Mediagazer: Nielsen: Joe Biden's ABC town hall averaged 13.9M viewers, while Trump's NBC town hall averaged 10.6M; MSNBC and CNBC simulcasts of Trump brought total to 13M (Brian Stelter/CNN)

8:05 PM ET, October 16, 2020

Top News:

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Nielsen: Joe Biden's ABC town hall averaged 13.9M viewers, while Trump's NBC town hall averaged 10.6M; MSNBC and CNBC simulcasts of Trump brought total to 13M — New York (CNN Business)Joe Biden's town hall on ABC averaged 13.9 million viewers on Thursday night, easily surpassing …

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

Despite fears that the NBC town hall would amount to free promotion for Trump, Savannah Guthrie grilled him and repeatedly challenged his evasions — The network was criticized for accommodating Trump after he rejected a debate. But then the ‘Today’ host started asking him questions.

Hollywood Reporter:

Over 100 actors, writers, and producers sign a letter to NBCUniversal and Comcast execs protesting the airing of a Trump town hall opposite a Biden event — “You are enabling the president's bad behavior while undercutting the Presidential Debate Commission and doing a disservice to the American public …

Discussion: @conanobrien, @brianstelter, @jbflint, @merrillbro, @shakeenz, @feliciasonmez, Axios, @greenfield64, Wall Street Journal, @yashar, NBC News, Washington Post, @benyt, @suehalpernvt, @marcacaputo, ABC News, New Republic, @deanluk, @adamnagourney, Politico, Boston.com, The Banter, @sulliview, @connieschultz, @marcacaputo, @hodgman, @moorehn, @bradleywhitford, @ericidle, @billyeichner, @warrenleighttv, @jbenton, @jenszalai, @abbydphillip, @jackischechner, @kylepope, @ericbalfour, @lollardfish, @markos, @wajahatali, @ynb, @keitholbermann, @brianstelter, @jon_allsop, @brianstelter, @bgrueskin, @bgrueskin, @owillis, @corb_the_lesser, @joshsternberg, @nprinskeep, @dandrezner, @danrather, @bevysmith, @shawnhatosy, @ditzkoff, @schmittnyc, @frances_fisher, @byronyork, @w7voa, @blackamazon, @drdave1999, @vivian, @joshsternberg, @elaheizadi, The Hill, @doncheadle, @brithume, @helenkennedy, @poniewozik, @marmel, @herzogfan, @jayrosen_nyu, @b52malmet, @shakeenz, The Daily Beast and @mrjoncryer

New York Times:

Twitter says it is now letting the NY Post link be shared because the info had spread so widely that it can no longer be considered private — The latest change underlined how rapidly social media platforms are shifting their positions in the days leading up to the election.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @mikeisaac, The Hill, CNET, Gizmodo, @jamespmcleod, @baekdal and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: as Facebook curbed political news in 2017, Zuckerberg OK'ed tweaks affecting sites like Mother Jones after some execs worried about impact on the right — Facebook's chief, once uninterested, has transformed himself into an active political operator in the Trump era

Vijaya Gadde / @vijaya:

[Thread] Twitter updates Hacked Materials Policy, says it won't remove content unless shared by hackers themselves and will label tweets instead of block links — Over the last 24 hours, we've received significant feedback (from critical to supportive) about how we enforced our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday. After reflecting on this feedback, we have decided to make changes to the policy and how we enforce it.

@twittersafety:
[Thread] Twitter clarifies why it blocked the sharing of NY Post's Biden story, saying it contained private info and violated its Hacked Materials Policy

Casey Newton / Platformer:
The Post hack-and-leak may remain in the right-wing conspiracy sphere if mainstream outlets treat it with the same severe skepticism Twitter and Facebook have

Discussion: NBC News, TechCrunch, New York Post, CNN, Just Security, @ewong, Mother Jones and @jonathanchait, more at Techmeme »

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

EU data protection authority finds IAB Europe's GDPR consent framework, adopted by Google and others, fails to meet required legal standards of data protection — A flagship framework for gathering Internet users' consent for targeting with behavioral ads — which is designed by ad industry body …

Discussion: Irish Council …, @robinberjon, Wall Street Journal, Irish Council …, Ad Age, @laurakalbag, @jason_kint, @johnnyryan, @robinberjon, @profcarroll, @moonalice, @johnnyryan, @ashk4n, @jason_kint and @globalprivctrl, more at Techmeme »

Laura Wagner / VICE:

NYT AME Carolyn Ryan told staff that columnists have wide latitude to criticize colleagues' work, in contrast to a policy against criticism on Twitter or Slack — After Bret Stephens regurgitated criticisms of his colleagues' 1619 Project, NYT brass held a meeting to clarify who at the paper can write about what.

Jake Silverstein / New York Times:
A defense of the editing changes in summaries of The 1619 Project, following new criticisms from people including NYT columnist Bret Stephens

Discussion: @kathrynannette, @mosilverstein, @jamalandress, @emmadaly, @jamalandress, @johnmccrory, @gabrieljr and @bobbyknndy

Jon Henley / The Guardian:

Dutch state broadcaster NOS says it has removed its logo from its broadcast vans because its journalists and crews are subjected daily to abuse by the far right — The Dutch state broadcaster has removed its logo from outside broadcast vans as politicians complained of a steep rise in threats …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

The FCC has no jurisdiction over Section 230, which was explicitly written to deny the FCC any authority over websites — For years, FCC Chair Ajit Pai has insisted that the thing that was most important to him was to have a “light touch” regulatory regime regarding the internet.

Discussion: Bloomberg, @aricohn, @chimeracoder, @mathewi, Radio & Television …, @evan_greer, Reason, @mmasnick, @adamtaylorbates, @justinamash, @esaagar, @sarahjeong, @nxthompson and Platformer, more at Techmeme »

Todd Shields / Bloomberg:
Ajit Pai says FCC will start a rulemaking to clarify the meaning of Section 230, and social media doesn't have “special immunity denied to other media outlets”

Discussion: @ajitpaifcc, @jrosenworcel, Vox, @tommjohnsonjr, @senrickscott, @karolcummins, MediaNama, @jisraelbalderas, @jisraelbalderas, @brendancarrfcc, @jaycaruso, @hawleymo and @micsolana, more at Techmeme »

Paul O'Donnell / Dallas Morning News:

Journalists at The Dallas Morning News and Al Día have voted 84-28 in favor of a union, in an election overseen by the NLRB — The Dallas News Guild says it will soon elect officers so contract talks can begin. … The National Relations Labor Board in Fort Worth …

Discussion: @dallasnewsguild and The NewsGuild - CWA

Tom Dotan / The Information:

Mediaocean: ad spending on Snapchat more than doubled for July to September compared to the same period in 2019; some advertisers shifted budgets from Facebook — When Facebook reports third-quarter earnings later this month, the results are expected to show that the summer advertiser boycott …

Discussion: @theinformation and MediaPost

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Gannett CEO Mike Reed announced that the company will be offering another round of voluntary buyouts starting next week — The company's CEO announced the changes during a town hall Wednesday. Offer letters to potential buyout volunteers will be sent out Monday.

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: Comcast's NBCUniversal and some PE firms approached Disney earlier this year about acquiring Hulu or operating it as a partnership, but were rebuffed — Toward the end of 2019, Hulu delivered a proposal to Walt Disney Co., its controlling shareholder, outlining a strategy to expand …