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August 11, 2020 
By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles & AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco Good morning. 🇺🇸 Joe Biden has finished interviewing his vice presidential candidates and is expected to announce his choice in the middle of this week, per NYT.
• "Some of the strongest contenders have been Sen. Kamala Harris ... Susan Rice ... Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts ... and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan."
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Bloomberg/Getty 📢 Moving the Market Facebook's QAnon problem
"An internal investigation by Facebook has uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers, that support the QAnon conspiracy theory," according to company documents reviewed by our colleagues Ari Sen and Brandy Zadrozny.
• "The investigation’s preliminary results, which were provided to NBC News by a Facebook employee, shed new light on the scope of activity and content from the QAnon community on Facebook."
The big picture: The findings open up yet another front in Facebook's never-ending fight to police harmful content while maintaining an open platform. Social media companies have been key to QAnon's growth, Zadrozny tells us in an email, and they "are now stuck with the unenviable task of putting the cat back into the bag."
• "This confirms what those of us who have been covering the QAnon conspiracy have long known. QAnon is no longer a fringe conspiracy, it’s a mainstream political movement driven by a dangerous ideology, known to have caused real-world harm."
• Backgrounder: QAnon began around the idea that President Donald Trump was leading a secret war against the "Deep State." It has since been designated as a potential domestic terrorist threat by the FBI, and implicated in armed standoffs, attempted kidnappings, harassment campaigns, a shooting and at least two murders.
What's next: "The investigation will likely inform what, if any, action Facebook decides to take against its QAnon community, according to the documents and two current Facebook employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity."
• "The company is considering an option similar to its handling of anti-vaccination content, which is to reject advertising and exclude QAnon groups and pages from search results and recommendations, an action that would reduce the community’s visibility."
Facebook reax: "Enforcing against QAnon on Facebook is not new: We consistently take action against accounts, Groups and Pages tied to QAnon that break our rules," a Facebook spokesperson said. "We have teams assessing our policies against QAnon and are currently exploring additional actions we can take."
• Tell-all detail: The Facebook spokesperson "asked not to be named for fear of harassment from the QAnon community."
📱 TikTok watch 📱
Over at Recode, Teddy Schleifer profiles Doug Leone, the billionaire tech investor and Trump donor who, as we noted yesterday, is lobbying his administration contacts to save TikTok's business in the U.S.
"The links between Leone and Trump may shape the ending of one of the most complex business and geopolitical stories of 2020," Schleifer writes.
Bloomberg/Getty 🗽 Moving Midtown Mark Thompson looks ahead
The New York Times Company's outgoing chief executive Mark Thompson tells CNBC's Alex Sherman that, while interest in Trump helped fuel the Times' digital subscriber growth, he doesn't foresee a fall-off should the president lose re-election in November:
• "I think a more lively news cycle helps the news business. It always has. But ... our societies have been torn apart by fundamental disruptive forces around social division, globalization, automation, climate change, mass immigration and so on. If you think one election result is going to solve those problems and the news is going to go back to a placid few months in 1958, I don’t believe it."
• "I think the whole world, and America, is just in a wrenching transitional period. After arguably decades of post-war stability, we’re now in this crazy period of uncertainty and tension and anger, and I don’t think the anger goes away."
• "We know, I think, in advance, that the losers of the election in 2020, whoever they are, will not wish to believe the election was legitimate. The battle will go on, the noise will continue. And the underlying issues facing the U.S., same with the U.K. and the rest of Europe, by the way, are very difficult and intractable."
Bonus: Thompson says he'd be "very surprised" if the Times had a print edition in 20 years. "I believe the Times will definitely be printed for another 10 years and quite possibly another 15 years —maybe even slightly more than that."
Alex Trautwig/Getty 🎮 Leading the Leagues Tony Petitti joins Activision
"Tony Petitti, considered by many a likely candidate for Major League Baseball’s next commissioner, is leaving MLB to oversee esports, consumer products, film and television at gaming giant Activision Blizzard," Sportico's Eben Novy-Williams reports.
• The big picture: "Petitti moves from a sport with an aging demographic to a sector of the entertainment world dominated by youth. Gaming and esports reach the exact type of people globally that many in traditional sports are struggling to engage, he said in an interview."
Chicago Tribune/Getty 📺 Talk of TV Land Whither college football?
"The Big Ten is expected to cancel its fall college football season in a historic move that stems from concerns related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic," Detroit Free Press' David Jesse, Chris Solari and Chris Thomas report.
• "Multiple sources said early Monday morning that presidents voted 12-2 to end the season, though the Big Ten said Monday afternoon no official vote had taken place."
• The news comes on the heels of an emergency meeting among the Power 5 commissioners, which included a discussion of canceling fall sports and possibly moving them to Spring 2021.
The big picture: From a media perspective, a fall without college football could deal a devastating blow to the game's media partners, most notably ESPN. Get ready for the collapse of college football, one veteran TV executive warned us, "and huge implications for ESPN."
• The damage? Media analyst Rich Greenfield posits that ESPN could lose $750 million in ad dollars if the season were cancelled outright. Standard Media Index estimates college football accounted for $793 million in advertising at ESPN and its related networks last year — nearly four times as much as its closest rival, Fox.
• The absence of games could also hasten the decline of pay TV subscriptions, which have been falling steadily for a decade and represent a long-term existential threat for the entire industry.
What's next: The Pac-12 CEO group will meet today "and is expected to discuss and vote on how to proceed with the 2020 football season," ESPN's Kyle Bonagura reports.
🏈 What's next: Political football. President Trump on Monday voiced support for the players, coaches and fans who are advocating for the season to proceed as scheduled.
See you tomorrow.
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