Good morning.
- Do we now get a Vatican-like puff of white smoke?
If you were watching CNBC, it was like coverage of the College of Cardinals picking a pope. A decision on Yahoo’s fate by its board was imminent! And CNBC’s David Faber cited anonymous sources saying Yahoo is going to do a 180-degree turn: It won’t spin off its $30 billion holding in Chinese e-commerce goliath Alibaba due to ambiguities over the IRS consequences. (CNBC) The financial press quickly regurgitated CNBC’s anonymous sources, with Bloomberg adding that the related decision to mull the sale of Yahoo’s famous Internet businesses is a big loss for CEO Marissa Mayer. (Bloomberg) Reuters also ran a story based on CNBC’s anonymous sources that had one quick taker, namely Yahoo, which ran it (discreetly) in its finance channel. (Yahoo) USA TODAY also parroted the report and even included a screen grab of Faber. (USA TODAY) If Yahoo does indeed ditch the spinoff notion and sells its core operations, that’s a stunningly ignominious scenario tipped several days earlier by Re/code. (Re/code)
- More money for VICE
As Yahoo licks its wounds, The Walt Disney Co. invested an additional $200 million in VICE Media and thus owns about 10 percent of the Brooklyn, New York company that’s now also planning its own cable network. When you’re hot, you’re hot. (Los Angeles Times)
- Diane Rehm to step down
The host of public radio’s longest-running news and policy gabfest will end her run on Washington’s WAMU-FM after the presidential election. The star of “The Diane Rehm Show” has been on the air for nearly 40 years. The two-hour show is carried on 197 stations. (The Washington Post) She’s had quite a run and it may well be time.
- Bitcoin creator outed, then raided
It falls short of finally identifying Jack the Ripper or who did in Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. But Gizmodo and WIRED each identified the same fellow as Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym), the elusive creator of bitcoin. WIRED claims it was first in saying he’s Craig Steven Wright, a 44-year-old Australian. Newsweek last year disastrously misidentified a man whose real name is Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto. (Newsweek) But is this really a definite deal? Deep in its long disclosure, WIRED offers this qualifier: “Despite that overwhelming collection of clues, none of it fully proves that Wright is Nakamoto. All of it could be an elaborate hoax – perhaps orchestrated by Wright himself.” Well, if that’s true, it didn’t do Wright much good since Australian cops raided his Sydney home today after the outing and referred all press inquiries to tax authorities. (The New York Times) It wasn’t clear if he’d been arrested or charged with anything but, if it’s him, it’s assumed he’s got a whole lot of bitcoins.
- Another home game for the GOP
Fox Business Network will get to host another Republican presidential debate on Jan. 14 in Charlestown, South Carolina. We’ve had four GOP tussles so far with at least eight more in the works. (Fox Business Network)
- Do TV executives deserve blame for our Trump mess?
Amid the latest furor over Trump’s immigration remarks, he was on ABC, CNN and MSNBC, among other media outlets. It prompts The New Yorker’s John Cassidy to offer a thoughtful rumination on dealing with both free speech imperatives in a democracy and giving de facto, ratings-grabbing carte blanche to a demagogue. Is there a way to prevent Trump from dominating TV news that doesn’t block him from airtime entirely? There are a bunch of tough, related questions on free speech and coverage. Cassidy’s not sure ultimately, “but it would be reassuring if there were more evidence that senior people in journalism, particularly at the TV networks, were grappling with them. As Trump has maneuvered his way to his current position, the G.O.P. isn’t the only prominent American institution that has been in denial about its role in enabling him.” (The New Yorker) Well, whether or not anybody’s doing any grappling, bet that some will gleefully show this morning’s New York Daily News cover, an illustration of Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. (Daily News) Ah, subtlety!
- Apple hits “Pause”
It’s stepping back from its plan for live TV via the Internet as an alternative to cable and satellite packages that many may not want in their totality. It’s been talking to broadcasters for a long time. (Bloomberg)
- Kevin Durant, media critic
The soft-spoken NBA superstar thinks the press has been way too hard on Kobe Bryant, who just announced this is his last season. But some media folks have bashed Durant as another jock shill. Here’s a defense of Durant: “If writers challenge Bryant’s legacy, arguing that he’s an ego-driven ball hog, or that he’s milking his playing days for profit, so be it. Durant is at least entitled to disagree.” (CJR)
- Print folks, clone this guy
The digital horse is so far out of the barn, you need NASA to track it, correct? Well, Pablo Del Campo, the worldwide creative director at giant Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, suggests the advertising world has gone a bit too far with digital boosterism, reports Ad Age: “We are seduced by digital media and it’s not necessarily because it’s more effective,” he told The Australian in an interview during a gathering at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a large advertising confab. “I feel it’s because it’s new.” (Poynter) Hmmmm. Hey, maybe he’ll tell tell Disney to stop writing out giant checks to VICE Media.
- NPR’s very, very modest diversity improvement
NPR has been seeking to jack up gender, geographical, racial and ethnic diversity of the voices heard on air. “The news is mixed.” (NPR Ombudsman) In the past year, there’s been a solid hike in black sources, not much of an increase in female sources and “virtually no change in the share of Latino sources.” When it comes to listeners, “8 percent of NPR listeners are Latino, 7 percent are black and the vast majority of the rest are white.” Still, one executive says he’s “profoundly optimistic” about overall diversity results. Again, “profoundly optimistic.” Imagine his optimism if they ever find a few Latino experts in a country of only 319 million.
- Deadly dangling modifiers
Get out your No. 2 pencil, class. The paper of record (not you quite yet, Washington Post) concedes that Grammar Nazis (OK, it calls them “grammar police”) often debate how heinous dangling modifiers are. (The New York Times) But it notes some recent examples that it says should have been caught by its army of adroit editors, including this: “After spending $600,000 to acquire the Biel property, expensive emergency repairs had to be made to replace the leaky roof, repoint the 300-year-old stone walls and seal the windows and doors with plywood, a protection against the weather, and local teenagers.” Yes, yes, we get it. Who spent $600,000? Now, class, your homework for tomorrow is…
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Amy Emmerich is now chief content officer at Refinery29. Previously, she was executive vice president of programming there. (Email) | Jon Comulada is now a writer at Upworthy. Previously, he was a freelancer there. (Email) | Jackie Bischof is now deputy talent lab editor at Quartz. Previously, she was a digital editor for Newsweek. (Email) Chase Purdy is now a reporter at Quartz. Previously, he was a reporter for POLITICO. Joon Ian Wong is now a technology correspondent for Quartz. Previously, he worked at CoinDesk. (Fishbowl NY) | Job of the day: The Los Angeles Times is looking for a California politics editor. Get your resumes in! (Poynter) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
Corrections? Tips? Please email me: jwarren@poynter.org. Would you like to get this roundup emailed to you every morning? Sign up here.
