Mediagazer: MOST RECENT RICHEST DEAL; Paramount Gets Sacha Baron Cohen Film … (Deadline.com)

3:05 PM ET, April 24, 2010

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Jon Stewart of ‘The Daily Show’ Takes On Fox News — George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are long gone. Fox News Channel is Jon Stewart's new enemy No. 1. — Last week that comedian did something that the hosts of “Fox & Friends,” the morning show on Fox News, did not do …

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Writers Guild Explores Rules for Uncharted Online Video World — SAN FRANCISCO — The Writers Guild of America, the big trade union representing film and television writers, is developing rules around writing original online video content. — Spearheading the effort is Tamara Krinsky …

Deadline.com:

MOST RECENT RICHEST DEAL; Paramount Gets Sacha Baron Cohen Film (After Actor & Agency Get Studio's Goats) — BREAKING NEWS! UPDATE 11:30 AM: Paramount and agencies are now threatening to send those goats to us if we write any of this. But here goes anyway: as comedians like to say …

Discussion: FirstShowing.net, The Playlist and New York Magazine

Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:

Google highlights fair use defense to YouTube takedowns — Google has improved highlighted its ContentID copyright enforcement system for YouTube, a “fair use” button for people who've had their videos taken offline (like all those people who created Hitler/Downfall parodies).

Discussion: Google Public Policy Blog and VentureBeat

Brian Steinberg / AdAge:

Cable Channel's User-Created TV Spot Goes National — Viewer's Ad for SunChips Brand Chosen From Contest on Current — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Cable-channel Current has long encouraged its viewers to create their own commercials for the channel's advertisers.

Deborah Potter / NewsLab:

Is the TV package outdated? — Consider this: at many local television stations, reporters cover two or more stories a day and never turn a package. Former news director Geoff Roth, who now teaches at Hofstra University, says the trend toward covering the news with live shots and v/o's or v/o-sots is not going away.

The National Union of Journalists:

Johnston Scarborough journalists to strike on Friday — Journalists employed in Yorkshire by the Johnston Press Group at Scarborough, Whitby and Malton are taking strike action next Friday (April 30) in the NUJ dispute with the group over the introduction of the Atex content management system …

Discussion: Jon Slattery

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Changes at ABC News Assignment Desk — ABC News president David Westin has announced a restructuring of the newsgathering apparatus of the divison. — “The Desk will become a more active partner with the programs and platforms in choosing the right stories to cover,” Westin writes to the staff, in an email obtained by TVNewser.

Danny Shea / The Huffington Post:

‘30 Rock’ Mocks Ben Silverman In ‘Bitch Hunter’ Clip (VIDEO) — Ben Silverman may be gone from NBC, but he's not forgotten at “30 Rock.” — The former NBC entertainment chief, who now runs IAC-backed production outfit Electus, was mocked in a clip of a fake show called “Bitch Hunter.”

Discussion: Vanity Fair and TV Tattle

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Bias Or Balance? Media Wrestle With Faltering Trust … The public's widespread disgust with government officials has been well documented, most recently in polling by the Pew Research Center and NPR. — But the news media — the institutions that accept the mission to hold those officials accountable …

James McQuivey / paidContent:

Why Hulu Will—And Should—Charge For Hulu Plus — The Hulu-will-charge-you-money rumor mill is churning once again, and the blogosphere has lit up with preemptively angered Hulu viewers vowing that they will never darken Hulu's digital door again. Some call it greed, others point …

Discussion: NewTeeVee

Alexandra Fenwick / CJR:

You Pick It, You Report It — The Faster Times plots a new pro-am collaboration — The Faster Times, an online newspaper launched in July 2009 (tagline: “A new type of newspaper for a new type of world"), has introduced a new kind of investigative model for that new world.