Mediagazer: Legal battle for filmmaker Brett Ratner, who stopped working on Warner Bros. jobs last year amid sexual misconduct claims, ends with no money changing hands (Mike Fleming/Deadline)

Brad Kern, a consulting producer on NCIS: New Orleans, has been fired by CBS Television Studios following a third HR probe into harassment and other allegations — A third investigation into the former ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ showrunner has resulted in his dismissal from the CBS procedural and his overall deal being terminated.

Discussion: @moryan, New York Times, @ira, @emilynussbaum, Slate, The Daily Beast, @poniewozik, @bergopolis, @spacekatgal, Vulture, @moryan, @bridgetontv, The Wrap, Variety, TVWeek.com and TV Tattle

Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide:

Filing: Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment bought 68M+ shares in Tencent Music Entertainment ahead of its US IPO for a cash aggregate of ~$200M — MBW has started digging through Tencent Music Entertainment's IPO filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Discussion: CNBC, BBC, Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Billboard, Bloomberg, hypebot, CNBC and Variety

Discussion: RAIN News and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Sony's Ministry of Sound in the UK strikes a deal with Apple Music to provide exclusive playlists starting Thursday, effectively shutting out Spotify — Apple Music and the Ministry of Sound label have struck an exclusive playlist deal that will effectively shut out Spotify, a rep for Apple confirmed to Variety.

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide, MacRumors and @kierondonoghue

Erin Arvedlund / Philly.com:

The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and watchdog outlet The Caucus are joining forces to cover the state with a project called Spotlight PA — At a time of dwindling resources for news, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The Caucus …

Discussion: The Lenfest Institute …, @lisagartner, @bmarimow65, @dangillmor, @pilhofer, @bgrueskin, @angelasink, @swischnowski, @danielrubin, @ericopinion and @dlboardman

David Bauder / Associated Press:

NYT says it shouldn't have assigned Emily Bazelon, a magazine writer who criticized Kavanaugh on Twitter, to story on Kavanaugh's alleged role in bar fight — NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times said Tuesday that it should not have assigned a writer who criticized Brett Kavanaugh on social media …

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, @oliverdarcy, The Daily Caller, @paleofuture, @sparkycollier, @brithume, @conor64, @jayrosen_nyu, @thor_benson, @kfile, @brianros1, @frankjannuzi and @mattyglesias

Rebecca Morin / Politico:

White House corrects transcript from press conference to reflect Trump insulting ABC journalist Cecilia Vega by saying that she never thinks — The White House on Tuesday corrected its official transcript of President Donald Trump's Monday press conference in which he insulted an ABC reporter.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and CNN

Daniel Holloway / Variety:

Sources: Gary Newman is in negotiations with 21st Century Fox to remain with the company and lead Fox Broadcasting post-Disney deal — Gary Newman is in negotiations with 21st Century Fox to remain with the company and lead the Fox Broadcasting through an anticipated transition period.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, MediaPost, TVWeek.com, @smashdawg, Radio & Television …, Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable

Daniel Funke / Poynter:

The Google News Initiative has launched a beta version of a search engine to find fact-checking posts from sources like Snopes and PolitiFact — Google wants to make it easier for people to find fact checks. To do that, the company is building another version of what it's most known for: a search engine.

Discussion: @dpfunke, @dpfunke and @holden

Samantha Cole / Motherboard:

Wikipedia editors have voted to classify Breitbart as an unreliable reference for facts and decided that Infowars should be generally prohibited as a source — Alex Jones' InfoWars and the far-right media outlet Breitbart can't be used as a source of fact in Wikipedia articles anymore, “due to its unreliability.”

Mike Fleming / Deadline:

Legal battle for filmmaker Brett Ratner, who stopped working on Warner Bros. jobs last year amid sexual misconduct claims, ends with no money changing hands — EXCLUSIVE: (Updated with additional lawyers' statement) Nearly a year after she claimed that Brett Ratner sexually assaulted …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and IndieWire

Tim Peterson / Digiday:

TV networks and studios are using chat fiction app Yarn to target younger audiences for their existing shows and to develop new content franchises — TV networks and production studios are turning to text in search of younger audiences for their existing shows and inexpensive options to develop new content franchises.

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:

Singapore legislation, expected to pass next year, will give the government “powers to swiftly disrupt the spread and influence of online falsehoods” — Government hearings in Singapore put Facebook under intense scrutiny and have paved the way for a new fake news law in the country.

Discussion: @venkatananth, @craigsilverman, @mat and @kixes

Joel Pavelski / GQ:

How White House print reporters have turned into professional pundits to meet cable's nonstop demands, including new wardrobes, weight loss, and dental work — Thanks to the nonstop demands of cable news, the ink-stained wretches covering Trump have transformed into tightly tailored professional pundits.

Discussion: @jbendery, @missbeae, @priaribi, @daviduberti, @molliereilly, @joelcifer, @ohheyjenna and The Wrap