Mediagazer: Why McLuhan's chilling vision still matters today (Douglas Coupland/Guardian)

1:15 PM ET, July 21, 2011

Top News:

In Court, Suggestions of Hacking Beyond The News of the World — LONDON — Front pages across Britain featured pictures of Rupert Murdoch apologizing for phone hacking at The News of the World. But further suggestions that the practice spread beyond his newspaper emerged in a small …

Discussion: Free Press, CNN, The Independent and MediaFile

Journalism.org:

The Wall Street Journal under Rupert Murdoch — Although the scandal enveloping Rupert Murdoch's media empire has focused on his British properties, it has also put News Corp's. U.S. outlets under a brighter spotlight—particularly the prestigious Wall Street Journal he acquired by purchasing Dow Jones for $5 billion in 2007.

Discussion: Poynter, Mixed Media, TVWeek.com, Chicago Reader, msnbc.com, Erik Wemple and Guardian

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Guardian, N.Y. Times worked to break News Corp. hacking case — Two newspapers on opposite sides of the Atlantic were instrumental in cracking open the massive phone-hacking scandal in Rupert Murdoch's British media empire. And they might not have been able to do so without a little Anglo-American cooperation.

Discussion: Poynter, Business Week, Editors Weblog, Chicago Tribune, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Press Gazette

Gautam Naik / Wall Street Journal:

Scotland Yard Stint Lands Former Editor in Spotlight — One aspect of the tangled phone-hacking scandal in the U.K. is the alleged cozy relationships between tabloid editors and top police officers and leading politicians. Those connections are increasingly coming into view via the figure of Neil Wallis …

Katy Bachman / Adweek:
Senate Dems Ask News Corp. to Investigate Itself

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Hillicon Valley

The New York Observer:
Murdoch and His Critics

Discussion: Washington Times, Poynter, NetNewsCheck Latest, paidContent, Guardian, Erik Wemple, The Nation, Slate, News Desk, @gabrielsherman, MinOnline, Forbes.com, Company Town, On Media's Blog, The Wire, FishbowlNY, The Awl, Press Gazette and Felix

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

Discussion: Journalism.org, New York Magazine, St. Petersburg Times, CJR, Poynter and New York Times

Bloomberg:
Murdoch's Refusal to Take Responsibility May Undermine Credibility as CEO

Discussion: Company Town, Washington Post, Telegraph and ThinkProgress, Thanks:beet_tv

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Sharpton Appears to Win Anchor Spot on MSNBC — After giving a nearly six-month tryout for the Internet talk show host Cenk Uygur, the cable news channel MSNBC is preparing to instead hand its 6 p.m. time slot to the Rev. Al Sharpton. — Mr. Sharpton's imminent hiring …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Salon, LA Observed, Adweek, MIJE.org, The New York Observer, Inside Cable News, Chickaboomer, New York Times, News Desk, Gawker and The Wire

Alex Alvarez / Mediaite:
Cenk Uygur Is Out At MSNBC, Refused Alternate Time Slot

Discussion: Deadline.com, On Media's Blog and Inside Cable News

Business Wire:

The New York Times Company Reports 2011 Second-Quarter Results — Companies: — Related Quotes — SymbolPriceChange — NYT — 8.97 — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)— The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT - News) announced today a 2011 second-quarter diluted loss per share …

Discussion: New York Times, Poynter, Forbes.com, Media & Entertainment, FishbowlNY, Epicenter and CNET News

David Kaplan / paidContent:

NYTCo Swings To Loss; Digital Rises Double Digits, About Continues To Fall — In addition to seeing its advertising revenues continue to decrease due in part to the weak economy, The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) swung to a loss on a $161.3 million write-down of assets at the Regional Media Group …

Discussion: paidContent:UK

Susan Candiotti / CNN:

9/11 families to meet with attorney general over phone hacking — (CNN) — Relatives of 9/11 victims will meet with the U.S. attorney general and other Justice Department officials to discuss allegations that a newspaper owned by News Corp. targeted phone conversations and voice mails …

Discussion: The Wire

Douglas Coupland / Guardian:

Why McLuhan's chilling vision still matters today — 100 years after the birth of the media visionary, ‘the medium is the message’ explains what Google and YouTube do to our souls — Over the years I've been asking people in my life who are old enough to remember which technological change felt …

Discussion: GigaOM

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

Discussion: ZDNet, Media Nation, Daniel Bachhuber's weblog and Brain Pickings

Steve Safran / Lost Remote:

Guest Post: Google Plus pulls TV station account — This is a guest post from Kimberly Wilson, who founded SocialNewsDesk, a company that specializes in social media solutions for newsrooms. You'll find her on Twitter @kimberly_wilson and G+ at +Kim Wilson. — True to its word, Google has shut down the KOMU G+ account.

Discussion: Poynter, @poynter, KCET, Xeni Jardin and TVSpy

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

New UK newspaper reportedly to be based on successful Daily Mail website — Norman Giller, from Sports Journalists, has reported that Associated Newspapers - home of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday among other newspapers - is on the verge of releasing a new Sunday red-top tabloid.

Discussion: Sports Journalists …

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Report: Online Video Will Replace Pay TV in 4.5 Million Homes by Year-End … NEW YORK - The cord cutting debate may move back into the spotlight. — Research firm SNL Kagan in its latest U.S. multichannel TV report on Wednesday predicted that while absolute pay TV subscriber numbers …

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: Common Sense Journalism, Poynter and paidContent