Mediagazer: Is Alexander Lebedev's journalism crusade an empty one? (Peter Preston/Guardian)

1:40 PM ET, November 21, 2010

Top News:

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Gawker loses round with Sarah Palin — A federal judge on Saturday ordered the website Gawker to pull down unauthorized excerpts from Sarah Palin's forthcoming book, “America By Heart,” until a hearing scheduled for Nov. 30. — On Saturday evening, the link was broken to Gawker's scoop …

Discussion: MediaMemo, Media Decoder, Runnin' Scared, Gothamist, CNET News and Hot Air

Paul Carr / TechCrunch:

NSFW: Sarah Palin - How's That Promotey, Embargoey Stuff Workin' Out for Ya? — On Thursday, I suggested that Sarah Palin's kids' ill-judged behaviour on Facebook could be traced back to their mother's attitude towards online critics. — The post garnered a range of considered …

Discussion: Mediaite, On Media's Blog and Big Journalism

Edward Helmore / Guardian:

iPad ‘newspaper’ created by Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch — Apple and News Corp reportedly set to launch joint iPad news publication exclusively via download — Rupert Murdoch, head of the media giant News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, are preparing to unveil a new digital …

Discussion: Fortune, 9 to 5 Mac, Examiner, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Electronista, iClarified and MacDailyNews, more at Techmeme »

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Fox News ‘Nazi’ Rhetoric Starts At The Top … Fox News and NPR once again found themselves in the news Thursday, this time driven by the comments of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, who in published remarks referred to NPR executives as “Nazis” for terminating the contract of news analyst Juan Williams.

Discussion: NY Daily News

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:

Is the tech press needed anymore? (how Apple iPhone apps take off now) — Datapoint one: John Gruber is noting that Android doesn't have very many of the industry's best apps. — Datapoint two. Starbucks CIO says that he's forced to use HTML 5 to support Apple iOS users …

Discussion: SAI and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Peter Preston / Guardian:

Is Alexander Lebedev's journalism crusade an empty one? — Alexander Lebedev's Society of Editors talk revealed a principled proprietor but he needs to back up words with action — Alexander Lebedev, ex-spy, current banker, entrepreneur and newspaper proprietor, came to charm the Society …

Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:

The Future Of Paywalls: Microtransactions, Buy-Ins, And Content Wars — A few nights ago, I was discussing with a friend the practicability of putting content behind a paywall. He felt it was an outdated notion and that advertising or some other method would pay. I disagree.

Discussion: TeleRead

David Brooks / New York Times:

Weekness and Endurance — Just over a week ago, Newsweek announced that it is going to merge with the online magazine The Daily Beast. Since then, cyberspace has echoed with pessimistic commentary about the future of this new entity. After all, why should anyone think that two money-losing organizations …

Discussion: Romenesko

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

From journalist to blogger: the experience of The Lichfield Blog's Ross Hawkes — Although I've already published an interview with The Lichfield Blog's Philip John (as part of the Hyperlocal Voices series) I recently returned to ask the site's editor, Ross Hawkes, about how his own approach …

Andrea Pitzer / Nieman Storyboard:

Statistics and storytelling: the grudge match? — Narrative journalism has been dogged for years by the idea that it is too subjective or somehow less capable of conveying hard numbers to the public than a traditional news story. In a world where data mining and visualizations have become …

Phil Rosenthal / Tower Ticker:

Tribune Digital pares and prioritizes in reorganization — The reorganization of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s interactive division, recently rechristened Tribune Digital, is continuing to take shape under its new management and, according to a staff memo sent this morning, under new marching orders.

Discussion: WebNewser

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

Washington Times editor out — Sam Dealey will be stepping down as editor of the Washington Times, following the sale of the paper to a group led by members of the paper's old guard who were ousted a year ago, sources close to the paper tell POLITICO. — Dealey was informed this afternoon.

Discussion: Romenesko and FishbowlDC

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: The battle for NPR's public's funding — (Jennifer S. Altman, For The Times / September 28, 2006) — Republicans, who will control the House, have already tried one procedural gambit, with more likely to come. — “Dignified” is not a word often associated …

Joshua E. Keating / Foreign Policy:

The Autocrat's Algorithm — Is Google News helping to spread propaganda? — On Nov. 18, I used the enormously popular news aggregator Google News to search for information about the Russian alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout, recently extradited from Thailand to the United States.