Skip to main content

Media Bits and Bytes – October 4, 2022

Journalists pay the price when they report the truth

Katie Halper went too far for The Hill TV. Credit, Informed Comment
  1. Gonzalez v. Google
  2. The Draining of NPR
  3. Trevor Noah Leaving The Daily Show
  4. Big Tech and Election Lies
  5. How The Hill TV Dispatched an Israel Critic
  6. Saving Local News
  7. Washpost Under Bezos
  8. Jailed After Reporting Mahsa Amini’s Murder
  9. Delivery Drone Danger in Oz
  10. Elon Musk’s Damning Texts

 

Gonzalez v. Google
By Alison Durkee
Forbes

The Supreme Court will consider to what extent tech companies can be held legally liable for the content that gets published on its platforms. The court will take up a case that concerns whether Google was in the wrong for recommending YouTube videos that helped encourage ISIS recruitment, and by extension a separate case brought by Twitter over similar content.

The Draining of NPR
By Cody Kava
Current Affairs 

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

National Public Radio began as a scrappy institution featuring the voices of average Americans. Today it’s a sterile, inoffensive corporate product that is produced, funded, and consumed by a narrow demographic of highly educated liberals.

Trevor Noah Leaving The Daily Show​​​​​​
By Brian Steinberg and Matt Donnelly
Variety

The comedian, who came out of near anonymity to take over the program from Jon Stewart in 2015, plans to exit the flagship Comedy Central series after a seven-year tenure that saw him transform it for a new generation of viewers who are more at home on social media than they are cable outlets and broadcast networks.

Big Tech and Election Lies
By
Amy Kroin
Free Press

You might think that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol had taught tech companies the dangers of election disinformation. You would be wrong.

How The Hill TV Dispatched an Israel Critic
By Juan Cole
Informed Comment

Talk show host Katie Halper recorded a segment defending Rashida Tlaib’s accurate portrayal of Israel’s government, but tech titan Nexstar refused to run it. Then they fired her.

Saving Local News
By 
Amy Kroin and Mike Rispoli
Common Dreams

The news crisis is prompting lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels to examine how to use public policy to keep communities informed. The most promising solutions look at how public dollars can be used to meet community-information needs, cultivate new models for journalism and address the widening gaps resulting from the destruction of local commercial media.

Washpost Under Bezos
By Dan Froomkin
Columbia Journalism Review

Bezos’s money changed everything, bulking up the newsroom, revolutionizing its technology, and firmly reestablishing it as a dominant voice in the national media. But the conflicts of interest are self-evident. Pretty much every public-policy issue the Post covers affects Bezos’s sprawling personal and business interests in material ways. 

Jailed After Reporting Mahsa Amini’s Murder​​​​​​
By Alex MacDonald
Middle East Eye

Niloofar Hamedis reporting of the Iranian police's apparent brutality sparked nationwide protests, but her voice has largely been forgotten after being arrested for her work.

Delivery Drone Danger in Oz
By Lauren Leffer
Gizmodo

An Alphabet-owned Wing drone “incinerated itself” after it became entangled in power lines in Brisbane, Australia, Leaving thousands without electricity. On the bright side, the food stayed hot.

Elon Musk’s Damning Texts
By 
Amanda Silberling and Taylor Hatmaker
TechCrunch

Here are some of the cringiest revelations in the Elon Musk text dump. A new, particularly juicy document surfaced in discovery leading up to the Elon Musk v. Twitter trial.