Mediagazer: An American Watches The NewsCorp Hearings In London (Farrah Bostic/Mediaite)

10:00 AM ET, July 20, 2011

Top News:

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 …

Jay Rosen / Guardian:

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 New York Observer, The Huffington Post, Mixed Media and Adweek

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: The New York Observer, TVNewser, Future of Journalism, GalleyCat, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

Farrah Bostic / Mediaite:

An American Watches The NewsCorp Hearings In London — Watching the BBC's live coverage of the Murdochs' testimony before the Culture Committee in Parliament, while sitting on a couch in southeast London, and watching my twitter feed roll on about the hacking scandal, I noticed a few things, and thought I'd share them.

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

Discussion: BBC, Media Week, Jon Slattery, The Lede, 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, WWD Media Headlines, MediaPost and Hillicon Valley

John Cook / Gawker:
Rupert Murdoch Has Left the Building

Discussion: The Awl, The Wire and AllThingsD

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

Discussion: Mediaite, Guardian, The Content Makers, Erik Wemple and Media Week

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

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

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

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

Discussion: The Slog

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

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

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

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

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

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Topic [B]? The Daily Beast Prepares for Chat Shows and Cable Spots — Tina Brown is planning to launch an online talk show for The Daily Beast, according to former Newsweek staffers apprised of the company's plans. The Newsweek Daily Beast company recently hired several network television producers …

Discussion: mediabistro.com

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

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