Top News:
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
Independence day for newspapers — Today Journal Register, a newspaper company, declared its freedom from old publishing methods and old journalistic methods. The company's 18 dailies published today, July 4, using nothing but free, web-based tools. And they involved their communities in their journalism in new ways.
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
At Yahoo, Using Queries to Steer News Coverage — Welcome to the era of the algorithm as editor. — For as long as hot lead has been used to make metal type, the model for generating news has been top-down: editors determined what information was important and then shared it with the masses.
Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
Study of Waterboarding Coverage Prompts a Debate in the Press — A study released this week of the four biggest newspapers in the United States said that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, there was “a dramatic shift in coverage away from nearly a century of practice recognizing waterboarding as torture.”
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Romenesko
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the nytpicker:
As A NYT Reporter, Bill Keller Freely Used The Word “Torture” To Describe Interrogation Techniques In Other Countries. — If the word torture, rooted in the Latin for “twist,” means anything (and it means “the deliberate infliction of excruciating physical or mental pain to punish or coerce"), then waterboarding is a means of torture.
Discussion:
Boing Boing
John Markoff / New York Times:
Taking the Mystery Out of Web Anonymity — THE Obama Administration is trying to fix the Internet's dog problem. — The problem, as depicted in Peter Steiner's legendary 1993 New Yorker cartoon, is that on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog. And thus the enduring conundrum over who can be trusted in cyberspace.
Discussion:
Kirk LaPointe's …
Kevin / Strange Attractor:
Honesty in the age of the paywall — After months of discussion and speculation, The Times and The Sunday Times have disappeared behind a paywall or have asked their readers to pay for the journalism that they value, depending on which side of an almost religious divide you fall on.
The Huffington Post:
Howard Kurtz Takes On Politico's Patrick Gavin (VIDEO) — Washington Post writer and host of CNN's “Reliable Sources” Howard Kurtz takes on Politico's Patrick Gavin Sunday. — Kurtz responds to Gavin's column criticizing him for booking the same cast of characters on “Reliable Sources.”
Discussion:
Gawker
David Carr / New York Times:
The Media Equation: For Blogger, ‘Outspoken’ Was a Selling Point, Till It Wasn't — Wanted: Political blogger covering the conservative movement. Must be provocative and write with a strong point of view although not in a way that would reveal bias or offend any of your potential subjects.
Mark Fitzgerald / EditorandPublisher.com:
None Dare Call Them ‘Newspapers’: Canwest Chain to be ‘Postmedia Network Inc.’ — CHICAGO — Canwest Limited Partnership LLC never exactly screamed “newspaper company,” but when the sale closes of the publishing group that includes the National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun …
Margaret Simons / Crikey:
Fairfax at the crossroads — McCarthy v Matthews — Things are coming to a head, at last, in the ongoing confusion and flailing around at Fairfax Media. Whether this results in any brave new direction for the company remains to be seen. — For the last couple of months the Fairfax board …
Paul Thomasch / Reuters:
At Sun Valley, brighter moods may not mean big deals — (Reuters) - As Rupert Murdoch, Bob Iger and other media honchos assemble in Sun Valley next week for some fly-fishing or white water rafting, spirits should be brighter than a year ago: stock prices are up by about a third, after all.
Kal Penn / The Huffington Post:
The “Hilarious” Xenophobia of Time's Joel Stein — I want to applaud Joel Stein for his hilarious account of Edison, New Jersey in his Time magazine article this week, “My Own Private India”; it is as unique and groundbreaking as Thomas Alva himself. — Were it not for the intelligent …