Mediagazer: Rep. Darrell Issa probing Baker-to-Comcast move (rbr.com)

12:50 AM ET, May 24, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Cormier / The Next Web:

Did Ariana Huffington use stage to engage in market manipulation of AOL stock? — This morning at TechCrunch Disrupt, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, Arianna Huffington, in a “Fireside Chat” made an interesting and possibly illegal statement concerning the stock of AOL.

Discussion: Mixed Media and Gawker

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: Paid Content Can Work — TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington took the stage today to interview AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. It was actually at TechCrunch Disrupt New York last year where Armstrong first approached Arrington about buying TechCrunch. We all know how that worked out.

Discussion: The Wire

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
AOL Using TechCrunch as ‘Petri Dish’ for Transparency

Discussion: TechCrunch, NYConvergence.com and Adweek

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Revealed: The Huffington Post Wanted To Buy TechCrunch Back In The Day

Discussion: Betabeat, Adweek, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Future of Journalism

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Frank Bruni Named Times Op-Ed Columnist — Frank Bruni, whose writing career at The New York Times has spanned two presidential campaigns, a pope and more than five years as chief restaurant critic, has been named an op-ed columnist. — Andrew M. Rosenthal, editor of the Opinion Pages …

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, Yahoo! News, Gawker, FishbowlNY and Adweek

Eli Pariser / New York Times:

When the Internet Thinks It Knows You — ONCE upon a time, the story goes, we lived in a broadcast society. In that dusty pre-Internet age, the tools for sharing information weren't widely available. If you wanted to share your thoughts with the masses, you had to own a printing press …

Jim Rutenberg / The Caucus:

Fox News Executives Dispute Quote About Palin — Fox News Channel executives are disputing a quotation made by an unnamed Republican in the latest issue of New York magazine saying that the network's chairman, Roger Ailes, thinks former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is “an idiot.”

Discussion: Yahoo! News, The Wire, Inside Cable News, Mediaite, Adweek, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, The Huffington Post and The Daily Caller

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
The Elephant in the Green Room

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

Burdened by PBS Dues, Stations Consider Withdrawing — ORLANDO, Fla. — Television executives who gathered here last week for PBS's annual meeting enthusiastically embraced projects such as the five-part “Women, War and Peace” and heard the actress Anna Deavere Smith speak so passionately …

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser and Free Press

Joshua Brustein / New York Times:

Fine Print Blurs Who's in Control of Online Photos — If you post a photo on the Web, it still belongs to you, right? Well, be sure to read the fine print. — World Entertainment News Network, a news and photo agency, announced this month that it had become the “exclusive photo agency partner” …

Discussion: Big Journalism and ShortFormBlog

Kevin Hoffman / The Blotter:

DOA: Pioneer Press runs Tim Pawlenty presidential announcement on obit page — Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign is Dead On Arrival, according to his hometown newspaper. — The St. Paul Pioneer Press hilariously ran the announcement of T-Paw's presidential campaign on the Obituary page this morning.

Discussion: The Caucus, FishbowlNY, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, The Hill and ShortFormBlog

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Reporting live from the scene of breaking news...on an iPhone — Earlier this month, as the president announced Osama bin Laden's demise, NPR's Robert Smith noticed on Twitter that revelers were congregating at Ground Zero. He grabbed his gear and headed into Manhattan.

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites — Earlier this month, I wrote about how the promise of Facebook traffic has enticed millions of sites to use Facebook Like buttons and other Facebook social plugins. But does following Facebook's socialist agenda really pay off?

Discussion: Poynter, WebProNews and FishbowlNY

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

U.K. Media Finally Start Ignoring Law That Prevents Them From Typing “Ryan Giggs” (Video) — Just about everyone in the U.K.-and lots of people outside of the country-knows that soccer star Ryan Giggs is rumored to have had an affair with a reality TV star.

Discussion: BBC, Daily Mail, SAI, Citizen Media Law Project, Guardian and New York Magazine

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Li named Reuters.com editor as Ledbetter becomes op-ed editor — Kenneth Li has been editor-in-charge of Reuters' technology, media and telecoms reporting team. In his role as op-ed editor, James Ledbetter “will create a stable of top thought leaders from around the world who will weigh …

Discussion: @dylanbyers

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Aside Magazine app runs on any tablet, shows what developers can do with HTML5 — A pair of Berlin-based designers has released a prototype of what they call the world's first HTML5 magazine for tablets. — The project, called Aside Magazine, is an impressive demonstration of the design …

Google Book Search Blog:

Google eBooks: By the Numbers, Then and Now — It's been about six months since we launched Google eBooks. Now, we're happy to report there are more than three million free Google eBooks available in the U.S. for your enjoyment and enlightenment (as compared to more than two million at launch).

Discussion: Publishing Perspectives, Electronista, Softpedia News and GalleyCat, more at Techmeme »

rbr.com:

Rep. Darrell Issa probing Baker-to-Comcast move — The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Darrell Issa (R-CA), says he believes that the move of FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker to Comcast/NBCU months after approving the joint venture that brought the two media giants together was done properly.

Discussion: Company Town, CNET News and Multichannel

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

Really Bad Timing for Washingtonian — What's Washingtonian to do? They write a huge, glowing piece on Dominique Strauss-Khan by Apolline de Malherbe for their June issue. Then, after it goes to press and is mailed out, the goddamn guy goes and gets busted for rape.

Discussion: NBC New York, The Atlantic Wire and The Daily Caller

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Conde Nast's New Marketing-Services Division Aims at Non-Advertising Budgets — Ideactive Will Offer Services Such as App Development — Conde Nast, the publisher of magazines such as Glamour and The New Yorker, is trying to move further beyond its core business of ad-page sales with a new marketing services division.

Discussion: Noted and MediaPost

Amy Wicks / WWD Media Headlines:
Condé Nast Gets Digitally Active

Discussion: MediaPost, MinOnline and Future of Journalism

Tim Carmody / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Both the short and long of it: How sportswriting is taking over the web through innovation and adaptation — Readers paying attention to sportswriting for the past few months have had ample room for excitement. Not only have we been treated to great takes on the Super Bowl, March Madness …