By Miriam Raftery

April 4, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) - Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter are taking steps to combat bots, or automated accounts that have been used to spread Russian propaganda, influence U.S. politics, spreading fake news stories as well as inflammatory posts intended to divide Americans on issues such as race relations and gun control.

Update February 7:  TRONC announced today that the San Diego Union-Tribune and Los Angeles Times have been sold to Nant Technologies LLC, a private investment company owned by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, for $500 million cash plus $90 million in pension liabilities.

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: UCLA

February 6, 2018 (San Diego) – Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire, is in negotiations to buy the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times from TRONC, formerly known as Tribune Media, the Los Angeles Times reports. The would-be media mogul currently owns a 28 percent stake in the company.  

Bombshell story from Gizmodo underscores need for FCC to address serious issues with its public comment process before making any decision on net neutrality. 15,000+ people call on lawmakers to demand that FCC comply with transparency laws

Source:  Fight for the Future

August 7, 2017 (Washington D.C.) --In a bombshell story from Gizmodo today, a former FCC security employee lays waste to the agency’s claims that a pair of DDoS attacks took down the FCC comment website at the exact moments when large amounts of pro net neutrality comments would have been flooding into the docket following viral segments from comedian John Oliver in 2014 and 2017. The agency’s inability to maintain a functional way for the public to comment on its net neutrality proceedings has become an issue of concern for members of Congress overseeing the agency, and raises questions about how it can or should move forward with its rulemaking process.

By Miriam Raftery

February 19, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – President Donald Trump has raised disturbing comparisons to notorious dictators and to disgraced President Richard Nixon with his unjustified attacks on respected, established media outlets as “fake news” and his repeated denouncements of  “dishonest media.”  

Worse yet, Trump’s tweet this week calling media an “enemy of the American people” has drawn sharp criticisms from  a Fox News anchor, his own Secretary of Defense, Republican Senator John McCain, and Carl Bernstein, the reporter whose investigation exposed the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Updated to include clarification from  SDG&E that its sponsorship was short-term,  not long-term.

East County Magazine

By Miriam Raftery

September 19, 2016 (San Diego) — Last week, the San Diego Union-Tribune rolled out a much-touted revamp of its website featuring San Diego Gas & Electric, a division of Sempra Energy, as its only sponsor.  The deal allows SDG&E to reach news readers directly with messages such as energy saving tips, but also poses potential conflicts of interests for San Diego’s largest newspaper.

SDG&E spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan has clarified that the sponsorship was only for two days, not an ongoing sponsorship. She added thiis perspective on the sponsorship: