Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

• Rolling Stone | Has Covid Leveled Peak TV? (10 min read)
• Mother Jones | Facebook Manipulated the News You See to Appease Republicans, Insiders Say (9 min read)

• The New York Times | As Local News Dies, a Pay-for-Play Network Rises in Its Place (18 min read)
• The Wall Street Journal | Google Antitrust Lawsuit: Why Is the Justice Department Suing the Search Giant? (8 min read)
• The Markup | The Citizen Browser Project—Auditing the Algorithms of Disinformation (2 min read)
• Press Gazette | Axios CEO Jim VandeHei: Digital media’s ‘crap trap’ is gone… now we face a truth crisis (8 min read)
• The Wall Street Journal | Google’s Exclusive Search Deals With Apple at Heart of U.S. Lawsuit (5 min read)
• Forbes | Despite Claims That More Targeting Means More Relevant Ads, Nope. Here’s Proof. (6 min read)
• VentureBeat | Japan to join the U.S. and Europe in regulating Big Tech over market abuses (2 min read)
• Digiday | ‘Retention has been one of our best stories of the year’: Bob Cohn on steering The Economist through crisis (39 min listen)