Mediagazer: Amazon Lands CBS Licensing Deal To Stream TV Shows To Instant Video Offering (Leena Rao/TechCrunch)

12:00 PM ET, July 20, 2011

Top News:

Murdoch and His Critics — Regarding the scandal that has roiled Rupert Murdoch's global media empire, a few things seem clear. The phone-hacking scandal in London is deplorable. Journalists have violated the privacy of ordinary citizens and, it is alleged, the law of the land in the United Kingdom.

Discussion: The Awl, Mediaite, Future of Journalism, Runnin' Scared, Guardian, @rafat, @mlcalderone, @gabrielsherman, The Content Makers, Erik Wemple, WWD Media Headlines and Media Week

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 …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, The Huffington Post, Associated Press, Media Week, Crikey and NetNewsCheck Latest

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

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: BuzzMachine, Wall Street Journal, Poynter, Company Town, Mixed Media, New York Times, Adweek and paidContent

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Jon Stewart on Rupert Murdoch, Wendi Deng, and The Pie. And, of Course, Fox News (Video). — Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems as if Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have gone quite ... easy on News Corp.'s PhoneGate scandal, which seems like a story tailor made for them.

Discussion: Mediaite, Poynter, Guardian and The Snitch

BBC:

Phone hacking: Cameron's ‘regret’ over hiring Coulson — David Cameron has told MPs that “with hindsight” he would not have hired ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson. — In the closest he has come to an apology, the PM said: “Of course I regret, and I am extremely sorry, about the furore it has caused.”

Discussion: Guardian, New York Times, Online NewsHour, Crikey and Left Foot Forward

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Wall Street Journal Staffers Push Back: We're Not ‘Fox-ified’ — NEW YORK — While Rupert Murdoch and his son, James Murdoch, faced tough questions from members of Parliament Tuesday over the phone hacking scandal, Wall Street Journal staffers were watching — whether on newsroom televisions or computer screens at their desks.

Discussion: Poynter, Bloomberg, CJR, Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, Stop Big Media News, Shelly Palmer Digital Living and Talking Biz News

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 Cook / Gawker:
Rupert Murdoch Has Left the Building

Discussion: Guardian, Forbes.com, The Awl, The Wire, Gizmodo and paidContent:UK

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

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

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

Discussion: Erik Wemple, MediaPost, About.com Journalism and Hillicon Valley

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: Online Video News, Fortune, Electronista, Future of Journalism, The Next Web, The Wire, Seattle Times and FT Tech Hub

Andy Fixmer / Bloomberg:
Hulu Owners Offer 5-Year Show Extension

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

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon Lands CBS Licensing Deal To Stream TV Shows To Instant Video Offering — Amazon has just announced a deal with CBS to allow Amazon Prime customers to stream television shows from CBS's library of content. Financial terms of the non-exclusive deal were not disclosed.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Home Media Magazine, mediabistro.com, rbr.com, paidContent, Adweek, The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

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: TVNewser, Guardian, Future of Journalism, 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

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: FishbowlNY, The Wire and mediabistro.com

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Reinventing the Tablet — Tablet, the online Jewish general interest magazine, is undergoing a redesign, set to launch in late August or September, editor in chief Alana Newhouse told Off the Record. — The redesign will make room for former New Yorker writer Jeffrey Goldberg's “Goldblog” which will move from The Atlantic to Tablet.

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.