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Sources: Sean Spicer warns staff against leaking to media in a meeting that included a check of phones, saying apps like Confide and Signal violate Records Act — The push includes random phone checks overseen by White House lawyers. — Press Secretary Sean Spicer is cracking …
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A frustrated Trump, used to controlling media with strategic tabloid leaks, ramps up attacks on an entrenched White House press corps and broader media — WASHINGTON — The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has taken to slapping journalists who write unflattering stories with an epithet …

Sources: Sean Spicer had the CIA's director and a GOP official call reporters to discredit an NYT story on links between Trump's campaign aides and Russia — Exclusive: Spicer arranged CIA, GOP intelligence push-back — White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer personally picked up the phone …
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The Guardian, @robdelaney, @ntarnopolsky, @rvawonk, @arifleischer, @noahcrothman, @davidfrum, @davidfrum, Mother Jones, The Week, Washington Post and New York Times
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
The White House appears to have leaked a story about a Politico reporter to the Washington Examiner, in retaliation for a story by the same reporter on WH leaks — Never let it be said that President Trump and his underlings don't work hard, especially when it comes to initiatives aimed …
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@stevenjay, New York Times, @maggienyt, @cbudoffbrown, TVLine and The Guardian

Amazon Studios wins its first-ever Oscars with best foreign language film for “The Salesman” and best original screenplay for “Manchester by the Sea” — Amazon Studios won its first-ever Academy Awards on Sunday night, taking home three Oscar statues …

How Robert Mercer steers politics through Facebook data and media, using Cambridge Analytica, Breitbart, the Media Research Center, aid to Leave.EU, and more — With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage, the rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network
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Sources: Gretchen Carlson is in talks to join MSNBC; the former Fox News anchor settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes for $20M last year — Gretchen Carlson, who settled a multi-million lawsuit late last year against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes …
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New York Daily News, Daily Mail, The Hill, @brucebartlett and Mediaite

Swedish officials say they've never heard of a man who appeared on Fox News, identified as a Swedish national security adviser — A man described as a Swedish defense and national security adviser appeared on Fox News last week to defend President Trump's claim that criminal immigrants are wreaking havoc in Sweden.
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Washington Post, @ssilvius, @jamie_weinstein, @rudnit, @tinadupuy, @albertocairo, @chunklet, @melissagrelo, @exlarson, The Huffington Post and The Week

Profile of Tucker Carlson, who as a newly minted primetime Fox News anchor has emerged as one of the most powerful people in media — Tucker Carlson is selling me hard on the swamp. It is an unseasonably warm afternoon in late January, and we are seated at a corner table in Monocle …

Study explores how 14 publishers are experimenting to reach audiences across 16 different social platforms — Despite publishers' disillusionment with low financial returns, there is no sign of them retreating from publishing material directly onto Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and other distribution platforms.

Comcast to launch YouTube app on its Xfinity X1 set-top platform later this year; terms of the deal with Google are not being released — Cable operator inks distribution deal with Google-owned video platform — Comcast plans to launch a YouTube video app on the Xfinity X1 set-top platform …
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Recode

YouTube has attracted little scrutiny for hosting and rewarding creators of fake news, conspiracy theories, and hate speech — David Seaman is the Pizzagate King of the Internet. — On Twitter, Seaman posts dozens of messages a day to his 66,000 followers, often about the secret cabal …
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@slpng_giants, @brendannyhan, @craigsilverman, @bernstein and @bernstein