Mediagazer: Webs and whirligigs: Marshall McLuhan in his time and ours (Megan Garber/Nieman Journalism Lab)

6:40 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: Associated Press, Press Gazette, Hillicon Valley, Media & Entertainment, The Huffington Post, Media Week, Crikey, TheMediaBriefing and paidContent

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, ThinkProgress and Guardian, Thanks:beet_tv

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

Discussion: Bloomberg, Guardian, Poynter, CJR, ProPublica, Wall Street Journal and Stop Big Media News

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

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

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

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

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

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Scandal Stirs U.S. Debate on Big Media — Progressive activists and public interest groups have long blasted Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation for political biases. But in recent weeks they have seized on a new and more tangible reason to call for the revocation of his TV licenses …

Discussion: Chickaboomer, TVNewser, Future of Journalism, Editors Weblog, The Huffington Post, The Wire and The Nation

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

From DSK to BSkyB: Media Takeaways From the Latest Round of Scandals — First, there was the frenzied coverage of the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Then came the media-gasm brought on by the Casey Anthony trial. And now we have the phone-hacking scandal currently hacking its way through …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Company Town, Guardian and Salon

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

Discussion: Mediaite, Poynter, Softpedia News and Guardian

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 theorist who was one of the most influential — or at least one of the most quoted — media thinkers of the 20th century.

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

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: TechCrunch, Future of Journalism, Epicenter, ZDNet, Search Engine Land, Publishing Perspectives, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, PC Magazine, WebProNews, paidContent:UK and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

AP will link back to newspapers who get scoops — News organizations that break big stories will soon get a little more credit — and maybe even a little traffic — from The Associated Press. Beginning Aug. 1, whenever the AP picks up a local story from a member for rewriting and distribution …

Discussion: Poynter

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, mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY and The Wire

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Huffington Post writer who ‘over-aggregated’ Dumenco's AdAge post is returning — Amy Lee, the Huffington Post writer who was suspended for “over-aggregating” a post, is back, Huffington spokesman Mario Ruiz told me today via email: … He wouldn't elaborate on the internal review or policies but said she'd return on Monday.

Discussion: The New York Observer, The Wrap, The Atlantic Wire and The Business Insider

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

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 and MCV: Home Stream

Ellie Behling / eMedia Vitals:

Tablet advertising: Which metrics matter? — Media companies and media buyers will have to think in new ways about measuring the effectiveness of tablet advertising. Metrics are clearly moving to be more about conversions and engagement (e.g. purchases made and time spent), but understanding and standards are still evolving.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and NYConvergence.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

Ashley Furness. / bizjournals:

Time Warner launches deals site — is the latest trying to grab a piece of the ever-growing daily deals pie. — The company's advertising division, Time Warner Cable Media, rolled out the ClickedIn offering in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio this month. It will be expanded to other cities later this year.

Discussion: MediaPost