Mediagazer: Chris Wallace to moderate first presidential debate, Steve Scully the second, and NBC's Kristen Welker the third; USA Today's Susan Page to moderate VP debate (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

8:25 AM ET, September 3, 2020

Top News:

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Facebook says it will stop accepting new political ads a week before the US presidential election, as part of steps to protect against election interference — Striking a compromise to prevent election misinformation — Facebook will stop taking new political advertising in the United States …

Discussion: Mark Zuckerberg, Variety, New York Times, About Facebook, Washington Post, TechCrunch, Reuters, Business Insider, @profgalloway, East Bay Times, NBC New York and NBC10 Philadelphia, more at Techmeme »

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Some advertisers seek the ability to back out of TV contracts, cancel ads close to air date, or move spending from TV to digital amid pandemic uncertainty — Concerned about the NFL season and a dearth of new entertainment, marketers want flexibility — Advertisers are pressing …

Discussion: @alexbruell, @richlightshed and Front Office Sports

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Chris Wallace to moderate first presidential debate, Steve Scully the second, and NBC's Kristen Welker the third; USA Today's Susan Page to moderate VP debate — Fox News' Chris Wallace, NBC News' Kirsten Welker, and C-SPAN's Steve Scully will each moderate one of three Presidential Debates leading …

Discussion: @stevescully, Poynter, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, @brianstelter, @maggienyt, @greta, @cairo67unedited, @daveweigel, @mschlapp, @tommyxtopher, @cspan, @yashar, @bristei, @brianstelter, Mediaite, The Wrap and TVNewser

Associated Press:

California passes a bill exempting some workers from AB5 law, easing limits on freelance writers and editors; bill becomes law immediately if governor signs it — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Monday OK'd exemptions to about two-dozen more professions …

Discussion: LAist and courthousenews.com

Dan McCrum / Financial Times:

How Wirecard tried to stop FT from reporting on fraud at the payments firm, using intimidation, private investigators, and allegations of market manipulation — Intimidation, surveillance and conspiracy theories: inside the FT's five-year investigation of a billion-dollar fraud

Discussion: @pressgazette, @tomjharper, @robertshrimsley, @fd, @jolyonmaugham, @lionelbarber, @lionelbarber, @jimwaterson, @birdyword, @fd and Talking Biz News

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Weather news companies say they added new topics like indoor humidity and air quality forecasting and started using new tools like drones due to the pandemic — Executives at weather news companies tell Axios that the coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the way they cover the weather.

Discussion: American Press Institute

Boone Ashworth / Wired:

Google updates Your News Update, its Assistant-powered audio news service, with new features including its own “newscaster voice” — The company's latest news product is an ever-replenishing playlist of audio stories—curated, in part, by the wealth of data it has on you.

Discussion: The Keyword, @wired, @benwerd, @techcrunch, TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

Sources detail how speculation about Dean Baquet's successor at NYT was upended by BLM protests and COVID-19; Sulzberger say he's “in no hurry” to make a change — Even a virtual newsroom can be a hotbed for gossip, with long-running speculation about Dean Baquet's successor …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @mattgertz, @brianstelter, @mitrakalita, @froomkin, @mlcalderone, @gerryfsmith, @joepompeo and @joepompeo

Mark Landler / New York Times:

The BBC, far more trusted than the rest of the British media, faces commercial and cultural headwinds as two Fox-like competitors with 24-hour news develop — Boris Johnson came into office aiming to defund the BBC and let in rivals. The coronavirus has delayed that …

Discussion: @rasmus_kleis

David Folkenflik / NPR:

VOA staff say Michael Pack is seeking political influence over coverage, in one instance violating the firewall that assures journalistic independence — Toggle more options — At the Voice of America, staffers say the Trump appointee leading their parent agency is threatening …

Discussion: @brianstelter, Washington Post, @npr, @jbenton, @amy_siskind, @cliffschecter, @shawnpowers, @sulliview and @davidfolkenflik

Institute for Nonprofit News:

The Institute for Nonprofit News announces that many of its 250 members will feed stories to Spotlight News for an election dashboard in its news aggregator app — Spotlight News and the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) announced today that many of INN's 250 member newsrooms will be aggregating …

Discussion: Spotlight Media Labs and @myspotlightnews

Ariana Pekary / Columbia Journalism Review:

Ratings-driven programming decisions are the largest obstacle to reliable news and information on cable and broadcast TV — When I was hired as a producer at MSNBC almost seven years ago, I did not own a television. I considered myself an accidental TV producer, having crossed the line …

Discussion: @cjr and @arianapekary

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More News:

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Earlier Picks:

Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times:
With NewsNation, Nexstar plans to air a politically neutral newscast, hiring staff to scrutinize stories for biased language and to monitor fairness of coverage

Discussion: Sherman McCoy's Digital …, @ibishblog, @dave_schilling, @egavactip, @ewerickson, @charrisazrep, @jaycaruso, @sgstorey, @kimmasters, @kimmasters, @maghielse, @ckrewson, @jbarro, @blakehounshell, @kerithburke, @hshaban, @clancyreports and @jayrosen_nyu

Alex Barker / Financial Times:
Google says it will raise the price for ads 2% in UK and 5% in Turkey and Austria to cover the cost of digital services taxes in Europe, starting in November

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Maria Armental / Wall Street Journal:
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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

David Pierce / The Verge:
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Europol and 19 countries make 37 arrests and disrupt phishing-as-a-service platform LabHost in a year-long operation with help from Microsoft, Intel, and others

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