 Democratic presidential debate, Senator Bernie Sanders said, “Three people [in this country] own more wealth than the bottom half of America.”

Discussion: @newrepublic, @newrepublic, @bmaz, @raz_nak, @tvietor08 and @ashleyfeinberg

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

Newsguard, which rates news websites for credibility and transparency, to become a paid service for $1.95/month and add new features like a reliability score — Newsguard, an online tool that rates and ranks news websites for credibility and transparency, is adopting a subscription model which means it will no longer be free to use.

Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:

dot.LA, a tech news site by former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff raises a $4M seed round from Comcast Ventures, Snap, others, will launch news coverage on Jan. 27 — Nearly a year after stepping down as CEO of Seattle-based Zillow Group, Spencer Rascoff has turned his focus to the tech …

Discussion: @spencerrascoff, @spencerrascoff, @joebelbruno, @juliesandler, @bgurley, @spencerrascoff, Talking Biz News and @dotla, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Verizon eliminates bundles and contracts for Fios line of TV, broadband, and phone services, will now sell them as standalone products via “Mix & Match on Fios” — Verizon — feeling the pain of customer cancellations over high pay-TV prices — is killing off bundles …

Discussion: CNET, Broadcasting & Cable, CNN, Fortune, @sherman4949, The Desk, The Streamable and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

NBA announces a multi-year extension of its partnership with Twitter and Turner Sports to put more live game content and highlights on the social media platform — Channing Frye will be analyst for live game action on social platform — The National Basketball Association announced …

Discussion: Awful Announcing

Rob Price / Business Insider:

Teen Vogue deletes uncritical election security Q&A with Facebook; an inaccurate disclaimer that labeled it as sponsored, added after publication, was removed — - Teen Vogue on Wednesday published and then deleted an uncritical story about Facebook that has prompted widespread bewilderment.

Discussion: @ceciliakang, @pkafka, Columbia Journalism Review, New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, VICE, @maxwelltani, @pranavdixit, @broderick, @genepark, @perlberg, @oneunderscore__, @robaeprice, @jmorse_, @robaeprice, @pfpicardi, @maxwelltani, Breitbart, The Smoke Eater, Poynter, The Drum, @jayrosen_nyu, Ad Age, The Verge, @laurenduca, @genepark, Boing Boing, @kimzetter, @lhfang, @profcarroll, @felixsalmon, @cagoldberglaw, @goldman, @anildash, @rachelabramsny, Newser, Boing Boing, @broderick, @pkafka, @emilybell, @pkafka, @pkafka, @jayrosen_nyu, @craigsilverman, @adrienneroyer, @samfbiddle, @sivavaid, @kimzetter, Gizmodo, @panzer, @rynprry, @jayrosen_nyu, @mikkipedia, @dylanbyers, @aurabogado, @weinberglindsay, @maxwelltani, @ceciliakang, @robaeprice, @hshaban, @mathewi, @tomgara, @nathanblawrence, @asharma, @jason_kint, @blakehounshell, @ajvicens, @shahmiruk, @brooklynmarie, @mikkipedia, @kevinroose, @danielleiat, @nickconfessore, @donie, @ericnewcomer, @kevinroose, @panzer, @kimzetter, @tim_stevens, @sivavaid, @dcbigjohn, @stevetweedie, @ashleyfeinberg, Mediaite, Folio and The Hill, more at Techmeme »

Variety:

TV broadcaster Tegna partners with First Draft, to help editorial staffers in its 49 local newsrooms identify false information online — TV broadcaster Tegna is partnering with First Draft, a non profit that trains journalists and academics to identify false information online to work …

Discussion: @wfederman and @spj_tweets

Reuters:

Kuwait says the Twitter account of its state news agency KUNA had been hacked to issue an incorrect report about the withdrawal of US military forces in Kuwait — Kuwait's government said on Wednesday state news agency KUNA had been hacked and this had resulted in an incorrect report …

Discussion: The Verge

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

CNN says its online shopping guide CNN Underscored's traffic increased 300% YoY and its revenue rose 400% YoY between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in 2019 — CNN Underscored is slightly more than 2 years old, having launched just before the 2017 holiday shopping season started.

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:

Upcoming video streaming service Quibi will be built for mobile, with very short shows and content that works well in both portrait and landscape mode — What the heck is Quibi? That's the question I've been asking myself over the past year, as the Jeffrey Katzenberg-founded streaming …

Discussion: Ad Age, @yoda, Fortune, @yoda, @devindra, @gerryfsmith, @johncolucci, @ssavitsky and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:
Quibi, which had already raised $1B, says it has raised another $400M from undisclosed investors ahead of its April launch

Discussion: @mccarthyryanj, @jbenton, @jbenton, @ranimolla, @reckless, @reckless, @taylorlorenz, Music Ally and @gamoid

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More News:

Katherine J Igoe / Marie Claire:
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say they will not participate in the rota system, or media pool of certain British publications, but will work with other outlets

Discussion: Press Gazette, Washington Post, Press Gazette, The Atlantic, MTV, @markdistef, @charliebeckett, @hadas_gold, @tommctague, @stevenjbarnett, @adriennelaf, @helenlewis, @beltrew, @qhardy and The Daily Beast

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
After no major Sunday news shows featured guests who voted against the Iraq War, it is time for mainstream media to start spotlighting experts skeptical of war

Discussion: @darylgkimball, @moonalice, @tvietor08, @katrinanation and CNN

Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast:
Twitter suspends accounts that impersonated NY Post reporter Mark Moore and Israeli Haaretz reporter Jack Khoury to push pro-Iranian regime propaganda

Discussion: @arawnsley, @kabirtaneja, @securedemocracy, @noahshachtman, @noahshachtman, @njdg, @allisonlcarter, @createcraig, @rosenbergerlm, @elilake, @dfrlab and The Daily Dot

Don Seiffert / Boston Business Journal:
Metro Boston, a free daily newspaper launched in 2001, has shut down, after sister publications Metro New York and Metro Philadelphia were sold to Schneps Media

Discussion: @dankennedy_nu, @fara1 and @spencerbuell, Thanks:@matthewkeyslive

Will Oremus / OneZero:
Facebook's deepfakes policy is a good move but remains deeply flawed, covering only certain videos created by AI and creating loopholes for misleading “satire”

Discussion: @cdgoldstein, @hhavrilesky, @melissaryan, @hshaban, @samgregory, @willoremus, @ykomska, @joshconstine, @willoremus, WITNESS, Quartz and USA Today, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The Sun launches a dedicated website for the US, run by ~12 people in NYC, featuring new content and parts of the UK version's entertainment and royal coverage

Discussion: The Drum, Digiday, @borzou and @owillis

Bloomberg:
IAC to sell CH Media, the parent of CollegeHumor, to the unit's chief creative officer; source says 100 will be laid off, leaving 5-10 employees

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Profile of Fox News' Pete Hegseth, whose military views evolved to mirror Trump; some see opportunism in his shift from views he held as a veterans group leader

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @nytimesatwar, @maxboot, @nslayton, @tzimmer_history and @justinbaragona

Bloomberg:
Seven senators, including McConnell, back bipartisan bill to grant publishers a four-year antitrust exemption to negotiate financial terms with tech giants

Discussion: Nieman Lab, American Press Institute, @jbenton, @rasmus_kleis, @emilybell, @jon_allsop, @matt_pressman and @tednesi

From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

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