Mediagazer: Joe McGinniss and Janet Malcolm: Back at it again (Charlotte Allen/Los Angeles Times)

5:50 AM ET, June 7, 2010

Top News:

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Mediocrity is king — Last week, the Huffington Post reached a new apex. Viewed from France, where ads are localized, its home page carried a remarkably tasteful ad: a farting application for the iPhone (see below). As prudery still rules in American media, you'll notice that the farter's exhaust aperture has been blurred.

Discussion: Beyond Search

Martin Moore / MediaShift Idea Lab:

The Future of News: Not So Bleak, Not So Rosy — What's the future of news? I'm tempted to say “not very much” since no one really knows too much about the future of news right now. You know this is true because senior news folk have given up on the doom and gloom stuff and are starting to talk about …

David Carr / New York Times:

The Media Equation: How to Save Newsweek — Sometime this summer, someone other than The Washington Post will probably own the renowned brand of Newsweek. When I wrote about the pending sale in this column last week, I waxed philosophical about the meaning of a newsweekly magazine in 2010 …

Discussion: Washington Post

Matthew Flamm / Crain's New York Business:

Wired's iPad liftoff — Tech title sells 73,000 copies in nine days on Apple tablet; wave of future? — Two months after the iPad's much anticipated April 3 debut, one thing is clear about the impact of Apple's tablet computer on the magazine industry: It has been very good for Wired.

Andrew Vanacore / Associated Press:
Publishers see signs the iPad can restore ad money

Discussion: MediaPost

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Helen Thomas Dropped By Speaking Agency, Under Fire For Remarks On Middle East — Under fire for controversial remarks she made (and apologized for) about the status of Jews in Israel, longtime White House scribe Helen Thomas was dropped on Sunday by her speaking agency.

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser and CNN

Joe Flint / Company Town:

‘Modern Family’ producer says iPad episode ‘went too far in hindsight’ — A producer of ABC's hit sitcom “Modern Family” said an episode that prominently featured Apple's iPad went overboard in hyping the product. — “It may have gone a little too far in hindsight,” said Jeff Morton, a …

Discussion: 5 Blogs Before Lunch

John Lichfield / The Independent:

The end of ‘The World’, as its journalists know it, is nigh — The world is up for sale. In the next 10 days, Le Monde (The World), France's most prestigious newspaper, will decide which of four domestic and foreign suitors should control a publication which has been majority-owned by its own employees for 59 years.

New York Times:

Other Voices: What Exactly Is a Blog? — Re “A Private Room With a Narrow View” (May 30), about a reporter's blog after looking around the room where the late jazz musician Hank Jones lived: — Your column left mostly unanswered several questions that really should be addressed …

Discussion: Gawker, Runnin' Scared and The Public Editor's Journal

Charlotte Allen / Los Angeles Times:

Joe McGinniss and Janet Malcolm: Back at it again — The famous journalistic feuders are in the public eye once again; one moved next to Sarah Palin, the other is defending a convicted murderer. — Who's worse, Joe McGinniss or Janet Malcolm? The two journalists were famously …

Jxpaton / Digital First:

If The Company Wins, The Employees Win. We All Win. — I promised it on my first day on the job - Feb. 1st. — A couple of weeks later, I wrote to you and blogged that we would have it done in a couple of weeks. — A couple of weeks after that, I said it would be ready - you guessed it - in a couple of weeks.

Clay Shirky / Wall Street Journal:

Does the Internet Make You Smarter? — Amid the silly videos and spam are the roots of a new reading and writing culture, says Clay Shirky. — Digital media have made creating and disseminating text, sound, and images cheap, easy and global. The bulk of publicly available media …

Discussion: The Scholarly Kitchen, Hillicon Valley, Kirk LaPointe's …, Gizmodo, NewsTrust and Rough Type

Chris Bowers / Open Left:

Amateur blogosphere, RIP — Today the New York Times announced that it will incorporate fivethirtyeight.com into the NYT website: … Only five years ago, the progressive political blogosphere was still predominately a gathering place for amateur (that is, unpaid or barely paid) …