Mediagazer: Right-wing journalist Peter Schweizer plans to release a documentary on tech companies' role in filtering the news, casting them as censorious and oppressive (New York Times)

1:50 PM ET, March 6, 2018

Top News:

Gwilym Mumford / The Guardian:

The 2018 Oscars experienced a 16% decline YoY in ratings, with 26.5M US viewers watching the four-hour broadcast; Trump mocked the figures on Twitter — Broadcast for 2018 Academy Awards attracted 26.5m viewers, a 16% drop on last year's ceremony … US president Donald Trump has mocked …

Discussion: @realdonaldtrump, New York Times, The Wrap, Mediaite, Washington Post, Variety, Decider, Fox News Insider, NPR, Breitbart, Splinter, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Vanity Fair and Mother Jones

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Technology news aggregator Techmeme, sister site of Mediagazer, is launching a daily podcast called the Techmeme Ride Home — Because everyone has a podcast. (That's a good thing!) — Techmeme is an influential site that provides concise, headline-length summaries of the day's tech news.

Discussion: Wired, Fast Company and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Subscription-based sports media site The Athletic has raised $20M Series C led by Evolution Media, plans to double staff from 120 to 200-350 employees in 2018 — The two-year-old startup plans to double staffing and expand across the U.S. and into international markets

Discussion: @rafat, @bill_shea19, @dcsportsbog, @chadgraff, @_brian_hamilton, @benmullin and Awful Announcing

New York Times:

Right-wing journalist Peter Schweizer plans to release a documentary on tech companies' role in filtering the news, casting them as censorious and oppressive — Conservatives are zeroing in on a new enemy in the political culture wars: Big Tech. — Arguing that Silicon Valley is stifling …

Discussion: New York Magazine, @jwherrman, East Bay Times, Vanity Fair, @profcarroll, @cwarzel, @brendannyhan, @shiraovide, @owillis, @williamturton, @ceciliakang, @4horsemenapoca, @slpng_giants and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, more at Techmeme »

Silvia Foster-Frau / MySanAntonio.com:

Co-founder of conspiracy theory website Side Thorn arrested with partner for harassing father of Sutherland Springs victim, told him shooting didn't happen — Two conspiracy theorists who have pushed the idea that the mass shooting at Sutherland Springs on Nov. 5 didn't happen were arrested Monday …

Discussion: @prehstrcforest, @erinscafe, @johnamato, @evenbev, @brianstelter and @lenpoz

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Funny Or Die is retiring its website and migrating over to Vox Media's platform; both are exploring potential collaborations on long-form entertainment — Funny Or Die is putting its aging web platform out to pasture. — Starting this summer, the digital comedy outfit will move FunnyOrDie.com …

Discussion: @mtmoe1, Tubefilter, @jackallisonlol, @zkahn, @reckless, @clockwerks, @bankoff, @melissabell and Splitsider

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

A look at the attempted revival of Rolling Stone under Jay Penske; sources say he approached Ryan Lizza about a job at the publication, after talks with staff — Jay Penske, the scion of an auto-racing empire, has a legitimate shot to turn the baby-boomer culture bible around—if he can make it safe for millennials.

Discussion: @pkafka, Politico, @joepompeo and @joepompeo

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

The Independent says BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan must have “misremembered” anecdote about traffic-boosting headline, mentioned during speech about press at uni — The Independent has said BBC media editor Amol Rajan “must have misremembered” an anecdote claiming he made a column …

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Fox is aiming to reduce TV ad time to 2 minutes an hour by 2020, its ad sales chief Joe Marchese claimed at a private industry event in LA last week — Network announced the target at an event it hosted to discuss TV advertising's challenges — Fox Networks Group's ad sales chief …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Wrap

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Profile of Phillip Picardi, chief content officer of Teen Vogue since January, who has launched a digital LGBT community platform for Condé Nast, called Them — Is Phillip Picardi, a former intern who now heads up Teen Vogue, the future of Condé Nast? Anna Wintour seems to think so.

Discussion: Fashionista

Dan Primack / Axios:

HQ Trivia says it has raised $15M at a $100M post-money valuation, led by Founders Fund, to grow out its engineering team — HQ, the live trivia game-show app, tells Axios that it has raised $15 million in new VC funding at a $100 million post-money valuation.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @axios and @teddyschleifer, more at Techmeme »

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

In a letter to AG Sessions, members of Congress ask Trump administration to require Qatar-based Al Jazeera to register as a foreign agent under US law — A group of U.S. lawmakers is prodding the Trump administration to require the Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera to register as foreign agents under U.S. law.

Discussion: @uptownberber and @vpafernandez

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 1:50 PM ET, March 6, 2018.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Yahoo! Finance:
Indonesia blocks Tumblr for ignoring order to remove pornographic content, says 360 accounts contained porn, will make it accessible when Tumblr complies

more at Techmeme »

Alex Nichols / The Outline:
A look at the tweets of those making money from private accounts with Premo: John Schindler appears to earn $17K/month and Eric Garland $3K/month

Discussion: @thegarance, Fortune, @ninjaeconomics, @joshuatopolsky, @mazmhussain, @lowenaffchen, @20committee and The Daily Caller, more at Techmeme »

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
MoviePass CEO says its app tracks user locations before and after movies, which is not information currently disclosed in privacy policy

Discussion: /Film, Mashable, BGR, The Outline, The Verge, Engadget, New York Magazine, MacRumors, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac and Quartz, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Cox Media's conservative site Rare, which was heavily reliant on Facebook traffic with 2.3M fans, is closing at the end of this month after launching in 2013

Discussion: @ewerickson, @pfeifferdc, @kevinwglass and @joeperticone

Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:
Facebook hires Matthew Henick, who was leading BuzzFeed's push into TV and films, to oversee global video content strategy and planning

Discussion: Tubefilter, Matthew Henick and @stevekovach

Earlier Picks:

Kerry Flynn / Mashable:
Kickstarter, Foursquare, Etsy, Shutterstock, Expa, and Automattic sue FCC over net neutrality rule changes, following other actions from the tech industry

Discussion: FierceCable, Recode, The Hill and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Reddit on Russian propaganda: hundreds of accounts removed, few Russian ads were seen and are now disallowed, @TEN_GOP tweets amplified by “thousands” on Reddit

Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:
Google is selling US restaurant review guide Zagat, which it bought for $151M in 2011, to restaurant review company The Infatuation for an undisclosed sum

Discussion: Forbes, grubstreet, @nytimesbusiness, Fast Company, Fortune, Eater, Search Engine Land, The Verge, @bmorrissey, @lainehiggins17, @besvinick, @schmooey, The Infatuation, TechCrunch, Eater and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / Recode:
ESPN names Jimmy Pitaro as new president of ESPN and co-chair of Disney Media Networks; he's currently head of Disney consumer products and interactive

Discussion: Deadline, FierceCable, ESPN MediaZone U.S., The Daily Caller, New York Times, Ad Age, Adweek, Radio & Television …, TVNewser, Awful Announcing, Business Insider, Mediaite, ESPN, Bloomberg and Hollywood Reporter

From Techmeme:

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
An undisclosed 2023 agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI defines achieving AGI as the point when OpenAI develops AI systems that generate $100B+ in profits

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
How H-1B workers from India and other countries help the US remain dominant in tech, as some on the new “Tech Right” discover MAGA's racial-nationalist bigotry

Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat:
DeepSeek releases DeepSeek-V3, an open-source MoE model of 671B total parameters, with 37B activated per token, claiming it outperforms top models like GPT-4o

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page