Mediagazer: Was a Vanity Fair Editor Secretly Working for the Church of Scientology? (John Cook/New York Observer)

6:15 PM ET, March 1, 2011

Top News:

Was a Vanity Fair Editor Secretly Working for the Church of Scientology? — Gawker.com, where the author is employed a staff writer, declined to publish this story. — Did the Church of Scientology use a Vanity Fair contributing editor to infiltrate and gather intelligence on the cult's enemies in the media?

Discussion: The Wrap, Poynter, FishbowlNY, @joecoscarelli, New York Magazine, @johnjcook, @felixsalmon, @felixsalmon and @jeffbercovici

Joe Coscarelli / Runnin' Scared:

Why Did Gawker Refuse to Run John Cook's New York Observer Article on Scientology? — On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Observer, now under the editorship of founding Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers, published a juicy feature about Scientology by current Gawker editor and investigative journalist John Cook.

New York Magazine:

Frank Rich Joins New York Magazine — Frank Rich is joining New York Magazine, beginning in June. Rich will be an essayist for the magazine, writing monthly on politics and culture, and will serve as an editor-at-large, editing a special monthly section anchored by his essay.

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Sneak peek: What's new in the New York Times Magazine — Hugo Lindgren knows that New York Times Magazine readers can be wary of change. The magazine's editor got some unhappy emails after several popular writers penned their farewell pieces on Sunday and the “On Language” column made what could be its last appearance after 32 years.

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, Adweek, Media Research Center and New York Observer

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Exploiting Charlie — When I arrived in Detroit to intern at the Free Press many years ago, I saw a local character dressed in a bright yellow rain slicker, no matter the weather, theatrically directing traffic in front of the Cadillac hotel. He was there every day.

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Media acting as enablers with excessive coverage of “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen — Whether or not you watch “Two and a Half Men,” by now you've certainly heard about its troubled star, Charlie Sheen, who has been talking about the uncertain future of his hit show to anyone who will listen.

Discussion: TechCrunch, New York Times, The Wire, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post and msnbc.com

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Sheen Brings Piers Morgan Best Ratings Yet — Charlie Sheen's surprise appearance on “Piers Morgan Tonight” delivered that six-week-old talk show its highest rating in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers and cable news executives covet. — The hourlong interview garnered …

Michael Barbaro / New York Times:

Bloomberg Testing the World of Opinion — Over the last year, representatives of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg quietly reached out to a handful of the country's top journalists with an intriguing job offer: Divine and distill his unique brand of political philosophy and disseminate it around …

Discussion: Poynter, City Room, The Big Picture, The Empire, The Huffington Post, The Wire, On Media's Blog, Gothamist and FishbowlNY

Jodi Enda / American Journalism Review:

The Bloomberg Juggernaut — While many news organizations are struggling and retreating, Bloomberg News keeps adding talented journalists, expanding its empire and elevating its ambitions. Posted: Wed, March 1, 2011 — Jodi Enda (jaenda@gmail.com) writes about politics and government from Washington …

Discussion: Poynter

Jack Shafer / Slate:

Darrell Issa e-mail leaks: Why John F. Harris is massively overreacting. … Like This Story — Follow Slate's Press Box … - How Warren Buffett Is Making Millions Off His Smart Bet on Trains- Why Do Workers Need a Law Allowing Collective Bargaining? Can't They Just Do It?

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Post, FishbowlDC and On Media's Blog

The Politico:
Darrell Issa probes staff; spokesman Kurt Bardella at center of controversy

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter, FishbowlDC, Gawker, The Caucus, @weareyourfek, New York Magazine, Poynter, The Daily Caller, Washington Wire, TPMDC, The New Yorker Blog, The Wire, CNN, TPMMuckraker, On Media's Blog and Talking Points Memo, Thanks:gnagesh

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Recommendation Is Still the Holy Grail For News — If you count all the different media-related apps for the iPhone and iPad, there are almost an infinite number of ways to consume the news — some are specific to a particular newspaper or magazine, while others try to aggregate different sources of news for you.

Discussion: PC World

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Apple Lines Up Random House, Its Last iBook Holdout — Apple's iBookstore, launched in conjunction with the iPad last year, has a big problem: It doesn't carry titles from Random House, one of the world's biggest publishers. — But that may be set to change very soon.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNET News, Engadget and Ars Technica

David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Random House switches to e-book agency model; little bookseller chagrined

Discussion: Jacket Copy, Kindle Review, MetaFilter and The Next Web

Chris Atkins / Media Standards Trust:

Fuel to the fire — Chris Atkins, the independent film maker who played a number of news hoaxes to help raise awareness about churnalism, writes a guest post describing what he did and how he did it — It was just under a month ago when the Media Standards Trust challenged me to raise awareness …

Discussion: Richard Sambrook … and Media Law Journal

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: Thumbplay Gives Up On Music Subscriptions, And Clear Channel Steps In — After less than a year in the music subscription business, Thumbplay is giving up: The company is selling off the struggling service to Clear Channel Radio. — Thumbplay will hang on to its once-booming ringtone business …

Discussion: Mashable!, hypebot, Guardian, Company Town, NYConvergence.com, Media Buyer Planner and paidContent

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Source: Politics Daily, Daily Finance Being Folded Into Huffpo — In your trampled Tuesday media column: rumors of blog consolidation at AOL, Darell Issa's spokesman canned for leaking to the NYT, Dan Abrams is a proud television journalist, the new NYT Magazine considered, and fairness is dead.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Facebook Comments Platform Brings Media Partners Into Users' News Feeds — Facebook is relaunching its commenting plugin that will promise to insert media partners into users' news feeds. Previously, when a user made a comment on another site with their Facebook profile, the comment remained with that outside site.

Discussion: Facebook Developer Blog, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Inside Facebook, WebNewser, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land and Media Buyer Planner, more at Techmeme »

Gregory Ferensteinmon / Fast Company:

Google's Journalism Prize and the 5 Groups Who Should Win It — Google's running a $2.7 million contest for innovative online journalism and we rounded up 5 models to inspire the contestants. — Google's philanthropic spending spree has just dropped another $2.7 million to fund innovative uses …

Discussion: CyberJournalist.net