Mediagazer: Will Anyone Make This Movie About Rupert Murdoch? (Jeff Bercovici/Mixed Media)

5:10 PM ET, December 22, 2010

Top News:

Approval Talks Delay Comcast-NBC Deal — The long-awaited completion of the takeover of NBC Universal by Comcast will have to wait until the new year. — The outgoing NBC Universal chief executive Jeffrey Zucker sent a memo to staff members Wednesday afternoon explaining that regulatory approval …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, paidContent, Multichannel, Adweek, The Wrap, Yahoo! News, On Media's Blog, Company Town and Hillicon Valley

James Barron / New York Times:

Times Sues City Police, Saying Information Has Been Illegally Withheld — The New York Times has sued the New York Police Department, saying the department had routinely violated a state law that requires government agencies to provide information to the press and the public.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Gothamist, mediabistro.com, New York Observer, On Media's Blog, FishbowlNY and New York Magazine

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

The Daily Telegraph: the scoop, a whistleblower, and the denials — Coverage of the News Corporation/BSkyB merger has been a sensitive subject for the newspaper — Vince Cable's true opinion on the proposed £8bn News Corporation/BSkyB deal was of no small interest to the owners …

Discussion: BBC College of Journalism Blog, Telegraph, Press Gazette, BBC, The Staggers and Editors Weblog

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Will Anyone Make This Movie About Rupert Murdoch? — It would take a lot of guts to make a feature film about Rupert Murdoch, a man who, as head of one of the largest multi-national media conglomerates, controls the fortunes of individuals and entire companies in the entertainment business.

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:
News Corp. Gets Antitrust Approval for BSkyB Bid, But ‘War’ is Declared

Discussion: Guardian, Broadcasting & Cable, Jon Slattery, Telegraph, Press Gazette, The Lede, Media News and Media Week

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Barry Diller's IAC Creates Own Content Farm — Joins Yahoo, Demand Media With the Writer's Network, Seeking Freelancers for $10 to $25 Assignments — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Barry Diller appears to be cultivating his very own “content farm” at IAC. Though he recently relinquished …

Thanks:learmonth

John Cook / Gawker:

ABC News Staffers Produce Propaganda Video Attacking Their Horrible New Boss — Nobody likes Ben Sherwood, a notoriously self-promoting former Good Morning America executive producer who was recently, and inexplicably, placed in charge of ABC News. Some of his new employees hate him so much they made this undermining video about him.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, New York Observer, The Wrap, The Daily Caller and Hollywood Reporter

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Video Killed the Radio Star, But Might Save Newspapers — What comes to mind when you think of newspapers? Whatever it is, it's probably not streaming video. And yet, one of the interesting facts in a new survey of the online video market (PDF link) from video-hosting platform Brightcove …

Alan J. Heavens / Philly.com:

Stan Wischnowski named Inquirer's top editor — Stan Wischnowski, a veteran journalist who has presided over The Inquirer's front page for a decade, was named the newspaper's editor Tuesday by publisher Gregory J. Osberg to applause from reporters, editors, and photographers gathered for a holiday party in the newsroom.

Discussion: Media Decoder, MediaPost and mediabistro.com

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

New York's Sam Anderson Ditches Moss, Joins Lindgren at Times Magazine — Here's a bomb blast in the war between Adam Moss and his former protege, Hugo Lindgren: Sam Anderson is leaving New York to join Mr. Lindgren's growing roster of talent at the New York Times Magazine.

Scott Rosenberg / MediaShift Idea Lab:

Will Murdoch's The Daily Evolve Corrections for a New Platform? — We're entering one of those fertile, exciting periods when the fundamentals of publishing are, yet again, undergoing massive revisions thanks to new technology. — This time the trigger takes the form of the growing understanding …

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Time Inc. realigns sports and news operations — Romenesko Misc. — Mark Ford has been promoted to executive vice president of Time Inc. and president of its newly created Sports Group, and John Q. Griffin — former publishing president at the National Geographic Society …

Discussion: Media Decoder, MediaFile and FishbowlNY

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Community and Context: Thoughts on Closing Comments — This afternoon, several of our readers questioned our decision to close the comment thread on Jaron Lanier's post about WikiLeaks, “The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy.” The discussion transformed into an extended Twitter conversation …

Discussion: Poynter

Mia / YouTube Blog:

Celebrating our partners' success … Email This — BlogThis! — Share to Twitter — Share to Facebook — Share to Google Buzz

Discussion: Media Decoder and GigaOM

Kate Kaye / ClickZ:

Q&A: FTC's Top Technologist Talks Data Tracking — When the Federal Trade Commission says “do-not-track,” what does it mean exactly? What types of online data is the agency referring to in its proposal for a browser-based mechanism allowing consumers to opt-out from tracking?

Discussion: paidContent and AdExchanger.com

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

F.C.C. Approves Net Rules and Braces for Fight — Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. head, center, with Michael Copps, left, and Robert McDowell. — 8:52 p.m. | Updated Want to watch hours of YouTube videos or sort through Facebook photos on the computer? Your Internet providers …