Mediagazer: NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled (Alicia Shepard/NPR)

1:55 PM ET, October 22, 2010

Top News:

Alicia Shepard / NPR:

NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled — Juan Williams once again got himself into trouble with NPR for comments he made at his other job, at Fox News. And NPR's reaction has unleashed an unprecedented firestorm of criticism directed not at Williams - but at NPR.

Discussion: Romenesko, TVNewser, Free Press, The Nation, Los Angeles Times, Gretawire, NPR Topics, Runnin' Scared, Guardian, The Huffington Post, Big Journalism, Hot Air, Scripting News, Swampland, GroundReport.com, Rhetorica, Hit & Run, Speakeasy, The Awl, The Hill and Hubbub

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Williams Episode Shows 2 Versions of Journalism — NPR's decision Wednesday to fire Juan Williams and Fox News Channel's decision to give him a new contract on Thursday put into sharp relief the two versions of journalism that compete every day for Americans' attention.

Discussion: NPR, The Buttry Diary, The Huffington Post, Philly.com, Cision, Company Town, Fox News, Washington Post, The Caucus, Romenesko, Poynter Online, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Tuned In, Gawker, Daily Kos and Inside Cable News

Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:

In wake of NPR controversy, Fox News gives Juan Williams an expanded role — The cable news network signs the analyst to a new three-year contract for nearly $2 million. Meanwhile, conservative figures blast the public radio network for its response to Williams' comments about Muslims.

Reuters:

News Corp ices Alesia digital newsstand plan-source — * Alesia did not attract enough publisher partners — * Alesia not seen on fast track to launch in U.S. — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSA.O) has put on ice ambitious plans to create a subscription online newsstand …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Romenesko, New York Observer, Free Press and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Rupert Murdoch Admits He Can't Compete With Google — News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch has likely never acknowledged (at least not publicly) that he has failed at something, particularly when it involves a market worth billions of dollars, but he appears to have conceded defeat in his attempt to build a competitor to Google News.

Discussion: Poynter Online and mediabistro.com

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

Press Clips: Joe Pompeo Leaves Business Insider for Yahoo — The second part of the change-up at Business Insider comes down the transom! A leaked memo about protest at Fox News, and, hey, activists! Here's how to get around those pesky security arrangements.

Wall Street Journal:

Networks in Rift With Google TV — ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their websites from being viewable on Google Inc.'s new Web-TV service, exposing the rift that remains between the technology giant and some of the media companies it wants to supply content for its new products.

Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Some networks blocking shows on Google TV

Discussion: TechCrunch, New York Post and Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Life With Google TV: My First Day Review & Impressions

Discussion: TechCrunch and Google Webmaster Central Blog

Robert Quigley / Old Media, New Tricks:

Newspapers on Twitter, ranked by followers — Inspired by this interesting but flawed effort to measure U.S. newspaper Twitter followers, I scoured the Twittersphere to come up with an exhaustive list of Twitter followers for as many U.S. newspapers as I could. I ended up with 200, but I think I'm the only one exhausted.

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:
Tweet This: The Top 25 Magazines on Twitter

Discussion: Anil Dash, SocialTimes.com and Thompson on Hollywood

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Looks Like Our Friends Over At GigaOm Just Raised Another $2.5 Million — Om Malik, well-respected journalist and founder of technology news blog network Giga Omni Media and its flagship blog GigaOm, broke the news about us being acquired by AOL about a month ago now.

Discussion: MWD Tech News

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Okay, We Got More Money

Discussion: paidContent

Jennifer Saba / MediaFile:

AOL loses key editors — A OL is losing more key writers and editors, including the head of AOL News. Mike Nizza the editor in chief of AOL News is decamping for News Corp. World editor James Graff is departing to take the managing editor position at The Week and James Burnett, AOL's enterprise editor, left for Rolling Stone.

Discussion: SAI

Media Week:

Rupert Murdoch's full speech at the Centre of Policy Studies — Rupert Murdoch, the founder, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, heaped praise on Margaret Thatcher for ‘expanding the boundaries of freedom’ tonight, before turning to bloggers and why they will never replace journalists.

Discussion: paidContent, Guardian, Journalism.co.uk and Crikey

Media Week:
Murdoch aims sideswipe at ‘traditional elites’ curbs on News Corp

Discussion: Press Gazette and Arif Durrani

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

R.I.P. Chatroulette: A Sad Tale of Missed Opportunity — Remember Chatroulette? It's hard to believe that barely eight months ago the anonymous video chat site had everyone captivated. Venture capitalists clamored to invest, journalists tripped over one another to profile—and now Chatroulette is dying, unused and unloved.

Discussion: Social Culture …

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

How US newspapers are coping with abusive commenters — What's to be done when readers' online comments tip over from the critical into the abusive? That problem has been faced by several newspapers in the US. — In the latest example, the Portland Press Herald shut down its comments service …

Damon Kiesow / Poynter Online:
Comments return to the Portland Press Herald

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Editors Weblog and Shaping the Future …

Scripting News:

New blogging techniques — What I call paragraph-level permalinks have made an appearance in Jay Rosen's blog, thanks to the innovative design work of Lauren Rabaino. — Nieman Lab calls out the feature. — And this got a geek going, Daniel Bachhuber, whose new (today) …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and Lauren Michell Rabaino

Andrew Beaujon / TBD All News:

Tom Shales confirms he's likely to leave Washington Post — Tom Shales, the Washington Post's Pulitzer-prize winning television writer, says he's probably going to leave the paper when his contract expires at the end of December. “It's been a long process,” he says. — Shales took the paper's buyout offer in 2006.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, tony of all media and Romenesko

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

After Three Issues, Jody Quon Resigns from ‘W’ — Jody Quon has resigned as creative director and editor Stefano Tonchi's number two at W after three issues. She was one of the leading voices in the new design of the magazine for its September relaunch. A spokesperson for the magazine told …

Discussion: Daily Front Row and New York Magazine

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

TV Guide Site Partners With ABC for ‘Check-In’ Feature — TVGuide.com has partnered with ABC to help kick start its new TV Check-In feature—the site's answer to the slew of startup social apps, which encourage users to tell their friends what they watch or are planning to watch on TV.