Mediagazer: Sinclair CEO David Smith defends his company's “must-run” segments on media bias, likens them to the late-night shows other networks air on local affiliates (Sydney Ember/New York Times)

9:50 AM ET, April 5, 2018

Top News:

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Sinclair CEO David Smith defends his company's “must-run” segments on media bias, likens them to the late-night shows other networks air on local affiliates — David D. Smith, the chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, says the media is getting his company all wrong.

Discussion: Mediaite, CBS Dallas, @buzzfeedben and Media Matters for America

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

A Sinclair TV producer at KHGI in Nebraska, Justin Simmons, resigned March 26 in protest of what he calls the company's “obvious bias” — Ex-Sinclair news director: We had must-run pieces — A morning TV producer at a Sinclair-owned station in Nebraska has resigned in protest …

Discussion: The Wrap, Motherboard, Slate, The Daily Caller, ThinkProgress, FTVLive, @justinsimmonsne, Variety, @mattdpearce, Deadline, Vox, TVWeek.com, @mlcalderone and Mediaite

Ashley Balcerzak / Center for Public Integrity:
Since 2016, Sinclair Broadcast Group's political action committee has donated ~$78K to Republican candidates, with company execs making donations too

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Techdirt, DSLreports, Media Matters for America, TheBlaze, The Wrap, Washington Post and New Republic

Eleanor Dickinson / Mumbrella Asia:

Facebook statistics show data from 3.6M+ users in Asia, ~1M in UK, and 700K+ in Mexico may be among the 87M who had information analyzed by Cambridge Analytica — Facebook has this morning revealed that more than 3.6 million users its service in Asia may have had their information improperly shared …

Discussion: TechCrunch and Facebook Developers, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Cambridge Analytica denies Facebook's claim that it accessed data on 87M Facebook users, claims it “licensed data for no more than 30M people” — Cambridge Analytica is refuting a report by Facebook today that said Cambridge Analytica improperly attained data on up to 87 million users.

Discussion: 9to5Google, Recode, Mashable and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Mark Zuckerberg refutes earlier reports, says Facebook will make GDPR controls available globally, notes different markets, laws may require different formats — Mark Zuckerberg refuted a Reuters story yesterday that said Facebook would not bring Europe's General Data Protection Regulation privacy safeguards around the world.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Forbes, Reuters, Fortune, Recode, BetaNews, BGR, The Ringer, Mashable, 9to5Mac, @zackwhittaker, The Hill, Variety, BetaNews, SlashGear, The Outline, Marketing Land, Fast Company, WIRED UK, KTLA, Al Jazeera English and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Facebook now says Cambridge Analytica may have collected information on as many as 87M people, mostly in US; original reports pegged the number closer to 50M

Discussion: Facebook, Facebook, Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, Forbes, CNBC, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Press Gazette, Android Police, Talking Biz News, New York Times, BGR, Fortune, Facebook, theconversation.com, Yourstory.com, SlashGear, The Daily Beast, MediaNama, Brian Solis, East Bay Times, Business Insider, Marketing Land, The Verge, The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Next Web, Mumbrella, Motherboard, Mashable, TheBlaze, Deadline, Multichannel News, MacRumors, BuzzFeed, CBS Los Angeles, Ad Age, New York Magazine, BBC, Slate, Engadget, AOL, ZDNet, KTLA, Adweek, Mediaite, Politico, Facebook, The Wrap, Boing Boing, GeekWire, AdExchanger, Mother Jones, @danbbaer, @mediaguardian, The Guardian, Fast Company, @jamiejbartlett, @ow, Los Angeles Times, The Week, CNBC, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Reuters, @senblumenthal, The Verge, @alexeheath, @juliawaldow, Variety, @caseynewton, @sarahfrier, @kurtwagner8 and Energy and Commerce Committee, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

MoviePass parent company acquires Moviefone from Oath for $15M; Oath will continue selling Moviefone's digital ad inventory — MoviePass is saying “Hello — and welcome to Moviefone!" — Helios and Matheson Analytics, the majority owner of MoviePass, announced the acquisition of Moviefone from Verizon's Oath subsidiary.

Discussion: The Wrap, Business Insider and Business Wire

Tom Kludt / CNNMoney:

Judge denies Bill O'Reilly's motion to keep settlements with accusers sealed; deal with Andrea Mackris could have forced her to lie even under oath — Fox gave O'Reilly contract after $32 million settlement — A federal judge in New York has denied Bill O'Reilly's motion to seal settlement agreements …

Discussion: New York Times, Media Matters for America, CBS Los Angeles, Variety, The Wrap, @perlberg, The Daily Beast, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, @nycsouthpaw, @mmasnick, Washington Post, @erikwemple, @erikwemple, TV Tattle, @jonswaine, @tomkludt and @tomkludt

Mike Ananny / Columbia Journalism Review:

Report on Facebook's fact-checking partnerships examines the struggles of tech companies teaming up with news orgs, details distrust and lack of transparency — Facebook and five US news and fact-checking organizations—ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and Snopes …

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Interview with Renée Kaplan, FT head of audience engagement, on appealing to more female subscribers via a newsletter, encouraging potential op-eds, and more — Only 20 percent of the FT's subscribers were women. Renée Kaplan, the paper's head of audience engagement, is doing a lot of things to change that.

Davidporter / 8tracks Blog:

8tracks, a streaming music startup that focuses on playlists and has used crowdfunding to raise capital, re-introduces free streaming in the US — Thanks to our much-appreciated 8tracks Plus subscribers and the recent introduction of new audio ads, we're beyond excited to say goodbye …

Discussion: RAIN News and @thegodfathersa

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Conde Nast has a median pay gap of 23.3% despite a female majority at every pay level; The Economist Group's 29.5% median pay gap is the highest in UK media — Conde Nast has the largest mean gender pay gap favouring men among all UK publishers and broadcasters, but, when the median is taken …

Discussion: @jamesrbuk, gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk, Digiday and WIRED UK

Sara Jerde / Adweek:

Future plc, which publishes TechRadar and PC Gamer, has acquired NewBay Media, which owns Music Week, Multichannel News, and Broadcasting & Cable, among others — The deal is valued at an initial $13.8 million — International media group Future plc has acquired NewBay Media …

Discussion: Multichannel News, Folio, PR Newswire, Forbes, PR Newswire, The Drum and TvTechnology

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