Mediagazer: Booted for plagiarism, California columnist finds his Patch (Mark Fitzgerald/Poynter)

7:25 PM ET, November 4, 2011

Top News:

Kimberly Dozier / Associated Press:

AP Exclusive: CIA following Twitter, Facebook — McLEAN, Va. (AP) — In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day. — At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the “vengeful librarians” …

Discussion: PC Magazine, Gawker, Business Insider, ReadWriteWeb, WebProNews, The Politico and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Man arrested over alleged police payments named as Sun journalist — Reporter arrested over alleged payments to police officers believed to be paper's district editor, Jamie Pyatt — A Sun journalist has been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into alleged payments to police officers by newspapers.

Discussion: Poynter, Media & Entertainment, Reuters, Press Gazette and Guardian

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Begins Settlement Program for Phone-Hacking Victims — News Corp. (NWSA)'s U.K. unit started a voluntary settlement program for thousands of potential victims of phone hacking by the company's News of the World tabloid, which was shuttered in July as the scandal expanded.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Company Town, Journalism.co.uk, Gawker, New York Magazine, Media Decoder, Guardian, Guardian and Business Wire

Mark Fitzgerald / Poynter:

Booted for plagiarism, California columnist finds his Patch — A California writer who lost his newspaper column after plagiarizing has explained himself on the local Patch site, where he's now a blogger. Why? — Nicole Charky, the Patch editor for the towns of Montrose and La Crescenta …

Discussion: Montrose, CA Patch, Montrose Patch and FishbowlLA

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Layoffs at the ‘Daily News’: Police desk, City Hall, federal courts and photo department hit so far — Layoffs have come to the Daily News. — Since this morning, staffers to be laid off have been getting called into a conference room to meet with senior vice president of human-resources Jeff Zomper.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Poynter, @huffpostmedia and The New York Observer

Erika Fry / CJR:

Charges dropped against first reporter arrested at Occupy Wall Street — A good sign came out of New York City's criminal court yesterday for journalists who have been swept up in arrests at the Occupy Wall Street protests. — Disorderly conduct charges were dropped against WNET's MetroFocus …

Discussion: Reporters Committee News, Fast Company, Forbes, On the Media, Runnin' Scared, Mediaite and JSOnline

Will Richmond / VideoNuze:

Google To Go Over-the-Top and Compete With Pay-TV Operators? Don't Bet On Success. — Is Google planning to go over-the-top and compete with pay-TV operators for subscribers? That's the tantalizing possibility the WSJ is reporting this morning, though its article is long on speculation …

Discussion: Mashable!, New York Magazine and Business Insider

Wall Street Journal:
Google Ponders Pay-TV Business

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Fast Company, Kansas City Star, AllThingsD, PC Magazine, SlashGear, AdAge, Techland, AfterDawn.com, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Engadget, Deadline.com, Electronista, Future of Journalism and parislemon, more at Techmeme »

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Time Warner makes €1bn Endemol bid — US media group seeks to take over debt-laden production company behind Big Brother and Deal or No Deal — Time Warner has made a takeover bid for Endemol, the debt-laden Dutch production company behind Big Brother and Deal or No Deal.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Media & Entertainment, AdAge, Media Decoder, Telegraph and Reuters

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

Washington Post Co. posts $6.2M loss in third quarter — The Washington Post Co. lost $6.2 million, or 82 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2011 as a result of a series of one-time charges, a sharp contraction in its education business and continued deterioration in its newspaper and online publishing division.

Discussion: Poynter, On Media's Blog, Wall Street Journal, Business Wire, Reuters, Bloomberg and The Huffington Post

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Business Insider Blossoms the HuffPost Way — Founded as a site focused on digital news in New York, Business Insider has the kind of growth and buzz that invite comparisons to new media darling The Huffington Post. — But that's not necessarily all positive.

Discussion: Poynter

The Huffington Post:

Ben Smith, Dylan Byers Launch New Media Blog For Politico … Ben Smith Media Blog , Ben Smith Politico , Dylan Byers Politico , Politico , Politico Media Blog , Media News — Politico announced Friday that it is shaking up its media coverage in the run-up to the 2012 election.

Discussion: @dylanbyers and @benpolitico

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Herman Cain Supporters Release Anti-Media Ad Amidst Sexual Harassment Controversy — A group of Herman Cain supporters have released an aggressive new ad attacking the media for its coverage of the GOP frontrunner's current sexual harassment controversy. — The ad — produced by Americans …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Mediaite, National Review and Poynter

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Magazine Awards Revamped, Again — Last year, the American Society of Magazine Editors caused a kerfuffle in editorial circles when it changed how it determines its prestigious general excellence awards. From then on, ASME said, honors would be based on magazine content rather than circulation size.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and FishbowlNY