Mediagazer: Conan O'Brien's Love/Hate Relationship with the Internet (Sarah Lacy/TechCrunch)

3:32 AM ET, July 19, 2010

Top News:

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Can We Talk? — On July 7, CNN fired its senior editor of Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, after she published a Twitter message saying, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah,” one of the most prominent Lebanese Shiite spiritual leaders who was involved in the founding of the Hezbollah militia.

Discussion: Ph.D. Octopus, Journalism and the World and Mediaite

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

In a World of Online News, Burnout Starts Younger — ARLINGTON, Va. — In most newsrooms, the joke would have been obvious. — It was April Fools' Day last year, and Politico's top two editors sent an e-mail message to their staff advising of a new 5 a.m. start time for all reporters.

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

Conan O'Brien's Love/Hate Relationship with the Internet — Back in January Conan O'Brien was supposed to come to San Francisco for a SF Sketchfest Tribute and Q&A about his career. And then, he lost his dream job as he said, “s**t really hit the fan” and he had to cancel.

Discussion: Robert Accettura's Fun …

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

The Art of Trolling: Inside a 4chan Smear Campaign — Last night, the users of 4Chan.org's notorious /b/ message board decided declared war on the lead singer of an obscure electro-pop band. More than 12 hours later, they're still waging it. This is how the Internet's worst trolls works.

Discussion: dygiscape and Runnin' Scared

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Why Web host shut down 73,000 blogs a mystery — Note: For more recent news on this issue, read “Mystery shrouds closures of blog, forum platforms.” — Blogetery.com, a little-known WordPress platform used by more than 70,000 blogs, was shut down by its Web hosting company more than a week ago …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Pulse2, more at Techmeme »

Peter Preston / Guardian:

The Mail's online miracle: or how to get paid without a paywall — The debate is always black and white: put up a paywall or lose money. But the Daily Mail's website is getting so big it needn't do either — Inside Mail HQ at Northcliffe House in London, print and online editions are run separately.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Online, a Journalist Adds a Business Role — Kelly Wallace's move from television to the Internet embodies the lingering differences between the forms. — Ms. Wallace spent a decade in front of the camera as a reporter and anchor at CBS and CNN. Then she got the online itch …

Dan Sabbagh / Beehive City:

Times paywall: the numbers are out (should we charge for this?) — How's The Times/Sunday Times paywall thing doing? — Well, Beehive City said we didn't believe that the endless graphs about the levels of web traffic to The Times homepage told you anything.

Discussion: paidContent:UK, Guardian, Jon Slattery, FleetStreetBlues and Financial Times

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Up-and-coming conservative candidates shy away from media analysis — Some of the most conservative and combative Republicans running for Congress are convinced that the media have it in for them. — But these candidates seem to regard it as an affront when reporters challenge …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

justin & lex @ g20:

Christie Blatchford, You're Obsolete. — FROM LEX: — I've been really dying to respond to Christie Blatchford's ridiculous article in the Globe and Mail for the last two weeks, but every time I sit down to write about it, I just get cranky. Especially because the July 3rd issue …

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

A chat with WaPo's new features czar — Kevin Sullivan, the recovering foreign correspondent just tapped to oversee the softer side of the Washington Post, happens to share a name with a professional wrestler who is better known to fans as “The Taskmaster.” — So, POLITICO had to know, will he be one?

Ben Brantley / New York Times:

Among Celebrities, Mystery's Not Fashionable — WHERE have all the sphinxes gone? There's not a person on this planet today who could make my heart stop as it did when I saw Greta Garbo on Madison Avenue. It was the last day of 1985, on an afternoon steeped in that merciless brightness …