memeorandum: Biden Admits ‘Who The Hell Knows’ If He Could Have Fulfilled A Second Term (Marita Vlachou/HuffPost)

9:00 AM ET, January 8, 2025

Top Items:

Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Here are some of the horrible things that you can now say on Instagram and Facebook — Meta's policy changes allow calling gay and trans people ‘mentally ill’ while removing a ban on referring to women as ‘household objects.’ … As reported by Wired, a lot of text has been updated, added …

more at Mediagazer »

Matt Lavietes / NBC News:

Meta's new hate speech guidelines permit users to say LGBTQ people are mentally ill — Changes to its hate speech guidelines were among broader policy shifts Meta made to its moderation practices. — Meta will allow its billions of social media users to accuse people of being mentally ill based …

Popular Information:

Meta goes MAGA — On Tuesday morning, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to how the company will handle content moderation across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Each aspect of Zuckerberg's announcement appeared designed to ingratiate the company with President-elect Donald Trump and his MAGA base.

Discussion: The Verge, Daily Mail, Fox News, Lead Stories, Wired, Hollywood Life, The Barbed Wire and Ars Technica, more at Mediagazer »

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Meta surrenders to the right on speech

Discussion: Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Clare Duffy / CNN:
Calling women ‘household objects’ now permitted on Facebook after Meta updated its guidelines

Discussion: New York Times and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

Meta: Hateful Conduct — Policy details — We believe that people use their voice and connect …

Justin Hendrix / Tech Policy Press:
Transcript: Mark Zuckerberg Announces Major Changes to Meta's Content Moderation Policies and Operations

Discussion: Vox, New York Times, Wired, 6abc, Daring Fireball, The Register, New Republic, The Texas Tribune and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »

Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Meta Now Lets Users Say Gay and Trans People Have ‘Mental Illness’

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Jewish Insider

Maegan Vazquez / Washington Post:

Trump says he will rename the Gulf of Mexico. Can he do that? — The president-elect told reporters Tuesday that he wanted the body of water called the Gulf of America, but he provided no details on how the change would be enacted. — Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States …

New York Times:

Trump Blurs Lines in $20 Billion Data Center Announcement and Other Deals — Even before the start of the new administration, there has been repeated blurring of lines between the federal government efforts and Trump family businesses. — President-elect Donald J. Trump …

Discussion: Middle East Monitor, The Register, Breitbart, RedState, Associated Press, Reuters, Fox Business, Bloomberg and The Post Millennial

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Greenland, Panama and Faucets: Trump Conference Shows Hints of Chaos to Come

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, ABC News, USA Today, Politico, Associated Press and CBS News

New York Times:
Trump Floats Using Force to Take Greenland and the Panama Canal

Minho Kim / New York Times:
Why Does Trump Want Greenland?

Discussion: Bloomberg, CNN, Mediaite, Israpundit, Associated Press and USA Today

Rhianna Schmunk / CBC News:
Trudeau says 'not a snowball's chance in hell' Canada joins U.S.

Discussion: True North, IJR, New York Post, BNN Bloomberg, Townhall, NBC News, Al Jazeera, Breitbart, Reuters, Fortune, Fox News and The Hill

Mike Blanchfield / Politico:
Trudeau to Trump on annexation plans: 'Not a snowball's chance in hell'

Discussion: RedState, Mediaite, USA Today, Raw Story, Fox News, New York Times, The Hill and The Guardian

Susan Page / USA Today:

In exclusive sit-down, Biden reveals his biggest regret and the compliment Trump gave him — Interviews like this one have been rare in Biden's tenure. He has held fewer news conferences and individual sessions with reporters than any president since at least Ronald Reagan.

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Mail and The Independent

Marita Vlachou / HuffPost:

Biden Admits ‘Who The Hell Knows’ If He Could Have Fulfilled A Second Term — The president also claimed he would have defeated Donald Trump had he stayed in the race. — LOADING — President Joe Biden was surprisingly candid when asked if he believed he could have served another four-year term in the White House.

Discussion: The Hill, USA Today and Associated Press

USA Today:
Regrets, precedent and legacy: 7 takeaways from Biden's exclusive interview with USA TODAY

Discussion: Axios, The Hill and Fox News

Toronto Sun:

Zuckerberg wears $900,000 watch to announce end of Meta fact checks — Mark Zuckerberg wore a rare Swiss watch worth about $900,000 in a video explaining his company's decision to end third-party fact checking on its social media platforms in the U.S. — Play Video

Discussion: The Guardian, Quartz, New Yorker, The Sun, The Hill, Reuters, Bloomberg, Fox News, Twitchy, New York Post and CBS News, more at Mediagazer »

Oliver Darcy / Status: Zuck's Great Suck Up

Brian Stelter / CNN:
Mark Zuckerberg's MAGA makeover will reshape the entire internet

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Zuckerberg Achieves Trump Lap Monkey Badge And Other Platform News

Benjamin Guggenheim / Politico:

Mar-a-Lago meetings to include an offer on SALT cap — The incoming Trump administration plans to offer an expansion of the state and local tax deduction to Republican lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California who are heading to Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for a sit-down with the president-elect.

Punchbowl News:
1/8/25 ☀️ AM: — Senate GOP to meet with Trump as Thune takes control

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
GOP leaders still giving conflicting guidance on reconciliation plans

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Arno Rosenfeld / The Forward:

Scoop: Heritage Foundation plans to ‘identify and target’ Wikipedia editors — The Heritage Foundation plans to “identify and target” volunteer editors on Wikipedia who it says are “abusing their position” by publishing content the group believes to be antisemitic, according to documents obtained by the Forward.

Discussion: Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Melissa Quinn / CBS News:

Trump seeks Supreme Court's intervention in New York “hush money” case — Washington — President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intervene in the “hush money” case ahead of his scheduled sentencing Friday. — In a request for emergency relief filed with the Supreme Court …

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Examiner and Raw Story

Liz Dye / Public Notice:
Merchan subtweets John Roberts ahead of Trump's sentencing

Discussion: Courthouse News Service, Law & Crime and Blaze Media

Ellen Ioanes / Vox:

What banning medical debt from your credit score actually means — In the final days of its tenure, the Biden administration has banned credit reporting agencies from including medical debts in their reports, aiming to make it easier for people to access credit, including loans and mortgages.

Discussion: CNN, The 19th, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Washington Post, The Hill, Daily Kos, TheGrio, Washington Examiner, Mother Jones, Washington Times, NPR, The Daily Caller, The White House, WCMH-TV and UPI

Madeleine Ngo / New York Times:
Biden Administration Moves to Ban Medical Debt From Credit Reports

Discussion: The Guardian, Associated Press and Consumer Financial …

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

Facebook Deletes Internal Employee Criticism of New Board Member Dana White — Meta's HR team is deleting internal employee criticism of new board member, UFC president and CEO Dana White, at the same time that CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to the world that Meta will “get back to our roots …

Discussion: Music Ally, Fortune, The Atlantic, Mother Jones and The Bulwark, more at Techmeme »

Adam Edelman / NBC News:

GOP-controlled North Carolina Supreme Court blocks certification of Democrat as winner of close high court race — The order allows the state Supreme Court to hear a challenge by the Republican candidate in the race — who trails by just 734 votes — to have 60,000 ballots thrown out.

Discussion: Fox News, Mother Jones, Associated Press, The Downballot, NC Newsline, WRAL-TV, The Federalist, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Examiner, Courthouse News Service, The Hill and Saywhat Politics

Washington Post:
GOP-led N.C. Supreme Court blocks finalizing election for Democratic justice

Discussion: NC Newsline and Daily Kos

Associated Press:

California governor says Pacific Palisades wildfire has destroyed many structures as winds kick up — A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes in Pacific Palisades and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands.

Reuters:

EU will not tolerate attacks on its borders, France says after Trump Greenland comments — The European Union will not let other nations attack its sovereign borders, France's foreign minister said on Wednesday, responding to comments by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on taking over Greenland.

Discussion: Semafor, The Sun, The Guardian and Politico

Bonchie / RedState:

Sunny Hostin Accidently Exposed Her Husband's Alleged Insurance Scam, Now He's a Defendant in a RICO Case — Is Sunny Hostin the most empty-headed person on the planet? That's a legitimate question given some of the things she's said on “The View” over the years.

Discussion: Daily Mail, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, Townhall, Us Weekly, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit and Newsbusters

Zachary Folk / The Daily Beast:

Canadian Politician Fires Back at Trump: We'll Buy Two of YOUR States — THEM APPLES — “How about if we buy Alaska. And we'll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time.”

Discussion: HuffPost and Raw Story

Alan Feuer / New York Times:

Judge Cannon Blocks Release of Special Counsel's Final Report on Trump Documents Investigation — Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee who dismissed the documents case in its entirety this summer, on Tuesday temporarily barred the special counsel, Jack Smith, from releasing the results of his investigation to the public.