Mediagazer: The Education of Luke Russert (Howard Kurtz/The Daily Beast)

6:55 PM ET, December 7, 2010

Top News:

BBC:

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London — Julian Assange denies sexually assaulting the two women — The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police. — The 39-year-old Australian denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.

Discussion: TheAustralian, Salon, Feministe, CNN, New York Times, Guardian, News: News blog, The New Yorker Blog, The Lede, The Daily Dish, Politics Daily, Press Gazette, Gawker and Tom Watson, more at Techmeme »

Dan Gillmor / Salon:
Defend WikiLeaks or lose free speech

Discussion: paidContent, Jon Slattery, The Wire, Mark Follman, The Daily Beast and Yahoo! News

Gautham Nagesh / Hillicon Valley:
Lieberman: NYT may have committed crime by printing WikiLeaks docs

Discussion: The Wire, Guardian, NBC Connecticut and On Media's Blog, Thanks:stiffjab

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
WikiLeaks and the trouble with transparency

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Gawker, msnbc.com, Slate, Threat Level, New York Observer and paidContent:UK

New York Post:

John Roberts to leave ‘American Morning’ in the new year — Tweet — Shake-ups at CNN under new boss Ken Jautz will begin as early as the start of the new year, insiders say. John Roberts is finalizing a contract to leave “American Morning” and start a new life as a CNN national correspondent …

Discussion: TVWeek.com, mediabistro.com, The Wire, Mediaite, All Things CNN, Inside Cable News, Chickaboomer, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine and The Page

Josh Kosman / New York Post:

Tribune lenders targeting Zell — Tweet — Tribune lenders are expected to file a lawsuit by midnight against real estate mogul Sam Zell alleging the leveraged buyout he engineered caused the business to quickly collapse, The Post has learned. — Lawyers for the lenders …

Discussion: Gawker, The Wrap, FishbowlLA and New York Magazine

Agence France Presse:

Washington Post watching online pay experiments — NEW YORK — The Washington Post is monitoring efforts by The New York Times and other newspapers to charge readers online but has no plans to do the same for now, the Post Co. chairman said Monday. — “On pay models, obviously …

Discussion: Cision and The Huffington Post

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Graham: Washington Post not ‘going to be a pioneer’ in charging for online news

Discussion: MediaPost

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

News Foo Camp: where TBD is ‘mainstream’ — In another context, I might have protested being labeled part of the “mainstream media.” — We launched our website in August. We're trying to be innovative and edgy in our mobile apps, use of social media, breaking-news coverage, blog network and other respects.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Shirky joins NYU as full-time faculty member — Romenesko Misc. — New media expert Clay Shirky will hold the title Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU's Carter Journalism Institute. He'll also be Assistant Arts Professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Nat Worden / Wall Street Journal:

HBO Could Be Offered Outside of Cable Packages — NEW YORK—Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes said Monday that HBO, his company's leading premium cable network, could be offered outside traditional cable-channel packages if another model makes sense as the TV industry evolves.

Discussion: GigaOM

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:
Which TV Channels Can't Cord-Cutters Live Without?

Discussion: DSLreports, GigaOM, ESPN MediaZone, TechCrunch, VideoNuze and SAI

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Google ‘cooperating’ with New York Times to prevent paywall abuse — At a UBS media conference Tuesday morning, New York Times Co. executives discussed the online metered pay model that the Times website will adopt in 2011. But when pressed about when the paywall will launch and how much it will cost, they offered no new details.

Discussion: Poynter, Mixed Media, Felix Salmon and The Wrap

Henry Blodget / The Wire:

You're Not Going To Believe This But The Future Of The New York Times (NYT) May Now Actually Be Bright — The New York Times (NYT) almost went bust two years ago. — If not for emergency asset sales, cost cuts, debt-restructuring, and an 11th-hour bailout by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim …

Discussion: MediaPost

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Bravo Builds Twitter Showcase @BravoTV — Bravo has launched @BravoTV, a browser-based dashboard offering fans who use Twitter an enhanced environment for discussing the channel's shows 24/7. — It's yet another indication of how aggressive this NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, WebNewser and MediaPost

Russell Adams / Speakeasy:

Tina Brown Taps Talent for Newsweek … Tina Brown is keeping her plans for Newsweek close to the vest, for now. But the magazine queen is starting to put her stamp on its staff. — Tuesday, Brown named Tunku Varadarajan, a writer-at-large for the Daily Beast and a veteran of Forbes …

Discussion: New York Observer and FishbowlNY

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

The Education of Luke Russert — Charges of nepotism flew after the NBC reporter stepped on stage following the death of his famous father. Howard Kurtz talks to Russert about stage fright, weight loss and his critics. — For Luke Russert, adolescence was more than a tutorial in Beltway politics …

Discussion: New York Observer, Vanity Fair and FishbowlDC

Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:

How Online Reading Habits Have Changed Over 2010 — One of the more subtle trends of 2010 has been the way that our reading habits have changed, due to a convergence of other Web trends: mobile apps, real-time Web (mostly Twitter), and social networking as a way to track news (mostly Facebook).

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Dave Lee:

Five reasons why Facebook Credits will save newspapers — First things first, I hate seeing the phrase “can save newspapers” thrown around all over the shop whenever a new techy idea comes out. — But, chances are you've found this via Twitter and, if you're anything like me …

Discussion: New York Times

Philip J. Crowley / US Department of State:

U.S. to Host World Press Freedom Day in 2011 — Press Statement — Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs — Washington, DC — The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 - May 3 in Washington …

Discussion: Boing Boing, Gizmodo and Vanity Fair