Top News:
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Fox News has regained its dominance of Nielsen ratings by elevating pro-Trump pundits like Dan Bongino while sidelining liberal voices and Trump critics — Donna Brazile, a Democratic analyst, has left the Murdoch-owned network as some hosts and journalists who questioned Donald Trump have exited or been sidelined.
Discussion:
Variety, Mediaite, The Wrap, @charlesarthur, @jannwolfe, @grynbaum, @whatthebit, @ichotiner, @badfoxgraphics, @naima, @tripgabriel, @varadmehta, @oliverdarcy and Hollywood Reporter
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
VOA management took months to address the fact that an executive producer and a freelancer regularly plagiarized others' work, despite being alerted by staff — Last summer, a Voice of America staffer noticed something odd in the radio scripts that a Paris-based freelancer was submitting …
Discussion:
@blmohr
Zachary Petrizzo / Salon:
Pollster Frank Luntz concealed his work for Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy's PAC at a time when he was also producing focus group videos hosted by the LA Times — Luntz embarrasses another media outlet by not revealing who's paying him. Why do they keep falling for his act?
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, @grace_panetta, @shiplives, @lisadubbels, @adriana_lacy, @maxwelltani and @maxwelltani
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Google is nearing a settlement of an antitrust case in France alleging it abused its power in online ads, and is likely pay a fine and make changes — French investigation alleged Google's ad server favored its own ad exchange — Alphabet Inc.'s Google is nearing a settlement …
Discussion:
New York Post, @martinapennisi, @geradinlaw, Light Reading, Ad Age and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Clubhouse has hired Kelly Stoetzel, head of conferences and speaker curation at TED, to lead efforts to attract “thoughtful people” like authors and scientists — Clubhouse has hired Kelly Stoetzel, a 17-year veteran of TED and the executive responsible for lining up the company's famous TED Talks.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
In an email to podcasters, Apple says it is delaying the launch of its Podcasts Subscriptions and channels until June and plans improvements to its Podcasts app — Apple has announced in an email to podcasters today that it is delaying the launch of Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.
Richard J. Tofel / Second Rough Draft:
National funding for local news has grown, but the Tribune deal showed few local funders stepping up, which are needed to save or revive local news — There has been an explosion in funding for local news, but most of it is national. — 14 hr ago — Welcome to Second Rough Draft …
Discussion:
@dicktofel, @rickholter, @cagejulia, @repmattschaefer, @evanasmith, @saksappeal, @benyt and @nicdawes
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
A federal judge declines to dismiss a libel suit against Netflix for the portrayal of a retired police sergeant in its Making a Murderer documentary — Andrew Colborn gets to discovery as a federal judge won't dismiss a libel suit over the celebrated docuseries.
Kate Kaye / Digiday:
Google says it won't build itself Privacy Sandbox backdoors, but whether it will allow itself to use individual-level data from Chrome users remains unclear — Google promised on Thursday it won't carve out separate rules for itself as it forces data privacy restrictions on others navigating …
Discussion:
@kyotonio, @robinberjon and MediaPost
Carrie DeCell / Knight First Amendment Institute:
In a court filing, the Biden administration indicates it will defend a Trump-era rule that requires US visa applicants to register their social media handles — Indicates that it may retain Trump-era requirement — In a terse court filing today, the Biden administration indicated …
Discussion:
@losowsky, @evelyndouek, @smaurizi, @jameeljaffer, @jimbovard, @krhawkins5, @harshwords222, @harshwords222, @cmd_dc, @cmd_dc, @harshwords222, @harshwords222, @cmd_dc, @harshwords222 and @cmd_dc, more at Techmeme »
Brent Lang / Variety:
Lionsgate beat estimates with Q4 revenue of $876.4M, down 7.2% YoY; Starz streaming subscribers grew 69% YoY to 16.7M globally; motion picture revenue fell 25%+ — The better-than-expected results come as Lionsgate is seen as a potential acquisition target for tech giants and media conglomerates looking to get bigger.
Discussion:
Marketing Science, @loudmouthjulia, MediaPost, Deadline, investors.lionsgate.com, Los Angeles Business Journal and The Wrap
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
CNN says the 5 Things podcast accounts for 43% of its total podcast downloads, as it plans to expand the 5 Things newsletter and turn it into a franchise — CNN Digital is stretching its 5 Things email newsletter from a daily article roundup into its own franchise.
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