SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with Narrativ for voice replicas in digital ads, letting union members add themselves to the AI startup's database and negotiate fees (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)

Mediagazer: SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with Narrativ for voice replicas in digital ads, letting union members add themselves to the AI startup's database and negotiate fees (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)

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: Fox News, The Guardian, Poynter, The Hill, @daveweigel, @atrupar, @jeffjarvis, @danprimack, New York Times, @jayrosen_nyu, @arianapekary, @newsjennifer, @jon_allsop, @drvolts, Breitbart, @metzgov, @lpolgreen, @benjysarlin, @oknox, @jdvance, New Yorker, @daveweigel, Washington Post, Fox News, TIME, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, Washington Post, Mediaite, Politico, New York Times, Associated Press, Politico, The Hill, Fox News, Associated Press and Fox News

Discussion:

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

Tom Jones /
Poynter: When will Kamala Harris meet the press?

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] @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 &

@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

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

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

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/...

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?

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

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.

Jay Caspian Kang /
New Yorker: How Generic Can Kamala Harris Be?

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

Charlotte Alter /
TIME: The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris

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

Axios:

NYT plans to launch a Wirecutter podcast on August 21; its deputy publisher says the brand drove $1B in commerce in 2023 and its newsletter has 2.5M subscribers— - “Wirecutter is not only branching out in terms of its business model, it's also branching out in terms of its platforms,” …

Discussion:
The Wrap, The New York Times Company and Talking Biz News

Variety:

SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with Narrativ for voice replicas in digital ads, letting union members add themselves to the AI startup's database and negotiate fees— Union says agreement sets ‘a new standard’ for ethical use and makes it easy to performers to give consent and get paid

Discussion:
Reuters and SAG-AFTRA, more at Techmeme »

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:
Cord Cutters News, @mattyglesias, @davidlaz, r/television and r/entertainment

Discussion:

Luke Bouma /
Cord Cutters News: Disney Expands Its New Free Live TV Streaming Service to Take on Pluto TV & Tubi

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/...

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 …

Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Jeff German's accused murderer waives further searches of the reporter's electronics, removing the possibility of a fight over access to confidential reporting— Las Vegas LDS Temple decision challenged in court — Ex-NFL player sentenced for death of girlfriend's daughter, 5

Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review

Discussion:

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.

The Verge:

Apple approves Spotify updating its app to show in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the EU starting today, after Spotify's yearslong legal battle— Spotify will begin showing in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the European Union starting today, following a yearslong legal battle against Apple.

Discussion:
Reuters, TechCrunch, BGR and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Jaspreet Singh /
Reuters: Spotify to add price information in its app on Apple devices in EU

José Adorno /
BGR: Spotify can finally show subscription prices in its EU iPhone app after Apple relents

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:

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, CNBC, Ars Technica, Reuters, 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

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

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

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

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

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:

Rob Beschizza /
Boing Boing: Department of Justice considering Google breakup

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

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] @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]

Abner Li /
9to5Google: US DOJ might ask for breakup of Google, like spinning off Android and/or Chrome

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

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

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

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

Discussion:

Liz Wolfe /
Reason: Harris' Deceptive Ad Scandal

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 /