Mediagazer: Hungary passes a draconian coronavirus law that allows PM Orbán to rule by decree and includes jail terms of up to five years for spreading “misinformation” (The Guardian)

10:45 PM ET, March 30, 2020

Top News:

Facebook says it will invest $100M to support the news industry during COVID-19: $25M in emergency funding for local news and $75M in additional marketing spend — With grants and marketing spending, the social media giant hopes to support outlets doing essential local reporting but struggling with a drop in advertising.

Discussion: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, USA Today, The Verge, Wired, Wall Street Journal, @campbell_brown, Adweek, Reuters, @mikeisaac, Breitbart, @mohamedomar, VentureBeat, @seldo, @sofus_d, CNN, @juddlegum, @edmundlee, @mosseri, @peretti, @marcatracy, @gavmorris, @jbenton, @alexhern, @brianstelter, @raju, Engadget, Reuters, BuzzFeed News, Variety, Fast Company, Axios, The Wrap, Axios and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

James Poniewozik / New York Times:

Trump has turned his coronavirus briefings into create-your-own-reality TV with the structure, intrigue, drama, rhythm, and characters of a weekly reality show — The coronavirus briefings have given Donald Trump a regularly scheduled reality show again — or, rather, a create-your-own-reality show.

Discussion: @realdonaldtrump, @poniewozik, @jayrosen_nyu, @jaketapper, Vanity Fair, Press Watch, @brianstelter, @ericschultz, @maggienyt, @froomkin, @kimmasters, @oliverdarcy, @klr_editor, @pkafka, Reason, The Atlantic, Slate, Fox News, Politico, Vox, Yahoo News, Rolling Stone and The Independent

Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Sources: on an internal call, Jeff Zucker defended airing Trump briefings live, arguing that viewers need to hear Trump answer tough questions from journalists

Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:

Gannett CEO announces furloughs and pay cuts across the company, says other execs will take a 25% pay cut and he won't take a salary until the cuts are reversed — The mass-media company, which owns many large newspapers including USA Today, announced Monday that the coronavirus downturn has forced the company to make deep cuts.

Tampa Bay Times:

The Tampa Bay Times to temporarily cut print editions to Sunday and Wednesday, says digital subscription gains are not enough to make up for advertising losses — Chairman and CEO Paul Tash says “extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.” — The Tampa Bay Times …

The Guardian:

Hungary passes a draconian coronavirus law that allows PM Orbán to rule by decree and includes jail terms of up to five years for spreading “misinformation” — Fears over coronavirus legislation that gives no time limit for state of emergency

Discussion: @balazscseko, Yahoo News, @michaeldweiss, @melissajpeltier, @shaunwalker7, @davidfrum and The Week

Ben Smith / New York Times:

It's time for a painful shift that means abandoning most for-profit local papers with poor business models for a national network of nimble new online newsrooms — The coronavirus is likely to hasten the end of advertising-driven media, our columnist writes. And government should not rescue it.

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Fox News, which “parted ways” with Trish Regan, should now let go of Sean Hannity who spouted the same harmful nonsense as Regan but to a much bigger audience — Recent personnel actions at Fox just happen to have fallen when people turn away from their phones and laptops.

Discussion: Axios, @jeremymbarr, @rabbirami, @jeremymbarr, @michellemanafy and @mattgertz

Ryan Parker / Hollywood Reporter:

Disney says senior executives will take temporary pay cuts with Bob Iger forgoing his entire salary and recently named CEO Bob Chapek taking a 50% pay cut — CEO Bob Chapek will take a 50 percent pay cut. — The Walt Disney Co. said on Monday that executive chairman Robert Iger will forgo …

Discussion: @antoniusrex, @brooksbarnesnyt, @marc_dylan, The Playlist, @johngary, @bevysmith, @theryanparker, @readdanwrite, /Film, The Wrap and The Hill

Ina Fried / Axios:

After changing its rules, Twitter is cracking down on COVID-19 misinformation from prominent accounts, including Brazilian President Bolsonaro and Rudy Giuliani — It's notable that Twitter, like other social networks, has announced stricter rules on virus-related misinformation than other types of false posts.

Discussion: The Verge, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed News, @proftimstephens, @thehighsign, @hadas_gold, @ow, @charlesarthur, CNET, @kfile, Politico, @sarahfrier, @ali and @melissaryan, more at Techmeme »

TheStreet:

Maven anticipates revenue to drop by $30M in 2020 and will lay off some staff, with Sports Illustrated journalists representing 6% of the overall cost reduction — Maven Media Brands (MVEN) said Monday it will be laying off employees and senior management will see a 30% reduction …

Discussion: @baileycarlin, @kerrymflynn, @jaseidler, @pkafka, @kevinmdraper, @mavencoalition, @readdanwrite and @benjstrauss

Nesrine Malik / The Guardian:

Interview with Mehdi Hasan, whose hard-hitting interviews on Al Jazeera English become regular viral hits, on why US media is almost “irredeemable” and more — Mehdi Hasan: 'Most people ask the question and move on. I don't' — The political interviewer on how he made it in the US …

Discussion: @tara_mckelvey, @tobymoses and @kmshaikh

New York Times:

Sources: Facebook's security team had disinfo concerns about The Daily Wire's sites in 2019, clashing with the policy team, which prevented action being taken — After spending billions to avoid a repeat of 2016, the tech giants are careening from crisis to crisis as their foes change tactics.

Discussion: @jason_kint, @rasmus_kleis, @karlbode, @alexstamos, @brooklynmarie, @kevinroose, @tomfitton, @nytimes, Business Insider, @karaswisher, @donmoyn, @nytnational, @micahzenko and @rmac18, more at Techmeme »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 10:45 PM ET, March 30, 2020.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Andrew Chung / Reuters:
SCOTUS orders Byron Allen's $10B racial bias lawsuit against Charter Communications back to a lower court, a week after a similar ruling in his Comcast lawsuit

Discussion: Law360 and Forbes

Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Vice will no longer match 401k contributions, freezes promotions through July, cuts salaries for top staff including the CEO, and will furlough some top execs

Discussion: @maxwelltani

Patrick Frater / Variety:
Nine Entertainment says it aims to cut $163M from its cost base in 2020, with savings of $80M in broadcast rights costs if the National Rugby League is canceled

Jacob Knutson / Axios:
Trump deflects blame onto the Washington Post when asked about allegations that China is spreading coronavirus misinformation, saying “every country does it”

Discussion: @gabrielsherman, @atrupar and @gabrielsherman

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
TV's annual pilot season, expected to inject $500M into the entertainment economy, has been devastated by COVID-19 with enormous ripple effects

Discussion: @aaronflux, @megjameslat, @stevensantos and Numlock News

Earlier Picks:

Elahe Izadi / Washington Post:
Gallup survey of 1,020 US adults: just 44% approve of the news media's handling of the COVID-19 crisis, with 61% of Democrats approving vs. 25% of Republicans

Discussion: @elaheizadi, @zeitchikwapo, @elaheizadi and The Week

Megan Graham / CNBC:
Premium publishers like CNBC and NYT, seeing cutbacks in ad spending during COVID-19, ask ad tech companies to exempt them from coronavirus-related filters

Discussion: @wexler, @megancgraham, Beet.TV, @jason_kint, @kerrymflynn and Мы и …

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:
Sources: in a memo, David Pecker told staff that AMI is cutting the payroll of National Enquirer and at least nine other publications by 23% starting April 1

Discussion: @thedailybeast, @padresj and The Daily Beast

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
MX Player, an ad-supported video streaming service that has 175M MAUs in India, expands to new international markets including the US, UK, and Australia

Peter White / Deadline:
Q&A with Jeffrey Katzenberg on launching Quibi on April 6 in the middle of a global pandemic, why Quibi only licenses rather than owns the content, and more

Discussion: CortaCable

From Techmeme:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
The CFPB will supervise tech companies with digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, with 50M+ annual transactions, treating them more like banks

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Adam Mosseri says Threads is rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people that users follow, warns that creators' “unconnected” reach may go down

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page