Mediagazer: How Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler helped The New York Times identify Jack Teixeira, the Air National guardsman charged with leaking classified Pentagon docs (Charlotte Klein/Vanity Fair)

4:30 PM ET, April 19, 2023

Top News:

CNBC:

Fox Corp and its cable networks agree to pay $787.5M to Dominion Voting Systems to settle the defamation lawsuit over Fox's lies about Dominion's machines — WILMINGTON, Del. - Fox Corp. and its cable networks agreed Tuesday to pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle …

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Washington Post:

The Fox-Dominion deal is the largest publicly disclosed settlement in a US defamation case; sources: Fox does not have to issue an on-air correction or apology — The agreement brings an abrupt end to one of the most significant media cases in recent decades, one that hinged on false claims about a presidential election

Discussion: @tripgabriel, @justinbaragona, The Intercept, Law & Crime, @aaronblake, NPR, Media Matters for America, @maassp, The Hill, New York Times, Associated Press, @alexpadilla4ca, CBS News, The Verge, New York Times, Reuters, @jakeadelstein, @donmoyn, @bgrueskin, @mattiweil, @steven_strauss, @nickconfessore, @timobrien, @ryanvanvelzer, @bgrueskin, @tomfitton, @farhip, @walshfreedom, @haldavis3, Poynter, Broadband TV News, @erikwemple, @erikwemple, @jamilsmith, @wilkowmajority, @farhip, @mollyjongfast, @brianstelter, @tedlieu, @ron_fournier, Morning Shots, @davidfolkenflik, @claremalone, @lindyli, @bgrueskin, @macfarlanenews, @davidaxelrod, @waltisfrozen, @renato_mariotti, @blowryontv, @brianklaas, @alfranken, @kbandersen, @tripgabriel, @lindyli, @pickardje, @maassp, @aaronblake, @froomkin, CNN, The Guardian, CBC News, @heidilifeldman@mastodon …, @juddlegum@journa.host, Newser, @JoshuaHolland@mastodon.social, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @Theoreticalb@mastodon.social, @heidilifeldman@mastodon …, Insider, Deadline, Rolling Stone, Slate, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times and PBS NewsHour

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Fox News said its court settlement reflects a “commitment to the highest journalistic standards”, showing that not even a ton of evidence of deceit can shame it — When news of a possible settlement between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News surfaced on Sunday night …

Jack Shafer / Politico:

For Fox News, which has $4.1B in cash and warrants on hand, $787.5M is a bargain price to avoid further embarrassment and continue its sleazy ways — For the media mogul, the massive Dominion settlement fee is just the cost of doing business. — If it seems fairly daft to congratulate Rupert Murdoch …

CNN:

Sources and the mediator detail how Fox and Dominion settlement came together, as Dominion planned Rupert Murdoch and Tucker Carlson among its first witnesses — Veteran mediator Jerry Roscoe was on a relaxing river cruise from Budapest to Bucharest celebrating his 70th birthday on Sunday when he received an urgent phone call.

Discussion: The Guardian, Semafor, @kira_lerner, @keitholbermann, @marshallcohen, @brianstelter, @sarah_boxer, @srl and @oliverdarcy

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Fox spared its executives and hosts further embarrassment on the witness stand, but the settlement sets a benchmark for lawsuits from Smartmatic and others

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Netflix upgrades its ad-supported plan, increasing the video quality from 720p to 1080p and the number of streams from one to two, starting in Canada and Spain — Netflix is making its $6.99 per month ad-supported plan a much better value. … Subscribers in Canada and Spain …

Discussion: Comic Book, MacRumors, TechCrunch and CNET, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
Netflix plans to ship its last red DVD envelopes in September 2023, after 25 years of mailing shows and movies to subscribers and paving the way for streaming

Nicholas Gordon / Fortune:
Netflix added 1.46M subscribers from Asia-Pacific in Q1, out of a total of 1.8M; it added 100K subscribers in the US and Canada, and lost 450K in Latin America

Discussion: CNET, The Hollywood Reporter, Insider Intelligence, Financial Times, The Information, MediaPost and Forbes, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix plans a “broad rollout” of its paid sharing plan in Q2 2023, including to the US, after its Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain launch in February

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide, The Verge, The Streamable, The A.V. Club, CNBC, @tvgrimreaper, IndieWire, Screen Rant, Collider, Adweek, Cablefax and The Desk

Reuters:
Netflix Q1: revenue up 4% YoY to $8.16B, 1.8M paid net additions, vs. 2.06M est. and -0.2M in Q1 2022, and global streaming paid memberships up 5% YoY to 232.5M

Discussion: Insider, @lucas_shaw, @itzjoshuajake and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Pew Research Center:

Survey: 49% of US adults say they have listened to a podcast in the past year; 87% of those who get news on podcasts expect it to be mostly accurate — About half of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past year, and most of those listeners come across news content

Discussion: The Verge, New York Post, @pewresearch, @pewresearch, @douglesmerises, @kenvogel, @katmatsa, Hot Pod News, American Press Institute, @pewresearch, Axios and Podnews

Washington Post:

An analysis of Google's C4 dataset, a snapshot of 15M websites used to train LLMs, shows that half of the Top 10 sites were news outlets such as The NYT — AI chatbots have exploded in popularity over the past four months, stunning the public with their awesome abilities …

Discussion: @nitashatiku, @kdombsadof, @postgraphics, @shiraovide, Gizmodo, @abebab, @willoremus, @katecrawford, @blackamazon, @mmitchell_ai, @lordravenscraft, @maxkennerly, @xriskology and @justinhendrix, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:

How Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler helped The New York Times identify Jack Teixeira, the Air National guardsman charged with leaking classified Pentagon docs — The Times publicly identified the man believed to have leaked intelligence documents before law enforcement did.

Discussion: @arictoler, @vanityfair, @arictoler, @vanityfair, @trbrtc, @runasand, @matthewkeyslive, @arictoler and @arictoler

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

Fremantle UK names Amelia Brown as its new CEO, replacing Simon Andreae who stepped down recently following misconduct complaints — Fremantle UK has named departing Thames boss Amelia Brown as its new CEO just days after Simon Andreae stepped down following misconduct complaints.

Discussion: The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety

Liam Scott / Voice of America:

Oklahoma's governor calls on four officials to resign after a newspaper released audio of the group talking about killing journalists and lynching Black people — Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is calling for the resignation of four state officials after a local newspaper released …

Rebecca Pettingill / Columbia Basin Herald:

Washington's legislature passes a bill giving a tax break to newspapers and websites that grew from newspapers; the bill awaits Governor Jay Inslee's signature — OLYMPIA - Senate Bill 5199, a measure that gives a tax break for newspaper publishers, passed the Washington House of Representatives 89-7 Monday.

Discussion: @andersem and @dankennedy_nu@journa.host