Mediagazer: Fact-checking in the Echo Chamber Nation (Bill Adair/PolitiFact)

10:25 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 — More than a fair amount of business success hinges on telling stories about the future. The reason Yahoo's market cap is down to $19.83 billion from a high of $55 billion is because shareholders don't believe that it has a future.

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

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: PC Magazine, CNNMoney.com, AfterDawn.com, Rolling Stone, kottke.org and Business Insider

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:
Louis CK's digital distribution experiment clears $1M in 12 days

Discussion: Techdirt, The Huffington Post, TeleRead and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

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

Bill Adair / PolitiFact:

Fact-checking in the Echo Chamber Nation — At a Republican campaign rally a few years ago, I asked one of the attendees how he got his news. — “I listen to Rush and read NewsMax,” he said. “And to make sure I'm getting a balanced view, I watch Fox.” — My liberal friends …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Pressthink and Mediaite

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, Deadspin and Philly.com

Victor Fiorillo / The Philly Post:
Bill Conlin Is Innocent

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Deadspin

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, Editors Weblog, Associated Press, Media Decoder and Top Digital Journal News

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

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: Editors Weblog and paidContent:UK

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: GalleyCat, Journalism.org, FishbowlNY, 10,000 Words and MediaShift

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: VentureBeat, Softpedia News, The Digital Reader, Forbes, ZDNet, Wattpad Blog, WebProNews, TeleRead, Electronista and Engadget

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

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Mail Online tops 80m monthly online browsers — UK's most popular newspaper website hits new high, as guardian.co.uk's monthly users rise to more than 63 million — Mail Online topped 80 million monthly online browsers for the first time in November in a busy news period when guardian.co.uk also broke new traffic records.

Robert Andrews / paidContent: The Most-Read Newspaper Websites In Europe

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 …

Discussion: Company Town, Adweek, Hillicon Valley, GigaOM, rbr.com, NetNewsCheck Latest and Media & Entertainment, more at Techmeme »

Bill Mickey / Folio:

The Atlantic Has Second Profitable Year in a Row — The brand posts gains across all three platforms—print, digital and events. — The Atlantic has some milestones to celebrate as it heads into the holiday season. The brand is reporting gains across all of its platforms—print …

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 …