Check out Mini-Mediagazer for simple mobiles or Mediagazer Mobile for modern smartphones.
3:15 PM ET, January 21, 2021

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
USAGM:
VOA Director Robert Reilly and Deputy Director Elizabeth Robbins are out; recently demoted exec Yolanda Lopez has been named acting VOA director  —  United States Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack resigned yesterday after being informed by the Biden Administration that he would be removed.
RELATED:
Jessica Jerreat / Voice of America:
Kelu Chao named acting CEO of USAGM; Chao has worked for VOA for 20 years+ and testified last year in a lawsuit over editorial interference by Pack  —  WASHINGTON - The head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media stepped down Wednesday afternoon at the request of President Joe Biden shortly after Biden took office.
Dan De Luce / NBC News:
Michael Pack, the head of USAGM who oversaw VOA and the Open Technology Fund, has resigned at the request of the Biden administration
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google signs an agreement with French media creating a framework for payment for publisher content and has reached agreements with three major newspapers  —  Google has reached an agreement with an association of French publishers over how it will be pay for reuse of snippets of their content.
RELATED:
Brad Bender / The Keyword:
Google announces a global deal with Reuters for News Showcase, which pays publishers for content highlighted in panels in News, Discover, and search results  —  The events of this past year have proven that providing access to diverse, high-quality news sources is more important than ever.
The NewsGuild of New York:
New Yorker Union announces 24-hour strike over management's response to pay negotiations; the union asked for $65K/year starting salaries and annual increases  —  Today, the New Yorker Union is undertaking a twenty-four-hour work stoppage.  Between 6 A.M. on Thursday, January 21st …
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Biden addressed divisions sown by media when he spoke about “lies told...for profit” and distrust of those who “don't get their news from the same sources you do”  —  President Joe Biden invoked what he called seven “common objects we, as Americans, love” in Wednesday's inaugural address.
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The media should hold power to account and resist the adversarial-seeming approach to politics it took pre-Trump, like when it focused on Obama's tan suit  —  White House press secretary Jen Psaki was prepared.  She was professional.  She was noncombative.
RELATED:
New York Times:
In her first briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki vowed to bring “truth and transparency back to the briefing room”
Variety:
Bonnie Fuller, founder of entertainment outlet Hollywoodlife.com, has bought out Penske Media's stake in the company, assuming full ownership  —  Penske Media Corporation (PMC) announced today that after a decade of partnership and co-ownership of Hollywood Life, founder Bonnie Fuller …
Discussion: Showbiz411
Hannah Ellis-Petersen / The Guardian:
Indian political drama on Amazon Prime was forced to edit out scenes, the first time that a streaming platform has been subjected to censorship in the country  —  Director of Tandav agrees to remove scenes deemed to insult Hindu gods and office of Indian prime minister
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
ViacomCBS to launch Pluto TV in France on February 8, making it the first free ad-supported streaming service in the country  —  Offering 40 curated and original channels, it will become the first advertising-supported streamer in the country.  —  ViacomCBS will launch advertising-supported …
Robert Booth / The Guardian:
UK broadcaster Sky pledges that one in five staff members will be from a minority ethnic background by 2025 and that 5% will be Black  —  UK broadcaster aims to reshape its workforce, partly in response to Black Lives Matter movement  —  Sky has pledged that one in five of its staff …
Discussion: Broadband TV News, @bitc and Kidscreen
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Towns and counties around the US are suing Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services, seeking to regulate them like cable TV and make them pay cable fees  —  A Georgia lawsuit is pushing to expand TV franchising rules  —  Streaming services are slowly turning into cable TV …
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 3:15 PM ET, January 21, 2021.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 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: 
The Information:
Sources: Patreon is considering an IPO as soon as this year and has recently passed $100M in annualized revenue
Chris Stokel-Walker / Ars Technica:
How one composer got paid for unauthorized use of his work, including on China's CCTV, using YouTube's copyright claims system and lawyers
 Earlier Picks: 
Jacob Shamsian / Business Insider:
Pro-Trump media outlet OAN has scrubbed stories about voting machine companies from its website without explanation, after the companies hired libel lawyers
Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:
Kantar: HBO Max took 19.2% of new streaming subs in Q4, followed by Prime Video at 18.2%, with 41% of new HBO Max subs citing specific content as sign up reason
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kate Kelly / New York Times:
Congress considers legislation to block DJI drones from running on US communication networks, effectively killing the Chinese company's US commercial business

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a board for advising the DHS on deploying AI safely within US critical infrastructure

The Baltimore Banner:
Baltimore Police arrest a high school teacher for allegedly framing his principal by using AI to create an audio file of the principal making racist comments

 
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