Mediagazer: A Power Parable — The Observer's slogan is “Money, Power and the City.” (Lee Siegel/New York Observer)

Al Franken / The Huffington Post:

The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time — What's Your Reaction: — This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet. — As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field.

Discussion: Guardian, Reuters, Free Press, BetaNews, Techland, The Daily Caller, Wall Street Journal, Electronista, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Technology Liberation Front, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

F.C.C. Is Set to Regulate Net Access — The Federal Communications Commission appears poised to pass a controversial set of rules that broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net. — The proposed rules of the online road …

Discussion: Epicenter, Wall Street Journal, eMedia Vitals, Free Press, Digital Trends, The Foundry, NewEnterprise, Public Knowledge, paidContent, GigaOM, The Daily Caller and Post Tech, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Hulu Mulls More Pay Plans, Not an IPO — Online Video Site Considers Broadening Menu of Offerings for Viewers Who Pay — Online video site Hulu LLC has taken off the table the idea of going public, at least for now, and may consider other financing options, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: VideoNuze, Digital Trends, Show Me The Money, TVbytheNumbers, Company Town, SAI and DailyFinance, more at Techmeme »

No Hulu Plus for Your Cable DVR — Hulu Plus is slated to come to TiVo's Premiere DVR soon — but don't expect it to show up on any TiVo devices supplied by cable companies like Suddenlink, Cox or RCN. Rights holders are resisting subscription-based streaming content being placed next …

Discussion: SlashGear and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:

CBS, Couric Said to Discuss Lower Pay, Wider Role for Anchor as CNN Waits — CBS Corp. began preliminary talks on a new contract for Katie Couric, looking to cut the evening news anchor's $15 million salary and possibly expand her role amid falling viewership, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Discussion: Chickaboomer, Mediaite, The Wire, TVNewser and The Huffington Post

The Smoking Gun:

FBI Probe IDs Conde Nast “Hacker” — Fashion-obsessed student, 22, had Ohio home raided by feds … An FBI investigation has identified a fashion-obsessed Ohio man as the person who last year illegally gained access to a Conde Nast computer system and downloaded photos and pages …

Discussion: Jezebel, FishbowlNY and Gawker

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Groupon Hires Writers, But That Doesn't Make It Journalism — Group-buying service Groupon continues to get a lot of attention, in part because it recently turned down a staggering $6-billion acquisition offer from Google. But while the popularity of group-powered buying accounts …

Thanks:mathewi

Discussion: SAI, broadstuff and Gawker

MediaShift Idea Lab:

NPR's Project Argo Creates National Content at the Local Level — Jason and the Argonauts were the mythological Greek heroes who set off on a quest for the Golden Fleece. Like its namesake, NPR's Project Argo is off on another noble quest — to strengthen local journalism, particularly on digital platforms.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Troy Wolverton / Mercury News:

A look at Internet TV on the Boxee Box — Consumers are watching more videos online, and tech companies are rolling out more devices to let them watch those videos on their big-screen TVs instead of their PCs. — One of the more anticipated of these new gadgets — at least among the technorati — is the Boxee Box from D-Link.

Donald Jeffrey / Bloomberg:

National Enquirer Publisher American Media's Bankruptcy Plan Wins Approval — American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, won approval of a restructuring plan to exit bankruptcy. — U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said at a hearing today in New York that he will confirm the plan …

Lee Siegel / New York Observer:

A Power Parable — The Observer's slogan is “Money, Power and the City.” That is exactly as it should be. Because of the uniqueness of this city, money and power do not always add up to the same thing. — For example. — I was once invited by a woman friend to accompany …

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

The Myth of Fast-Forwarding Past the Ads — ZOMBIES attacked during a commercial break on the AMC zombie drama “The Walking Dead” last month. The flesh eaters were just about to feast on a man and woman when rescue came in the form of the Toyota Corolla, the subject of the 30-second spot.

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Law Professor Explains How Even When A Site Copies An Entire Article, It May Still Be Fair Use — Berkeley law professor Jason Schultz has filed an excellent amicus brief in one of the many Righthaven lawsuits, pointing out that using an entire article does not preclude fair use (pdf) …

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Thomas Roberts Joins MSNBC Fulltime — Even though it's been official for a few weeks, now it's really official because an MSNBC press release says so. — Thomas Roberts is joining the network fulltime as an anchor. Roberts, who's worked for HLN and “Entertainment Tonight” has appeared regularly on MSNBC over the past year.

Discussion: TVSpy and Gawker

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Title Junk — The recent hubbub about Delicious got me thinking about bookmarking in general, and brought to mind a long-standing irritation: poorly designed web page titles. — Here's an example that I bookmarked last night: Roger Ebert's 1968 review of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The title of that web page is:

Discussion: Soup, more at Techmeme »

Marc Hustvedt / Tubefilter News:

AOL Snags Amber J. Lawson as Head of Video Programming — As we close out 2010, AOL has been busier than Congress this month with a flurry of new deals for us to chew on before New Year's. The latest is a key talent hire in bringing on Amber J. Lawson as the company's new Head of Video Programming.

Michael Morisy / Nieman Journalism Lab:

In an age of free-flowing information, there's still a role for journalists to provide context — The Washington Post's venerable national security reporter Walter Pincus wants to make one thing clear: He isn't just hopping on the WikiLeaks bandwagon. — “I used WikiLeaks before [it] …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Clark Fredricksen / eMarketer and Blog Posts:

The Web Passes Newspapers in Ad Spending For First Time — Advertisers will spend more on internet ads in 2010 than newspaper ads for the first time, according to new estimates by eMarketer. — Online ad spending will grow 13.9% to $25.8 billion for the full year in 2010 …

Discussion: Bloomberg, the Econsultancy blog, MediaMemo, SocialTimes.com, MarketingVOX, Guardian, MediaFile, The Rural Blog, Top Digital Journal News, AdAge and Wall Street Journal