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Category: Journalism

Judge imposes sanction on Fox for withholding evidence in defamation case

Judge imposes sanction on Fox for withholding evidence in defamation case

The New York Times reports: The judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News said on Wednesday that he was imposing a sanction on the network and would very likely start an investigation into whether Fox’s legal team had deliberately withheld evidence, scolding the lawyers for not being “straightforward” with him. The rebuke came after lawyers for Dominion, which is suing for defamation, revealed a number of instances in which Fox’s lawyers had not turned over evidence in a…

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NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as ‘state-affiliated media’

NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as ‘state-affiliated media’

NPR reports: NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter’s decision to first label the network “state-affiliated media,” the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries. The decision by Twitter last week took the public radio network off guard. When queried by NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn,…

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Elon Musk brands NPR ‘state-affiliated media’ in policy reversal

Elon Musk brands NPR ‘state-affiliated media’ in policy reversal

Matt Novak writes: Twitter added a warning to NPR’s Twitter account on Tuesday, declaring it as “state-affiliated media,” a label that’s typically been reserved for foreign media outlets that represent the official views of the government, like Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua. In fact, several people on Twitter pointed out that the social media company specifically said that news outlets like NPR are not state-affiliated media because they have editorial independence, despite getting some funds from the government. “State-affiliated media…

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The UK company spreading Russian fake news to millions

The UK company spreading Russian fake news to millions

BBC News reports: The BBC’s Disinformation Team can reveal that a UK-registered media company is spreading Russian state disinformation to millions of people in the Arab-speaking world. Yala News claims to offer impartial news, but BBC analysis has shown most of its content directly mirrors stories on Russian state-backed media sites – and that it actually operates out of Syria. Yala Group, the parent company of Yala News, has a strong social presence. It’s 20 or so Facebook pages are…

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News organizations reject Elon Musk’s demand of paying to keep checkmarks on Twitter

News organizations reject Elon Musk’s demand of paying to keep checkmarks on Twitter

CNN reports: News organizations have a message for Elon Musk: We are not going to pay you for checkmarks on Twitter. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, POLITICO, and Vox all scoffed at the notion on Thursday that they would pay Twitter for the feature, which has been free since it was introduced years ago but will soon be phased out. CNN said it has no intention of paying for Twitter’s subscription service for its…

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The arrest of an American journalist in Russia is awful. For me, it’s also painfully personal

The arrest of an American journalist in Russia is awful. For me, it’s also painfully personal

Margaret Sullivan writes: His face stared out from news stories on Thursday morning, accompanied by headlines like this one in the Guardian: “Russia arrests reporter and accuses him of espionage.” Oh, that’s awful, I thought at first, reflecting that we really are involved in some kind of new cold war, and there is no end to the toll that authoritarian governments will take on journalists. The imprisonment of journalists is at a historic high worldwide; I’ve written columns about that….

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Evan Gershkovich’s arrest means no journalist can feel safe in Russia today

Evan Gershkovich’s arrest means no journalist can feel safe in Russia today

The Moscow Times reports: Russia on Thursday arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges in a major escalation of the Kremlin’s wartime crackdown on independent journalism. After being detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, Gershkovich was formally arrested by a Moscow court in a hearing held behind closed doors. Russia’s State Security Service (FSB) alleged that Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, was involved in the collection of “secret information” about a Russian defense company, state-run news…

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Who’s afraid of ChatGPT?

Who’s afraid of ChatGPT?

Jack Shafer writes: The basest complaint in newsrooms is that AI will “steal” publishing jobs by deskilling work that “belongs” to people. Without a doubt, technology has been pilfering newsroom jobs for more than a century. The telephone increased reporter efficiency by allowing journalists to remain in the newsroom instead of wasting time traveling to collect stories. Photographs replaced newspaper and magazine illustrators. Computer typography displaced make-up room artists, typesetters and pressmen. Answering machines displaced telephone operators and secretaries. Word…

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Matt Taibbi doesn’t get there are reasons to study propaganda information flows, so he insists this must be nefarious

Matt Taibbi doesn’t get there are reasons to study propaganda information flows, so he insists this must be nefarious

Mike Masnick writes: Over the last few months, Elon Musk’s handpicked journalists have continued revealing less and less with each new edition of the “Twitter Files,” to the point that even those of us who write about this area have mostly been skimming each new release, confirming that yet again these reporters have no idea what they’re talking about, are cherry picking misleading examples, and then misrepresenting basically everything. It’s difficult to decide if it’s even worth giving these releases…

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Inside the 3 months that could cost Fox $1.6 billion

Inside the 3 months that could cost Fox $1.6 billion

The New York Times reports: Since 2002, when Fox News first overtook CNN as the most-watched cable news channel, one thing has been as certain and predictable as its dominance: Every time a Democrat wins the White House, the right-leaning network’s ratings take a momentary dip. That happened after the election of President Biden in 2020, too. But the reaction inside Fox was far different than before. There was panic. From the chairman of Fox Corporation on down, executives scrambled…

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The FBI raided a notable journalist’s home. Rolling Stone failed to tell readers why

The FBI raided a notable journalist’s home. Rolling Stone failed to tell readers why

NPR reports: Last Oct. 18, Rolling Stone served up a foreboding scoop: The FBI had raided the home of a renowned journalist at the top of his game months earlier, and he had disappeared from public view. It should have been a coup. Instead, acrimony inside the newsroom over how that scoop was edited led to accusations that the magazine’s brash leader pulled punches in overseeing coverage of someone he knew. The reporter who wrote the story, enraged, accepted a position at…

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‘Morality shouldn’t get in the way’ — Russia’s genocidal state media

‘Morality shouldn’t get in the way’ — Russia’s genocidal state media

Julia Davis writes: When Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s elite propagandists wanted to drink champagne in the studio to properly celebrate the moment. Head of state propaganda agency, RT, Margarita Simonyan, expressed “an overwhelming sense of euphoria” and added: “I’ve been waiting eight years for this . . . it finally happened. This is true happiness.” With the bloody all-out invasion now in its second year, the euphoria has been replaced by a lingering sense of dread, with Putin’s mouthpieces…

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‘We’re all embarrassed’: Inside Fox News as Dominion revelations rattle the network

‘We’re all embarrassed’: Inside Fox News as Dominion revelations rattle the network

Brian Stelter writes: Last month Fox News producers in New York, Washington, and other bureaus were summoned for mandatory training sessions. The topic: libel law. With Fox facing down two defamation lawsuits that could cost the company billions of dollars, management decided to set up lengthy meetings about legal concepts like “actual malice.” That’s what Dominion Voting Systems and another voting technology company, Smartmatic, are trying to prove: that Fox aired lies about their firms while the people involved knew…

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Tucker Carlson used selective January 6 video footage to try and gaslight America

Tucker Carlson used selective January 6 video footage to try and gaslight America

Eric Lutz writes: You know what happened on January 6, 2021. You probably watched it on television that day, when Donald Trump agitated a mob of angry, armed supporters to storm the Capitol. They battled officers, busted through windows, and roved through the halls of Congress, some of them chanting the names of Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. You saw terrified lawmakers, some of whom had helped fan the flames of the insurrection and would later side with it, seeking…

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Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims

Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims

The Washington Post reports: As a reporter and an anchor for Fox News watched Donald Trump supporters gather at a rally in Washington, D.C., after his election defeat in November 2020, they both had some questions. Many in the crowd, said correspondent Rich Edson, “are picking up on the president’s unfounded claim that there was widespread electoral interference and that the election was stolen — no proof of that.” “What do these folks want?” wondered weekend anchor Leland Vittert. “Is…

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Democrats want to cut Fox off after lawsuit revelations

Democrats want to cut Fox off after lawsuit revelations

Politico reports: The thunderclap of stories showing Fox News’ role in pushing 2020 election fraud conspiracies and aiding Donald Trump’s campaign has intensified calls among Democrats to black out the network. The revelations, made public as part of a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems, showed that some network hosts and executives endorsed lies about Trump’s loss, hosted conspiracy theorists whom they thought were unhinged, and overtly prioritized the company’s profit over truth. A related deposition…

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