Mediagazer: Portable.TV, a news streaming app available in the App Store, masks its ties to RT, whose content it runs exclusively and with which it shares a parent company (Casey Michel/The Daily Beast)

11:50 AM ET, March 5, 2020

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube TV and Sinclair sign a deal for 19 RSNs, but the streamer won't carry the YES Network, Fox Sports Prime Ticket, and Fox Sports West, which airs LA games — YouTube TV and Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a deal covering most of the Fox regional sports networks …

Discussion: sbgi.net

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Negotiations break down as YouTube TV drops the YES Network along with some, but not all, Sinclair RSNs — YES Network said it is no longer on YouTube TV, which might signal a breakdown in talks between Sinclair Broadcast Group, which acquired a group of regional sports networks …

Discussion: The Streamable, Multichannel News, @yesnetwork, The Streamable, @yankeesopranooo, The Verge, @falling_nova, @alexmsilverman, NextTV, @alexweprin and The Desk

Ryan Lillis / Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento's mayor is recruiting a group to try to buy McClatchy's Sacramento Bee, convening a forum March 27 to discuss structure with a goal of raising $20M+ — Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is working to form a local ownership group that could purchase The Sacramento Bee …

Discussion: American Press Institute, @mayor_steinberg, @suelmorrow, @mattsebastian, @media_evan, @webjournalist, @greenwombat, @media_evan, @seth_prince, @sammy_roth, @jboren4507, @mareevs and @amandakrhoades

Kevin G. Hall / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
A group of McClatchy's least-protected creditors join the federal pension agency in questioning company deals with Chatham Asset Management and Leon Cooperman

Discussion: @cltledger and US Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York

Financial Times:

UK's Independent is profitable for a third consecutive year with profit of £2.3M on revenue of £27M, up 9% YoY; it ended its print edition four years ago — Digital-only strategy pays off for first major UK newspaper publisher to close printing presses

Discussion: Press Gazette, @tiagodf, @jamesrbuk, @markdistef, @stevejonespa and @rasmus_kleis

Elaine Low / Variety:

Source: Netflix cancels five film screenings and a panel planned for SXSW, joining others who have canceled screenings, including Apple and Amazon Studios — Netflix is the latest company to pull out of SXSW 2020, a source familiar with the situation tells Variety, canceling five film screenings and a panel for #BlackExcellence.

Mark Wilson / Fast Company:

MIT study: when some news stories are labeled as fact-checked and disputed, stories with the same design but no labels are validated and seen as more accurate — In 2016, after coordinated propaganda on Facebook helped Trump win the election, the social media giant introduced a program …

Discussion: One Man & His Blog, researchgate.net and Fortune

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Daily Caller's Check Your Fact, a Facebook fact-check partner, faces criticism for labeling two stories on Trump, COVID-19 as “false”, raising process concerns

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:

Twitter will begin testing “Fleets”, letting iOS and Android users make posts that disappear after 24 hours, in Brazil, finally using a Stories-like format — On Wednesday, Twitter will begin testing a feature, called “Fleets,” that will allow you to post photos, videos …

MediaPost:

Patch Media, which publishes 1,200+ hyper-local news sites, says its sites now have a total of 32M MAU and newsletters have 2M subscribers — Patch Media, the publisher of more than 1,200 hyper-local news sites, is a comparable bright spot among publishers of local news; it's having been profitable for the past four years.

Casey Michel / The Daily Beast:

Portable.TV, a news streaming app available in the App Store, masks its ties to RT, whose content it runs exclusively and with which it shares a parent company — The app bills itself as a “one-of-a-kind free streaming service & TV library of news programs.” But every single show is from Kremlin-backed TV channel.

Discussion: Raw Story

Joe Otterson / Variety:

Pop TV cancels three original TV shows that were produced by outside studios as ViacomCBS prioritizes IP owned by the company — Pop TV is paring down its scripted programming commitments as dust continues to settle from the Viacom-CBS merger. Variety has learned exclusively that three original series …

Discussion: TV Insider, @brianstelter, The Wrap and Variety

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:

James Murdoch's Lupa Systems and Betaworks to fund an accelerator for start-ups to tackle disinfo; they plan to invest $100K in 10-20 projects in the first year — The former Fox CEO commits millions to battle against disinformation — James Murdoch, the younger son of Rupert Murdoch …

Peter White / Deadline:

Disney strikes an exclusive multiyear deal with Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile to distribute Disney+ via an internet bundle, starting March 24 — The Walt Disney Company has struck its second European distribution deal for Disney+ in a week - this time with Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM).

Discussion: The Streamable and Variety

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Chris Matthews abruptly announces his retirement amid his MSNBC talk show Hardball, after a string of recent controversies — (CNN Business)Chris Matthews, one of the country's best-known political talk show hosts, is retiring from MSNBC, effective immediately, after a string of recent controversies on and off the air.

Discussion: The Hill, Vogue, Vox, @juliezebrak, New York Post, Variety, Reason, @sarahellison, @howardfineman, Breitbart, @amandamarcotte, @martina, @nprinskeep, Understandably, @digiphile, @stevesilberman and @jayrosen_nyu

Washington Post:
Sources: Chris Matthews planned to retire after the 2020 election but was forced out of MSNBC following weeks of embarrassments

Discussion: Poynter, The Daily Beast, bookforum.com, @ericmgarcia, @lisang, @gerryconway, @sarahposner, @revmusicny and Raw Story

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Michael Barba / The San Francisco Examiner:
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Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
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R.T. Watson / Wall Street Journal:
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Reed Richardson / Mediaite:
The White House banned audio and video recording of a COVID-19 media briefing with Mike Pence on Tuesday, stoking criticism

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Dan Mangan / CNBC:
The Trump campaign sues The Washington Post for defamation, citing two opinion posts about the campaign and Russia; the suit follows a similar suit against NYT

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, New York Times, @davidakaye, @boutrousted, @paleofuture, @mehdirhasan, @helenkennedy, @ddayen, @sbg1, @eriqgardner, @timothynoah1, iMediaEthics and Breitbart

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
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Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Donald Trump announces that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a general partner at a16z, will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House OSTP

Financial Times:
Sources: Palantir and Anduril are in talks with OpenAI, SpaceX, and more to form a consortium to bid for US defense contracts and plan to announce it in January

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