FF 09: May 11th, 2017 News and Chat About the U.S. News Media

In the News

Politicians on both sides of the aisle and much of the U.S. news media spent most of Wednesday speculating about why President Trump dismissed James Comey as the FBI Director.  Much of the speculation and assumptions involved Russia.

Meanwhile, the White House deputy press secretary stated that the President lost confidence in Directory Comey and considered letting him go since the day he was elected.  The President then tweeted on Wednesday that, “ Dems have been complaining for months & months about Dir. Comey. Now that he has been fired they PRETEND to be aggrieved. Phony hypocrites!”

In International News

A Syrian rebel group named the Syrian Democratic Forces took control of the city of Tabqa and a nearby dam from ISIS control.  The rebel group is comprised of mostly Kurdish and Arab fighters.  The spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve stated that the rebel group and coalition forces will continue operations to isolate and seize Raqqah.  

Just a reminder to check out Monday’s and Tuesday’s show for some informative context about Syria.

In Business News

Snap (also knows as SnapChat) reported its first quarterly financials as a public company yesterday.  The stock was down over 20% in after hours trading after it was reported that the company’s net losses increased to $2.2 billion.  Revenue was $150 million versus the $158 million that some analysts expected.

Snap Inc.:  https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-outline.aspx?FilingId=12056447&Cik=0001564408&PaperOnly=0&HasOriginal=1

On Tuesday, Disney reported their quarterly earnings.  Earnings per share was $1.50 versus an analyst's’ expectation of $1.41.  However, Disney missed on revenue slight with $13.34 billion versus the expected $13.45.  Operating income for the Parks and Resorts saw a 20% increase versus the same period last year.  However, Media Networks saw a 3% decrease year over year for the quarter.  

The Walt Disney Company:  https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-outline.aspx?FilingId=12056447&Cik=0001564408&PaperOnly=0&HasOriginal=1

In Tech News

Google announced that it is acquiring Owlchemy Labs which is a virtual reality focused studio.  Owlchemy made the Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality.   

You can learn more about Owlchemy in their blog post announcing the Google acquisition.

“Owechemy Labs and Google join forces for the future of VR”:  http://owlchemylabs.com/owlchemy-labs-and-google-join-forces/

The Federal Communications Commission endured several distributed denial of service attacks to its website early in the week as the site’s comment system was bombarded with high traffic, likely bots attempting to overwhelm the system.  The system remained functioning, but the servers were too busy handling the traffic for actual people to leave their real comments regarding proposed changes to the net neutrality rules.

To learn about cyber security, listen to yesterday’s show with our guest from the CyberWire podcast.

Facebook is reporting that they are beginning to downplay links to posts that are primarily advertisements and not valuable content.  Posts or articles that have ads about losing weight overnight, fighting toenail fungus, or how to be better in bed are just a few examples of the click bait and spam that Facebook wants to rank lower.

In Other News   

Pew Research just released a report titled, “Americans’ Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines.”  One of the most revealing data points in the report is that Democrats are 47 points more likely than Republicans to support news media’s watchdog role.

Additionally, only 34% of Democrats and 11% of Republicans think that information from national news organizations is very trustworthy.  

Pew Research: http://www.journalism.org/2017/05/10/americans-attitudes-about-the-news-media-deeply-divided-along-partisan-lines/