Mediagazer: Comcast, GE Boost Spending as U.S. Considers NBC Deal (Correct) (Bloomberg)

8:15 AM ET, July 22, 2010

Top News:

Shirley Sherrod and the shame of conservative media — When Andrew Breitbart unveils a selectively edited tape to defame a federal employee, conservatives blame Barack Obama — You want to see media bias in action? Okay — look at the conservative media reaction to the firing of Shirley Sherrod.

Discussion: TVNewser, Strupp, The Daily Caller, Romenesko, blogs.tampabay.com, Hot Air, The New Republic, Politics Daily, The Atlantic Online, Hullabaloo, Media Matters for America, Mediaite and The Daily Dish

Joe Strupp / Strupp:

Breitbart, Fox Criticized For Sherrod Tape Coverage — Andrew Breitbart and Fox News are coming under criticism by journalism observers and news ethicists for posting a video clip of former Agriculture Department Director Shirley Sherrod out of context, and without seeking her comment.

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Mediaite, TPMMuckraker and The Daily Dish

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Gibbs criticism of Sherrod media coverage puts cap on frantic 48 hours — Press Secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged the administration's rush to judgment after hearing just a snippet of Shirley Sherrod's remarks before an NAACP audience. He says the media made a similar mistake.

Discussion: B&C, Salon and ProPublica

New York Times:

Faster Than a Speeding Blog — The Obama administration has been shamed by its rush to judgment after it forced the resignation of a black midlevel official in the Agriculture Department who was wrongly accused of racism by the right-wing blogosphere. Shirley Sherrod was sandbagged …

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, The Hillman Foundation blogs and New York Times

MediaShift:

Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm — “We are going to be the largest net hirer of journalists in the world next year,” AOL's media and studios division president David Eun said last month in an interview with Michael Learmonth of Ad Age.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Reinventing the Newsroom: Algorithms Aren't Evil — Recently I've been quoted a fair amount …

Lacey Rose / The Biz Blog:
Yahoo! Media Chief Says Content Farms Won't Kill Journalism As We Know It

Discussion: MediaShift Idea Lab, Romenesko and ReadWriteWeb

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Couric's Future Questioned at CBS — This past spring, CBS News president Sean McManus and executive vice-president Paul Friedman discussed how to bring an end to what may be the last great experiment in network news: Katie Couric, anchorwoman. Though her reported $15 million annual contract …

Discussion: Romenesko, Gawker, New York Observer and TVNewser

Felix Salmon:

Kneale, craven — You won't find many defenders of Dennis Kneale's philosophy of journalism on Twitter or even among his colleagues in the CNBC studio. — I spent a large chunk of this afternoon debating Kneale on Twitter, and for a while afterwards I thought that time was wasted …

Discussion: CJR, CNBC and AOL

Don Ohlmeyer / ESPN:

The ‘Decision’ dilemma — By ceding control to Team LeBron, ESPN raised ethical issues, damaged its credibility — It was billed without irony as “The Decision.” But for those who thought ESPN could agree to televise live LeBron James' announcement that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers …

Discussion: Speakeasy, Romenesko and The Wire

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

‘As The World Turns’ Replaced By Chat Show Featuring Julie Chen — CBS has ordered a daily daytime talk show that will replace the soap opera “As The World Turns” in the fall. — The concept is being called a variation of ABC's popular talk show “The View,” but with five moms meeting around the table.

Discussion: TVNewser, Variety, New York Magazine, The Wrap, Moraes on TV, Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com and TVWeek.com

Jolie O'Dell / jolieodell.wordpress.com:

HOW TO TELL A JOURNALIST FROM A BLOGGER — I only touched on this subject briefly: … The aftermath of that post suggests I definitely need to outline what makes a journalist a journalist. — You see, it doesn't really matter what medium you use. You can be a print journalist …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Heads Up, Apple and Hulu: Netflix Pushing Hard Into Streaming TV Shows — Netflix has always offered plenty of TV shows to its subscribers, but over the years it has primarily marketed itself as a movie-rental company. That's going to start changing, the company announced today …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, CrunchGear, GigaOM, paidContent, Company Town, NewTeeVee, Associated Press and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Vivi Nevo Revealed: ‘Attention of a Hummingbird on Crack’ — Vivi Nevo, that international man of mystery, surfaced yet again at the Sun Valley mogul confab held by Herb Allen. — For a couple of years I've been among those trying to figure out who Nevo is, and why he enjoys the intimate status he apparently does among media moguls.

Bloomberg:

Comcast, GE Boost Spending as U.S. Considers NBC Deal (Correct) — Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable provider, boosted spending on political donations and lobbying as it sought approval to take over the operations of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal.

Discussion: MediaPost

MediaPost:

Buzzmedia Teams With ONTD — Buzzmedia, which runs some 40 niche gossip and entertainment sites, has struck a marketing deal with Oh No They Didn't! (ONTD!), the most popular community on LiveJournal. Through the partnership, the ONTD site will be revamped later this month …

Karen / Current: Public Media:

MPB fires reporter for leaking Fresh Air memo — There's one more voice that's off the air of Mississippi Public Broadcasting following the state network's cancellation of Fresh Air. — Carl Gibson, whose first job out of journalism school was covering the state capitol for MPB …

Discussion: Romenesko and Gawker

Damon Kiesow / Poynter Online:

Video engagement higher on iPad than desktops — A new study by MeFeedia indicates that consumers using mobile devices are more engaged video watchers than those on desktop computers. Jay Yarow reports that iPad owners lead the pack on consumption of mobile video:

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and NetNewsCheck Latest

Pablo Chavez / Google Public Policy Blog:

Business problems need business solutions — Today we submitted comments with the Federal Trade Commission in reaction to the Staff Discussion Draft about the future of journalism in the age of the Internet. — We agree that the Internet has posed challenges as well as opportunities for publishers.