February 2018

With Memo, Devin Nunes, Once a Scourge of the Hard Right, Becomes Its Hero (New York Times)

Submitted by benton on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 06:38

About 25% of Trump’s Re-election Spending Continues to Go to Lawyers (New York Times)

Submitted by benton on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 06:37

CBS and Viacom, After 12 Years Apart, Again Explore Deal to Recombine

The boards of CBS and Viacom have formed special committees to evaluate a potential merger, a deal that would reunite the two big pieces of the Redstone family’s media empire. Shari Redstone, vice chairman of both companies, is pushing for a merger. She, along with her 94 year-old father, Sumner Redstone, controls CBS and Viacom, with a roughly 80% controlling stake in each company through their holding company National Amusements. Shari Redstone believes both companies need greater scale to better compete against bigger rivals.

House Judiciary Ranking Member Jerrod Nadler (D-NY) calls for emergency FBI, DOJ meeting over Nunes memo (The Hill)

Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Thu, 02/01/2018 - 18:28

Revelations About the FBI’s Delay on Clinton Emails May Be Less Than They Seem (ProPublica)

Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Thu, 02/01/2018 - 18:27

Sen John Kennedy Could Be the Internet's Hero

As Congress considers a measure that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s vote that destroyed Network Neutrality and put the internet’s entire future at risk, all eyes are on Sen John Kennedy (R-LA). Right now that measure has 50 supporters in the Senate — and needs just one more vote to pass.

House Science CommitteeThreatens Subpoena for Kaspersky Documents (nextgov)

Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Thu, 02/01/2018 - 15:13

Facebook's Future Rests on Knowing You Even Better

Less time spent on Facebook could deal a huge blow to Facebook’s once-ironclad business. But the company has a plan to counteract that: It is raising its prices. A lot. Even as Facebook reported that users collectively spent 50 million fewer hours a day on the network in the fourth quarter, revenue during that period increased 47 percent to $13 billion. Facebook pulled this off by boosting the average price per ad by 43 percent.

Who killed Time Inc.? (Columbia Journalism Review)

Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Thu, 02/01/2018 - 15:10

We Need To Shine A Light On Private Online Censorship

[Commentary] In the wake of ongoing concerns about online harassment and harmful content, continued terrorist threats, changing hate speech laws, and the ever-growing user bases of major social media platforms, tech companies are under more pressure than ever before with respect to how they treat content on their platforms—and often that pressure is coming from different directions. There is a clear need for hard data about specific company practices and policies on content moderation, but what does that look like?Part of the answer to these questions can be found by looking to the growing

Benton

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