Mediagazer: Lockheed Martin goes to bat for oppressive regime (Justin Elliott/Salon)

8:25 AM ET, January 5, 2012

Top News:

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:

Current says Keith Olbermann refused to anchor Iowa caucus coverage — Analyses of Tuesday's Iowa caucuses are the top of most news sites right now—including Current TV's homepage, which features images of Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich above a video featuring former U.S. vice president …

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:

Olbermann Attorney: 'Keith's Lawyers and Current's Lawyers Are Communicating' — The lead attorney for Keith Olbermann tells The Hollywood Reporter that the disgruntled Current newsman is negotiating his next moves with his employer in the wake of a falling out over his participation in coverage of the Republican primaries.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, New York Times, Inside Cable News, The Wrap, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Keith Olbermann's Days on Current Are Numbered

Discussion: Poynter, Wannabe Hacks, The Politico and TVNewser

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:
Keith Olbermann Blasts Current TV; Internal Memo Reveals Tension Over GOP Primary

Discussion: Hot Air, Inside Cable News and Mediaite

Azi Paybarah / Capital New York:

Mort Zuckerman changes editors, again: Kevin Convey's out, former News Corp. guy Colin Myler is in — In the Daily News newsroom this afternoon, a memo announcing that editor-in-chief Kevin Convey was being replaced was met with “shock” and “amazement,” according to newsroom sources.

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette, Gawker, Poynter, Adweek, New York Magazine, Future of Journalism, Capital New York, Media & Entertainment, The Huffington Post, The Politico, Jon Slattery, The New York Observer, Media Decoder and FishbowlNY

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Colin Myler: the great survivor — Former News of the World editor is back - as editor-in-chief at Mort Zuckerman's New York Daily News — The man who was editing the News of the World when it was closed by Rupert Murdoch, and whose editorship of the Sunday Mirror ended after his paper collapsed a trial …

Discussion: Gawker

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
At ‘Daily News,’ a culture of using ‘permalancers’ gets shaken up

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

The Case of the Unfortunate Underscore: How Twitter Verified the Fake Wendi Over the Real Wendi — I went all Encyclopedia Brown yesterday after I and many others had been led astray by an account — @wendi_deng — that Twitter had verified with its famous blue check mark over the holiday weekend …

Discussion: FT Tech Hub, MediaFile, Erik Wemple, Gawker, Business Insider, The Daily Beast and St. Petersburg Times, more at Techmeme »

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Should CBS also disclose its ties to Romney's Bain Capital? — Last week MSNBC and NBC News starting disclosing that its parent company, NBCU is a partner in the Weather Channel with Bain Capital, of which Mitt Romney is a partner. Now Fortune reports CBS News, at least Radio, might want to start disclosing this:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Where Did Nine Million Cable Subscribers Go? — New year, new chance to talk about cord-cutting/shaving/avoiding. Which is either a big deal that's going to get bigger, or basically imaginary, depending on who you like to listen to. — If you're in the big deal camp …

more at Techmeme »

Clay Shirky:

Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users — This may be the year where newspapers finally drop the idea of treating all news as a product, and all readers as customers. — One early sign of this shift was the 2010 launch of paywalls for the London Times and Sunday Times.

Discussion: Recovering Journalist, Media, disrupted, stdout.be and Boing Boing

Justin Elliott / Salon:

Lockheed Martin goes to bat for oppressive regime — A top executive for the military contractor worked with lobbyists for Bahrain to publish Op-Ed defending the regime — A top executive at Lockheed Martin recently worked with lobbyists for Bahrain to place an Op-Ed defending …

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

FT Buys Its Web App Maker; CEO Ridding's Memo — The Financial Times has acquired London-based web and application developer Assanka, which made the web app on which the publisher has based its independence from iTunes. — Assanka launched the HTML5 web app with the paper's in-house product team …

Discussion: TechCrunch Europe, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Disney and Comcast Link Up for Another 10 Years — Comcast has re-upped its distribution deal with Disney, which means the country's largest cable company will continue to pipe programming from ABC, ESPN and other channels into its subscribers' homes for another 10 years.

Discussion: Company Town, Comcast Voices, VentureBeat, Media Decoder, Media Money …, Adweek, Business Insider, Broadcasting & Cable, @dgelles, Home Media Magazine, rbr.com, GigaOM, Multichannel, TVWeek.com, @pkafka, @pkafka, AdAge and paidContent

ap.org:

AP names Eric Carvin social media editor — NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Carvin, an AP Nerve Center news producer and former National Desk editor, has been named the organization's social media editor, based at headquarters in New York. — Carvin will lead the AP's ongoing social media efforts …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, @acarvin, @katzonearth, @pkafka, @sashak, @ericcarvin, @mathewi and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

It's Official: Yahoo Announces PayPal President Scott Thompson As Its New CEO — The search is over. Yahoo just named Scott Thompson as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012. It's been four long months for Yahoo after ousting Carol Bartz in September.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson: 'We'll Be Back to Innovation'

Discussion: Digiday, AdExchanger.com, Forbes, Business Insider, Gawker and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Laughlin / Digital Spy:

Apple in running for Premier League TV rights, says report — Apple is interested in joining the billion pound battle to win the next round of bidding for Premier League TV rights, as part of plans to boost its Apple TV service. — Charles Sale over at The Daily Mail claims that the US company …