For the Record

"Take The Blame":

Verizon announced Tuesday that it would take a $4.6 billion write-down on Oath, the media company formed by the telecommunications firm's previous leadership team from AOL and Yahoo. According to sources, CEO Hans Vestberg intends to focus on the company's wireless initiatives. Oath previously was valued at $4.8 billion. "If you are old you will remember when both AOL and Yahoo seemed as synonymous with the Internet as Facebook does today," Recode reporter Peter Kafka tweeted.

"Anathema to the Values":

Slate's newly unionized writers and editors "have voted nearly unanimously to green-light a strike" as a result of the publication's "insistence on making union fees optional." "We just feel that it’s a total and absolute betrayal of Slate’s most fundamental values," said writer Mark Joseph Stern, a member of the Writers Guild of America – East affiliate's bargaining committee.

"Big News and Upheaval":

The 2019 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards were announced by the Columbia Journalism School Tuesday. PBS's Frontline received the Gold Baton for eight films that "that illustrated how well it both champions traditional documentaries while also forging ahead with cutting edge, adaptive content." Silver Baton recipients include Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's "The Vietnam War," "Our Town" (an episode of This American Life) and Betsy West and Julie Cohen's "RBG."

"Largely Overlooked":

Decades after the heyday of Dick Cavett, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Late Night with Seth Meyers have emerged as vital promotional platforms for poets and authors of literary fiction, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Kevin Young. "I’m a lesser-known writer, so this clearly wasn’t just about clicks for them," memoirist Darnell Moore said of his experience on Noah's program. "It was about them making space for what they believed to be an important conversation."

Under Oath:

In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he "lead[s] this company without political bias and work[s] to ensure that our products continue to operate that way." When queried by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) about alleged partisan bias in search results, Pinchai said, "It’s not possible for an individual or groups of employees to manipulate our search results." Despite reports to the contrary, Pichai denied that Google plans to launch a censored, trackable search engine in China.

"Even Larger":

Washington Post "Fact Checker" columnist Glenn Kessler has introduced the "Bottomless Pinocchio" to signify false political claims that are repeated "so many times that they are, in effect, [...] disinformation." According to Kessler, 14 claims by President Trump (including his assertion that "the United States pays for most of the cost of NATO" and the alleged deportation of "thousands and thousands" of MS-13 members) "immediately qualify for the list."

Truth:

Time magazine has chosen "The Guardians" — including Jamal Khashoggi, the staff of the Capital Gazette and imprisoned Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo — as Person of the Year. "[I]t became clear that the manipulation and the abuse of truth is really the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories, from Russia to Riyadh to Silicon Valley," editor Edward Felsenthal said.

"The Voice We Trust":

The Poynter Institute honored NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and New York Times Company Chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. Saturday at its Bowtie Ball fundraising gala in St. Pete Beach, Fla. "Throughout their distinguished careers Arthur Sulzberger and Lester Holt have demonstrated values that guided Nelson Poynter — the power of independent journalism to help citizens fully participate in our democracy," Poynter Institute President Neil Brown said. (Brown is a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.)

"Unfortunate Activities":

The investigation into potential election fraud in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District has hinged on "old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting and sharp data analysis" from local journalists, including 26-year-old television reporter Joe Bruno and Catawba University political scientist J. Michael Bitzer. "I think in terms of the public consciousness it’s made a huge difference," said former Raleigh News & Observer Executive Editor Melanie Sill. "The reporting has added credibility and intensity to the predictable partisan exchange over whether this [investigation] should be happening or not."

"Secure And Safe":

The New York Police Department and CNN issued an all-clear message late Thursday after an unsubstantiated bomb threat was phoned into the network's New York offices, forcing staff to broadcast from the sidewalk as the threat was investigated. Approximately 20 minutes after the threat was received, President Trump tweeted, "FAKE NEWS - THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!"