Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, less than three months before the US election, in favor of the Meta Content Library; Mozilla says 50K+ petitioned against the move (Dara Kerr/NPR)

Mediagazer: Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, less than three months before the US election, in favor of the Meta Content Library; Mozilla says 50K+ petitioned against the move (Dara Kerr/NPR)

Top News:

Columbia Journalism Review:

Some journalists call on Kamala Harris to do interviews, which can be useful for stress-testing politicians' positions, though they are not always illuminating— In the three weeks since President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection, the presidential race, you may have noticed …
Discussion: The Guardian, The Hill, New York Times, @daveweigel, @atrupar, New Yorker, @jeffjarvis, @danprimack, @jayrosen_nyu, @arianapekary, @newsjennifer, @jon_allsop, Breitbart, TIME, @drvolts, @metzgov, @lpolgreen, @benjysarlin, @oknox, @jdvance, @daveweigel, Washington Post, Fox News, Washington Post, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, Mediaite, Politico, New York Times, Associated Press, Politico, The Hill, Fox News, Associated Press, Fox News and ABC News

Discussion:

Margaret Sullivan /
The Guardian: Kamala Harris must speak to the press

Michael M. Grynbaum /
New York Times: Kamala Harris Isn't Giving Interviews. Any Questions?

David Weigel /
@daveweigel: Playbook detail I hadn't seen before: Harris has been talking with her traveling press off the record (which Biden rarely did). One reason that you haven't seen as much media grumbling about access - the outlets paying for the plane are getting facetime https://www.politico.com/...

Aaron Rupar /
@atrupar: “It was 2016 all over again today ... the same mistakes are being made” — @lawrence 🔥🔥🔥 [video]

Jay Caspian Kang /
New Yorker: How Generic Can Kamala Harris Be? @jeffjarvis: What “press”? The broken and vindictive Times? The newly Murdochian Post? Hedge-fund newspaper husks? Rudderless CNN or NPR? Murdoch's fascist media? No. She can choose many ways to communicate her stands with others outside the old press and with the public directly. The old

@jeffjarvis:
Look at the press' behavior. When given a chance to ask questions, they sound like they're in a lockerroom, seeking quotes, not policy. This does nothing to inform the electorate. I know the argument about testing a candidate: but the press as currently configured aims for game &

Dan Primack /
@danprimack: 1/ I agree that Harris needs to do media interviews. 2/ It's ironic to see some folks here make that argument, after for years talking about how CEOs and investors should eschew media interviews in favor of “going direct” via this app, etc. 3/ Yes, there's a difference between

Jay Rosen /
@jayrosen_nyu: “Access to a politician should not be seen as the be-all and end-all. What journalists do with their access matters.” https://www.cjr.org/...

Ariana Pekary /
@arianapekary: Another wise take by @Jon_Allsop: “Yes, Kamala Harris should talk to the press more” ...in which he urges the media to be “more considered when we do get access [to elusive politicians], and, in its absence, we can—and should—at least ask for it.” https://www.cjr.org/... @cjr

Jennifer Schulze /
@newsjennifer: Great points from @Jon_Allsop about press access ⤵️ Also worth noting: if Harris had spent the last 3 weeks doing lots of interviews, the press would then be obsessed with something else like why she wasn't out doing ‘real campaigning.’ https://www.cjr.org/...

Jon Allsop /
@jon_allsop: Access isn't everything. But Kamala Harris should still talk to the press. Me for @CJR: https://www.cjr.org/...

Wendell Husebø /
Breitbart: Kamala Harris Denies Time Magazine Interview Request

Charlotte Alter /
TIME: The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris

David Roberts /
@drvolts: @lpolgreen What does it tell you that no one but the reporters who have a professional interest in this seems to think that we'd learn anything illuminating at all from such an interview?

Bryan Metzger /
@metzgov: I'm a reporter, I think it's good when people talk to the press! I get that there's been a roll-out process, but that is now complete. I think they could take some questions on the plane or on the sidelines of any of their rally stops this week.

Lydia Polgreen /
@lpolgreen: As a journalist and a citizen I think it would be very good for the Democratic ticket to sit for big interviews and routinely answer on the record questions from reporters on the trail. It is disappointing that this has not happened yet. But it is not too late to change that!

Benjy Sarlin /
@benjysarlin: Trump is holding a presser today, we interviewed him last week and Vance yesterday and Vance is taking open press questions. Time's just about up on Harris to avoid this becoming a thing.

Olivier Knox /
@oknox: A few thoughts about this. Bear with me. I'll start by saying that *of course* they should be taking news media questions.

JD Vance /
@jdvance: I enjoyed sitting down with three of the major networks today to answer the tough questions any leader should answer. Kamala Harris has done as many tough interviews as Tim Walz has battlefield deployments.

David Weigel /
@daveweigel: Right. Made sense that Harris wasn't doing media during the veep selection (when a bunch of Qs would have been made irrelevant after the selection). But now there's a ticket, there's a press corps — just let em shoot some news of the day Qs on the plane

Jeff Jarvis /
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social: What “press”? The broken and vindictive Times? The newly Murdochian Post? Hedge-fund newspaper husks? Rudderless CNN or NPR? Murdoch's fascist media? No. She can choose many ways to communicate her stands with others outside the old press and with the public directly. …

Joe DePaolo /
Mediaite: MSNBC's Michael Steele Accuses Media of ‘Whining’ About Kamala Harris Not Doing Interviews: Is There a ‘Real Need’ for Them? Associated Press: Vance jokes he's checking out his future VP plane while overlapping with Harris at Wisconsin airport Fox News: Kamala Harris' glowing Time cover dragged by critics: ‘Journos worshipping politicians, terrific’

Elizabeth Crisp /
Associated Press: Trump team seeks to pressure Harris over media appearances

Fox News:
Washington Post pushes Harris to answer ‘legitimate questions’ about her flip-flops, agenda

NPR:

Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, less than three months before the US election, in favor of the Meta Content Library; Mozilla says 50K+ petitioned against the move— Meta has been bombarded by academics, researchers, politicians and regulators about a tool called CrowdTangle, which most people probably haven't heard of.

Bloomberg:

Sources: after Google's monopoly ruling, the DOJ considers options, including forcing a breakup of the company or requiring it to share more data with rivals— - Antitrust enforcers soliciting input from outside companies — Judge ruled Alphabet unit monopolized online search, ads

Discussion:
AdExchanger, New York Post, The Register, Search Engine Land, @ryanbarwick, @mikeisaac, 9to5Google, @ivanthek and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Tory Lariar /
AdExchanger: Who Stands To Benefit In Search Ads Following Google's Antitrust Verdict?

Thomas Barrabi /
New York Post: Justice Department considering push for historic break up of Google after landmark antitrust ruling: report

Matthew Connatser /
The Register: Google brings more Gemini AI features to Android, saves the best for Pixel 9

Danny Goodwin /
Search Engine Land: Report: U.S. considering forcing a Google breakup

Ryan Barwick /
@ryanbarwick: DOJ's search case could lead to divesture of Android and Chrome. Ahead of adtech trial that seems....kinda shocking?? https://www.bloomberg.com/...

Rat King /
@mikeisaac: unclear what the final antitrust action will be and still appeals galore, but woof. there is a potential future in which google looks very different than it does today [image]

Abner Li /
9to5Google: US DOJ might ask for breakup of Google, like spinning off Android and/or Chrome @ivanthek: What does this mean? What monopolistic business practice would this solve? Would a separate AdWords business compete with other yet-to-be-named companies to sell ad space in Google search results? $GOOGL https://www.bloomberg.com/... [image]

NPR:

US District Judge Reed O'Connor recuses himself from X's advertiser lawsuit over an alleged ad boycott; O'Connor held stock in Tesla and Unilever— A U.S. District Judge in Texas has recused himself from a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X days after NPR drew scrutiny to the judge's investment …

Discussion:
Quartz, Reuters, Ars Technica, CNBC, The Verge, Los Angeles Times and Ars OpenForum, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Melvin Backman /
Quartz: A judge who owns Tesla stock has recused himself from Elon Musk's Texas lawsuits

Mike Scarcella /
Reuters: Texas judge in lawsuit by Musk's X against advertisers exits case

Jon Brodkin /
Ars Technica: Elon Musk went judge shopping in ad lawsuit and didn't get the judge he wanted

Lora Kolodny /
CNBC: Texas judge in X's lawsuit against advertisers recuses himself after report he owned Tesla stock

Lauren Feiner /
The Verge: Texas judge who owns Tesla stock recuses himself from X's advertiser lawsuit

Michael Hiltzik /
Los Angeles Times: With lawsuit against advertisers, Elon Musk plumbs new depths of asininity

Washington Post:

iSpot: tech companies have spent ~$196M in 2024 through to August 8 on US TV ads related to AI, which accounts for ~50% of their total 2024 spend on TV ads— There are so. many. commercials for artificial intelligence. — If you watched the Olympics, you probably saw the commercial …

Discussion:
Ad Age

Axios:

The Harris campaign is running Google Search ads with news headlines and descriptions that are edited to make articles from major publishers appear pro-Harris— - According to Google's ad transparency center, the Trump campaign isn't running these types of ads, but this technique has been used by campaigns before.

Discussion:
@edzitron, @eriqgardner, @mikenellis, New York Post, @noahcrothman, @greg_price11, @sarafischer, @sophiacai99, @bariweiss, @mrarenge, Breitbart, @sarafischer and Fox News

Discussion:

Eriq Gardner /
@eriqgardner: I could easily see trademark claims here...

Mike Nellis /
@mikenellis: This is a common practice in commercial, nonprofit, and political advertising. They're clearly labeled as sponsored content by Google. Axios is trying to create a scandal out of nothing. Trump is running a horrible campaign on Google search. That's on his team, nobody else.

Katherine Donlevy /
New York Post: Kamala Harris' campaign team is editing news headlines in her favor — without outlets' knowledge: report

Noah Rothman /
@noahcrothman: “A tough spot??” Is it really agonizingly complicated when a campaign falsely attributes quotes to specific media outlets, even via implication? Would they torture themselves over how to respond to this if it were attributable to the Trump camp? https://www.axios.com/...

Greg Price /
@greg_price11: Seems like a waste of money considering all of those news outlets are already on their side.

Sara Fischer /
@sarafischer: Harris camp doing nothing wrong and Google, which is pretty strict about banning spammy ads, doesn't see it as a consumer harm. News outlets just collateral damage in this weird ads tactic

Sophia Cai /
@sophiacai99: The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads that make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side, @sarafischer writes. https://www.axios.com/...

Bari Weiss /
@bariweiss: Will this count as misinformation? Or nah?

Andrew Arenge /
@mrarenge: The Biden folks were doing this for a very, very long time. The other thing most people probably didn't catch, the Biden team would take local affiliate coverage of their visits and run them ad targeted ads in specific zip codes

Sara Fischer /
@sarafischer: Harris campaign has been editing news headlines & descriptions in search ads that make it appear as if major outlets support her —Google believes its sponsored disclosures are enough to keep voters from being misled, but media outlets may feel differently https://www.axios.com/...

New York Times:

A look at the growth of free streaming service Tubi, which does not require an account to use, is entirely dependent on ad revenue, and is not yet profitable— Tubi has exploded in popularity over the past 18 months, outpacing some competitors with much bigger budgets.

Discussion:
@mattyglesias, @davidlaz, r/television and r/entertainment

Discussion:

Matthew Yglesias /
@mattyglesias: The hot new thing is free television with the revenue coming from ads https://www.nytimes.com/...

David Lazarus /
@davidlaz: This article doesn't mention it, but one secret to Tubi's success is offering decent content without too many ads. Hulu and other ad-heavy services should take note https://www.nytimes.com/...

Columbia Journalism Review:

A look at right-wing lawmakers' media efforts, including guest-hosting Steve Bannon's show and producing content from their offices, like Matt Gaetz's Firebrand— Steve Bannon is in prison, but his show must go on. Lucky for him, there's a Congress for that.

Discussion:
@grammasaurus@mastodon.social

Discussion:

Associated Press:

Politico, the NYT, the WaPo, and others refusing to give details about leaked Trump campaign materials stands in marked contrast to Clinton's emails in 2016— At least three news outlets were leaked confidential material from inside the Donald Trump campaign, including its report vetting JD Vance as a vice presidential candidate.

Discussion:

Ali Swenson /
Twin Cities: What we know about suspected Iranian cyber intrusion in the US presidential race

Kyle Whitmire /
@warondumb: @nycsouthpaw They have a duty to verify anything they've been handed, and that could be difficult. There are big traps to avoid. Everyone right now is pointing to the DNC hack and not to the Steele dossier, which might be a better example.

Hakan /
@hatr: “the questions surrounding the origins of the documents and how they came to our attention were more newsworthy than the material that was in those documents” https://apnews.com/...

David Bauder /
@dbauder: News outlets were leaked insider material from the Trump campaign. They chose not to print it https://apnews.com/...

Ben Smith /
@semaforben: This is a reasonable call (esp if the contents are random clip jobs) but the explanation has gotta included, “we screwed up last time.”

Alex Griffing /
Mediaite: Hacked Trump Campaign Material On JD Vance Leaked to Three Major News Outlets, All of Which Chose Not To Print It

Natalie Korach /
The Wrap: News Outlets Receive Hacked Trump Campaign Material, but Refrain From Publishing

Associated Press:
FBI launches investigation after Trump campaign said sensitive documents were hacked by Iran

Molly Bohannon /
Forbes: What We Know About Alleged Iranian Hack Against Trump: Roger Stone And Biden Staff Also Reportedly Targeted

Ellen Ioanes /
Vox: What we know about Trump's claim that Iran hacked his campaign

Nicholas Riccardi /
HuffPost: Trump And His Allies Once Cheered Hacked Materials. No Longer, Now That They Say He's A Target

Nia Prater /
New York Magazine: What We Know About the Trump-Campaign Hack — The presidential election received yet another twist … The Guardian: The NYT, WaPo, Politico, and others say they received documents stolen from Trump's campaign; Microsoft says Iranian hackers targeted a presidential campaign

RELATED:

Washington Post:
WaPo's Matt Murray says leaked Trump campaign documents “didn't seem fresh or new enough” to publish; Politico says the origins of the docs were more newsworthy

Discussion:
CNN, @washpostpr, The Hill, @willsommer and Mediaite

Discussion:
@washpostpr: “In the end, it didn't seem fresh or new enough.” ➡️Our executive editor @murraymatt spoke with @willsommer about why newsrooms haven't published leaked Trump campaign docs https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]

Brett Samuels /
The Hill: Neera Tanden, focus of 2016 hack, rips ‘double standard’ in coverage of Trump campaign hacked materials

Will Sommer /
@willsommer: Unlike the feeding frenzy over the '16 Clinton hack, media outlets have so far been reluctant to publish Trump campaign documents they received from an alleged Iranian hack. “In the end, it didn't seem fresh or new enough,” says WaPo's top editor. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

Reuters:

A US judge rules that a group of artists can pursue some copyright infringement claims in their lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and other companies— A group of visual artists can continue to pursue some claims that Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI's artificial …

Discussion:

Matt Schimkowitz /
AV Club: AI companies can't generate defense against copyright claims

Sarah Andersen /
@sarahcandersen: A major update in our case, all of our theories of copyright infringement are able to proceed. Onward! https://storage.courtlistener.com/ ...

Kelly McKernan /
@kelly_mckernan: Very exciting news on the AI lawsuit! The judge is allowing our copyright claims through & now we get to find out allll the things these companies don't want us to know in Discovery. This is a HUGE win for us. I'm SO proud of our incredible team of lawyers and fellow plaintiffs! [image]

Winston Cho /
The Hollywood Reporter: Artists Score Major Win in Copyright Case Against AI Art Generators

The Hollywood Reporter:

Memos: Paramount shuts down Paramount TV Studios and begins layoffs of 15% of its US staff, which will happen in three phases, as part of plans to save $500M— Projects at the Nicole Clemens-led unit will move under the CBS Studios umbrella. — Paramount Global is shutting …

Discussion:
Variety, @sherman4949, AV Club, Quartz, Josh Frieder on LinkedIn, IGN, The Desk, Adweek, Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Wrap, Deadline, The Verge and New York Daily News

Discussion:

Brian Steinberg /
Variety: Paramount Global Starts Layoffs, Sees $500 Million in Cuts Before End of 2024

Alex Sherman /
@sherman4949: Paramount Global is shuttering Paramount Television Studios as part of its 2,000 job cuts, which begin today. PTVS has helped make shows including “The Offer,” “13 Reasons Why” and “Defending Jacob” in recent years

Bruce Gil /
Quartz: More bad news for Hollywood: Paramount is about to cut 15% of U.S. employees. Here's why

Josh Frieder /
Josh Frieder on LinkedIn: With PTVS shutting down, the entertainment industry will become even more saturated with talent looking for homes. …

Amelia Zollner /
IGN: Paramount Television Studios Is Shutting Down Amid Massive Cuts

Mark Stenberg /
Adweek: Paramount Shutters Paramount TV Studios as Cuts Continue

Brian Steinberg /
Variety: Paramount Television Studios Shut Down by Paramount Global Cost Cuts

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Paramount Television Studios to Shut Down Due to ‘Significant Changes’ in TV Marketplace

Nellie Andreeva /
Deadline: Paramount Television Studios Shutting Down Amid Cutbacks

Charles Pulliam-Moore /
The Verge: Paramount is shutting down its TV studio as part of a new wave of layoffs

TechCrunch:

SoundCloud launches SoundCloud Store, which helps artists sell merch by creating mockups, producing goods, and listing them, in the US, Canada, and Europe— Music streaming service SoundCloud has launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store. The store will sell SoundCloud-themed items …

Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide

Discussion:

NBC News:

Gideon Cody, the former Marion police chief linked to the 2023 Marion County Record raid, is charged with one count of interfering with the judicial process— Gideon Cody, who resigned from the Marion Police Department, is charged with one count of interference with the judicial process.

Discussion:
Associated Press, @marisakabas2, The Hill, Voice of America, @tlambert895, CBS News, KCTV and Newser

Discussion:

John Hanna /
Associated Press: An ex-Kansas police chief who led a raid on a newspaper is charged with obstruction of justice

Marisa Kabas /
@marisakabas2: Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody has been charged with a low-level felony for something not directly part of the raid. He is the only official to suffer any consequences for the unconstitutional raids. https://www.nbcnews.com/...

Tim Lambert /
@tlambert895: “The single charge against former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody alleges that he knowingly or intentionally influenced the witness to withhold information on the day of the raid of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher or sometime within the following six days.”

Emily Mae Czachor /