Mediagazer: Marcus Brauchli, Washington Post Editor, Gathers Veteran Staffers To Steady Uneasy Newsroom (Michael Calderone/The Huffington Post)

12:05 PM ET, December 21, 2011

Top News:

Heather Mills: ‘I Never Played Piers Morgan Voicemail Tapes’ — Heather Mills, the former wife of pop star Sir Paul McCartney, said that she never disclosed private voicemail messages from her ex-husband to former tabloid editor Piers Morgan. Mills said that Morgan, who yesterday told …

BBC:

Phone hacking ‘bog-standard tool’ says former Mirror journalist — Phone hacking appeared to be a “bog-standard journalistic tool” for gathering information, a former Daily Mirror financial reporter has said. — James Hipwell, who was jailed in 2006 for writing about firms whose shares he owned …

Discussion: @patrickfoster2, @tom_watson and @joelmgunter

Richard Adams / Guardian:

What does CNN do with Piers Morgan now? | Richard Adams — The host's bumbling testimony about his part in the phone hacking scandal surely has CNN wondering what it got itself into — If CNN wants an incisive big-name interviewer, it should consider hiring Robert Jay QC …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Guardian, TVWeek.com, Media Decoder, Journalism.co.uk, Digital Spy, Jon Slattery, Associated Press, Business Insider, New York Magazine and Mediaite

Guardian:

First police officer arrested over alleged payments for journalists — 52-year-old woman held at Essex police station after being arrested under Operation Elveden — The Metropolitan police have arrested a 52-year-old female serving police officer over payments from journalists, Scotland Yard has said.

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: Bleacher Report, New York Magazine, @kevinoncfb, Associated Press and Poynter

Larry Platt / Philly.com: How do we report about our own?

Will Bunch / Boston Herald: Philly papers share outrage over Bill Conlin case

A.J. Daulerio / Deadspin:
Legendary Columnist Bill Conlin Resigns Over Forthcoming Philly Inquirer Bombshell [UPDATE]

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Speak Easy, New York Times, MetaFilter, CBS Philly, The 20, The Huffington Post, Crossing Broad, Poynter, Bleacher Report and @dhm

Fox Sports:

Report: NBC reporter charged with DUI — NBC News correspondent Jay Gray charged with drunken driving after he attended a party at the house of the attorney for accused child molester Jerry Sandusky, TMZ reported Tuesday. — According to the report, Gray was pulled over after drinking …

Discussion: TMZ.com, TMZ.com, The Hollywood Gossip and TVSpy

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:

Times ‘terminates’ blogging pressman Ed Padgett — Ed Padgett, a Los Angeles Times employee for 39 years, has been in trouble with the bosses before for his blog posts. This time, he says today, Human Resources called from out of nowhere to tell him he had been fired.

Discussion: edpadgett.blogspot.com

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

The New York Times Honored with First Ever Digital Reporting duPont Award — The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism have announced the winners of the 2012 Alfred I. duPont Awards, and The New York Times is one of two organizations to receive the first ever duPont Award honoring digital reporting.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Broadcasting & Cable

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Al Jazeera English wins first duPont as 14 news orgs awarded with broadcast, digital honors — Al Jazeera English has won its first Alfred I. duPont award for excellence in broadcast and digital journalism, one of 14 the Columbia School of Journalism announced this morning …

Discussion: Columbia University …, TVNewser and TVSpy

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Marcus Brauchli, Washington Post Editor, Gathers Veteran Staffers To Steady Uneasy Newsroom — 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 …

Discussion: Washington Post

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Glenn Mulcaire wins legal fees battle with News of the World publisher — News Group Newspapers had no right to cancel private eye's legal fees over alleged phone hacking, high court rules — Glenn Mulcaire has won his high court bid to force News Group Newspapers to continue to fund his legal fees in cases of alleged phone hacking.

Discussion: Press Gazette

The Huffington Post - UK: Andy Coulson Loses Battle Against NotW Over Legal Fees For Phone Hacking Case

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Five things I would do as CEO of the New York Times — Janet Robinson recently stepped down from her position as chief executive officer of the New York Times, and while there haven't been any official announcements about why she left, the Wall Street Journal says that Robinson's lack …

Discussion: Gawker and eMedia Vitals

Nancy Messieh / The Next Web:

On Twitter, people want to follow personal versus official accounts of journalists — The International Journal of Communication has released a report, looking back on how Twitter was used this year to disseminate information during the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

Discussion: Global Voices

Julie Moos / Poynter:

PEJ: Economy is the most-covered story of the year — In its annual “Year in News” release, PEJ says the economy was 2011′s big story, with 20 percent of news time and space dedicated to it in print, online, TV news and radio. That's up from 14 percent in 2010.

Discussion: Capital New York, Forbes and Journalism.org

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: Democracy in America, Culture, Hot Air and PolitiFact

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

Discussion: St. Petersburg Times, Swampland, New York Magazine, Slate, TPM and Gawker

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: Los Angeles Times, Company Town and New York Times

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

Discussion: New York Post, Wall Street Journal and Hollywood Reporter

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: Future of Journalism, ABCNEWS, Associated Press and Reporter's Committee …