Mediagazer: Fox News zings CNN and MSNBC on holiday card, just like last year (Dylan Stableford/Yahoo! News)

3:55 AM ET, December 23, 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: Future of Journalism, 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: Future of Journalism, paidContent:UK, Betabeat and @streetfightmag

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Louis CK's digital distribution experiment clears $1M in 12 days — Comedian Louis CK's recent digital distribution experiment to sell his latest standup performance independently has generated over $1 million, he announced in a statement on his website yesterday.

Discussion: Techdirt, The Huffington Post, AfterDawn.com and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

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, Electronista, kottke.org, Rolling Stone and Business Insider

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: Pressthink, The Huffington Post, Washington Post and Mediaite

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, Future of Journalism and JIMROMENESKO.COM

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

Discussion: Riptide 2.0 and The Huffington Post

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: The Verge and Electronista

Michael Warren / Associated Press:

Argentine government wins control of newsprint — BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The paper used to produce newspapers came under government control in Argentina on Thursday, in a long-sought victory for President Cristina Fernandez in her dispute with the country's opposition media.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Why Netflix Customers Who Haven't Bailed Probably Won't — Netflix screwed up so badly this summer and fall that some of its subscribers left in a huff. So how do the ones who stuck around feel? — They're less happy than they used to be. But they don't seem to be going anywhere.

Discussion: Business Insider

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

News Corp. in Talks to Hire Gerson Zweifach as General Counsel — News Corp. is expected to name veteran Washington attorney Gerson Zweifach as its next general counsel, filling what is likely to be a sensitive role as the media conglomerate deals with the fallout of the phone-hacking scandal that erupted this summer.

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

More Picture-Takers Are Phoning It In — No big surprises here. The single-purpose camera is in decline, the smartphone camera on the rise. — New research from NPD finds that smartphones are now responsible for more than a quarter of the photos and videos people take in the U.S …

Discussion: MediaPost, CNET News and Future of Journalism, 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: GalleyCat, Journalism.org, 10,000 Words, FishbowlNY and MediaShift

Victor Fiorillo / The Philly Post:

Bill Conlin Is Innocent — And so is Jerry Sandusky for that matter — Yesterday at 1:40 p.m., a colleague rushed into my office to share the awful news: The Inquirer was about to print child molestation allegations against Daily News sportswriter Bill Conlin. Deadspin had the scoop.

Discussion: Deadspin

Philly.com:
Years of silent fear: 6th person accuses Conlin

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

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:UK: The Most-Read Newspaper Websites In Europe