Axios

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai discussed some of his plans for media ownership and enforcing explicit language rules in an interview with Fox Business Network The takeaways:

Media ownership: Pai said he wants to modify media ownership laws. One major rule he's looking to change prohibits local consolidation of multiple media platforms, like a local newspaper buying a local television station.

Pai emphasized that as the industry continues to be outpaced by the internet, it doesn't make sense to keep them bogged down with regulations.

Explicit language: When asked whether Adele cursing at the Grammy's or Kristen Stewart swearing on SNL is acceptable, Pai stated that he will respond to complaints of explicit language on television as they come. "As long as the rules are on the books we have to enforce them," he added. He didn't say whether he will open investigations into those incidents.

Bloomberg reports that the Kremlin has ordered Russian media "to cut way back" on their complimentary coverage of Trump in light of the uncertainty around whether Trump's administration will be as friendly as they originally thought. The order comes amid the increasingly loud anti-Russian sentiment in Washington, where government agencies are digging deeper into suspected connections between Trumpworld and Russia.

Putin is apparently defending the the decision as a result of Russian viewers' decreased interest in Trump's rise to power, but Bloomberg also points out that some of the most popular TV segments on Trump focus on ideas that Russia would rather not promote, such as Trump's pledge to "drain the swamp."

P.S.: Bloomberg also notes that Trump got more mentions than Putin from Russian state media in January.

Also of note, the media was pushed out of the room when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were delivering remarks, and the the Foreign Minister was not happy about it.

Here's what went down: Lavrov fielded a question about ousted National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, and said, "You should know we do not interfere in the domestic matters of other countries." Then as soon as Tillerson started speaking, the media was signaled to leave the room. Lavrov reportedly turned to Tillerson and asked him, "Why did you shush them out?"

As Bloomberg put it: "awkward."

At 6:34a.m. this morning, Trump tweeted: "Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism - even before tax plan rollout!"

Numbers below:

It's official: POTUS now has best 1st-month stock performance for an incoming WH since LBJ:(via @SPGMarketIntel) pic.twitter.com/8517FnyCDi— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) February 15, 2017

President Trump claims traditional media represent a stronger, more effective opposition party than the Democrats. So far, he's undeniably correct.

This has only a little to do with the Democrats. They have no power in Congress, so no real oversight authority, and few high-profile voices since Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama exited the stage. Rarely do you see Democrats shaping the conversation about President Trump.

It has a lot to do with the media, which was unambiguously anti-Trump during and after the presidential campaign, but is now legitimately hammering away on administration scandals and missteps. A snarling press corps is turning ravenous.

NBCUniversal announced it's teaming with Buzzfeed to produce a TV crime docu-series.

NBCUniversal's production arm and BuzzFeed News plan to create a crime investigation docu-series based on the mysterious death of a Mississippi teen who was set on fire in December of 2014. The series is based on investigative reporting by BuzzFeed News reporter Katie J.M. Baker, whose reports shed light on the case.

Per The Wall Street Journal, NBC says their owned networks, like USA and Oxygen, will get first dibs to distribute the co-produced content, but eventually their content could also be sold to other rival cable outlets or streaming services.

What's in it for Buzzfeed: The series will highlight Buzzfeed reporting helping it establish a reputation as a serious reporting outlet.

What's in it for NBC: True crime is a hot TV ratings bet. In 2016, FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson," Netflix's "Making of a Murderer" and National Geographic's "Killing Reagan" all received high ratings and were nominated and won various television awards.

Verizon has reached a tentative agreement to lower the price it's paying for Yahoo's core Internet business from $4.8 billion to around $4.45 billion, according to Bloomberg. The cut comes after the revelation of multiple security breaches at Yahoo that affected tens of millions of users.

Bottom line: If $250 million is all Yahoo has to give up to get this deal done, then it must be breathing a major sigh of relief. Verizon could have tried to kill the deal entirely, arguing that the breaches constituted a material adverse event. There also could have been questions about what and when Yahoo shared information about the breaches with Verizon.

Donald Trump's critical tweets about specific companies have not caused lasting damage to those companies' stock prices, despite widespread CEO jitters that they could.

Since first being elected, Trump has hurled 140-character barbs at companies that he believes are being unfair toward him (NY Times), his family (Nordstrom), American workers (GM, Toyota, Rexnord) or American taxpayers (Boeing, Lockheed Martin). Axios has examined the relevant tweets, and found:

Short-term: Shares in five of the seven targeted companies were down in the first 30 minutes of post-tweet trading.

Long-term: Shares in six of the seven targeted companies are trading higher today than they were prior to the tweet.

Data: Twitter, Google Finance; Chart: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

Months before Snapchat's parent company publicly filed its IPO documents on Feb. 2, it confidentially sent a draft version to the Securities and Exchange Commission for review.

Why? Because Snap is an example of what the SEC classifies as an Emerging Growth Company, a category created by the JOBS Act of 2012 to ease the IPO process and make stock markets more accessible to more companies.