Mediagazer: Drinking Again, Chris Albrecht Accuses: ‘Jeff Bewkes Told Me to Lie’ (Sharon Waxman/The Wrap)

7:10 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.

Discussion: The Wire, Mediaite, NPR, Gawker, The Wrap, Big Journalism, Inside Cable News, tony of all media, New York Magazine and The Huffington Post

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:
Juan Williams Fired by NPR For No Particular Reason

Discussion: Media Matters for America

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 …

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: Stop Big Media News and CNBC

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, MediaPost, paidContent, New York Magazine, DealBook and Hubbub

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.

Discussion: The Wrap

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

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.”

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 »

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:

The Future of Television & The Digital Living Room — Dana Settle & I are hosting a dinner tonight (10/20/10) with some of the biggest companies in entertainment to talk about the future of television, film & digital media. Michael Ovitz, the co-founder of CAA will be the keynote speaker.

Discussion: A VC, The Wire and NewTeeVee

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 »

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

Chicago Tribune:

Tribune's top exec poised to resign — Sources: Michaels to exit amid claims of crass behavior — Randy Michaels, Tribune Co.'s embattled chief executive, has decided to resign his post at the Chicago-based media company and intends to leave the company before the end of the week, sources close to the situation said.

Discussion: blogs.vocalo.org, Romenesko, The Wrap, Tower Ticker, New York Observer, Gawker, The Wire, LA Observed and Los Angeles Times

David Kaplan / paidContent:
Tribune CEO Michaels Plans To Step Down; Replaced By Four-Member Council

Discussion: MediaFile and FishbowlNY

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Washington Post Tells Reporters To Stop Engaging Readers On Twitter — I've occasionally gotten into debates with Techdirt critics on Twitter, and I'll admit the medium is not all that well-suited for thoughtful debate. But, I have found that it is often a good way to, at least …

Discussion: GigaOM, Rebooting The News, Lost Remote, Guardian, The Huffington Post and Editors Weblog

Liz Gannes / GigaOM:

What's Next for Posterous: Geo, Groups, Premium — Posterous, the email-based blogging platform, emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, yet it keeps adding new features. Unlike, say, Twitter, the company isn't so dogmatic about simplicity that it forgoes functionality like media hosting and mobile clients.

Columbia News:

Emily Bell, Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Talks About the Changing News Industry — In advance of the launch event of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism on Oct. 19, director Emily Bell answered questions from Columbia's Facebook community …

Discussion: blogs.journalism.co.uk and Emily Bell