Mediagazer: Zach Kouwe fired again (Felix Salmon/MediaFile)

On the Media: Overdosing on social networking media — (Chris Jackson /, Chris Jackson / / February 2, 2008) — It's hard not to get irritated with a company that urges you to share all sorts of things but makes it hard for you to say who's part of the party.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

David Cohen / WebNewser:

The Beautiful Game: Social Media Suits Up for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa — With 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa set to kick off about one hour after this post, Twitter and Facebook — which meant nothing to the average soccer fan during 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany — are donning their jerseys and painting their faces.

Discussion: Gawker, Variety, Speakeasy, Digits, The Atlantic Online, Broadcasting & Cable, MediaMemo, PRNewser and Mashable!

Keith Richman / AdAge:

How Nike and Pepsi Hijacked the World Cup — Ambush Marketing 101: Tips to Protect Your Brand — or Steal Someone Else's Thunder — The world's greatest sporting spectacle, the World Cup, begins today. Quick: do you know who the “official” sponsors are?

Discussion: rbr.com, Speakeasy and Guardian

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

On Twitter, Even a New iPhone Can't Keep Up With the World Cup — If you're one of those weird people who delights in not following the World Cup, you're going to want to stay off Twitter for the next month. — The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the... uh... world.

Discussion: The Twitter Engineering Blog, WWD Media Headlines, NewTeeVee, The Book Bench, AdFreak and Media Matters for America

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
World Cup Fever: Internet Has Busiest News Day as Tabulated by Akamai

Discussion: GigaOM, B&C, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Reuters

Felix Salmon / MediaFile:

Zach Kouwe fired again — In February, a NYT blogger, Zachery Kouwe, was fired for plagiarism. The proximate cause of the firing was a complaint from the WSJ, but he'd had run-ins with other publications in the past, including nicking a memo from Dealbreaker without attribution.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

David Carr / Media Decoder:

N.Y.P.D. Can Keep Its Secrets: 2004 Convention Arrests Remain Mysterious — On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the New York City Police Department can withhold 1,900 pages of data detailing police surveillance in advance of the 2004 Republican Convention in New York.

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Administration Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press — WASHINGTON — Hired in 2001 by the National Security Agency to help it catch up with the e-mail and cellphone revolution, Thomas A. Drake became convinced that the government's eavesdroppers were squandering hundreds of millions …

Discussion: Romenesko

Discussion: Boing Boing, Guardian, Yahoo! News, ANIMAL and Mediaite

Robin Sloan / Snarkmarket:

The Atlantic rides again (again) — Back in college, the Atlantic was basically my introduction to the world of ideas. I still remember reading this classic article by James Fallows and feeling whole new lobes of understanding come online. This was policy, not politics. Macro, not micro.

Business Week:

Spotify: Why Europe's Hit Music Site Isn't Playing the U.S. — Big labels have blocked Spotify—the first site that's “sexy without having the Apple name on it”—from offering streaming music — Sweden has a new music export, and it's attracting an audience way broader than an ABBA greatest hits album.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: Twitter's Next Moneymaker-"Promoted Trends" — Twitter is beginning to roll out its ad platform, which allows advertisers to insert messages into users' streams. But the microblogging service already has an idea for a new product: Selling some of the real estate dedicated to its …

Discussion: Fast Company, Mashable!, VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider

Journalism.org:

MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CLERGY ABUSE SCANDAL — Newspaper coverage of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal grew more intense this spring than at any time since 2002, and European newspapers devoted even more ink to the story than American papers did, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

Discussion: International Media and Romenesko