Mediagazer: That Piers Morgan Smoking Gun? Not So Smoky. (Jeff Bercovici/Forbes.com)

10:10 AM ET, July 27, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes.com:

That Piers Morgan Smoking Gun? Not So Smoky. — Earlier, I reported the claim of British blogger Paul Staines, a/k/a Guido Fawkes, to be in possession of a recording that supposedly showed CNN host Piers Morgan was lying when he denied ever authorizing or countenancing illegal phone hacking as editor of the Daily Mirror.

Discussion: The New York Observer and Mediaite

Telegraph:

CNN's Piers Morgan ‘told interviewer stories were published based on phone tapping’ — Piers Morgan, the CNN broadcaster, has said that newspaper articles based on the findings of people paid to tap phones and rake through bins were published during his time as a tabloid newspaper editor, it can be disclosed.

Discussion: Mediaite, HyperVocal, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, The First Post, Liberal Conspiracy and Future of Journalism

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes.com:

Claim: Smoking Gun Recording Links Piers Morgan to Hacking — CNN host Piers Morgan was editor of a British tabloid, the Daily Mirror, at a time when many British tabloid reporters were committing illegal hacking of voicemails. Morgan has vociferously denied personal involvement in or knowledge …

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wire, BBC, Telegraph, Mediaite, Salon, Adweek, http://www.Stinkyjournalism …, The Wrap, The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Nation and Financial Times

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Fox TV Shows Get Pay Wall — Broadcaster to Delay Online Viewing for Eight Days Except for Subscribers — Fox Broadcasting plans to make its recently-aired TV episodes available on the Web only to paying subscribers, a new step as major broadcast TV networks consider reining in free Web offerings …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Company Town, Broadcasting & Cable, paidContent, New York Times, GigaOM, Digits, CNET News, ReadWriteWeb, Lost Remote and TVbytheNumbers, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Fox Kicks Off the Great Web Video Piracy Boom of 2011 — It's perfectly logical for the TV networks to try to lock up their shows online. — Except for the part about it not working. — On Aug. 15, Fox will stop distributing its shows on Hulu and Fox.com a day after they air …

Discussion: Betabeat and Multichannel

The Brads:

The Brads - This is Why Your Newspaper is Dying — Quick note: The first panel is taken from the Denver Post, not the New York Times. I didn't notice the byline in there. The story's author actually does a very good job of linking out to other sites

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Designing a big news site is about more than beauty — It appears to be Pick On News Web Designers Day today. This comic — poking at news sites' unwillingness to link, misuse of thumbnails, and addictions to share buttons, among other things — made the rounds of Twitter, to the point of crashing cartoonist Brad Colbow's site.

Discussion: stdout.be and The Wall Blog

Martin Belam / currybetdotnet:
4 key pieces of audience engagement missing from Andy Rutledge's news redux

Discussion: 10,000 Words, GigaOM, blogs.journalism.co.uk and The Business Insider

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

The Remains of The Daily — One News Corp. property that has flown under the radar throughout company's recent melodramas is The Daily—the tablet newspaper launched to great fanfare in the basement of the Guggenheim in February. — Nobody thinks the staff at the iPad app is doing any phone-hacking.

Discussion: Poynter and Press Gazette

Jane Martinson / Guardian:

James Murdoch ‘likely’ to remain BSkyB head — Sky deputy chairman Nicholas Ferguson understood to have given his backing after ‘long conversation’ in private meeting — James Murdoch is likely to remain chairman of satellite company BSkyB after winning the support of the leading independent director ahead …

Discussion: The Forum

Sue Fondrie / bulwer-lytton.com:

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2011 Results — Cheryl's mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories. — Oshkosh, WI — The winner of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Sue Fondrie …

Discussion: Guardian, GalleyCat and Omnivoracious

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Comcast, NBCU Bring Dynamic Ads to VOD — Kraft, Chrysler are initial sponsors — In a bit of synergy between its cable business and its networks, Comcast and NBCUniversal say they are working together to use dynamic ad insertion in On Demand programming.

Discussion: Multichannel News, MediaPost, rbr.com and The Wrap, Thanks:beet_tv

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

NewsTrust dives into the fact-check business with expanded Truthsquad — Just in time for the 2012 elections, the cottage industry of media fact-checking is ramping up. That latest addition is Truthsquad, which began last year as a pilot project of NewsTrust.

Discussion: Future Journalism Project

Azi Paybarah / PolitickerNY:

Rupert's Post Game: His Royal Pie-ness Story on Page SShhh — LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 12: Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive officer of News Corp., is driven from his apartment on July 12, 2011 in London, England. Allegations emerged yesterday that private investigators working for The Sun …

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Tech News Is So Phenomenally Boring — You never read tech news, do you? Good. Somehow, the story of the accidental early release of a Facebook iPad app everyone was expecting is threatening to turn into a week-long saga. Make it stop! This is the most boring s**t ever.

Discussion: parislemon, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Telegraph, PC World, TechCrunch, Scripting News, Betabeat, All Facebook, Techi.com, @alexia, The Business Insider, 9to5Mac and Forbes.com, more at Techmeme »

Stefanie Botelho / Folio:

NOOK for iPad To Offer More Than 175 Digital Magazines — Esquire, Maxim, Popular Science and Food Network are among the titles included. — In an attempt to be everywhere readers are, Barnes & Noble is updating its NOOK for iPad app to offer digital periodicals to consumers.

Discussion: Business Wire and Publishing Executive News