Mediagazer: When Attorneys General Attack (Chris Tolles/TechCrunch)

8:15 AM ET, August 20, 2010

Top News:

Facebook Places: What it means for media brands — Facebook has launched its much-anticipated location-based service, “Facebook Places,” which allows users to “check in” to certain locations such as restaurants, bars, music festivals, etc. Dubbed a “collective memory” …

Discussion: TechCrunch, BetaNews, Webmetricsguru, ReadWriteWeb, CNN, Guardian, The Snitch, Gadgetwise, Faster Forward, Webmonkey, The Social, PSFK, VentureBeat, Financial Times, O'Reilly Radar and Runnin' Scared, more at Techmeme »

Terry Heaton / Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog:
Another opportunity lost

Discussion: Fast Company, TechCrunch, eMarketer and Blog Posts, The Praized Blog and Poynter Online

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

AP advises staff on location of Islamic center and mosque — The Associated Press, one of world's most powerful news organizations, issued a memo today advising staff to avoid the phrase “Ground Zero mosque.” — The Upshot reported Tuesday that the AP started using the phrase “Ground Zero mosque” in some headlines in late May.

Discussion: Metropolis, Romenesko, ap.org, Hot Air, Scocca, Michelle Malkin, City Room, Rhetorica, Atlas Shrugs, The Daily Caller and Media Matters for America

Meghan Keane / the Econsultancy blog:
Social media lessons from the “Ground Zero Mosque”

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Politico and Salon

Mike Fleming / Deadline.com:

Google Founders Sergey Brin And Larry Page Get Feature Film Treatment — EXCLUSIVE: The founders of Facebook aren't the only game-changing geeks poised to have their story told on a movie screen. Michael London's Groundswell Productions has teamed with producer John Morris to acquire movie rights …

Discussion: Speakeasy, New York Magazine, Guardian, Crikey, Underwire, The Wrap, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Fortune, ScreenCrave.com, L.A. Times Tech Blog and Just Jared, more at Techmeme »

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:

Time Inc. breaks the iPad logjam — This week's People app is free to subscribers. Time, SI and Fortune are expected to follow — Image: Time Inc. — There's more to the iPad issue of People that appeared on the Apple (AAPL) App Store this morning than Sandra Bullock's new joy.

Discussion: blogs.ft.com, MarketingVOX and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Get Ready for Ads in Books — For those who think this too radical a notion, consider the overwhelming product placement in movies, music videos and video games. — With e-reader prices dropping like a stone and major tech players jumping into the book retail business, what room is left for publishers' profits?

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, broadstuff, GalleyCat, The Atlantic Wire and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Hearst Opening ‘Think Tank’ For Apps — As Hearst Magazines continues its app rollout through the end of this year, the publisher is opening an “App Lab” at its New York headquarters next month. The lab will serve as a “think tank” for marketers and ad agency staffers to help jump start some collaborations.

Discussion: Hearst Corporation and MEDIA BEESWAX

Rob ORegan / eMedia Vitals blogs: Hearst Magazines sees 29% YOY growth of digital properties

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

NBC/MSNBC Get An Iraq Troop Withdrawal Exclusive - But What Did It Mean, And Who Helped? — There's no question NBC News had an impressive, gripping scoop last night: the last U.S. combat troops are leaving Iraq. NBC News' Richard Engel was embedded, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was in Baghdad …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, The Nation, Online NewsHour, Guardian, New York Times, Hot Air, Romenesko and The Wire

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
Pentagon says ‘no favoritism’ toward NBC in coverage of Iraq withdrawal

Discussion: TVNewser, Romenesko, Inside Cable News, Chickaboomer, The Huffington Post, Online NewsHour and B&C

Chris Tolles / TechCrunch:

When Attorneys General Attack — Earlier this year Topix CEO Chris Tolles got the call no one wants to get - that they were under investigation by a government entity. Two attorneys general, one of which was deep into his senate run, were leveling accusations of abuse at Topix.

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

How Technology Is Renewing Attention to Long-form Journalism — When we're constantly inundated with information via e-mail, text messages, push alerts, tweets and Facebook updates, it's hard to make time for that 5,000-word New Yorker essay we bookmarked or the serial narrative we keep telling ourselves we'll read but never do.

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

The New Villains of New Media: Apple, Google & Facebook — They're supposed to be the good guys, right? — No longer. Over the past year, several technology giants have begun to shed their status as white knights. And it's precisely because they've been held to such a high standard …

Discussion: MediaPost

Ryan / Hawaii Blog:

Civil Beat Puts Public Data Behind the Paywall — The headline proclaims, “Civil Beat Shares Hawaii State Employee Salaries” — but there's a catch: you have to pay to get full access to the information. — To be sure, there's a reasonable and deep debate to be had over whether the names …

Chris Faraone / thephoenix.com:

Is micro-news the future? — AOL thinks so, and the Globe and GateHouse are fighting back — AOL is like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps going and going through a staggering number of transformations and reinventions, and now it's betting $50 million that it can beat America's newspapers …

Discussion: Romenesko and PJNet

Michael M. Phillips / Wall Street Journal:

An Airline Magazine That Makes Travelers Want to Pull the Rip Cord — Safi Shows the Real Afghanistan, From Dog Fighting to Dry Swimming Pools — KABUL—Safi Airways, a start-up Afghan airline, ventures where few air carriers dare to go: Its in-flight magazine tells the ugly truth about the place where you're about to land.

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Romenesko and New York Magazine

Rachel Sterne / The Daylife Blog:

The Accidental News Explorer: Pandora for News — Ready for Pandora for news? — Our friend Brendan Dawes has developed the Accidental News Explorer, an application that “celebrates serendipity” by dynamically revealing related news topics based on the article you're reading.

Discussion: TeleRead

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Bill O'Reilly Used Unknowingly To Sell Investment Scheme — This summer Bill O'Reilly, the biggest star on Fox News Channel, lent his name — inadvertently, Fox says — to a dubious financial scheme peddled by Newsmax, the right-wing Web site. — Mr. O'Reilly was the featured guest …

Discussion: Romenesko, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Inside Cable News and Gawker

Nick Axelrod / WWD:

No News at the New York Times Magazine... Fashion at Google: Out or In?... NO NEWS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The proposals are in to executive editor Bill Keller (he received upward of 20 applications, according to sources), but that's as far as The New York Times has gotten in the process …

The 48th New York Film Festival:

Film Comment September/October 2010: Revenge of the Nerd — The misanthropic soul at the heart of The Social Network, David Fincher's 21st-century moral tale — It was E.M. Forster, of course, who scripted that immortal, oft-abbreviated imperative: “Only connect, and the beast and the monk …

Discussion: The Middletown Press and Awards Daily's Oscar Countdown, more at Techmeme »

Amy Chozick / Wall Street Journal:

Revenge of the TV Writers — Annoy a television writer at your peril: You could wind up committing unspeakable crimes or dying a horrible death—in prime time. Settling scores with difficult stars, clueless executives and childhood enemies. — After several seasons of disappointing reviews …

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

Brian Williams: Serious anchor and a jokester — Commentary: You'll find him on ‘30 Rock’ or ‘SNL,’ but not Facebook … NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams made his reputation as a self-assured anchor man who could discuss Iraq and Afghanistan in decisive tones.

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Q & A: David Plotz and Chris Wilson on Slate Labs — “When you build the data yourself, you can be fairly certain no one else is going to have the story.” — Last week, Slate launched Slate Labs, a collection of their “experiments in multimedia journalism.”

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

New York Times Can't Get Over This Whole “Sober Dance Party” Thing — I mean, hey, listen, I don't get it either. But is the Friday NYT Metro section piece “Ladies, Feel Free To Let Loose” — about a dance/workout class with a bunch of sober women freaking out to Wilson Phillips — really necessary?