Julian Assange pleads guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with the US, letting him go free after spending five years in a British prison (Associated Press)

Mediagazer: Julian Assange pleads guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with the US, letting him go free after spending five years in a British prison (Associated Press)

Top News:

The Guardian:

Assange's plea deal doesn't create an official precedent, but he still had to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act for a “crime” outlets commit regularly— Instead of just dropping the case, the Biden administration got a guilty plea and set a dangerous tone for reporters everywhere
Discussion: Reuters, Al Jazeera, Semafor, CNN, Slate, CBS News, New York Times, Bloomberg, @rchusid@med-mastodon.com, The i Paper, ScheerPost.com, Fox News, NewsNation, Press Association, The Daily Beast, Engadget, Freedom of the Press …, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Financial Times, The Wrap, Washington Post and Washington Examiner

Discussion:
CNN: Julian Assange agrees to plea deal with Biden administration that would allow him to avoid imprisonment in US

Charlie Savage /
New York Times: Assange's Plea Deal Sets a Chilling Precedent, but It Could Have Been Worse

Katharine Gemmell /
Bloomberg: How Wikileaks Founder Assange Won Fight to Avoid Prison @rchusid@med-mastodon.com: It is great that Assange is out of prison but by demanding a guilty plea, as opposed to dropping the charges, the Biden administration is damaging First Amendment rights and hindering the ability of the press to report on matters such as war crimes. — https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Michael Day /
The i Paper: Assange release a bold move for Biden after leaks helped Trump win in 2016

Kyle Anzalone /
ScheerPost.com: Assange Released from Prison After Agreeing To Plead Guilty to Espionage Act Violation NewsNation: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stops in Bangkok on his way to a US court and later freedom Freedom of the Press Foundation: Justice Dept. and Julian Assange reach plea deal in case that threatens press freedom

David Greene /
Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF Statement on Assange Plea Deal

Stefania Palma /
Financial Times: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange expected to be freed in US plea deal

Sharon Knolle /
The Wrap: Julian Assange Takes US Justice Department Deal, Avoids Additional Jail Time

Brady Knox /
Washington Examiner: Julian Assange reaches plea deal with DOJ that would grant him release from prison

RELATED:
Associated Press:

Julian Assange pleads guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with the US, letting him go free after spending five years in a British prison— A plane believed to be carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday. Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge …

Discussion:
@wikileaks, The Guardian, US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, BBC, Washington Post, ABC News, @stella_assange, @thomasreporting, Washington Post, CBS News, Committee to Protect …, The Hill, Vanity Fair, New York Times, @jimwaterson, 9to5Mac, The Atlantic, @robertkennedyjr, The Reporters Committee …, ABC7, Twin Cities, @naughtfollowers@threads.net, @mbrauchli@threads.net, @jamesrbuk, @naughtfollowers@threads.net, @jack, The i Paper, @jamesrbuk, @jeffjarvis, @jeremyscahill, The Intercept, ScheerPost.com, Mediaite, Ars Technica, Al Jazeera, Deadline, The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Gizmodo, Axios, Wall Street Journal and NBC News

Discussion:
@wikileaks: JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a

Helen Davidson /
The Guardian: Julian Assange arrives in Saipan for court hearing which is expected to see him freed US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands: General Allegations — Conspiracy To Obtain and Disclose National Defense Information ) ) …

Patrick Reevell /
ABC News: Julian Assange to reunite with family that has only known him in prison @stella_assange: Julian is free!!!! Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU. THANK YOU. Follow @WikiLeaks for more info soon... [video]

Thomas Mangloña II /
@thomasreporting: Assange added in Saipan court, “ I believe the First Amendment and the Espionage Act are in contradiction with each other but I accept that it would be difficult to win such a case given all these circumstances.”

Thomas Mangloña II /
@thomasreporting: Judge asked Assange what Assange did to constitute crime charged: “Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information. I believe that the First Amendment protected that activity... ”

Eric Lutz /
Vanity Fair: Julian Assange, Glorified and Vilified Founder of WikiLeaks, to Be Set Free

Glenn Thrush /
New York Times: Who Is Julian Assange? A Look at the WikiLeaks Founder

Jim Waterson /
@jimwaterson: All international news stories eventually become Flight Radar stories. Looks as though news organisations still have a few hours to get someone to the Northern Mariana Islands. https://fr24.com/... [image]

Ben Lovejoy /
9to5Mac: Julian Assange freed after plea deal agreed with US DOJ

Robert F. Kennedy Jr /
@robertkennedyjr: Julian Assange struck a plea deal and will go free! I am overjoyed. He's a generational hero. The bad news is that he had to plea guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense info. Which means the US security state succeeded in criminalizing journalism and

Amelia Kennedy /
The Reporters Committee …: Reporters Committee statement on Julian Assange plea agreement ABC7:

Julian Assange pleads guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with the US, letting him go free after spending five years in a British prison
Twin Cities: Who is Julian Assange, the polarizing founder of the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks? @naughtfollowers@threads.net: Questions for people? Whats the difference between Will Lewis and Julian Assange? 🤔

Marcus Brauchli /
@mbrauchli@threads.net: Assange has many odious qualities . But the U.S. government's attempt to prosecute a foreign national for persuading a U.S. citizen to give up classified documents that never should have been in a low-level soldier's hands was plainly a failure of U.S. secrets handling more than a case of spying. …

James Ball /
@jamesrbuk: The practical choice Assange faced after years in jail and years in the embassy before it was to take a ‘bad’ deal or face trial and detention in the USA. For the US, this was a chance to save face given Assange's sentence would likely be shorter than time served.

@naughtfollowers@threads.net:
People have super weird blindspots over Assange. Even very smart people who supposedly believe in ethics and morals. Ethics don't mean sh*t if you're willing to jettison them in furtherance of what you think is a higher import. What Assange exposed was important in some instances. …

Kyriakos Petrakos /
The i Paper: ‘Rest, recreation and an autobiography’: Assange's former lawyer on what happens next

James Ball /
@jamesrbuk: Many journalists - myself included - and many who are no fans of Assange said the prosecution was a risk to press freedom. A plea deal doesn't change that, and is something Assange would only agree through sheer necessity. @jeffjarvis: A proper outcome involving a difficult case and person, I think: Julian Assange expected to plead guilty to US charge in deal that could end his imprisonment - court filing https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Jeremy Scahill /
@jeremyscahill: Julian Assange has finally been freed. Until yesterday, there was a strong possibility he would have died in prison and this deal no doubt will anger some very powerful people. He shouldn't have had to plead to any charges but nonetheless his liberation is a moment to celebrate.

Diego Ramos /
ScheerPost.com: Julian Assange Is (Nearly) Free: Live Coverage

David Gilmour /
Mediaite: WATCH: Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Leaves UK After Securing DOJ Plea Deal

Jon Brodkin /
Ars Technica: Julian Assange to plead guilty but is going home after long extradition fight

Denise Petski /
Deadline: Julian Assange To Plead Guilty In Exchange For Release

Brady Knox /
Washington Examiner: Julian Assange reaches plea deal with DOJ that would grant him release from prison

Natalie Daher /
Axios: Julian Assange strikes plea deal with U.S.

Semafor:

In the last month, Sam Stein, Burgess Everett, and now Jack Shafer have decided to leave Politico; sources: Alex Ward and Lara Seligman are leaving for the WSJ— The unfolding internal crisis at the Washington Post has obscured drama playing out across the river in Rosslyn, Virginia.

Discussion:

Dan Kennedy /
@dankennedy_nu@journa.host: People are always trying to leave Politico. Still, it's shocking to see @JackShafer, one of the great voices in media criticism, moving on. I hope he lands in a good place where his voice will continue to be heard. — https://www.semafor.com/...

Dylan Byers /
@dylanbyers: NEW via @maxwelltani: Several top reporters leaving POLITICO: - Alex Ward (to WSJ) - Lara Seligman (to WSJ) - Jack Shafer (to *tbd) + comes on heels of: - Sam Stein (to Bulwark) - Burgess Everett (to Semafor) https://www.semafor.com/... @vruz@mastodon.social: @Mediagazer — It was always a centrist outlet, of course they'd go further to the right during a year of election.

Ben Smith /
@semaforben: End of an era @jackshafer!! And a fitting set of @maxwelltani scoops: https://www.semafor.com/...

Vincent Morris /
@vincentmorris: Big loss for @politico again... all strong journos

Scott Nover /
@scottnover: The end of an era: @jackshafer is the best we have

Leigh Giangreco /
@leighgiangreco: The kicker of this @maxwelltani piece can be summed up by, of course, The Godfather [image]

Max Tani /
@maxwelltani: New from me: In the last month, five major journalists have decided to leave Politico. In addition to some of the names already announced publicly, @alexbward and @laraseligman are leaving for the Journal, I'm told. @jackshafer also confirmed he's leaving https://www.semafor.com/...

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: The New York Times is working to move its top podcasts behind a paywall, with the goal of eventually tying most, if not all, to a subscription service— Publisher plans to limit access to shows like ‘Serial’ to subscribers, cap number of free episodes of ‘The Daily’

Discussion:
@paulconstant.com and @balsam.bsky.social

Australian Financial Review:

Australia's Seven West axes three top executives amid 150 job cuts at the company, as its commercial deal with Meta, estimated to be worth ~$15M annually, ends— Seven West Media chief executive Jeff Howard has lost some of his most senior lieutenants including the head of sport …

Discussion:
Mumbrella, Sydney Morning Herald and Mediaweek

Discussion:

Neil Griffiths /
Mumbrella: Senior execs including CMO reportedly axed in Seven redundancies

Axios:

The Associated Press is launching The AP Fund for Journalism, an independent 501(c)3 charitable organization to raise $100M+ to expand state and local news— - “It will help to sustain what we do, grow what we do, and add new and incremental journalism services for the industry," Veerasingham told Axios in an interview.

Discussion:

Rep. Mike Collins /
@repmikecollins: Just in time for the November election! It's just philanthropy!

Nancy Watzman /
Nancy Watzman on LinkedIn: Did you know that AP got its start back in 1846 when when newsrooms joined together to share resources for covering the Mexican American war? …

Julie Pace /
Julie Pace on LinkedIn: So excited about this new initiative at AP - the next step in the commitment we've made to supporting state and local news across the U.S. since our founding nearly 200 years ago. …

Chris Krewson /
@ckrewson: The Associated Press wants to raise one-fifth of a Press Forward to fund itself...

Paul Roetzer /
@paulroetzer: The frontier AI model companies (@Google, @OpenAI, @Anthropic, etc) should fund this. Save local journalism, which is necessary to a functioning democracy, and do licensing deals to infuse real-time news into AI systems.

Sara Fischer /
@sarafischer: NEW: @AP launching a nonprofit to raise philanthropy dollars for local news — Looking to raise at least $100M initially — The “AP Fund for Journalism” will be a 501(c)3 charitable organization with a separate board More on @axios https://www.axios.com/...

Adam Chitwood /
The Wrap: Associated Press to Launch Nonprofit to Help Fund Local News

Matthew Foldi /
@matthewfoldi: This is a four alarm fire for Republicans The Associated Press—which shared office space with Palestinian terrorists for years—is going to launch an all out war on the GOP with fake news in your backyard @mattdpearce@threads.net: I say this with all the respect for AP in the world. It's the most successful American journalism cooperative in existence — but its durability has been its ability to spread costs around (by purchasing journalists' labor and disseminating their work), not from trying draw from the same philanthropic revenue pool as its members. https://www.cjr.org/...

Joel Simon /
Columbia Journalism Review: The Associated Press finds a new way to combat news deserts

Engadget:

Reddit says it will update its robots.txt “to be as clear as possible” that companies using an automated agent to access Reddit need to abide by its terms— The warning comes after reports that AI companies regularly ignore instructions not to scrape.

Discussion:
Reddit Upvoted, Reuters and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Harshita Mary Varghese /
Reuters: Reddit to update web standard to block automated website scraping

Aisha Malik /
TechCrunch: Reddit's upcoming changes attempt to safeguard the platform against AI crawlers

The Verge:

Q&A with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on updating the company's famous culture memo, its advertising ambitions, bundling, game streaming, AI use cases, and more— The co-CEO who replaced co-founder Reed Hastings details the company's new culture memo, its ad ambitions, and what's next for Netflix.

Discussion:
Business Insider, Next TV, Variety and New York Times

Discussion:

Jaures Yip /
Business Insider: Netflix co-CEO explains why the company keeps increasing prices for ad-free plans

Daniel Frankel /
Next TV: Netflix Releases Version 4.0 of Its ‘Culture Memo’: Shorter New Iteration Provides Some Boundaries to Abject Personal Freedom

Todd Spangler /
Variety: Netflix Updates Its Famous Culture Memo: ‘Netflix Sucks Today Compared to Where We Can Be Tomorrow’

Nicole Sperling /
New York Times: Responsibility Over Freedom: How Netflix's Culture Has Changed

Financial Times:

Polish state energy group Orlen plans to sell its media company Polska Press, acquired under the former right-wing government, to show political independence— Orlen's acquisition of newspaper business under former rightwing government has drawn criticism

Discussion:
@raphaelminder, @j_jaraczewski, @cookcommunicat1, @bdstanley, Telewizja Polska S.A and @staunovo

Discussion:

Raphael Minder /
@raphaelminder: Orlen, Poland's gas and oil company, will sell its “absolutely unnecessary” media company Polska Press. New CEO also pledges to resign if Tusk government interferes in his strategy. https://www.ft.com/... via @ft

Jakub Jaraczewski /
@j_jaraczewski: @BDStanley @pswidlicki I am old enough to remember Obajtek claiming that buying Polska Press will help Orlen leverage big data competences in a mutispectoral environment, or some other nonsense. @cookcommunicat1: Poland's Orlen must be the only oil and gas company in the free world to have owned its own media business...

Ben Stanley /
@bdstanley: Turns out an energy giant *doesn't* actually have a strictly commercial need for a large printing and distribution network that just so happens to make it possible to print and distribute pro-government propaganda.

David Kennedy /
Telewizja Polska S.A: Polish energy giant says its media group is for sale

The Free Press:

Former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who wrote a Free Press essay criticizing NPR, is joining The Free Press as senior editor, after resigning from NPR in April— Is dropshipping a scam? Why did Niall Ferguson's debut Free Press column provoke so many responses? Why are Americans divided on foreign policy?

Discussion:
@mikedrucker, @bariweiss, The Wrap, Mediaite and Fox News

Discussion:

Mike Drucker /
@mikedrucker: Look, I get it. Working for the Free Press is like writing on easy mode. You can say whatever fact free shit you want and idiots will slap their hands together like trained baby seals given a nice treat.

Bari Weiss /
@bariweiss: Thrilled to welcome @uberliner to @TheFP. [image]

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Uri Berliner, NPR Editor Who Wrote Free Press Essay Criticizing NPR Bias, Joins The Free Press

David Gilmour /
Mediaite: Ex-NPR Editor Who Quit After Scorched Earth Essay Accusing Outlet of Liberal Bias Joins Bari Weiss' Free Press

Reuters:

Evan Gershkovich will stand trial for espionage on Wednesday in closed-door proceedings, meaning no reporters, friends, or family will be allowed— U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich will stand trial for espionage in Russia on Wednesday in a court whose proceedings are classified as a state secret.

Discussion:
Voice of America and Talking Biz News

Discussion:

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: WSJ editor Tucker on upcoming Gershkovich trial

Press Gazette:

Fact checkers at UK news agency PA Media and Full Fact say AI content has proved less problematic than expected so far during the country's general election— Fact checkers spending more time on verifying claims made by politicians than on fake AI-generated content.