Mediagazer: 39 lawyers fight to keep records secret in Memorial Medical Center case (The Times-Picayune)

2:50 PM ET, December 1, 2011

Top News:

For first time in history, TV ownership declines — Nielsen, the TV ratings people, are out with the 2012 edition of their Television Audience report. Much of this is a repackaging of data previously released by Nielsen. But as NBC used to say, it's new to me!

Discussion: /Film, Future of Journalism, Poynter and Inside TV

Sean Comer / Yidio:

A Sign The Internet Has Won? TV Ownership Declining — College mass communications courses may one day look back on this year as the first verifiable proof that broadcast and cable television was entering obselecence. — It's the first in Nielsen Media Research existence …

Stan Schroeder / Mashable:

Spy Files: WikiLeaks Releases Surveillance Industry Documents — WikiLeaks on Thursday released the first 287 documents from a database containing “hundreds” of documents from contractors in what WikiLeaks calls the “mass surveillance industry.” — For this project, WikiLeaks teamed …

more at Techmeme »

Wikileaks:

The Spyfiles — Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors, including for ‘political opponents’ are a reality.

Discussion: Gawker, Editors Weblog and Mail&Guardian

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Amazon Widens Its Kindle Footprint With €99 Device On Sale In Spain, Italy — It's taken a few years, but Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has really ramped up the number of countries where it is selling its Kindle products. Today it's announcing two more countries to the list where it sells …

Discussion: Amazon.com, Epicenter, CNET News, PC Magazine, The Next Web and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Amazon Has Some Kindle Book Rentals Beyond Textbooks

Discussion: The Verge

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

Blagging figures were ‘grossly understated’ — The Information Commissioner's official figures on the extent of blagging by journalists and private investigators unearthed by Operation Motorman have been “grossly understated” - according to the man who led the investigation.

The Independent: Investigator: I was barred from taking on the press

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Reporters covering Occupy Wall Street protest outside Obama fund-raiser say police barred them — Reporters told Capital last night that New York Police Department officers turned them away when they tried to report on an Occupy Wall Street protest outside of a Midtown fund-raiser for President Barack Obama …

Discussion: The New York Observer, City Room, Gothamist, Mother Jones and Runnin' Scared

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
Media Choreography and the Occupy LA Raid

Discussion: New York Times, L.A. NOW, Poynter, The Informer, Runnin' Scared and Huffington Post UK

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Barnes & Noble Reports Q2 Net Loss Of $6.6M, Says NOOK Is Now A $220 Million Business — Barnes & Noble this morning reported sales and earnings for its second quarter ended October 29, 2011, and they're a mixed bag. Total sales decreased slightly, from $1.9 billion to $1.89 billion, compared to the prior year.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, mediabistro.com, CNET News, Fast Company, mocoNews, Softpedia News, Publishers Lunch and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Foursquare Teams Up With NY Mag, Time Out, Other Publishers — “Save to Foursquare” buttons now appear alongside web content at New York magazine, Time Out, and a variety of other publishers, allowing users to send places they want to go to their phones and get alerted when they're in the vicinity.

Discussion: Foursquare Blog, L.A. Times Tech Blog, FT Tech Hub, ReadWriteWeb, Marketing Pilgrim, Lost Remote and Electronista

Cotton Delo / AdAge:
Foursquare Rolls Out New Buttons for Publishers

Discussion: VentureBeat

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How 9/11 led to the birth of Google News — In a video explaining the evolution of Google search over the years, Google Fellow Amit Singhal tells the story of how Google News came to be: “When September 11th happened, we as Google were failing our users. Our users were searching …

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

You Bet Apple TV Is Coming, Says Apple Guru Gene Munster — Here Are The Details — Apple analyst Gene Munster just reiterated his belief that Apple is going to launch a TV next year. — He made the comments at our IGNITION: Future of Media conference this morning.

Discussion: CNET News, Fortune, Future of Journalism, MacRumors, Softpedia News, NYConvergence.com and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

RBR:

Q3 Internet ad revenues up 22% — Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $7.88 billion in Q3, a 22% increase over the same period in 2010, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC US. These figures also show a 2.7% uptick from the record-setting revenues of Q2.

Discussion: Adweek, BtoB Magazine and MediaPost

Jef Feeley / Bloomberg:

News Corp Wins Dismissal of Shine Group Acquisition Lawsuit by Investors — Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. (NWSA) persuaded a judge to throw out an investor lawsuit seeking information about the $675 million purchase of a U.K.-based television production company owned by Murdoch's daughter.

The Times-Picayune:

39 lawyers fight to keep records secret in Memorial Medical Center case — BATON ROUGE — A state probe into whether 34 patients were euthanized at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina has been dormant for years and the public should get to see the records of the investigation …

Discussion: Poynter

Barbara Cochran / The Huffington Post:

Why Federal Support for Public Broadcasting Is the Right Decision — When Gary Knell officially takes over today as NPR's new president, he'll find no shortage of ideas about what he should do with an organization that has recently survived bad headlines, turmoil at the top and a near-death experience with federal funding cuts.

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

HBO To Cord Cutters: You'll Never See Our Shows — HBO is cementing its reputation as a trail-blazer with a new batch of hit shows and, more recently, a hugely popular mobile offering. But the company is determined to remain a traditionalist when it comes to its relation with tv distributors.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Broadcasting & Cable, VideoNuze, Techland, The Verge and Deadline.com

Michael J. Connor / Syracuse Post-Standard:

Why The Post-Standard didn't give Bobby Davis' tape to police in 2003 — We don't like to write about ourselves, yet here we are again. — On Nov. 20, we published a letter to you explaining why in 2003 we did not run a story after we investigated allegations of sexual molestation …

Discussion: Bleacher Report