Mediagazer: In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow (New York Times)

12:50 PM ET, December 27, 2010

Top News:

In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow — Did the bill pledging federal funds for the health care of 9/11 responders become law in the waning hours of the 111th Congress only because a comedian took it up as a personal cause? — And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart …

Discussion: Mediaite, Poynter, New York Observer, The Wire, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Company Town, Media Myth Alert and The New Yorker Blog

Jon Kalish / New York Times:

Talking Tech and Building an Empire From Podcasts — Balancing on a giant rubber ball in a broadcast studio and control room carved out of a cottage in Petaluma, Calif., Leo Laporte is an unlikely media mogul. — From that little town in California wine country, he runs his empire, a podcasting network, TWIT.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Hollywood Moves Away From Middlebrow — LOS ANGELES — When negative Twitter commentary seemingly torpedoed the Sacha Baron Cohen film “Brüno” in July 2009, movie executives started talking in solemn tones about the ability of social networking to sway attendance.

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Business cable primed for hefty gains — While viewers of the three business cable networks may be feeling a bit better today than a year ago — thanks to the 10 percent plus gain in the S&P 500 index in 2010 over last year — those producing TV's daily dose of business babble have a right to be downright giddy.

Discussion: TVNewser and Talking Biz News

Wall Street Journal:

While on Cellphone, a Rival's Ad — Mobile-phone companies are experimenting with a new way to steal their rivals' customers: the mobile insult to the device in hand. — Their new tactic involves mobile ads that appear when a person using a competitor's phone or network launches an application or browses the Web on their phone.

Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:

For aides, reporters in Hawaii, a mix of work and play — HONOLULU - If the beachfront home where the Obamas are staying in Hawaii is the “Winter White House,” then you might call the Moana Surfrider this island's version of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells / New York Magazine:

Peretz in Exile — For decades, Martin Peretz taught at Harvard and presided over The New Republic—a fierce, if controversial, lion among American intellectuals and Zionists. Now, having been labeled a bigot, taunted at his alma mater, and stripped of his magazine, he has found peace in a place where there is little: Israel.

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

News Corp's Christmas Day Strategy: Catch iPad Gift Recipients — With News Corp.'s belief in the tablet opportunity ongoing, its UK newspapers tried snagging what it expected would be an army of new iPad owners on Christmas Day. — The Times and The Sun each said they were using iPad …

Discussion: TeleRead

Karen Dionne / DailyFinance:

How E-Books Are Changing the Economics of Writing — In November, The New York Times reported that approximately 9 million electronic reading devices are in use in the U.S. When holiday purchases are tallied, that number will most certainly go up. While there are many different kinds of e-readers …

Discussion: TeleRead

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:

Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years? — I've now been blogging for 10 years. Looking back we haven't seen all that much innovation for bloggers. You have a box. You type in it. Put an image into it. And hit publish. That's much the same as the tools I had 10 years ago.

Discussion: SAI

(Re)Structuring Journalism:

It's Not Me, It's You — In the middle of reading Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky's smart look at the blurring of lines between professional and amateur in a world of new opportunities for people to organize and participate. It's well-written, with enough real-world examples to move the book along briskly, and I highly recommend it.

Los Angeles Times:

Why KCET never became a major player in the PBS network — Critics say the station lacked ambition and failed to tap Hollywood resources. Station officials say they were kept down by a network that catered to three powerful East Coast entities. — KCET building on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Discussion: New York Times