Mediagazer: North Korea not the only offender: 6 official photo fudgings (Arthur Bright/Christian Science Monitor)

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

ID's ‘On the Case’ Hires Letterman Extortionist, Former CBS News Producer Joe Halderman — TVNewser has learned that Investigation Discovery's “On the Case with Paula Zahn” has hired Joe Halderman, the CBS News producer who attempted to blackmail David Letterman in 2009.

Discussion: The Wrap, Media Decoder, Mediaite, Gawker, NY Daily News and The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post:

CNN's New Morning Show Gets Name And Debut Date — Update: CNN announced the names of its new morning shows. The 5-7 a.m. show will be called “Early Start.” Soledad O'Brien's 7-9 a.m. program will be titled “Starting Point.” — CNN will debut its new morning show led by host Soledad O'Brien on January 2, 2012.

New CNN Morning Show to Launch Jan. 2 — Soledad O'Brien will anchor first days from Iowa Caucuses — CNN will debut its new morning show team of Soledad O'Brien, Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin on Jan. 2, the day before the Iowa Caucuses, the network said Wednesday

Discussion: Inside Cable News and TVNewser

Lens:

From North Korea, an Altered Procession — The funeral of Kim Jong-il on Wednesday called to mind the best stage-managed Communist state productions: the falling snow, the wailing mourners, the perfectly spaced limousines and rows of chest-beating men. — So perhaps it was because the scene …

Discussion: Gawker, iMediaEthics, Mediaite, Poynter, PhotoBlog and msnbc.com

Arthur Bright / Christian Science Monitor:

North Korea not the only offender: 6 official photo fudgings — As state manipulators of the media go, few can compare to North Korea, which this week is mourning the death of Kim Jong-il. But even with all the careful orchestration of the ceremonies, the North Korean media still found …

Charles Apple: North Korean news operation engages in second Photoshopping incident of the year

Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPM:

Romney: I'm Going To Fix The Budget By Bringing Ads To Sesame Street — Here's a tangible, fundamental change to the American cultural landscape that will come with a Mitt Romney presidency. Under President Romney, Sesame Street will be brought to you by more than “The Letter Q.”

Discussion: Wonkette

The Independent:

Murdoch's £100m plan to settle hacking cases before they get to court — Rupert Murdoch's News International is thought to have prepared a legal fund of £100m to settle civil litigation actions brought by victims of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal ahead of a High Court showdown in the new year.

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Some Regional Media Group Staffers Already Getting Employment Offers — When the New York Times sold off its Regional Media Group to Halifax, the natural assumption was that many of the staffers on the 16 papers that were part of the deal wouldn't be retained. However, some are already getting much better news.

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:
At Least a Few Local Journalists Just Experienced an End of Year Miracle

Discussion: Poynter

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Times' grumbles grow

Discussion: Forbes and Erik Wemple

Storify:

Storify Story Of The Year: A detailed inventory of reporter arrests at Occupy protests — The Free Press' Josh Stearns combines the craftsmanship of traditional journalism with the latest tools of new media to contribute an important and lasting piece of enterprise journalism.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon: We Sold Over 4 Million Kindle Devices This Month; Gifting Of E-Books Up 175 Percent — Amazon has just released new data regarding its Kindle sales for the holiday season. According to the e-commerce giant, Amazon customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers.

Discussion: paidContent, VentureBeat, CNET, ReadWriteWeb, AllThingsD, mediabistro.com and Pocket-lint, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Cable Channels Set to Begin Election Year Coverage — America's trifecta of cable news channels, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, are just about ready to show off their election year staffs. — Each channel plans to cover the one-night Iowa caucus for a stretch of several days …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, TVNewser and The Huffington Post

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Linear TV Consumption Is Growing, But Is Ad Spend? — When you consider the internet, on-demand services, games consoles, mobiles, apps and [fill in your personal favorite here], we have more ways than ever before to watch TV content whenever and however we want.

Derrick Harris / GigaOM:

Could SOPA fly if big media put skin in the game? — The biggest web-related legal controversy over the past few months — if not the entire year — has been the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The bill's shortcomings have been covered to death (including by GigaOM here and here) …

Discussion: Techdirt and Future of Journalism

Discussion: Prison Planet.com, Thanks:elanazak