Top News:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
A few people called Genius the future of journalism, but its vision of simply adding boxes for comment on others' work was emblematic of its founders' arrogance — Genius (née Rap Genius) wanted to “annotate the world” and give your content a giant comment section you can't control.
Discussion:
@offtherecordnyc, @offtherecordnyc, @ldnflds, @james_dasilva, @offtherecordnyc, @tomgara, @king_kaufman, @niemanlab and @sizpatel
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Sarah McBride / Bloomberg:
Music-annotating startup Genius sells its assets to MediaLab for $80M; MediaLab says it will cut some jobs in original content production teams — The sale price is less than the total funding raised. — Music-annotating startup Genius Media Group Inc., a site that drew attention in part …
Wenxin Fan / Wall Street Journal:
China erased Zhao Wei, its biggest movie star who had 86M Weibo followers, from its internet on August 26, amid a clampdown on its entertainment industry — Zhao Wei was the Reese Witherspoon of China, then she was censored by the Communist Party amid a clampdown of the country's entertainment industry
Discussion:
@chantel_mccabe, @artjonak, @elipariser, @larryelder and @mollymckew
RELATED:
Financial Times:
China is cracking down on pessimistic financial blogs and social media accounts, as well as fraudulent ones; analysts worry independent voices will be silenced
China is cracking down on pessimistic financial blogs and social media accounts, as well as fraudulent ones; analysts worry independent voices will be silenced
Discussion:
@jkynge, @wexler, @martinsfp, @gordongchang, @chinabeigebook, @chinabeigebook, @chigrl, @carnage4life, @fritz844, @marcomnyc and @sonaliranade, more at Techmeme »
News UK:
Piers Morgan is joining News Corp and Fox News, where he will have a TV show in early 2022, and will also be a columnist at The Sun and the New York Post — - New global TV show will air on weeknights in the UK, USA and Australia; — Morgan will publish two weekly columns online for the New York Post and The Sun;
Discussion:
@piersmorgan, @jimwaterson, The Guardian, Mediaite, Variety, TVNewser, New York Times, Poynter, Metro.co.uk, @newsuk, @jimwaterson, CNN, Fox News, @benyt, @stephennolan, @chloeschlosberg, @ashkan, @lesliemarshall, Conquest of the Useless, @stevepasquale, @rexhuppke, @garylineker, @adambienkov, @mikeelgan, @erikwemple, @peterjukes, @jonathanwald, @davidfolkenflik, @gbnews, @andrewgentry_, The Daily Beast, The Wrap, nexttv.com, Daily Express and The Sun
Mark Scott / Politico:
A look at EU Reporter, which portrays itself as an independent media organization while regularly failing to add disclosures to paid-for content — Brussels news outlet EU Reporter's blend of corporate press releases, original news and paid-for content makes it impossible for readers to determine who's behind the coverage.
Catie Keck / The Verge:
A judge has ordered the permanent shutdown of Locast, a nonprofit that streamed broadcast channels for free while frequently prompting viewers for donations — Things looked bad for Locast before, and they just got even worse. A judge this week permanently prohibited streamer Locast …
Discussion:
MediaPost, Cord Cutters News and The Streamable
Chris Dolmetsch / Bloomberg:
Jay-Z's Rock-A-Fella has sued co-founder Dash to stop him from selling the copyright to Jay-Z's debut album as an NFT, saying he has no legal right to do so — - Rapper battles co-founder Dash over NFT rights to debut album — Lawsuits proliferate as non-fungible token market takes off
Discussion:
@business and @aaronwall
BBC:
Two men have been charged in the 2019 murder of journalist Lyra McKee and are expected to appear in court on Friday — Two men have been charged with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee. — Ms McKee, 29, was shot dead while observing rioting in Londonderry's Creggan estate in April 2019.
Discussion:
Metro.co.uk, @stevennott and City A.M.
Reuters:
French court upholds a ruling by markets watchdog AMF against Bloomberg for publishing a hoax press release, but lowers fine from €5M to €3M — A French appeal court on Thursday upheld a ruling by France's markets watchdog AMF against U.S. news agency Bloomberg for publishing a hoax press release …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The 8th Circuit's bizarre decision greenlighting a lawsuit over a Ryan Lizza tweet about Devin Nunes sets a dangerous precedent for defamation claims — Rep. Devin Nunes has kept up his suing news organizations (and satirical internet cows). He has been mostly losing.
Discussion:
@jkosseff, @lawsuitsdevin, Words For the Wise, @lawsuitsdevin, @mmasnick, @lawsuitsdevin, @dmrmorris, Vanity Fair, Law & Crime and Politico
Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today:
YouTube launches its first podcast, The Upload, which will feature interviews with YouTube stars on how they created their businesses — As all social platforms look to implement more ways to enable creators to monetize their on-platform efforts, with a view to keeping them posting to their apps more often …
Discussion:
YouTube Official Blog, musically.com, Tubefilter and The Independent
Jay Willis / Balls and Strikes:
The SCOTUS press corps, dominated by older white men, has actively denied the court's shift to the right, clearly shown by extremist shadow docket decisions — The conservative takeover of the Court is putting traditional legal media to the test. The results are not encouraging.