Mediagazer: Why did The Post deport Jose Antonio Vargas's story? (Patrick B. Pexton/Washington Post)

Patrick B. Pexton / Washington Post:

Why did The Post deport Jose Antonio Vargas's story? — Journalists are not public officeholders, nor do they manage public funds. But they do hold, precariously, a public trust. And at the foundation of that trust is the pledge to tell the truth, or at least to get as close to it as they can.

Discussion: On Media's Blog, NPR's On the Media, Poynter and Mediaite

For Student Journalists, No Burden Guarding Vargas' Secret — When Jose Antonio Vargas told the Oracle editorial staff his immigration status, silence fell upon the room. — “I'm an undocumented immigrant,” he confessed to the group after a nervous pause for a sip out of his Starbucks cup.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, San Francisco Peninsula …, Big Journalism and Salon

Gene Weingarten / Washington Post:

How ‘branding’ is ruining journalism — Dear Leslie: — I am honored that you have chosen me as the subject of your journalism school graduate thesis. At the behest of your instructor, you e-mailed me to ask how I've “built my personal brand over the years.” I'm answering with this column.

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, Poynter, Future of Journalism, freefromeditors and J-Source

MediaShift Idea Lab:

How Newsrooms Can Win Back Their Reputations — The journalism industry ships lemons every day. Our newsrooms have a massive quality control problem. According to the best counts we have, more than half of stories contain mistakes — and only 3 percent of those errors are ever fixed.

Discussion: Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard

The Atlantic Wire:

Gay Talese: What I Read — How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all? What sources can't they live without? We regularly reach out to prominent figures in media, entertainment, politics, the arts and the literary world, to hear their answers to these questions.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Yahoo! News

Yahoo! News:

Rolling Stone draws fire for attribution SNAFUs in Michele Bachmann profile — It's been a few months since we've had ourselves a good-old plagiarism incident to get riled up about. But thanks to Rolling Stone, our sleepy summer Friday just got a bit more scandalous!

Discussion: The Blotter, Mixed Media, Poynter, The Atlantic Wire, Runnin' Scared, @penenberg, National Review and FishbowlNY

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Fair use isn't much good if you can't afford it — All around us, the web is enabling an explosion of “remix culture,” in which bits and pieces of text, images and video are cut and spliced to create new forms of art. Whatever you think of the specific outcomes of this process …

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation, SAY Media, Techdirt, Betabeat, PlagiarismToday and Free Press, Thanks:mathewi

Andrea Pitzer / Nieman Storyboard:

“Why's This So Good?” - a collaboration on the magic of long-form stories — We're excited to announce a new feature that we'll be rolling out next week on Nieman Storyboard. “Why's This So Good?” will explore what makes classic narrative nonfiction stories worth reading.

Brett Pulley / Bloomberg:

AOL's Huffington Post Expands Local News Ahead of Campaign — AOL Inc. (AOL), after buying the Huffington Post website this year to revive sales growth, is accelerating its expansion of local coverage to lure readers interested in campaign news ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Discussion: The Corsair, FishbowlNY, The Wire and Future of Journalism

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

News Challenge winner OpenBlock Rural plans to partner with smaller papers on using public data — Small rural papers can have a level of reader engagement that would be the envy of their larger peers. If you're the newspaper of a town with 12,000 or so people — like, say …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Comcast has to sit on its hands while Hulu drama plays out — Imagine owning a big chunk of a company and having no say in its operations or future. — That's the position Comcast Corp. finds itself in with regard to Hulu, the online video site that consists primarily of content from its owners who …

Discussion: MediaPost

Ben Collins / Hulu Blog:

The Great Reddit-Hulu Experiment — Well, Reddit, that was a lot of fun. — We asked you out to a nice steak dinner the other day and when we got to the restaurant, it was filled with people we like talking about shows we love and offering us superfluous amounts of A1 Sauce. Oh, and Carl Sagan was there.

Discussion: AllThingsD and Lost Remote

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Harvard's Shorenstein Center launches research tool for journalists — Romenesko Misc. — The goal of the free, open-access site is to make scholarly research more accessible for journalists, journalism educators and students. “It is new and evolving, and we are eager for feedback …

Discussion: The Rural Blog

Alison Flood / Guardian:

How self-publishing came of age — What used to be seen as a last resort is fast becoming the most successful trend in writing. Alison Flood talks to the authors doing it themselves — GP Taylor is one of self-publishing's success stories. The former vicar sold his motorbike to fund …

Steve Kornacki / Salon:

Mike Barnicle: The best friend a gangster could have — In the summer of 1991, James J. “Whitey” Bulger won the Massachusetts lottery. Well, at least he claimed he did. The $14 million winning ticket was actually held by a South Boston man named Michael Linskey, who had purchased it at the Bulger-owned South Boston Liquor Mart.