Category Archives: Media

Oscars release first shortlists for 2021 Academy Awards

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Boys State, MLK/FBI and Crip Camp among contenders as categories announced include best documentary and best international film

Shortlists for nine Oscar categories have been unveiled by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas), an intermediate stage in the thinning-out of films that have qualified for consideration for the Academy Awards. The categories include best documentary, best international film and best song, as well as best live action and documentary shorts.

The rules for each voting process vary, but in most categories a preliminary vote from industry specialists in each field is employed to create the shortlist and then the final five nominations, with the full membership of the Academy invited to vote on the winner.

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Perfect storm: have the influencers selling a dream lost their allure?

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Social media stars, already under fire for trips to Dubai in lockdown, are now involved in a row over Instagram posts

Makeup artist Sasha Louise Pallari started her hashtag #filterdrop in summer 2020. A social media campaign to discourage influencers promoting beauty products by using filters to exaggerate their effect, it paid off last week when the Advertising Standards Authority banned two tanning brands from using misleading filters on Instagram Stories. The ruling means that in future all use of filters will be more tightly controlled – and, so the theory goes, more “natural” content likely to be seen on social media.

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Two New York Times journalists leave paper over different controversies

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Staff memo said Donald McNeil, reporter who used racist slur on student trip, and Andy Mills, Caliphate podcast producer, departed

Two New York Times journalists have left the paper over separate controversies involving racist and sexist behavior, including its high-profile Covid-19 reporter Donald McNeil, following disclosures about his use of a racist slur while on a company-sponsored student trip.

The departures of McNeil and audio journalist, Andy Mills, a co-creator of the Daily podcast and a producer and co-host of the now partially retracted Caliphate podcast, come amid a wider reckoning across over racism and abusive behavior within American newsrooms.

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Is big tech now just too big to stomach?

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The Covid crisis has turbo-charged profits and share prices. But are the big six now too powerful for regulators to ignore?

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech.

Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the past three months – 25% more than Tesco brings in over a full year.

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Staff outraged at New York Times response to reporter’s racist language

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Letter criticizes handling of complaint that reporter Donald McNeil Jr used racist language while on a company-sponsored student trip

More than 150 New York Times staffers sent a letter on Wednesday to its executive leadership criticizing the paper’s response to complaints from parents that the journalist Donald McNeil Jr had used racist language while on a company-sponsored student trip, and for the handling of the scandal once those complaints were first reported.

“Our community is outraged and in pain,” staffers wrote, adding that despite the paper’s “seeming commitment to diversity and inclusion, [they’ve] given a prominent platform – a critical beat covering a pandemic disproportionately affecting people of color – to someone who chose to use language that is offensive and unacceptable by any newsroom’s standards”.

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Bezos leaves Amazon in its prime – keeping it that way is the task

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Analysis: Running the online retailer should be a dream job, but where and how to grow will challenge Andy Jassy

A pain-free departure of a visionary founder is a difficult trick to pull off for any business. The stakes are even higher for a company the size of Amazon, as Jeff Bezos steps back from his day-to-day management role.

The decision by Bezos, 57, to quit as chief executive later this year took analysts by surprise, but the first step has already gone smoothly, with Andy Jassy appointed as his successor without any public power struggle.

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Harry says Mail on Sunday underplayed gravity of false claim as libel case settled

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Duke settles libel case with paper and Mail Online over stories about his relationship with armed forces

The Duke of Sussex has accused the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online of underplaying the seriousness of an error in a story about his relationship to the British armed forces as the two sides formally settled a high court libel claim.

Harry had sued Associated Newspapers over two articles published in October, which claimed he had snubbed the Royal Marines and “not been in touch … since his last appearance as an honorary marine in March”, citing “informed sources”.

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New York Times ‘disciplined’ top Covid reporter accused of using racial slurs

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Paper says Donald McNeil Jr ‘showed extremely poor judgement’ in using racist language on a Times-endorsed educational trip

The New York Times has confirmed the paper investigated and “disciplined” its high-profile public health and Covid-19 reporter after he used racial slurs during a trip with high school students in 2019.

Donald McNeil Jr, a 45-year veteran of the paper and its lead reporter on the coronavirus pandemic, was accused by a number of students of using the N-word during a Times-endorsed educational trip to Peru. The reporter also suggested he did not believe in white privilege and used stereotypes about Black teenagers, according to complaints filed to the paper, which were reported by the Daily Beast.

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Facebook board set to rule on Trump ban reverses four content removal cases

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Cases included content on Covid misinformation and hate speech, and panel will rule soon on the decision to suspend Trump

Facebook’s oversight board, the “supreme court” set up by the company to relieve Mark Zuckerberg of having the final say over moderation, has issued its first decisions, overturning the social network’s choices on four of the five first cases it has heard.

The cases, all of which were appeals to reinstate content taken down by Facebook, covered a wide range of topics, from female nudity, to Russian-language ethnic slurs, through islamophobia and Covid misinformation. The board’s decisions are binding under the agreement between Facebook and its quasi-independent overseer. Facebook now has seven days to restore content in the four cases where the board deemed it necessary.

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Grindr fined £8.6m in Norway over sharing personal information

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Fine from by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority is 10% of Grindr’s global annual revenue

Grindr has been fined 100m krone (£8.6m) by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority after an investigation revealed the dating app was sharing deeply personal information with advertisers, including location, sexual orientation and mental health details.

The fine is 10% of Grindr’s global annual revenue and is particularly high because of the personal nature of the information shared.

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Wuhan doctor: China authorities stopped me sounding alarm on Covid

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Medic at heart of original outbreak tells BBC documentary staff were not allowed to wear masks despite concern about human transmission

A doctor from the Wuhan hospital hit hardest by the Covid-19 epidemic has said he and colleagues suspected the virus was highly transmissible in early January last year, weeks before Chinese authorities admitted it, but were prevented from warning anyone.

The doctor’s testimony – in a new BBC documentary on the 54 days between the first known case of coronavirus and the Wuhan lockdown – adds to mounting evidence of Beijing’s early attempts to cover up the virus outbreak, and intimidate healthworkers into staying quiet.

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New York Times fires editor targeted by rightwing critics over Biden tweet

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Lauren Wolfe was let go two days after tweeting she had ‘chills’ at seeing Joe Biden’s plane land at Joint Base Andrews

A row has broken out over accusations that a New York Times journalist was fired after being targeted by rightwing critics for tweeting she had “chills” at seeing Joe Biden’s plane land at Joint Base Andrews.

Lauren Wolfe, who had been working as an editor at the Times, posted the message on 19 January, as Biden arrived ahead of his inauguration as president the next day.

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Forbes drops Bermuda trip for entrepreneurs to escape Covid ‘gloom’

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Invitation for people on magazine’s ‘30 under 30’ list is dropped hours after Guardian inquiry

A place on one of Forbes’s “30 under 30” lists has long been a marker of status and potential for a group the magazine has proclaimed as the US and Canada’s “brashest entrepreneurs”.

In a time of global crisis, they were offered an additional reward this week: a month-long trip to a five star hotel and beach club in Bermuda, “one of the most desirable destinations in the world”, to escape from the “monotony and gloom” of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Larry King dies, Tom Brokaw retires – and the ‘heroic age’ of TV news slips further away

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Experts agree the great days of US news broadcasting are long gone, but this week still brought poignant reminders

As Tennyson – and Withnail’s Uncle Monty – had it, the old order changeth, yielding place to new. Larry King, whose death was announced on Saturday, was not the only giant of US TV news to leave the scene this week.

Related: Larry King, talk-show titan who lit up worlds of politics and showbiz

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Larry King, talk-show titan who lit up worlds of politics and showbiz

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The CNN host had a profound effect on American broadcasting – and the heart of the brand was 7,445 editions of Larry King Live over 25 years

A measure of Larry King’s impact on American television journalism was that for three decades, the easiest way of giving fictional cinematic politicians credibility was a scene in which they appeared on King’s CNN show.

His peak year was 1998, in which King, who has died aged 87, shared the big screen with John Travolta as a minimally disguised Bill Clinton in Primary Colors, Warren Beatty as a maverick Democrat senator in Bulworth, and Will Smith in the conspiracy surveillance thriller Enemy of the State.

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Larry King, famed cable news interviewer, dies aged 87

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Broadcaster and celebrity interviewer had been hospitalized in Los Angeles with symptoms of coronavirus

Larry King, the American broadcaster and cable news interviewer of celebrities and public figures, has died. He was 87 and had been hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles with symptoms of the coronavirus.

Related: Larry King: 'The secret of my success? I'm dumb'

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Prince Harry says social media misinformation is threat to democracies

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Duke of Sussex calls for more accountability and accuses platforms of shunning responsibility

Prince Harry has said that “time is running out” for social media companies to address misinformation which he believes is a threat to democracies.

He has called for more accountability for platforms, accusing them of shunning responsibility, and highlighted both the role that they played in the US Capitol riots earlier this month and the treatment of the Rohingya population in Myanmar.

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Facebook’s ‘supreme court’ to rule on decision to suspend Trump

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Former president’s account to remain suspended until board returns a ruling, which could take up to 90 days

Facebook’s oversight board, the “supreme court” set up to have a final say on the social network’s moderation decisions, will rule on the decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account, Nick Clegg has said.

The referral will see the board, which is made up of more than 30 luminaries from around the world including former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, decide whether Facebook’s policies were correctly applied, and whether those policies respect international human rights standards more broadly.

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Google threatens to leave Australia – but its poker face is slipping

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Analysis: tech firm’s refusal to pay news publishers comes as it agrees to do exactly that in France

The biggest companies in technology love an ultimatum but rarely do they spell out their threats. This week, however, Google has done exactly that, telling an Australian parliamentary hearing that a proposed law forcing the company to pay news publishers for the right to link to their content “would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia”.

The threat, from the company’s Australian managing director, Mel Silva, is the latest escalation in a war of words over the proposal, which seeks to undo some of the damage online business models have dealt to the country’s publishing industry.

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Amazon Prime drama agrees to changes after Hindu nationalist pressure

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Director of Tandav agrees to remove scenes deemed to insult Hindu gods and office of Indian prime minister

An Indian political drama on Amazon Prime has been forced to edit out scenes that were accused of being an “insult to Hindu gods”, the first time that streaming platforms have been subjected to Indian government censorship.

Tandav, a gritty political drama made by Amazon Prime, one of the world’s largest streaming platforms, had faced growing controversy since it launched last week over allegations it had “hurt Hindu religious sentiments” and insulted the office of the prime minister.

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