Mediagazer: Like it or not, aggregation is part of the future of media (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

9:25 AM ET, July 14, 2011

Top News:

Bancroft Family Members Express Regrets at Selling Wall Street Journal to Murdoch — This story was co-published with The Guardian. — A number of key members of the family which controlled The Wall Street Journal say they would not have agreed to sell the prestigious daily to Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: Guardian, mediabistro.com, Poynter, The Wrap, The Lede, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Salon, On Media's Blog, The Raw Story, Talking Biz News, bookforum.com and Daring Fireball, more at Techmeme »

Seung Min Kim / The Politico:

GOPer wants FBI probe of Rupert Murdoch — New York Republican Pete King is calling on the FBI to investigate whether Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation hacked into the voicemail accounts of Sept. 11 victims, calling the allegations of the scandal “disgraceful.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Adweek, The Nation, Mediaite, Swampland, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Gothamist, Indecision Forever and blogs.telegraph.co.uk

New York Times:

Father and Son Split on Tactics in Murdoch Family Drama — Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing its $12 billion bid to buy complete control of the satellite giant British Sky Broadcasting, a move intended to calm the torrent of derision directed …

Discussion: The Wire, Guardian, The First Post, Wall Street Journal and Gordon's Republic

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Handicapping Who Survives the Coming Purge at News Corp. — James Murdoch will probably still be at News Corp. a year from now, but some of his colleagues won't. Image by Getty Images via @daylife — Remember the name Tom Crone. Little known to the outside world before today, Crone …

Discussion: Mediaite, Guardian, Future of Journalism, Poynter, Crikey, News Desk and USA Today

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Whatever happened to the WSJ editorial integrity committee? — News that the Bancroft family might not have sold The Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch if they knew then what they know now about his newspapers' journalistic practices, reminded me: Wasn't there a panel established to protect …

Discussion: Media Nation and CJR

John Cook / Gawker:

In Defense of Sleazy Journalism — As delightful as it's been to watch Rupert Murdoch's British fiefdom slowly drown in a foul swamp of wickedness and criminality, it's worth remembering that all good reporters are amoral monsters and that without a lot of highly questionable behavior …

Discussion: Adweek, The Politico, Guardian, The Wire, The Nation, CBS News, BBC, The Sun, ProPublica, mUmBRELLA and Future of Journalism

Hollywood Reporter:
Confessions of a News of the World Reporter (Exclusive)

Discussion: Guardian, Future of Journalism, paidContent, Crikey and The Wire

BBC:
News Corp withdraws bid for BSkyB

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Guardian, TVNewser, CNN, Sky News, paidContent, Poynter, MediaFile, The Daily Dish and Media Law Prof Blog

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
In the Murdoch Hacking Scandal, Roger Ailes Stands to Gain

Discussion: TVNewser, Reuters and Hillicon Valley

Reuters:
Legal head of News International leaves company: source

Discussion: Guardian and Guardian

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Like it or not, aggregation is part of the future of media — Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington — There's been a lot of commentary flying around about a recent incident in which The Huffington Post “over-aggregated” a piece from Advertising Age, including a complaint from the original writer …

Discussion: Slate, digiday:DAILY and Kirk LaPointe's …, more at Techmeme »

Julie Moos / Poynter:

The journalistic value of aggregation creates the business value — Aggregation has been core to this website's success for the last decade. Our most popular feature since 1999 has been a blog that earns its iconic place in journalism by highlighting the most interesting and important news for a passionate audience.

Discussion: New York Post, ZDNet, eMedia Vitals, Silicon Valley Watcher and @kvox

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Union-Tribune owner hires investment advisor to explore possible sale — Platinum Equity, the private investment firm that owns The San Diego Union-Tribune, has hired an investment adviser “to help the company explore alternatives for its future,” the newspaper reported.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

AMI Slashing OK!'s Circulation — David Pecker's American Media Inc. is jumping right on fixing newly acquired OK! Weekly's weak circulation—by cutting it. — Effective with the second half of 2011, AMI will whack OK!'s rate base to 625,000 from 800,000, a decrease of 22 percent.

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:

Kiran Chetry To Leave CNN: 'This Isn't Goodbye, This Is See You Soon' — The New York Post is reporting tonight-and Mediaite has confirmed-that that American Morning co-host Kiran Chetry is leaving the morning show-and CNN. The Post cites “sources” saying Chetry “was seen packing up her desk today” …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Inside Cable News

David Cay Johnston / MediaFile:

How I misread News Corp's taxes — By David Cay Johnston. The opinions expressed are his own. — Readers, I apologize. The premise of my debut column for Reuters, on News Corp's taxes, was wrong, 100 percent dead wrong. — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp did not get a $4.8 billion tax refund for the past four years, as I reported.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire and On Media's Blog

Bill Keller / New York Times:

Let's Ban Books, or at Least Stop Writing Them — There was exciting news last month among the Twitterati. Brian Stelter, The New York Times prodigy and master of social media, announced to his 64,373 followers that he is going to write a book. The obvious question: What's up with that?

Discussion: The Nation, Poynter, The New York Observer, The Wire, Gawker and The Rumpus.net

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Jennifer Salke Named NBC Entertainment President — Exec joins net from 20th Century Fox Television — As previously speculated, Twentieth TV's Jennifer Salke has officially been named president of NBC Entertainment, the network said Wednesday. The appointment is effective immediately.

Discussion: Adweek, The Wrap, rbr.com, Media Decoder and Speakeasy