Mediagazer: NFL Investigating ESPN Over ‘Monday Night Football’ Timeouts (Paul Bond/Hollywood Reporter)

9:55 AM ET, October 21, 2010

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

NPR Ends Analyst's Contract After Comments on Muslims — NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel. — NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night.

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

Juan Williams Fired by NPR For No Particular Reason — National Public Radio has fired the political analyst Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims on Bill O'Reilly's Fox show. These are two of the controversial comments in question, according to The New York Times:

Discussion: Free Press, Media Matters for America and Romenesko

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

The 100 Percent Solution: For Innovation in News — “It starts with a vision: what if we could cover all of it? And when you try to act on that vision, you invariably run into problems. It's sweating those problems that leads to innovation, or at least to new knowledge.”

Discussion: Online Journalism Blog and Free Press

Ira Teinowitz / The Wrap:

Cablevision/Fox Spat Could Affect Comcast/NBCU Deal — It's looking increasingly like Fox's spat with Cablevision could wind up having repercussions for Comcast's deal for NBC Universal. — An industry analyst and consumer groups are suggesting that an unprecedented tactic Fox employed early …

Discussion: Gothamist

Los Angeles Times:

News Corp.'s hit and run — By discriminating against Internet users based on the identity of their broadband provider, News Corp. added a troubling element to the debate over Net neutrality. — A rancorous dispute between News Corp. and Cablevision has baseball fans in Long Island missing more playoff pitches than Alex Rodriguez.

Discussion: Gothamist, Stop Big Media News and New York Times

Robert Gavin / Boston Globe:

Local group says it wants to buy The Boston Globe — A group of more than a dozen investors and management specialists will offer to buy The Boston Globe from its long-time owner, The New York Times Co., the leader of the group said. — Aaron Kushner, an entrepreneur who owns Marian Heath …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Romenesko, MediaPost, paidContent, New York Magazine, DealBook and Hubbub

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Cable may double Internet access bills — Tweet — Cable subscribers should brace for ballooning Internet bills. — A new report suggests that cable companies will have to double charges for Internet service if “cord cutting” — opting to watch shows online instead of through traditional TV — catches on with consumers.

Discussion: The Wire and The Local

Keith J. Kelly / NY Post:

Editor McDonell stays put at Sports Illustrated — Terry McDonell, the editor of Sports Illustrated Group, who was flagged as a potential candidate for the top job at Newsweek, has shot down speculation that he is in the running to be the newsweekly's editor-in-chief.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media: Tina Brown on Newsweek Talks and Jack Welch's Role

Danny Sullivan / Daggle:

Fast Company's “Influence Project” - So Lame, Fast Company Ignored Its Own Results — Cast your mind back to July. Fast Company launched its “Influence Project,” a scheme supposedly designed to see who has the most influence online. The results are in! And the winners aren't anyone …

Discussion: Fast Company and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

David Cohen / WebNewser:

The Providence Journal to Post Excerpts Only on Web Site — The Providence Journal will test out an interesting tactic in the “war” between print and online, using its Web site to try to drive readers to purchase the print edition by posting only excerpts of stories on the site, Ted Nesi reported on his WPRI blog.

Discussion: WPRI.com Blogs, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaMemo, eBookNewser and FishbowlDC

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

NFL Investigating ESPN Over ‘Monday Night Football’ Timeouts … The NFL said Tuesday that it is investigating allegations that coaches during Monday Night Football were asked to call timeouts so that ESPN could squeeze in some TV commercials. — The situation had NFL purists …

Discussion: MediaPost and Company Town

Hollywood Reporter:

Viacom Hires Superstar Lawyer to Handle YouTube Appeal — EXCLUSIVE: Earlier this year, Viacom suffered a major defeat at the hands of Google when a New York district court judge ruled that YouTube qualified for “safe harbor” from claims of direct and contributory copyright infringement.

Discussion: Techdirt, more at Techmeme »

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Drinking Again, Chris Albrecht Accuses: ‘Jeff Bewkes Told Me to Lie’ — In a wine- and scotch-soaked interview with GQ magazine, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht managed to turn a planned mea culpa moment into an accusation against his former boss, Jeff Bewkes. — Albrecht , the former CEO of HBO …

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Public radio is enjoying boom times — (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / October 20, 2010) — While its TV counterpart struggles, National Public Radio listenership is up and there are plans to greatly expand its reporting. — Southern California's biggest public television …

Discussion: Romenesko and MarketWatch

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Netflix: Instant-Streaming Only Option May Debut In U.S. Later This Quarter — Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) may begin to offer an instant-streaming only option in the U.S. as soon as later this quarter. The company debuted an instant-streaming only option in Canada last month …

Discussion: NewTeeVee, Company Town, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, Online Video News and Media Money …, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Tribune CEO Michaels Plans To Step Down; Replaced By Four-Member Council — Following two weeks of chaos at The Tribune Company, Randy Michaels will step down as CEO by the end of this week, the Chicago Tribune reports. Just a day ago Michaels insisted he would be staying on …

Discussion: MediaFile and FishbowlNY