Mediagazer: A look at AI chatbot Smart Answers that Foundry trained only on Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive content, and offered to their readers on August 1 (Mia Sato/The Verge)

8:20 AM ET, August 28, 2023

Top News:

Mia Sato / The Verge:

A look at AI chatbot Smart Answers that Foundry trained only on Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive content, and offered to their readers on August 1 — By and large, the goal has been: can we make more pages for ads without paying more writers? — Now, a group of tech outlets …

Discussion: @mr_existant, more at Techmeme »

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

Sources: the Barclay family launched a proposal last week to regain control of the Telegraph newspaper group by buying back ~£1B of debt from the Lloyds group — The titles' former owners have secured backing from Middle Eastern investors to table an offer to Lloyds Banking Group worth more than £500m, Sky News learns.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Telegraph and The Guardian

Michael Geist:

Canada's Bill C-18 is set to take effect no later than December 19, 2023, but the country's broadcast regulator suggests media bargaining can't begin until 2025 — The Bill C-18 legislative process was marked by repeated warnings from the government that this was an urgent issue that justified …

Discussion: @wiredwoman, @pagmenzies, @mgeist and @mgeist

David Bauder / Associated Press:

A NORC survey finds a substantial rise in philanthropy for journalism over the past five years and suggests outlets tighten ethical rules governing the spending — There has been a “substantial” increase in philanthropic spending for journalism over the past five years …

Discussion: @raju, @mpanewspapers, MediaPost, @jeffjarvis, @spj_tweets, Media Impact Funders and ONA Student Newsroom

Washington Post:

How roiling tensions among a few community members in Marion, Kansas set in motion the police raid on Marion County Record that made headlines around the world — MARION, Kan. — The phone conversation between the journalist and the town's newly hired police chief quickly turned contentious.

Discussion: @craigawelch, @marisakabas2, @pauldemko, @coreyhutchins, @washingtonpost, @ruralj, @lewserviss, @amyargetsinger, @ericgarland, @chrisbohjalian, @farhip, @jayrosen_nyu, @_r_o_n_e_, @ZhiZhu@newsie.social, @JaneRLaForge@mstdn.social and Marion County RECORD

Sherman Smith / Kansas Reflector:
Marion County Sheriff's Office agrees to destroy the files that the police copied from the Marion County Record's computers and illegally kept on a flash drive

Discussion: New York Post, Marion Mayor, David Mayfield, @lawsuitsdevin, @sherman_news, @pressfreedom, Columbia Journalism Review, @black_intellect@mstdn.social and Voice of America

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Emails: after the Pentagon complained, Fox News quietly amended and removed a story falsely claiming a dead Marine's family had to pay to transport her remains — The network quietly removed the story based on false claims from a congressman but did not apologize or run a correction

Discussion: Mediaite, CNN, @davidfolkenflik, The Week, The Wrap, @jamessurowiecki, @wilson__valdez, @farhip, @maxboot, @johnjharwood, @billkristol, @jjohnsonlaw, @snlyngaas and Boing Boing

Karolle Rabarison / Online Journalism Awards:

The 2023 Online Journalism Awards winners include The Washington Post, The Marshall Project, Honolulu Civil Beat, The Pudding, and Argentina-based La Nacion — Winners across 23 categories were announced on Aug. 17 during a virtual celebration hosted by Imaeyen Ibanga, Presenter …

Discussion: @columbiajournma, @rachellobdell, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona, @ona and ONA Student Newsroom

Ann M. Simmons / Wall Street Journal:

Lawyers for jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appeal a Moscow court's decision to extend his pretrial detention until November 30, 2023 — Appeal follows Moscow court's decision to keep the Wall Street Journal reporter behind bars until at least Nov. 30 while he awaits trial

Discussion: Business 2021, New York Post, Associated Press, Mediaite, Reuters, The Hill, Talking Biz News and ONA Student Newsroom

Wes Davis / The Verge:

Linus Tech Tips founder Linus Sebastian addresses the theft allegations and ethical missteps, but not sexual harassment claims, that prompted a production pause — Linus Media Group (LMG) founder Linus Sebastian explained LMG's HR policies and how it will improve accuracy and ethics in a video posted to YouTube last night.

Discussion: @thiojoe, @dexerto, @a_mrbenmitchell, @linustech, Sportskeeda, Dexerto, Sportskeeda, Linus Tech Tips on YouTube, r/LinusTechTips, r/LinusTechTips, r/LinusTechTips, r/LinusTechTips, r/LinusTechTips, r/LinusTechTips, r/LinusTechTips and r/LinusTechTips, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:

How Meta and YouTube, battered by content moderation wars, are following X in retreating from policing political misinformation, raising US 2024 election fears — Facebook and YouTube are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories ahead of the 2024 presidential election

Josh Ye / Reuters:

Source: Tencent Music, NetEase's Cloud Music, and others cut streaming features like virtual lucky draws at a hefty cost, amid China's online gambling crackdown — Chinese online content platforms including Tencent Music (1698.HK) and NetEase's Cloud Music (9899.HK) have removed live streaming features …

Discussion: @byjoshye, @byjoshye, TechNode, Music Ally and Digital Music News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube offers insights meant to guide Shorts creators, including how the Shorts algorithm differs from long-form YouTube's algorithm and what counts as a view — YouTube this week put out a new video meant to address creators' questions over its short-form video platform, YouTube Shorts.

Discussion: Brightcove, @youtubeliaison, Creator Insider on YouTube, Fede Goldenberg on LinkedIn, YouTube Official Blog, Tubefilter, Social Media Today and MediaPost

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 8:20 AM ET, August 28, 2023.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

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:

Raksha Kumar / Reuters Institute:
Q&A with Kashmir Times Executive Editor Anuradha Bhasin on India blocking The Kashmir Walla's website, the government's push to turn the media into PR, and more

Discussion: @brownpundit

Stephen King / The Atlantic:
Stephen King reflects on his books being used for AI training, arguing the sum is lesser than its parts, so far, as creativity can't happen without sentience

Discussion: @galbeckerman, @sstossel, @lmatsakis, @theatlantic, Gizmodo, Insider, @catcheronthesly, @neilturkewitz and @bcmerchant, more at Techmeme »

Reggie Ugwu / New York Times:
Netflix offers its rental-by-mail subscribers their final batch of DVD or Blu-ray discs and up to 10 movies to keep before closing the service on September 29

Discussion: New York Post, Insider, Media Play News, @jessimckenzi, The Atlantic and Forbes

Earlier Picks:

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
YouTube plans to let creators upload podcasts via an RSS feed by the end of 2023 and add podcasts to YouTube Music in more countries through the end of 2023

Discussion: TechCrunch, @simli.bsky.social, Android Police and Podnews

Jimmy Vielkind / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the FBI and German investigators are probing the possible poisonings of two Russian journalists and a Russian activist

Discussion: Reuters, The i Paper, The Daily Beast and Los Angeles Times

Ariel Bogle / The Guardian:
The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, and other outlets block OpenAI's GPTBot web crawler from accessing their content; some have also blocked Common Crawl's CCBot

Discussion: @rafat, @mastermaq, @stevesi, @daveleebbg, @hayskali, The Information, Search Engine Land, @carnage4life@threads.net, Bloomberg, @ProfJohanna@mastodon.online, @carnage4life@mas.to and MIT Technology Review

From Techmeme:

Meta:
Meta launches Llama 4 Maverick with 400B parameters and Scout with 109B parameters and a 10M context window, and previews Behemoth with 2T total parameters

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
In backing Trump, effective accelerationists like Musk and Andreessen got a “Decel-in-Chief”, who instigated a brain drain and tariffs that hurt tech companies

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils a demo of Quake II generated using its Muse AI model, with limited playability in a browser, as part of the company's Copilot for Gaming push

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