Mediagazer: RIAA Label Artists & A-List Stars Endorse Megaupload In New Song (Enigmax/TorrentFreak)

10:10 PM ET, December 9, 2011

Top News:

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Romney campaign kicks Jose Antonio Vargas out of event for being an activist — Jose Antonio Vargas is wearing two hats these days, advocating for immigration reform while writing about it, but that didn't work at a Mitt Romney campaign event Friday. He was kicked out after he showed …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Dylan Byers / Ben Smith's Blog:
Romney spox: Undoc ‘Activist’ Vargas lacked press docs

Discussion: Guardian, Yahoo! News and The Huffington Post

Elizabeth Flock / Washington Post:

Nick Kristof tear gassed, detained in Bahrain (tweets) — New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, who is in Bahrain to cover the ongoing protests in the country's 10-month-old uprising, tweeted Friday that he was tear-gassed and then taken into a police car in the eastern island of Sitra before being released by a senior officer.

Discussion: The Wrap, Future of Journalism and The Huffington Post

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

Twitter Joins Facebook, Google, Launches ‘Brand Pages’ for Marketers — Brands Get a Home on Twitter With More Functionality — Twitter is looking to strengthen its relationship with advertisers by launching brand pages that will be unveiled today as part of a more comprehensive redesign.

Discussion: Yahoo! Advertising Blog, HubSpot's Inbound …, Poynter, PopWatch, Daily Dot, NetNewsCheck Latest, Business Insider, Editors Weblog, Twitter Blog, Search Engine Land, paidContent, Lost Remote, Forbes, Marketing Pilgrim and Poynter

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

YouTube Buys Company That Processes Music Royalties — In an effort to streamline its often complex relations with music publishers, YouTube has acquired RightsFlow, an upstart company in New York that processes royalties for the music industry. — YouTube, which is owned by Google …

Discussion: YouTube Blog, RightsFlow, CNET News, TechCrunch, Fusible.com and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Daily Mail censured for fictional story about Amanda Knox verdict — The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against the Daily Mail for publishing the incorrect verdict in the Amanda Knox case — The Mail's website reported that Knox has lost her appeal against her conviction …

Discussion: Jon Slattery, Press Gazette, The Huffington Post and Future of Journalism

Daniel O'Carroll / IrishCentral:
Trinity College Dublin bans the Daily Mail newspaper after faking student death story

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Future of Journalism, TheJournal.ie and Regret the Error

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

CNN's Zite launches iPhone app for personalized news, and tests a business model — Personalized news aggregator Zite, acquired by CNN in September, is going strong. Today it launches its first iPhone app, and earlier this week it began testing an innovative business model.

Discussion: GigaOM, New York Times, USA Today, NetNewsCheck Latest, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Forbes and MediaPost, more at Techmeme », Thanks:jeffsondermanch

Tom Krazit / paidContent:
Zite Joins Flipboard, Google On The iPhone In Crowded Week For News Apps

Discussion: Zite - Blog, Technologizer and AllThingsD

Sophia Hollander / Wall Street Journal:

Sex Essay Sparks Uproar at Yeshiva University — An essay about premarital sex published in a student newspaper has caused an uproar at Yeshiva University, the Orthodox Jewish college in Manhattan, prompting the student council to withdraw the paper's funding and igniting a campus-wide debate over censorship.

Discussion: YU Beacon, NY Daily News, Gothamist, Gawker, New York Magazine and Media Decoder

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BBC review clears journalists of hacking — Internal BBC review finds no evidence of hacking or bribery, but director general to recommend beefing up journalists' guidelines — A wide-ranging BBC review launched in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal has concluded …

Discussion: Press Gazette

BBC:
Leveson Inquiry: Private data theft ‘extremely serious’

Discussion: Guardian

Alicia Shepard / Poynter:

CPI reduces staff to compensate for $2 million budget hole — The Center for Public Integrity laid off staff today to try to compensate for a $2 million budget shortfall. — Ten positions were eliminated, and five people lost their jobs with the Washington-based nonprofit journalism organization.

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

AOL's Patch Gets a Little Less Hyper-Local — Consolidates Sites in New Jersey, California — At one time, AOL had hoped to reach 1,000 Patch sites by the end of 2011. But now comes word that Patch is slightly scaling back its efforts in some markets, fueling speculation inside …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Business Insider and Sarah Hartley, more at Techmeme », Thanks:delrey

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Collegiate Times publishes special edition after Virginia Tech campus shooting — When Collegiate Times editor-in-chief Zach Crizer first heard about Thursday's Virginia Tech shooting via a university alert, he ran to the scene with news editor Michelle Sutherland.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Charles Apple, What's Trending …, New York Times, The FJP, Articles on CollegiateTimes …, Guardian, Future of Journalism and Poynter

Hunter Walker / PolitickerNY:

Mayor Bloomberg Says Police Didn't Prevent Reporters From Covering Occupy Wall Street — On John Gambling's radio show this morning, Mayor Bloomberg once again addressed the controversy over press access at the NYPD's raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park last month.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, Capital New York, The Huffington Post, City Room, New York Magazine and New York Times

Rob Davis / Voice of San Diego:

Why Manchester Bought the Union-Tribune — The San Diego Union-Tribune's Mission Valley headquarters. — Doug Manchester, the new owner and publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune, wants his new media outlet to be a booster. — The newspaper's new CEO, John Lynch …

Discussion: Poynter

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

Variety to Offer Service Tracking Film Production — LOS ANGELES - Can a movie database help save Variety? — The venerable trade newspaper is a shadow of its former self, eclipsed in the Hollywood media hierarchy by feisty blogs (principally Deadline.com) and starved of ad revenue by cost-cutting studios.

Discussion: The New York Observer