Mediagazer: Government Blocks Access to Bradley Manning's Hearing (Rainey Reitman/The Nation)

5:10 PM ET, December 22, 2011

Top News:

Ginger Thompson / New York Times:

Hearing in Soldier's WikiLeaks Case Ends — FORT MEADE, Md. — The military hearing against Pfc. Bradley Manning closed on Thursday, with lawyers and onlookers alternately portraying him as a premeditated traitor or an accidental hero with emotional troubles.

Discussion: Threat Level and Guardian

Rainey Reitman / The Nation:

Government Blocks Access to Bradley Manning's Hearing — The WikiLeaks saga is centered on issues of government transparency and accountability, but the public is being strategically denied access to the Manning hearing, one of the most important court cases in our lifetime.

David Dishneau / Associated Press: Defense says Manning victim of military overreach

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

TechCrunch Writer, Blogging on TechCrunch: 'I'm Beginning to Feel Stupid for Still Being Here' — Ms. Tsotsis, Freedom Fighter (or something like it). — Alexia Tsotsis was a well-liked and popular tech blogger before she was at TechCrunch, back when she was at SF Weekly.

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Aol Shareholders Freak Out Over Exec Departures — As They Should

Discussion: paidContent:UK, Street Fight, Business Insider and VentureBeat

Chicago Tribune:

Sun-Times sold to local investor group — Deal with Wrapports LLC valued at more than $20 million, expected to close by end of the year — The deal to acquire Chicago's No. 2 newspaper is done. — Sun-Times Media Chairman Jeremy Halbreich confirmed Wednesday evening that a new company led …

Discussion: CJR, Media Decoder and Associated Press

Bill Cooke / Random Pixels:

Is Huffington Post Miami guilty of theft? — Arianna Huffington is most famous for launching a website that posts thousands of stories a week, most of them written by people who don't get a dime for their work. — Much of what appears on HuffPost is written by bloggers who write for no pay.

Discussion: Random Pixels and Loose Talk, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Future of Journalism

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Critics of HuffPo news “theft” are missing the point

Discussion: Riptide 2.0

Dave Itzkoff / ArtsBeat:

Online Sales of Louis C. K. Special Cross $1 Million Mark — Though the comedian Louis C. K. may not seem like the kind of guy who derives much joy from the holiday season - let alone anything else - Santa Claus has brought him an early Christmas gift. In an interview on Wednesday's broadcast of …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Techdirt, CNNMoney.com, Rolling Stone, Business Insider and kottke.org, more at Techmeme »

Philly.com:

Years of silent fear: 6th person accuses Conlin — LINDA STELLA said that she was just a girl when Bill Conlin pulled her onto his lap and began “flexing his leg muscles” during a family birthday party at his house in South Jersey. She leaped off his lap and looked back.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Slate, The Patriot-News and Deadspin

Victor Fiorillo / The Philly Post:
Bill Conlin Is Innocent

Discussion: Philly.com, Deadspin, Future of Journalism and Bleacher Report

Jim Hopkins / Gannett Blog:

GCI buys ‘thousands’ of iPhones and other devices, memo says, in ramp-up of mobile newsroom tech — Following is a memo U.S. newspapers division President Bob Dickey sent to employees today. I'm posting this from my iPhone (!), with limited Web access. — Dec. 21, 2011

Discussion: CNET News, The Next Web, Fortune, Poynter and Electronista

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry receives more than 200 submissions from outside media — Inquiry says it has been sent 411 submissions of evidence in total, including 93 from those claiming to be victims of the press — The Leveson inquiry into phone hacking and media ethics has received more than 200 submissions …

Guardian: Daily Express editor was ‘obsessed’ with Madeleine McCann story, inquiry hears

BBC:
Leveson Inquiry: Summary of week six

Discussion: Business Insider

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

The Most-Read Newspaper Websites In Europe — We often see national and international breakdowns of newspaper website popularity, but rarely by continent. — Here is comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) Media Metrix's chart of the most-read newspaper sites in Europe (June 2011), as features …

Josh Halliday / Guardian: Mail Online tops 80m monthly online browsers

Arif Durrani / Media Week:

The Sunday Times prepares iPad and Android editions for Christmas Day — The Sunday Times will be published on Christmas Day this year for the first time in its 190-year history, thanks to its new digital versions. — The Sunday Times: readies digital versions

Discussion: paidContent:UK

Wall Street Journal:

Cable Chief Fires Back at MSG Sports Network — As Dispute Escalates, TWC CEO Touts Model That Would Shift Programming to Separate Tier — Facing a heated battle with MSG sports network over rising rates, Time Warner Cable Inc. Chief Executive Glenn Britt said sports channels …

Discussion: Media Decoder

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Verizon To Launch a Home Media Server In 2012, Plans To Eliminate Set-Top Box — Verizon will be rolling out a new Media Server product for its FiOS customers later next year, which will be a single hardware device that will eventually eliminate the need for a set-top box altogether.

Discussion: Electronista

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Amazon Stops Hiding Competitors' E-Reading Apps On The Kindle Fire — Amazon has stopped pretending that a group of e-reading apps it allowed onto its Android Appstore weren't available on the Kindle Fire. For whatever reason, the company was effectively hiding e-reading apps from companies like Wattpad …

Discussion: Softpedia News, Forbes, Wattpad Blog, ZDNet, The Digital Reader, WebProNews and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

PEJ Year in Review: On Cable News, Clearly Differentiated Priorities Among Channels — The Project for Excellence in Journalism released its annual report looking back on the year in media. Among the findings: while Fox News and MSNBC spent a good deal of time covering politics and domestic issues …

Discussion: Journalism.org, MediaShift, 10,000 Words, FishbowlNY and TVSpy

Jenna Russell / The Boston Globe:

Professor at BU faces charge in fatal crash — PLYMOUTH - A well-known Boston University journalism professor and former longtime ABC News correspondent will be charged with vehicular homicide in connection with an October accident that killed a 26-year-old Plymouth man.

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Update: FCC Votes Proposed Media Ownership Changes — Expected to propose scrapping radio-TV, crossownership, loosening TV-newpaper crossownership, but keeping local caps and asking whether shared service agreements should count toward those caps. — According to various sources …