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Moderating his second presidential debate, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace struggled to keep the event coherent, pleading at times with Trump to let Biden speak — On the eve of Tuesday night's presidential debate, Chris Wallace of Fox News declared his goal as the evening's moderator: “My job is to be as invisible as possible.”
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Right-wing news sources and the WH press secretary amplified a conspiracy theory about an electronic earpiece for Biden, hours before the presidential debate — A conspiracy theory that Joe Biden would wear an electronic device in his ear during the first presidential debate went wildly viral Tuesday …
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Failing some radical reform in the debate format that gives moderators more power, there's no reason for the next two debates to take place as scheduled — Chris Wallace wanted to be “invisible” as the moderator of the first presidential debate. “If I've done my job right,” …
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Sources: Axios is on target to make a profit in 2020, with ~$58M in revenue, up 30%+ YoY, due to sponsored-newsletter business that contributes 50%+ of revenue — Three-year-old media company avoids staff reductions and is on pace to be profitable in 2020 — “Smart brevity” has been good for business at Axios.
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YouTube TV is dropping all Fox regional sports networks starting Oct. 1; the networks will now only be available for streaming on Hulu Live TV and AT&T TV Now — Just following the end of baseball season, YouTube TV is about to lose 21 Fox Regional Sports Networks.
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Cord Cutters News, MediaPost, Engadget and Variety


Disney is laying off 28,000 employees, due to prolonged closures of its California theme parks and limited attendance at open parks — Prolonged closures at Disney's California-based theme parks and limited attendance at its open parks has forced the company to lay off 28,000 employees across its parks …
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Condé Nast says it will open a global tech center in Bangalore to design and build digital content platforms for its brands including GQ and Vogue — - Center to build digital platforms for brands like Vogue and GQ — Magazine publisher plans to hire over 300 people by end-2021


Comparison of MSNBC and Fox News transcripts from January to May showed Fox used the word “hate” 5X more than MSNBC, often with “they”, as in “they hate Trump” — 'Fox News is up to five times more likely to use the word “hate” in its programming …
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IFJ: 171 journalists have died from COVID-19 in Latin America between March and Aug.; 82 were from Peru, where many are freelancers with less access to PPE — Between March and August, 82 Peruvian journalists died from COVID-19 while covering the pandemic, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).


With just an estimated 1.4M users in Africa, Netflix is testing cheaper, mobile-only subscriptions and commissioning local shows to attract new subscribers — - U.S. giant is still a relatively small player on continent — Rise of 4G boosts streaming services but economies are shaky
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Update on The Daily Memphian and Ken Doctor's Lookout Local: the Memphian has 13,900 subscribers paying $9.25/month average, Lookout Local to debut mid-November — Two full-scale newspaper launches in digital format marked milestones last week as they test whether going big can challenge a shrinking legacy print title.
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@raju, @kodacohen, @poynter, @rickedmonds and @poynter


Buzzer, which aims to offer live sports on mobile devices by aggregating sports rights, raises $4M in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau and Sapphire Sport — Buzzer, a mobile technology platform that wants to connect fans through live sports while helping existing media rights holders maximize value …
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@thekendallbaker, @richlightshed, @tjay, @darrenrovell, Front Office Sports, Awful Announcing, Geoff Shackelford and Morning Consult