Mediagazer: Google starts rolling out Apple Music support to Assistant smart speakers and displays, including its Nest products, in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan (Dan Seifert/The Verge)

1:40 PM ET, December 7, 2020

Top News:

Former colleagues share how a powerful Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter, Michael Fuoco, got away with sexual misconduct for years as his paper, union ignored it — Michael Fuoco was a bigfoot reporter with a fiery personality and a reputation for harassing young women. No one seemed to want to rein him in.

David Smiley / Miami Herald:

Monica R. Richardson has been named the new executive editor of the Miami Herald, the first Black executive editor in its 117-year history — The Miami Herald's parent company named a new executive editor on Monday to lead its newsrooms in Florida — a 30-year veteran of the news business …

Discussion: The Wrap, @newsbysamuels, @newsbysmiley, @elaheizadi, @jewelwickershow, @raju, @mcclatchy, @verambergen, @markseibel and @craigtimes

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

After Google's announcement in May that it would start blocking “heavy” ads in Chrome, it is now blocking some ads that publishers sell if they hog resources — On some recent business day, The New York Times sold an ad to a company. I can't tell you the name of the company …

Discussion: @pilhofer, MediaPost, @jarroddicker, @kennwhite and Chromium Blog

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Universal Music says it has acquired Bob Dylan's entire music catalog of over 600 songs; the deal is estimated to be worth over $300M — Universal Music purchased his entire songwriting catalog of more than 600 songs in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of a single act's publishing rights.

Financial Times:

Inside Disney's costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline, as sources say the success of Disney+ diminished Disney's interest in Hulu — Media empire must sustain its costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline — The Walt Disney Company …

Discussion: The Streamable, @annaknicolaou, @financialtimes, @annaknicolaou, @sub8u, @webbarr and @rasmus_kleis, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Jones / Knight Foundation:

Survey: 59% of Americans say media was responsible in reporting election results; 63%, including 17% of Republicans, believed media projections of Biden's win — The 2020 election was marked by severe political divisions, a public health crisis, unease about the voting process …

Discussion: Business Insider, Breitbart, @froomkin, The Hill, Poynter, @knightfdn, @knightfdn and @knightfdn

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Tom Lowell, formerly a producer of Megyn Kelly's shows, named executive VP and managing editor of news at Fox News, will oversee daytime news editorial content — “From creating the top-rated morning news program 'America's Newsroom' in 2007 to leading newsgathering, Tom has made a formidable impact …

Discussion: The Wrap and @bristei

Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed News:

This year, disinformation about the pandemic, BLM protests, and the election divided the US, with “Plandemic” as a case study of social networks' failures — Disinformation and its fallout have defined 2020, the year of the infodemic. Month after month, self-serving social media companies …

Discussion: @brandyzadrozny, @ashleyn1cole, @katestarbird, @pandemic_times, @rasmus_kleis, @janelytv and @austinfrerick, more at Techmeme »

BBC:

Netflix says “we have no plans, and see no need, to add a disclaimer” warning The Crown viewers that the show is a work of fiction — Netflix says it will not warn viewers of The Crown some scenes are fiction. — Responding to calls for a warning from Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden …

Discussion: Variety, Newser, Collider, ABC News, @variety, @jameelajamil, The Guardian, Hollywood Reporter and Daily Mail

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

As Trump leaves global press freedom in tatters, Biden needs to be bold, including appointing an envoy for press freedom and reintroducing daily press briefings — When Donald Trump first started accusing the mainstream media of dealing in “fake news,” it was impossible to know the long-term effects of this rhetoric.

Discussion: @sulliview, The Week, @froomkin and CNN

Manisha Krishnan / VICE:

Canada's Global News radio host Supriya Dwivedi quits, alleges colleagues' on-air racist narratives led to threats against her; Global News is “taking action” — An email to staff said the company is in the midst of an “internal reflection” regarding systemic racism but didn't provide many details about what that means.

Discussion: icfj.org, Matt Gurney's Code 47, @rebekahlsanders, @reem_abdellatif, @amydiehl, @jane_gerster, @chadloder, @manishakrishnan, Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, AllAccess.com and VICE

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

OnlyFans says it will generate $2B+ in sales in 2020, now has 85M users, is adding around 500K users a day, and is paying out $200M+ a month to its 1M+ creators — As Cardi B prepared the release for her new song “WAP,” she checked off all the usual components of her promotional plan …

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More News:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Dish Network to pay $210M to the US government and four states to settle a lawsuit claiming it made millions of illegal robocalls to sell satellite TV services

Discussion: Silicon Valley Business …

Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google starts rolling out Apple Music support to Assistant smart speakers and displays, including its Nest products, in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Keyword, @ohmdee, Android Central and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
UK's The Times pays £30K in libel damages and apologizes after an article was edited to suggest an advocacy org supported a suspected terror attacker

Discussion: @brokenbottleboy and @jane_redux

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with NYT's SVP of product engineering Brian Hamman on how the paper prepared for the 2020 election and changes they made to the homepage for the event

Discussion: @niemanlab, @niemanlab, @niemanlab and @bpagliaro

William Turvill / Press Gazette:
ProPublica's Richard Tofel discusses the Trump Bump: donors rose from ~3K in 2015 to 32K in 2019, when small donations made up 20% of $33.1M in revenue

Discussion: @dicktofel

Jon Levine / New York Post:
Maya Wiley made ~18 appearances on MSNBC since leaving as a contributor to launch her NYC mayoral run, earning criticism from mayoral rivals and media ethicists

Discussion: @margoandhow and @connortryan

Amaris Castillo / Poynter:
Report: in six countries, including the US, proportion of women journalists has remained flat since 2000 and women are 2x to 6x less likely to be quoted in news

Discussion: @nickcharles61, @amariscastillo, @julieburtonwmc, @joannelipman and @poynter

Earlier Picks:

Mattie Kahn / Glamour:
Interview with Yamiche Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, about covering Trump, writing her memoir, and rejecting “both sides” journalism

Discussion: @marclacey, @aliciamenendez, @dlind, @reineayiti, @sominisengupta, @jordynjournals, @porter_anderson, @itscaitlinhd, @yamiche and @newshour

Newslaundry:
India's Times Group says it will stop the publication of Pune Mirror and will relaunch Mumbai Mirror as a weekly, but both will have a “strong digital presence”

Discussion: Scroll.in, @raju, @dire_nair, @nandiniramnath, @jencyjac, @spignal, @alishacoelho, @ranaayyub, @dpanjana, @vijaylokapally, IJR, exchange4media and Scroll.in

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Inside WarnerMedia's transition to streaming: current and former execs say it was marred by rushed decision making, culture clashes, HBO brand confusion, more

Hamed Aleaziz / BuzzFeed News:
ICE has issued a subpoena demanding BuzzFeed News identify its sources for emails sent to ICE attorneys; EIC “emphatically rejects” requests for source info

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Tribune Publishing, part-owned by Alden Global Capital, is closing the Hartford Courant's newsroom on Dec. 27; journalists will work remotely into 2021

Discussion: @courantguild, @pdavis_llc, @notonixon, @giacomonyt, @dchinni, @treasurerwooden, @actualcandrews, @rossgarber, @treasurerwooden, @thesarahkelly, @bensmithtweet, @jessespector, @diciccomethod, @treasurerwooden, @thorn_john, @juliebartucca, @senatorcohenct, @mcallguild, @rachaelpacella, @pdavis_llc, @picardonhealth, @lizbowie, @alecmacgillis, @frankiegrazie6, @davidjlynch, @boston1775, @bjbetheltweets, @allyjarmanning, @ctblogger, @mattlesser, @bretteats, @andrewdasnyt, @dennishousetv, @vdelatorre, @samstein, @senblumenthal, @mayorbronin, @bruceputterman, @davidchang, @xshularx, @mmcintire, @kgmcwilliams, @hayley__harding, @i_m_m, @tomkrazit, @matt_velazquez, @saragregory, @bookgirl96, @edokeefe, @repjohnlarson, @mcfarland_shawn, @courantguild, @brian_donlon, @tomforemancnn, @courantguild, @wolfe321, @katie_robertson and The Hill

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Mitch McConnell has moved to end debate on a Trump nominee that would deadlock FCC when Biden takes office and for months after, setting up a vote next week

Discussion: New York Times, @kenroth, The Bulwark, The Hill, @karlbode, @karlbode and @karlbode

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
The Trump administration exempts smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, memory chips, and machines used to make semiconductors from reciprocal tariffs

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple produced $22B worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months ended March 2025, up nearly 60% YoY, and now makes 20% of its iPhones in the country

Martine Paris / Forbes:
Sam Altman says ChatGPT users had doubled in the past few weeks and that “10% of the world uses our systems”, which would peg the number closer to 800M users

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