Mediagazer: Oprah's Highest Hurdle (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

11:55 AM ET, December 19, 2010

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Oprah's Highest Hurdle — BEFORE Oprah Winfrey jetted off this month to Washington for the Kennedy Center Honors, then to Sydney for overseas tapings of her talk show, she had a simple request for the security staff at her house near Los Angeles: — “Can you all make sure that I have the capabilities …

Discussion: Mediaite

Andrew Alexander / Washington Post:

Post's problems with anonymous-source rules get worse online — Post readers constantly complain about the excessive use of anonymous sources in the newspaper. But the problem is even worse online. — Staff-written news blogs are replete with violations of The Post's long-established …

Muck Rack:

Interview with Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic — Garance Franke-Ruta has been a Senior Editor at The Atlantic since Monday, where she manages online politics coverage and the politics news channel. — She was previously a Who Runs Gov blogger and the national web politics editor …

Kit Eaton / Fast Company:

Amazon Brings Newspapers, Magazines to Kindle Apps, Starting With Android — Amazon's expanding the capabilities of its Kindle apps, starting with Android, to include digital newspaper and magazines singly or in subscription form. Just in time for the iPad “Daily” newspaper.

Discussion: Gawker, Digital Trends and The Next Web

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Patch.com clicks with veteran California journalists — Seasoned reporters in California are stamping their mark on the online news' community sites, a trend that can help bolster Patch.com's credibility as it continues its explosive growth into hyper-local reporting.

Discussion: The Big Picture

James Surowiecki / New Yorker:

GROUPON CLIPPING — The history of the Internet is, in part, a series of opportunities missed: the major record labels let Apple take over the digital-music business; Blockbuster refused to buy Netflix for a mere fifty million dollars; Excite turned down the chance to acquire Google for less than a million dollars.

Discussion: John Battelle's Searchblog and broadstuff

Jim Romenesko / Poynter Online:

Memo: 'Gawker tech team didn't adequately secure our platform' — “On several fronts — technically, as well as customer support and communication — we found ourselves unprepared to handle this eventuality,” says Gawker chief technology officer Thomas Plunkett's memo to staff.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Google To Expand And Market Movie Streaming Service In 2011 — Google is expanding its feature film streaming service, says a source who's been briefed on the product. The service will likely be an expansion of the current movie rental/streaming test launched by Google earlier this year.

Discussion: SAI and GigaOM

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Study: Some Viewers Were Misinformed by TV News — News organizations can educate voters about public policy and economic conditions, but they can also misinform voters. As if to prove the point, a study released Friday found that “substantial levels of misinformation” …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, BLTv, TPM LiveWire, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, Gawker, The Informer, TVWeek.com, The Wire and Inside Cable News

Deborah Potter / NewsLab:

Data journalism central — The folks at the Guardian have been doing inspired work with data for several years. Now, they've added a new data store-one stop shopping for anyone interested in making data more meaningful. In addition to the data blog that highlights the British newspaper's own analysis …

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Mike Bloomberg's New Megaphone — The New York City mayor is going into the op-ed business. Howard Kurtz on what Bloomberg wants—and how his new venture will keep hope alive for fans who want to see him in the White House. — Michael Bloomberg is already fabulously wealthy …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Exclusive: Another Executive Exits Disney Digital: Paul Yanover — It's over for Paul Yanover at Disney (NYSE: DIS) Online. The chief architect behind the rebuilding of Disney.com is leaving to “pursue new opportunities outside the company,” as he told staffers Friday morning in an internal e-mail (full memo below).

Discussion: MediaPost, Company Town and The Wrap