Mediagazer: What does News Corp. want in return for that $1 million? (John Cook/Yahoo! News)

12:05 PM ET, August 25, 2010

Top News:

Disney, Apple Near iTunes Deal — Apple is in discussions with major TV companies to offer 99-cent rentals of television episodes, according to people familiar with the situation, as the company tries to reshape the television business around its devices. — The Cupertino, Calif. …

Discussion: Reuters, Electronista and Fortune

Bloomberg:
Apple Said to Prepare New 99-Cent TV Show Rental Service

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

CBS Evening News Ratings Tie 20-Year Low — For any person who believes that the American people should be paying greater attention to the war in Afghanistan, the following statistic might disappoint. — On a week that included the anchor Katie Couric's trip to Afghanistan, the …

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Romenesko, TVNewser and On Media's Blog

Brian McDermott / Online Journalism Review:

What the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ flap says about the state of journalism — By Brian McDermott: The Ground Zero mosque does not exist. — There is, of course, the planned Park51 Muslim community center and mosque, which local authorities approved for construction on Park Place in lower Manhattan …

Discussion: Making Sense of Media

Journalism.org:
MOSQUE CONTROVERSY, IRAQ WAR DOMINATE THE NEWS

Discussion: TVNewser, NPR, The Wire, Runnin' Scared, CJR, PewResearch.org, Media Decoder and On Media's Blog

Marc Graser / Variety:

‘Angry Birds’ flies with Hollywood — IPhone game eyes TV shows, movies, toys — The “Angry Birds” are flocking to Hollywood. — Rovio, the Finnish creator of the hit iPhone and iPad game, which has sold more than 6.5 million downloads, wants to turn the property into a major franchise …

Discussion: The Wrap, TechCrunch, Telegraph, Gawker, /Film, Voices on All Things Digital and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »

John Cook / Yahoo! News:

What does News Corp. want in return for that $1 million? — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. raised eyebrows last week with a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association that the New York Times described as “bold” and “one of the biggest [contributions] ever given by a media organization.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post and On Media's Blog

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

New life for Washington Times — The owner of the Washington Times entered into an agreement Tuesday to sell the paper to another entity affiliated with its parent, the Unification Church, which would return funding to the cash-strapped conservative publication, POLITICO has learned.

Discussion: Washington Post, Gawker, Associated Press, New York Observer, On Media's Blog, Romenesko, TPMMuckraker and City Desk

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

Former White House Correspondents President Chen: Fox News Seating ‘A Travesty’ — Allowing Fox News to move up to the first row in the White House briefing room was a “travesty of a decision,” according to Ed Chen, the former White House Correspondents Association president who left that post just a few months ago.

Discussion: Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / DailyFinance:
Why Media Matters Should Stop Picking on Fox News (This Time)

Discussion: Mediaite and On Media's Blog

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Random House Wins Battle for E-Book Rights — An e-book battle between Random House and the Wylie Agency appears to have ended. — After a monthlong standoff, Random House said on Tuesday that it now held the rights to publish e-book editions of 13 classic books that the literary agent Andrew Wylie …

Discussion: Electronista

Daniel B. Roberts / Salon:

Tao Lin: Lit “it boy” for the Internet age — Tao Lin gets arrested in a bookstore. He lets fans buy shares of his book. Meet literature's Net-savvy new star — Tao Lin is the next big thing in urban hipster lit. At least, so say the people that read his books on the subway.

Discussion: New York Observer

Peter Lauria / The Daily Beast:

Sumner's $1 Million Payoff — The billionaire chairman of Viacom and CBS has settled with a deputy who accused him of loutish behavior. Peter Lauria on the latest of Sumner Redstone's costly antics. — CBS Corp. spared its billionaire chairman Sumner Redstone the potential embarrassment …

Discussion: The Wire, Gawker and Company Town

Jim Barnett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Googling serendipity: How does journalism fare in a world where algorithms trump messy chance? — Twelve years ago, when I was reporting on the pending Microsoft antitrust case, I learned that what was really at stake wasn't immediately apparent in the legal briefs.

Sergio Acosta / retoNet:

Multimedia jobs are for robots — This post is also available in: Spanish — “The New York Times is looking for a technology-savvy journalist”, thus begins the job offer. — It is a short text, written in that style in which half of humanity is being gradually discarded.

Tom Bissell / New York Observer:

From Tragedy to Trend Story: In Defense of Virginia Quarterly Review Editor Ted Genoways — On July 30, Kevin Morrissey, the managing editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review, one of America's most respected and ascendant literary journals, took his own life, apparently unable to abide the pressures of his job.

Discussion: Romenesko and The Wrap

Wall Street Journal:

The ABCs of E-Reading — New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak — People who buy e-readers tend to spend more time than ever with their nose in a book, preliminary research shows. — A study of 1,200 e-reader owners by Marketing …

Mel Campbell / Crikey:

What is excellence in online journalism? — Like many journalists, I crave external validation, so the other day I was idly browsing the Walkley Awards website and fantasising about entering. — Since I write largely for online media, I gravitated to the online category …

Vinicius Vacanti / Yipit Blog:

The Ultimate Guide: How Media Companies Should Offer Daily Deals — UPDATE 8/25: This piece was re-published on Business Insider. — Groupon launched less than two years ago, and is on pace to make $300 to $500 million in revenue this year. How? They simply went out and created …