Mediagazer: Jim Lehrer On Leaving ‘PBS NewsHour’: ‘I may not be here physically, but I will always be here’ (Alex Weprin/TVNewser)

11:02 PM ET, May 12, 2011

Top News:

Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google — THE DAILY BEAST ON: — The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about the search giant, The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, The Wire, VentureBeat, GigaOM, FT Tech Hub, PRNewser, The Atlantic Wire, Firstpost, StevenLevy.com, Epicenter, TVNewser, MediaFile, Betabeat, Mashable!, ZDNet, SBNation.com, Marketing Pilgrim, Financial Times, Guardian, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, msnbc.com, Consumer Reports News, Pocket-lint, SocialTimes.com, MarketingVOX, Techdirt, The First Post, NY Daily News, BetaNews, Gizmodo, Vanity Fair, CNNMoney.com, On Media's Blog, Gawker, Engadget, Bits, Geekosystem, All Facebook, Hillicon Valley, Technology Liberation Front, The Not-So Private Parts, Adrants, Digits, CNET News, PC Magazine, Fox News, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, The Next Web, Fast Company, Techland, FishbowlNY, Electronista, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Daring Fireball, Adweek, ShortFormBlog, New York Observer, SAI, Free Press and NetworkEffect, more at Techmeme »

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

Smear Story Source Speaks: Facebook Wanted to Stab Google in the Back — Privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian broke open the story of how Facebook tried to use global PR giant Burson-Marsteller to smear Google in the press. He was pitched to ghost-write the op-ed, but posted the email exchange online instead.

Beth Krietsch / PRWeek US:

Burson-Marsteller and Facebook part ways — NEW YORK: Burson-Marsteller has confirmed it is no longer working with Facebook to promote the company's position against Google's social media venture Social Circle. — The separation follows a day where both companies fell under intense media scrutiny …

Lisa de Moraes / Washington Post:

Jim Lehrer steps down from regular anchor role on ‘PBS NewsHour’ — Jim Lehrer will no longer be part of the regular daily anchor rotation on “PBS NewsHour,” starting June 6. — The PBS veteran will continue to appear on many Friday broadcasts of the news program, moderating the weekly analysis …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, FishbowlDC, Mediaite, Poynter, MediaPost, TVNewser, On Media's Blog, Broadcasting & Cable and Yahoo! News

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Jim Lehrer On Leaving ‘PBS NewsHour’: ‘I may not be here physically, but I will always be here’ — Earlier today Jim Lehrer announced his retirement from the anchor chair at “PBS NewsHour.” Lehrer has been a journalist for 52 years, 36 of them for the “NewsHour” and its earlier incarnations …

Discussion: Media News International

American Journalism Review: The Courage to be Serious — As Jim Lehrer steps down …

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

NBC Planning News Magazine Show With Brian Williams — NBC is developing a new prime-time news magazine show hosted by “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams, according to people familiar with the matter, as the network's new management attempts to buck NBC's prime-time slump.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Deadline.com, Poynter, TVNewser, Show Tracker, Inside TV and Mediaite

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

News Editors Still Don't Want Journalists to Be Human — The American Society of News Editors has come out with an overview of social-media policies at news organizations across the U.S. — including Bloomberg, which we wrote about recently as an example of a company that still …

Thanks:mathewi

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:
‘Break news on your website, not on Twitter’

Discussion: Poynter, rjionline.org, The Buttry Diary and Future of Journalism

Vadim Lavrusik / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How journalists can make use of Facebook Pages — Editor's Note: Late last month, Vadim Lavrusik moved from his role as the community manager and social strategist at Mashable to become Facebook's first Journalist Program Manager. In his new position, Vadim is now responsible for building …

Thanks:lavrusik

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Matt Drudge Hire Second Political Writer — The Drudge Report is heading into the presidential election season with something it didn't have four years ago — two veteran political journalists on staff. — Last year, Matt Drudge brought on Joe Curl, a former White House correspondent for the Washington Times.

Discussion: FishbowlDC and Bloggasm

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

InsideDeal! WebMediaBrands Acquires Inside Network For $14 Million — When it comes to in-depth news about Facebook, there has been no better site than Inside Facebook. In fact, the flagship site of Inside Network became so successful alongside the meteoric rise of Facebook …

Discussion: GigaOM, Inside Facebook, eBookNewser, Betabeat, paidContent, PRNewser, WebProNews, @megan, MinOnline, NetworkEffect, NYConvergence.com and VentureBeat

Associated Press:

White House: No more re-enactments of the president's speeches for news photographers — NEW YORK — The White House said it is ending its long-running practice of having presidents re-enact televised speeches for news photographers following major addresses to the country …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire and Weasel Zippers

Lynne Marek / Chicago Business:

Chicago Tribune testing premium daily edition — (Crain's) — The Chicago Tribune is contemplating a pricier, premium daily newspaper to target affluent, more-educated readers, some of whom have dropped the biggest daily paper in recent years. — The unit of Tribune Co. is in the early stages …

Lauren Rabaino / 10,000 Words:

ProPublica and NYU release music-video “explainer” with investigative series — Forget simple kinetic type as a storytelling technique. ProPublica and New York University's Studio 20 have taken it a step further today with the release of their music-video explainer: a fun …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, explainer.net, UnBeige, TVNewser and ProPublica

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Here is the news - online readers like to be surprised by what they read — There is a great enthusiasm among digital pioneers to offer the readers of news websites the chance to personalise their editorial choices. But readers appear, at present anyway, somewhat underwhelmed by the concept.

Discussion: The Next Web, Editors Weblog and Future of Journalism

The Atlantic Wire:

Lizzie O'Leary: What I Read — How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all? Do they have some secret? Perhaps. We are asking various people who seem well-informed to describe their media diets. Lizzie O'Leary, a Washington D.C.-based correspondent …

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Mary Hamilton / Metamedia:

How do you make local news on Twitter engaging? — Like this: — Web poll (modern!) what gets your goat on Norfolk's roads? Vote here. It's like AV, but more fun - http://bit.ly/ltuXcW — about 18 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite — @EveningNews — Norwich Evening News