Mediagazer: Sam Zell Sues Shareholders Over Tribune Buyout He Engineered (Steven Church/Bloomberg)

2:50 AM ET, December 21, 2011

Top News:

Nancy Phillips / Philly.com:

Four say Philly Daily News writer Bill Conlin sexually abused them as children — Three women and a man say they were molested as children by Bill Conlin, a Hall of Fame baseball writer and Philadelphia Daily News columnist. — In vivid accounts, the four say Conlin groped and fondled them …

Discussion: Associated Press

A.J. Daulerio / Deadspin:

Legendary Columnist Bill Conlin Resigns Over Forthcoming Philly Inquirer Bombshell [UPDATE] — The Philadelphia Inquirer's top investigative reporter, Nancy Phillips, has written a story containing what we're told are allegations of child molestation against sportswriter Bill Conlin, a longtime columnist at the rival Daily News.

Discussion: CBS Philly, The Huffington Post, Crossing Broad, Bleacher Report and Poynter

The 20 | NBC Philadelphia: Bill Conlin Retires, Doesn't Resign

Dan McQuade / @dhm: KYW 1060 just reported Inquirer story about the Conlin allegations involve molestation of girls 40 years ago.

The Independent:

Piers Morgan ‘unaware of phone hacking’ — Former tabloid newspaper editor Piers Morgan today told an inquiry into press standards that he was unaware of any phone hacking when in charge at the Daily Mirror. And Mr Morgan said he had not been “directly involved” in the use of private investigators at the Daily Mirror.

Discussion: TVNewser

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Piers Morgan Attacks Critics, Calls Accuser Insane at Ethics Hearing

Discussion: Media Decoder, Guardian, Mediaite, Gawker, Press Gazette and FishbowlNY

Richard Adams / Guardian: What does CNN do with Piers Morgan now? | Richard Adams

The Sydney Morning Herald: Piers Morgan quiet on McCartney voicemail

David Dishneau / Associated Press:

US close to resting case against Manning — FORT MEADE, Maryland (AP) — The U.S. government neared the end of its case Tuesday against the Army intelligence analyst blamed for the biggest leak of national secrets in American history. — The prosecution was expected to call its final six witnesses …

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Reporter's Committee …

Guardian:

Bradley Manning hearing - Tuesday 20 December 2011 as it happened live updates — • Read a summary of the day's main events — • Fifth day of pre-trial military hearing in Maryland — • Blogger Adrian Lamo called by prosecution — • Prosecutors say evidence links Manning to Julian Assange

Pauline Jelinek / Associated Press:
Alleged leaker case more tech than military

Discussion: CNN

Brian Beutler / TPM:

Ryan's Plan Still Ends Medicare Even If Politifact Rates That As A Lie — Ryan's Plan Still Ends Medicare Even If PolitiFact Rates That As A Lie — Here's a long, sad story about how Democrats' basically true claim that House Republicans voted to end Medicare ended up “winning” …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hot Air, Gawker, The New Republic, Paul Krugman, Big Journalism, Washington Wire, Forbes, Forbes and PolitiFact

Adam Serwer / Mother Jones:

Defeating the Point of Fact-Checking — Fact-checking, as a genre, probably shouldn't exist. It does largely because of one of the weirder conventions of mainstream journalism, which is to give equal weight to competing claims regardless of whether or not they actually deserve it.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, PolitiFact and Mediaite

Alec MacGillis / The New Republic:
The Hard Truth About Fact-Checking

Discussion: Slate, Mother Jones and AlterNet.org

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry: Rupert Murdoch could be called — News Corporation chairman and chief executive could give evidence before the inquiry early next year — Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, may be called to give evidence before the Leveson inquiry into ethics and standards in press.

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Chickaboomer and AllThingsD

Eric Boehlert / Media Matters for America: U.S. Attorney Recuses Himself From News Corp. Investigation

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media: Upcoming Conference to Focus on News Corp. Hacking Scandal

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
News of the World publisher settles seven phone-hacking claims

Discussion: rbr.com, Company Town, Reuters, Media & Entertainment, Bloomberg and Guardian

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Washington Post Looks Back To Improve Future — NEW YORK — The Washington Post newsroom has changed dramatically in recent years, with hundreds of staffers leaving in a series of buyouts and numerous star reporters and editors decamping to established competitors, such as the New York Times, or starting their own, like Politico.

Discussion: Washington Post and The Huffington Post

John Eggerton / Multichannel:

Tennis Channel Wins Program Carriage Complaint Against Comcast — First Time a Network Has Prevailed in a Program Carriage Complaint Against Cable Operator — An FCC Administrative Law Judge has ruled in favor of the Tennis Channel in its program carriage complaint against Comcast.

Discussion: Adweek

Joe Flint / Company Town: Bloomberg TV says Tennis Channel win over Comcast boosts its case

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Livestream the Super Bowl, Kick Off Disruption of Broadcast TV — Screenshot of the NFL 2011 iPad app. Courtesy iTunes — In February, Super Bowl XLVI will be the first instance of the biggest game of the year to stream live over the web, via NFL.com and NBCSports.com.

Discussion: Online Video News, NFL Communications, ReadWriteWeb, SBNation.com, PC Magazine and NetNewsCheck Latest

Richard Sandomir / The Fifth Down:
NBC Will Stream Super Bowl

Discussion: NBCSports.com, New York Times and The Huffington Post, more at Techmeme »

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

Vevo, a Music Video Web Site, Wants to Get Into Television — In yet another example of the muddying of media categories, Vevo, the music video Web site set up by the two largest record companies is in talks with cable carriers to become a TV channel. — The company, which operates independently …

Discussion: MediaPost and Rolling Stone

Financial Times: Vevo sounds upbeat note on cable channel

Steven Church / Bloomberg:

Sam Zell Sues Shareholders Over Tribune Buyout He Engineered — Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire Sam Zell sued former shareholders of the bankrupt publisher Tribune Co., claiming he should be paid along with other creditors should a court rule the 2007 buyout he engineered was a fraud.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Ex-Cablevision COO Rutledge Turns Up As Charter CEO — It's trite but in this case quite true: Cablevision's loss is Charter's gain. Tom Rutledge, the deft cable operator who abruptly left Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) late last week, will head St. Louis-based Charter (NSDQ: CHTR) …

Discussion: The New York Observer, Broadcasting & Cable, New York Post, GigaOM, Multichannel News and mediabistro.com

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

Veoh Not Liable For Users' Copyright Infringement — In a closely watched case, a federal appellate court has ruled in favor of video-sharing site Veoh in a copyright infringement case brought by Universal Music Group. — The 9th Circuit ruled on Tuesday that Veoh qualified …

Discussion: GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Ira Stoll / The Future of Capitalism:

The Times Shell Game — The New York Observer's Foster Kamer has a dispatch about how the New York Times has “bought out” several of its veteran employees, while retaining them as “contractors” to do the same jobs they were doing before. It quotes an email from Times staffer-turned-contractor Diana B. Henriques:

Discussion: FishbowlNY