Mediagazer: Stephen Colbert Rips Rupert Murdoch, Rips Off Arianna Huffington (Peter Kafka/MediaMemo)

3:40 PM ET, February 17, 2011

Top News:

Bahrain Protests: At Least 2 Dead in Crackdown; ABC's Miguel Marquez Roughed Up — “There was a canister that looked like — No! No! No! Hey! I'm a journalist here!” he yelled. — “I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! I'm going!,” he said. “I'm hit. ”

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, Hot Air, The Wire, Runnin' Scared, Gawker, New York Magazine, TVNewser and FrumForum

Taimur Khan / GQ:
How I Survived an Attack in Cairo

Discussion: Mediaite, Inside Cable News and TVNewser

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker: Is It Possible to Make Dangerous Reporting Safe?

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Dueling Paywalls: Brill & Crovitz's Journalism Online vs. Google's One Pass — One company set to face new competition now that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is rolling out its paid content system is Journalism Online, which to date has helped roughly 24 publications, predominately smaller-circulation newspapers …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, PC World, Open IT Strategies, FierceMobileContent, Music Ally, Tech Trader Daily, O'Reilly Radar, Editors Weblog, DailyFinance, GigaOM, Future of Journalism, MediaPost and Poynter, more at Techmeme »

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

With Google's One Pass, Two More Newspaper Chains Join The Paywall Brigade — Included in the announcement of Google's long-expected One Pass paid content system for publishers is news that two more U.S. newspaper chains are planning to put up online paywalls at some of their newspaper sites this year …

Discussion: Burst Media Company Blog, Media Buyer Planner, NetNewsCheck Latest and WebNewser

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Stephen Colbert Rips Rupert Murdoch, Rips Off Arianna Huffington — If you like metamedia criticism and Web media, then last night's “Colbert Report” was for you. At least twice! — Colbert started out with an entire segment on the Daily, Rupert Murdoch's new iPad newspaper.

Discussion: Mixed Media, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, New York Observer, Digital Trends and TPM LiveWire

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Next New Networks SEC Filing Pretty Much Confirms YouTube Buyout — While Google's YouTube is reportedly in talks to buy Web content producer Next New Networks, the New York-based startup has just filed with the SEC in relation to $19.4 million in equity financing.

Discussion: paidContent and NYConvergence.com

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Google And Facebook Continue To Lead Referral Traffic For Videos On Media Sites — In the third quarter of 2010, BrightCove and Tube Mogul's Online Video & The Media Industry report showed that Facebook passed Yahoo to become the No. 2 source of traffic to online videos at media sites.

Discussion: MediaPost

Rem Rieder / American Journalism Review:

Reporting to Conclusions — Journalists shouldn't shrink from making judgments about factual disputes. Posted: Wed, Feb. 16, 2011 — Rem Rieder (rrieder@ajr.umd.edu) is AJR's editor and senior vice president. — When Larry Platt took over as editor of the Philadelphia Daily News on January 31 …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Hugh Hefner Is No Longer on Top at Playboy — Hugh Hefner may not be the big dog at Playboy anymore, but he still enjoys certain perks. Image via Wikipedia — Last month, Playboy Enterprises announced that “a limited partnership controlled by Hugh M. Hefner” had made a $207 million deal …

Discussion: Poynter, Thomson IR, FishbowlNY and MediaPost

Lewis DVorkin / The Copy Box:

The Pains of Rebuilding — Search Engine Roundtable and TechCrunch posted yesterday about Forbes receiving a notification from Google related to “possibly artificial or unnatural links...pointing to other sites.” This practice is commonly known as selling links and allows the purchaser …

Thanks:andreaitis

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Forbes Accused Of Link Spam, Plays Dumb, But Forgets To Delete All The Links

Discussion: NoahBrier.com, WebProNews and Search Engine Land

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
Google Penalizes Forbes For Selling Links, Again

Discussion: @mattcutts and eMedia Vitals

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Wall Street is Bullish on (Its) Online Video Programming and Thomson Reuters is Delivering a Global Audience — WASHINGTON - Many top financial institutions are producing original video programming in-house, from 90-second equity analyst reports to market analysis and extended discussions.

Discussion: WebNewser

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:

MPAA's Top Lawyer Leaving to Join Viacom (Exclusive) … Daniel Mandil, the MPAA's top antipiracy executive and a key player in its efforts to fight global movie theft and counterfeiting, is leaving the organization for a big job at Viacom, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Discussion: paidContent and Film News Briefs

NPR:

Google Digitizes Back Issues of ‘Spy’ Magazine … Spy magazine, the defunct satirical publication that launched a thousand magazine careers and dodged a thousand lawsuits, is now available digitally — thanks to Google. — digital life — The defunct satirical publication is now available digitally — thanks to Google.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and @wired

Bill Mitchell / Poynter:

Thumbs up for Roger Ebert's new revenue model on Twitter — Six weeks into what some have billed “the year of paid content,” the most interesting ideas I've seen so far have less to do with corporate policy than they do with personal enterprise. — My colleague, Mallary Tenore …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

Craig Morgan Teicher / PWxyz:

McSweeney's Launches ‘The Goods,’ A Newspaper Comics Page — In its ongoing effort to keep print journalism alive and breathing, McSweeney's has launched ‘The Goods,’ a standalone newspaper comics and activities page it is hoping newspapers will carry. McSweeney's is partnering …

New York Times:

Borders' Bankruptcy Shakes Industry — After Borders, the 40-year-old retail chain that helped define the age of the book superstore, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, the struggling book industry was left wondering what was next — and maybe even who was next.

Discussion: Fortune, Deadline.com, BusinessJournalism.org … and EW.com

Dennis Publishing / Media Week:

MAGAZINE ABCs: High-flying Economist is UK's stand-out performer — The Economist puts in a stand-out performance in the UK consumer magazine market in the last six months of 2010, reporting a circulation rise of 11% year on year to pass 200,000 for the first time. — The Economist: the UK's stand-out performer

Discussion: Guardian

The Raw Story:

Talking Points Memo editor moves to Raw Story — Megan Carpentier to lead Raw Story, Raw Replay — Raw Story is pleased to announce that Megan Carpentier, an editor with Talking Points Memo and the former politics and news director at Air America Radio, has been selected as the company's new executive editor.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

NYT says it's seeking ‘a modern contract’ with the guild — Romenesko Misc. — Shortly after the Newspaper Guild of New York's contract talks release was posted here, the Times sent statement saying that it's “seeking a modern contract with the Guild that addresses the new realities …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and FishbowlNY