Mediagazer: Comcast and NBC — Television is undergoing a wrenching change. (New York Times)

7:35 PM ET, December 6, 2010

Top News:

Wikileaks and the Long Haul — Like a lot of people, I am conflicted about Wikileaks. — Citizens of a functioning democracy must be able to know what the state is saying and doing in our name, to engage in what Pierre Rosanvallon calls “counter-democracy"*, the democracy …

Discussion: Salon, Whimsley, ReadWriteWeb, The Wire, Boing Boing, mathewingram.com/work and Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Some news outlets stop calling WikiLeaks a ‘whistle-blower’ — WikiLeaks' critics haven't been shy in their characterizations of the online document clearinghouse over the past week. The Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, blasted editor-in-chief Julian Assange on on …

Discussion: Slate, News: News blog, Guardian, Jon Slattery, New York Times, Hit & Run and The Daily Caller

Sam Gustin / Threat Level:

Columbia University Reverses Anti-WikiLeaks Guidance — Days after Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) caused an uproar by warning its students against linking to WikiLeaks or discussing the secret-spilling website's latest cache of diplomatic cables online …

Discussion: Guardian, New York Times and TPMMuckraker

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Julian Assange WikiLeaks - latest — • Lawyer announces Julian Assange to meet police — • WikiLeaks founder will fight any extradition attempt — • International pressure mounts as Assange account closed — • Follow latest developments live with Josh Halliday

Discussion: Clusterstock, New York Magazine, VentureBeat, Online NewsHour, newsfeed.time.com and http://www.Stinkyjournalism …

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:
Julian Assange Leads TIME Person of the Year Poll

Discussion: The Nation and TechCrunch

Abraham Murray / The Official Google Blog:

Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices — Today is the first page in a new chapter of our mission to improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we know as books. Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Google's New Bookstore Cracks Open the E-book Market

Discussion: USA Today, Epicenter, New York Times, TechCrunch, New York Observer, paidContent, The Next Web and MediaMemo, more at Techmeme »

Paige / IndieBound:
Independent Bookstores Selling Google eBooks

Discussion: Switched, App Advice, GalleyCat and eBookNewser

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Dan Abrams Plans 3 Web Sites — After a successful run with his Web sites that cover media, sports, gossip and technology, Dan Abrams, perhaps best known not as an Internet entrepreneur but as an MSNBC personality, is expanding. — Mr. Abrams will start three online properties early next year …

Discussion: WebNewser, On Media's Blog and Poynter

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

Exclusive: Dexter Filkins Poached by The New Yorker — Dexter Filkins, a star war correspondent for The New York Times, is heading to The New Yorker, a person familiar with the situation tells The Observer. — Mr. Filkins, who is in Istanbul today, declined to discuss the move, which he has been considering for two months.

Discussion: WWD, Yahoo! News, The Wire, Gawker and The Huffington Post

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu Orders Up a New Bite-Size Show. It's Going to Taste a Lot Like “Talk Soup.” — Hulu is a great place to see shows that just ran on TV. Is it a good place to see Internet shows that talk about shows that just ran on TV? — Stay tuned! — Plans are underway for a Hulu …

Discussion: Mixed Media, Fast Company, Mediaite, The Next Web and mediabistro.com, more at Techmeme »

Jason Fry / National Sports Journalism Center:

Gawker Has a Lesson for Sports Departments — Gawker Media boss Nick Denton made waves last week with an explanation of the thinking behind his sites' new look, which will become the norm next month. (You can see how Deadspin looks in a beta version here.)

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media: Did Gawker's Attack on Barry Diller Go Too Far?

Alex Hillman / dangerouslyawesome:

Fear and Loathing in Phoenix - My 48 Hour Binge Experience at NewsFoo — I'm coming down from a 48 hour binge. Not one fueled by two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers …

Discussion: krochmal's posterous and Timetric Blog

Nadia Damouni / Reuters:

Exclusive: AOL mulls breakup, then merger with Yahoo — (Reuters) - AOL Inc, undergoing a radical transformation into the king of content on the Internet, is actively exploring a breakup involving a complicated series of transactions that may lead to a merger with Yahoo Inc, sources close to the plans told Reuters.

Discussion: MediaPost, Pulse2, The Social, PC Magazine, Mashable!, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, SAI, Hillicon Valley, VentureBeat, Tech Musings, The Next Web, Techland, New York Magazine and AfterDawn.com, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

How Mark Zuckerberg Fooled ‘60 Minutes’ — Leave it to 60 Minutes to pass off Facebook's utterly meaningless redesign of the site's profile pages as some kind of “exclusive” worth leading a segment on the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It's not just that correspondent Lesley Stahl …

Discussion: Guardian, The Wrap, Social Medium, The Wire, SelectStart, New York Magazine, Venture Capital Dispatch, VentureBeat, Facebook Blog, International Media, The Social and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

New York Times:

Comcast and NBC — Television is undergoing a wrenching change. Companies like Netflix and Google TV are lining up to offer movies and TV online. Cable systems are developing online bundles as they add broadband customers but lose TV subscribers. Broadcast networks are still figuring …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Post Tech, TVNewser, WebNewser and Stop Big Media News

David Carr / New York Times:

To Beat ‘Today,’ Look to Tomorrow — When a sports team loses long enough, fans get restless and soon enough, the coach ends up getting the gate. After all, you can't fire the whole team, right? — Unless you work in television. Last week, every single member of the perennially last place “Early Show” on CBS was shown the door.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and TVNewser

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Cosmo Sets Sights on Mongolia — Coming to a newsstand most likely not near you: Cosmo Mongolia. — Cosmopolitan, which has been helping women all over the world unlock the secrets to better sex, tighter tushes and the enigmatic male psyche for four decades, will begin to sell a Mongolia edition this week.

Discussion: Mediaite, New York Observer and New York Magazine

Wall Street Journal:

No Longer Tiny, Netflix Gets Respect—and Creates Fear — As Rivals Look to Counter Its Online Movie-Streaming Service, Hollywood Cautiously Cuts Deals to Provide Some Content — After years as a bit player in entertainment, Netflix Inc. is being eyed for a new role by Hollywood: industry hulk.

Discussion: SAI, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, Engadget and DSLreports

Amy Larocca / New York Magazine:

Planet Monocle — Tyler Brûlé ushered in a design revolution with Wallpaper magazine. His new global media strategy is equally rarefied, and only occasionally ridiculous. Listen to him for a while, and the world seems positively aglow with possibility.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, TVNewser and Das Krapital

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

ESPN Says Study Shows Little Effort to Cut Cable — Seeking to understand the cutting of cable cords, ESPN has waded into the Nielsen Company's audience sample and concluded that the cancellations are currently a “very minor” phenomenon. — The sports network's study provides a new answer …

Discussion: The Next Web, Company Town, Techland and Online Video News

Lucia Moses / Brandweek:

Apps as Money Pit — Magazine publishers are pouring money into apps, seduced by the notion that tablet computers can open a new avenue to make money from their content. But will they ever make it back? Certainly not in the near term and, perhaps, never.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter Online:

Newsday redesigns website, offers free access through Jan. 7 — Newsday editor Debby Krenek says that “perhaps the most noticeable change is our new, fresh look, with a lighter color scheme and darker text, as well as a faster load time.” The one month of free access is sponsored by Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Lucia Moses / Mediaweek:

Salon's Swan Song? — Popular site seeks buyer amidst tough market — Who will buy Salon.com? The site's search for a buyer has drawn attention to its troubled business model as a standalone news site, but its content and audience could be valuable to a company willing to assume its losses.

eMarketer:

Online Ad Spend Continues Double-Digit Growth — Large brand marketers and SMBs are major contributors to ongoing increases — The economy may be on an upward trajectory, but continued caution among advertisers will lead to a continued shift toward online advertising, eMarketer forecasts.

Discussion: paidContent, NetNewsCheck Latest, GigaOM, MarketingVOX, TechCrunch and AgencySpy, more at Techmeme »

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Web Site for Teenagers With Literary Leanings — When Jacob Lewis helped create the beta version of the Web site Figment with Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at The New Yorker, Mr. Lewis envisioned it as a sort of literary Facebook for the teenage set. — “I really went into it and thought …

Discussion: LA Observed, FishbowlNY and New York Observer

Greg T. Spielberg / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“An art brand”: Gawker Artists looks at the image beyond the display ad — Five years ago, Chris Batty, until this week Gawker's vice president of sales and marketing, was looking to fill un-purchased ad space on the site. He wanted to forgo the “horrendous creative” of ad networks …

Barb Palser / American Journalism Review:

Give Patch a Chance — Controversy swirls around AOL's ambitious hyperlocal venture. — Barb Palser (bpalser@gmail.com) is director of digital media for McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Co. — When is a company hiring 500 journalists in a year a bad thing for journalism? According to some, it's when that company is AOL.