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The Athletic's founder said it would run independently, but the NYT has told staff not to express political beliefs, though what counts as political is vague — When The New York Times acquired The Athletic in January, the bosses who got rich from the deal roundly assured Athletic staffers that not much of anything would change.

Researchers say Big Tech's political ad bans are a charade and likely had minimal impact on curbing misinformation while hurting smaller advocacy groups — Say ExxonMobil wanted to run an ad on Twitter about how natural gas is actually totally climate-friendly.
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Sources: Rebecca Kutler, a CNN talent and development executive who was the head of programming for CNN+, is leaving the news outlet — Kutler had most recently been senior vice president and head of programming for CNN+, the much-promoted streaming video hub that was scuttled by CNN's …
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Adweek

Sources: the US increased its funding of three VPN companies by almost half since February, through VOA parent agency USAGM, to support a surge in Russian users — The U.S. government has pushed new, increased funding into three technology companies since the start of the Ukraine conflict …
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Metacurity, Russia's War on Democracy and @gladstein, more at Techmeme »

Seth Rich's parents say their trust in people has been shattered, after Fox News, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and more weaponized conspiracies about his death — The fatal shooting of a young Democratic Party aide named Seth Rich early in the morning of July 10, 2016, brought incalculable loss to his parents.

How American Airlines and Delta run their in-flight “streaming services”, curate content, manage licensing, and help streamers attract future subscribers — Airlines are giving them a place to win over new viewers. — Ekrem Dimbiloglu spends his days helping decide what people watch …
Discussion:
@kelseymsutton and @kerrymflynn

Japan passes an amendment making “online insults” punishable by up to a year in prison, after the suicide of a reality TV star who had faced social media abuse — Tokyo (CNN)Japan's parliament on Monday passed legislation making “online insults” punishable by imprisonment amid …
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Source: CNN president Chris Licht proposed that staffers use “Trump election lie” or “election lies” instead of “the big lie” for Trump's false election claims — New CNN president Chris Licht discouraged staff from using “the big lie” …
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Study: local Facebook groups that some describe as “toxic” and “racist” have supplanted local newspapers as the default source of information in UK news deserts — Report says people often find online groups more informative than underfunded traditional media
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Reuters:
A Turkish court jails 16 Kurdish journalists and media workers pending trial for allegedly spreading terrorist propaganda — A Turkish court imprisoned pending trial 16 Kurdish journalists and media workers who were arrested after being detained last week accused of spreading terrorist propaganda …

Activists and journalists unveil a street sign for Jamal Khashoggi Way, located outside of Washington's Saudi embassy, a month before Biden's Saudi Arabia visit — (CNN)A portion of a Washington, DC, street will memorialize murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi …
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2022 Digital News Report: the number of people who say they avoid the news has increased in 46 countries since 2017, doubling in Brazil to 54% and the UK to 46% — The pandemic brought a bump in news consumption that now seems to be fading away, Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism …