Mediagazer: Reinventing the Tablet — Tablet, the online Jewish general … (Kat Stoeffel/The New York Observer)

3:15 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.

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: Press Gazette, The Huffington Post, Media & Entertainment, Associated Press, Media Week, Crikey, TheMediaBriefing and Erik Wemple

Bloomberg:

Murdoch's Refusal to Take Responsibility May Undermine Credibility as CEO — Rupert Murdoch's refusal to take responsibility for the hacking scandal that has slashed $5.89 billion from the market value of News Corp. (NWSA) may undermine his credibility as chief executive officer.

Discussion: Telegraph, Guardian and ThinkProgress, Thanks:beet_tv

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

D.M. Levine / Adweek:
Piers Morgan Emerges as A Staunch Defender of Murdoch

Discussion: On Media's Blog, TVNewser, The Wire, The New York Observer, Future of Journalism, GalleyCat and ThinkProgress

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Jon Stewart on Rupert Murdoch, Wendi Deng, and The Pie. And, of Course, Fox News (Video).

Discussion: Mediaite, Poynter, Guardian and Softpedia News

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Wall Street Journal Staffers Push Back: We're Not ‘Fox-ified’

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

Jay Rosen / Guardian:
Phone hacking row shows News Corp is no ordinary news company

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

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

John Cook / Gawker:
Rupert Murdoch Has Left the Building

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, Forbes.com, Mediaite, Gothamist, paidContent, The Awl, Guardian and paidContent

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

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

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 and The Awl

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Webs and whirligigs: Marshall McLuhan in his time and ours — Thursday, July 21 would have been the 100th birthday of Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian media theorists who was one of the most influential — or at least one of the most quoted — media thinkers of the 20th century.

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, Chickaboomer, Editors Weblog, The Huffington Post, Future of Journalism, Free Press, The Nation and The Wire

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: Forbes.com, AllThingsD, paidContent, Home Media Magazine, mediabistro.com, MediaPost, Company Town, Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com, The Wrap, Techland and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

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: New York Magazine, Mediaite, FishbowlNY, The Wire and mediabistro.com

Matt Kinsman / Folio Stories RSS: B2B:

BREAKING: Schofield Media Shutters U.S. Operations — Company folds after lender pulls financing. — B-to-B publisher Schofield Media is shutting down its U.S. operations after “unexpectedly” losing its bank financing. Employees were informed when they came into the office on Monday, July 18.

Discussion: MediaPost

Google Book Search Blog:

Pottermore and Google team up to enable Harry Potter ebooks push to Google Books libraries — Posted by Larissa Fontaine, New Business Development, Google Books — (Cross-posted on the Google Commerce blog) — When JK Rowling's new website Pottermore opens its doors this Fall …

Discussion: paidContent:UK, ZDNet, The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, WebProNews, Gizmodo and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

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, CNET News, Fortune, TechFlash, Electronista, Future of Journalism, The Business Insider, The Next Web, The Wire, Seattle Times and FT Tech Hub

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.

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Future to sell or close eight magazines — Publisher admits there will be up to 100 redundancies as it battles against a fall in profits — Future Publishing is to sell or close eight of its magazines, including Hi-Fi Choice and What Satellite & Digital TV, as it battles against a fall in profits.

Discussion: Press Gazette, paidContent:UK and MCV: Home Stream

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Paging NYT! Your iPad app doesn't work — Romenesko Misc. — For three weeks now I've been trying to read the New York Times from its iPad app without any luck. It tries to load for about 30 seconds, then crashes. I deleted the app and reinstalled it; that didn't work.