Mediagazer: Popular meme pages are skirting Facebook's spam detection by overlaying static videos with watermark-like white arrows and triangles, reaching millions of users (Taylor Lorenz/The Daily Beast)

12:25 PM ET, February 15, 2018

Top News:

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:

Congressman says office of FCC inspector general, a nonpartisan internal watchdog, is investigating the relationship between Ajit Pai and Sinclair Broadcasting — WASHINGTON — Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency …

Discussion: Variety, Deadline, Broadcasting & Cable, @frankpallone, The Verge, Gizmodo and BloombergQuint

Ashley Cullins / Hollywood Reporter:

District court judge dismisses Playboy lawsuit against Boing Boing for linking to Playmate pictures on Imgur and YouTube, gives Playboy a chance to revise suit — The magazine sued over a Boing Boing post linking to “scans of every Playboy Playmate centerfold.”

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation, @xeni and MediaPost

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:

Twitter begins streaming local news broadcasts next to timeline amid major news events, displaying Miami's WSVN 7 coverage of high school shooting on Wednesday — Twitter is starting to show live, local news broadcasts in a live streaming window next to its timeline during major breaking news events.

Discussion: The Verge, Ubergizmo, Engadget, @stphnfwlr, 9to5Google, @kantrowitz and @kantrowitz

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Forbes replaces unpaid contributor model with contracts guaranteeing its 1,500 contributors a $250/month minimum, will cut bottom 10% of performers every year — Financial news publisher becomes the latest media company to overhaul its contributor network — Forbes has a new message …

Discussion: Forbes, TechCrunch, @randalllane, @chloesorvino, @jayrosen_nyu and Talking Biz News

Taylor Lorenz / The Daily Beast:

Popular meme pages are skirting Facebook's spam detection by overlaying static videos with watermark-like white arrows and triangles, reaching millions of users — Viral meme pages have developed a new trick to reach millions of users and generate big money from publishers and brand pages.

Discussion: @taylorlorenz, @itstheannmarie, @anthony and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Vimeo rolls out tool to live stream on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and Periscope simultaneously — Video platform Vimeo is today rolling out new features designed to simplify video distribution across social networks, including one tool that allows live video to be streamed to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Periscope at the same time.

Discussion: Vimeo, Marketing Land, Ubergizmo, VideoInk and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Tracy M. Cook / American Press Institute:

Study of digital subscription costs at 100 US newspapers finds weekly costs range from $0.46 to $7.85 and the median digital subscription price is $2.31/week — The dual-revenue model of print advertising and home delivery subscriptions that historically sustained newspapers is fading.

Discussion: Nieman Lab

Michelle Dean / Columbia Journalism Review:

How the nondisclosure agreement became a tool for powerful people to stymie journalists from informing the public — At this writing, the cast of characters in the sexual harassment scandals that have been carpet-bombing the media continues to expand. Every day new women come forward to say they've had a bad experience.

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:

Reuters executives explain why they felt an imperative to publish a special report by jailed reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar — Alexandra Ellerbeck, North America program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, speaks at a kickoff event for CJR's new print issue in Toronto.

Discussion: Washington Post and Columbia Journalism Review

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Sources say Google dominated Coalition for Better Ads' research and review process, which helped determine ads that will be blacklisted by Chrome — Critics say the search giant's plan to block certain types of ads in its Chrome browser starting on Thursday is self-serving

Discussion: The New York Observer, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, Fortune, @annemariebridy and @scottmaustin, more at Techmeme »

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Chrome's default ad blocker goes live Thursday, removing ads on sites that repeatedly display pop-ups, autoplay video with sound, and other invasive ads

Discussion: CNNMoney, Gizmodo, The Guardian, The Verge, Marketing Land, Fortune, CNET, Chromium Blog, Mental Floss, Forbes, MediaNama, BGR, Android Police, 9to5Google, Nieman Lab, @chrismessina, @dangillmor, @backlon and @mathewi, more at Techmeme »

Ashley Feinberg / HuffPost:

Leaked chat transcript from an NYT Slack channel shows staff concern over diversity efforts, prompted by tweet by opinion section's Bari Weiss on immigrants — According to one employee, diversity efforts at the publication “are nothing but lip service.” — In 2016, James Bennet left …

Discussion: @elilake, @angryasianman, @moorehn, @rachel_thorn_en, @rowankaiser, @kimmythepooh, @kelseymsutton, Mediaite, @jayrosen_nyu, @hadas_gold, @juliareinstein, @mrjohnflowers, @xor, @nytimespr and @mlcalderone

The Intercept:

Leaked WikiLeaks chats from May 2015-Nov. 2017 of a direct-message Twitter group show anti-Clinton bias, misogyny, encouragement of trolling and fake accounts — On a Thursday afternoon in November 2015, a light snow was falling outside the windows of the Ecuadorian embassy in London …

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / ProPublica:

After FEC clarification in December that big political ads on Facebook require disclaimers, review of 300+ ads finds fewer than 40 complied with new rules — The Federal Election Commission said in December that big political ads on the social network need disclaimers.

Discussion: @annalecta, @crewcrew, @annalecta and The Week