Mediagazer: News orgs take to social media to find Va. Tech witnesses, photos (Adam Hochberg/Poynter)

8:40 PM ET, December 8, 2011

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Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Breaking News: Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details... Imagine if the US government, with no notice or warning, raided a small but popular magazine's offices over a Thanksgiving weekend, seized the company's printing presses …

Discussion: Gawker, CNET News, Electronic Frontier Foundation and TorrentFreak, more at Techmeme »

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Collegiate Times shifts publishing to Twitter, Facebook for shooting coverage — The website of Virginia Tech's independent student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, is struggling with traffic as people seek information on a campus shooting Thursday. The home page now redirects to a sparsely designed …

Discussion: Washington Post, Guardian, Media Decoder, The New York Observer, New York Magazine, Runnin' Scared, CBS New York, College Media Matters, DCist and This Just In

Adam Hochberg / Poynter:

News orgs take to social media to find Va. Tech witnesses, photos — News organizations from around the country are using social media to locate witnesses and obtain interviews and photos of today's campus shooting at Virginia Tech. “Call our newsroom if you know anyone that goes to Virginia Tech …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily, Poynter, WDBJ-TV and Gawker

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

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Discussion: Poynter, Guardian, The New York Observer and NetNewsCheck Latest

Guardian:

The citizens agenda: making election coverage more useful — We invite you to help refresh the media's tired templates of campaign coverage to address issues people really care about — In a few weeks, the Iowa caucuses will officially kick off the 2012 campaign for president and we'll begin …

Discussion: Pressthink

Leonora LaPeter Anton / St. Petersburg Times:

‘60 Minutes’ piece on homelessness spawns viral misquote — A recent 60 Minutes piece on homeless families in Central Florida living in their cars generated lots of buzz nationally. — The compelling piece, which ran Nov. 27, explored the lives of two teens living with their father …

Steve Myers / Poynter:

‘60 Minutes’ homelessness statistic was apparently too good to check — A “60 Minutes” story that aired on Nov. 27 said that a third of homeless families without any kind of shelter live in Florida. That includes people who live in cars, under bridges, in parks.

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Verizon And RedBox Planning Major Partnership For Early 2012 Launch — Yesterday, it was reported that Verizon was planning a Netflix competitor and in talks with various content producers to provide the streams and downloads. TechCrunch has obtained additional information on this story …

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Read It Later Blog:

Who Are the ‘Most-Read’ Authors? — Saving a story for later can tell us a lot about loyalty, longevity and quality—and it changes the way we think about the most popular stories on the web — If we're to believe Woody Allen, “80 percent of success is showing up.”

Discussion: Media Decoder, Felix Salmon, Future of Journalism, Nieman Journalism Lab and Poynter, Thanks:jaredbkeller

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent: Who Are The Most-Read Authors On The Web?

Michael McAuliff / The Huffington Post:

Rupert Murdoch Lobbies Congress To Restrict Internet … WASHINGTON — News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch threw his weight behind Congress' attempt to restrict the Internet, personally lobbying leaders on Capitol Hill Wednesday for two measures that purport to combat piracy.

Richard Verrier / Company Town:
Hollywood moguls convene in nation's capitol for a change

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Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

New York Times Election 2012 iPhone app launches — Big, rapid change can be hard to implement at any organization the size of The New York Times, so I appreciate how the talented journalists, designers, and coders within the Times use offshoot or ancillary projects to try out new features or ways of approaching the news.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, NetNewsCheck Latest, Los Angeles Times, The Caucus, FishbowlNY and Poynter

Kashmir Hill / Forbes:

Why An Investment Firm Was Awarded $2.5 Million After Being Defamed By Blogger — No miscarriage of justice here. — It was the $2.5 million dollar lawsuit heard round the blogosphere. The Seattle Weekly reported that an “Oregon blogger” had been found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay an investment firm $2.5 million.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter, The Raw Story, Associated Press, ShortFormBlog, The Daily Weekly, FOI FYI and Media Decoder

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
If we are all journalists, should we all be protected?

Discussion: ABC News, Guardian, Medacity, Oregonian, 10,000 Words, Media News, CNET News and The Daily Weekly

Cahal Milmo / The Independent:

Brooks' links to Clifford payment cast doubt on her hacking denials — Rebekah Brooks personally negotiated a £680,000 out-of-court settlement with the publicity guru Max Clifford which led to his withdrawing a potentially explosive phone-hacking claim against the News of the World, News International (NI) revealed last night.

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:
James Murdoch: Brooks did ‘not seek authorisation’ for Clifford settlement

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Press Gazette

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Thurlbeck rounds on NoW executives in new evidence — Former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck has told MPs about a culture of “suppression” and “paralysis” at the News of the World which he says had “catastrophic consequences” for the paper.

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Guardian:
Neville Thurlbeck's letter to MPs - full text

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Nadia White / MediaShift:

Nobel Prize Winner on How New Media is Democratizing Science News — MediaShift's science journalism coverage is sponsored by the Columbia Journalism School, which offers an innovative specialized M.A. for experienced journalists who want to cover science, business, arts or politics in a sophisticated, nuanced manner.

Curtis Brainard / CJR:
Besser to Oz: “You Were Right”

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Don Reisinger / CNET News:

Hulu's new Face Match: Hey, that's, um, what's-his-name — Hulu's Face Match feature works with Dwight Schrute too. — Ever see an actor on a show and have trouble remembering what that person's name is? If so, Hulu has a feature for you. — Dubbed Face Match, the new technology …

Discussion: Hulu Blog, Engadget and The Verge