Mediagazer: Reporter Accosted After Bachmann Comments on Migraines (Michael Crowley/Swampland)

9:25 AM ET, July 20, 2011

Top News:

Phone hacking row shows News Corp is no ordinary news company — Rupert Murdoch's news organisations are not in the news business. What they crave is influence — Watching the phone hacking crisis crack wide open over the last few weeks has left me puzzled about its ultimate causes …

Discussion: Poynter, BuzzMachine, The Huffington Post, Mixed Media, Adweek and The Daily Beast

D.M. Levine / Adweek:

Piers Morgan Emerges as A Staunch Defender of Murdoch — Rupert Murdoch has an increasingly outspoken defender on TV: Piers Morgan. After a week of relative silence on the subject of the ballooning hacking scandal, the CNN primetime host and one-time Murdoch tabloid editor has taken …

Discussion: TVNewser, Future of Journalism, GalleyCat and ThinkProgress

Guardian:

Glenn Mulcaire legal payments terminated by News International — Private investigator at centre of News of the World phone-hacking scandal was still having certain legal fees paid — News International has terminated “with immediate effect” its arrangement to pay the legal fees of Glenn Mulcaire …

John Plunkett / Guardian:
Brooks: hacking payments not my remit

Discussion: BBC, Media Week, Jon Slattery, Crikey, Press Gazette, The Huffington Post, Future of Journalism, On Media's Blog and paidContent

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
News Corp's independent directors hire own legal team over phone hacking

Discussion: Globe and Mail, Erik Wemple, MediaPost, Hillicon Valley and AdAge

John Cook / Gawker:
Rupert Murdoch Has Left the Building

Discussion: The Awl and The Wire

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:
On Rupert Murdoch's performance before Parliament: Shockingly bad, or routine?

Discussion: Mediaite, Guardian, Media Week, On Media's Blog and WWD Media Headlines

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
The Statement The Murdochs Wanted To Make Before The MPs Said No

Discussion: Guardian, Media Week, TechCrunch, NetNewsCheck Latest, Crikey, msnbc.com, www.parliament.uk, Left Foot Forward, TheMediaBriefing, Erik Wemple, Fast Company, http://www.Stinkyjournalism …, Big Journalism, bookforum.com, Future of Journalism, On Media's Blog and BBC

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:
Video: Murdoch Attacked! Deng Fights Back! (Updated, With Slow-Motion Replay)

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The Daily Dish, On Media's Blog, msnbc.com, @jonniemarbles and mUmBRELLA

Legalweek:
Harbottle defends Hackgate position; Grabiner to lead News Corp clean-up

Discussion: The Slog

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Murdoch & Son Visit Parliament and Return With a Big Helping Of Humble (and Shaving Cream) Pie

Nick Robinson / BBC:
From inside the Murdoch hearing

Discussion: Media Myth Alert and Seattle Times

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Said to Drop Out of Hulu Auction — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is dropping out of the bidding for Hulu LLC, the online video service put up for sale by its media-company owners, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. — Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Fortune, Electronista, The Next Web, The Wire, Seattle Times and FT Tech Hub, more at Techmeme »

Andy Fixmer / Bloomberg:

Hulu Owners Offer 5-Year Show Extension — Hulu LLC, the online video service seeking bids, plans to offer suitors five years of access to shows from its media-company owners, including two years of exclusivity, two people with knowledge of the situation said.

Discussion: Free Press, The Business Insider, Adweek, Bloomberg, Online Video News and MediaPost

Paul Ford / New York Magazine:

Facebook and the Epiphanator: An End to Endings? — I do not enjoy Facebook — I find it cloying and impossible — but I am there every day. Last year I watched a friend struggle through breast cancer treatment in front of hundreds of friends. She broadcast her news with caution …

Discussion: The Technium, Future of Journalism, The Awl and Anil Dash

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Scandal Stirs U.S. Debate on Big Media — Progressive activists and public interest groups that have long blasted Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation for political biases now have a new and much more tangible reason to call for the revocation of his TV licenses and the breakup of his company.

Discussion: Guardian, Future of Journalism, Free Press, Chickaboomer and The Nation

Nitasha Tiku / The New York Observer:

Condé Nast Is Experiencing Technical Difficulties — While other media rushed online, Condé Nast dug int its Louboutin heels. Now, with its much ballyhooed iPad play stalling out—so 2010!—the knives are out for digital wonder boy Scott Dadich.

Michael Crowley / Swampland:

Reporter Accosted After Bachmann Comments on Migraines — It's not easy to get to Michele Bachmann. Her appearance at a rally on Tuesday in Aiken, South Carolina, attended by perhaps 150 people, featured three uniformed police officers and two body guards in plain clothes.

Discussion: Mediaite, New York Times, ABCNEWS, New York Magazine, nation.foxnews.com, FishbowlDC, Indecision Forever, Gawker, The Daily Caller, TPMDC and Ben Smith's Blog, Thanks:beet_tv

Steven Jacobs / Street Fight:

Metro Publisher: Building a CMS for Hyperlocals — Two years ago, publishing consultancy firm Vangaurdistas saw a demand by small and medium-sized publishers for a CMS capable of integrating more dynamic digital content. In response, it created Metro Publisher, which has now created …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Fortune:

Brainstorm Tech video: Katzenberg on the future of movie watching — Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg sat down with Fortune's Andy Serwer to discuss 3D technology, joining the Zynga board, and why movies suck this summer. — Below is an unedited transcript — ANDY SERWER: Good afternoon, again.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Video: Piers Morgan Calls Out MP Louise Mensch For Accusations Against Him — We know Piers Morgan for his reality TV stints and his gig now as Larry King's replacement on CNN. But before that he was a well-known tabloid editor in the UK, helming first the now-defunct News of the World and then the Daily Mirror.

Discussion: B&C, NPR Topics and Multichannel

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Magazine Rolls Out Print/Digital Subscriptions — And Puts Up Another Web Pay Wall — Time magazine is making it easier for readers to subscribe to its digital and print editions. And it is making it harder for non-subscribers to read the magazine on the Web.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Folio, Future of Journalism, Publishing Executive News, digiday:DAILY, Poynter, Nieman Journalism Lab, Electronista, mocoNews, Audience Development, VentureBeat, NetNewsCheck Latest, FishbowlNY and MediaPost

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

Scribd Creates a Paid News Site — Relatively few people are willing to pay for an online newspaper or magazine. But what if they could pay a monthly fee for a vast library of news, like Netflix's subscription service for movies? — Scribd, a Web site that lets users share reports …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Future of Journalism, paidContent and AllThingsD