Mediagazer: The managing editor of Onward State, Penn State student paper that initially reported Paterno died, has stepped down. http://www.facebook.com/... (Scott Carroll/@scottyknoxville)

12:55 AM ET, January 22, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How false reports of Joe Paterno's death were spread and debunked — News spread quickly Saturday evening that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had died. Except, he hadn't. — Here is an account of how it happened. — We have made it easy to comment on posts …

Discussion: Eye On College Football, JIMROMENESKO.COM, CBSSports.com, The Huffington Post, @devon2012, @jayrosen_nyu, Inside, SBNation.com, @onwardstate, @fromcarl, The Wrap and Deadspin

Mathew Ingram / @mathewi:

pretty cowardly of CBS Sports and HuffPo to only give credit to source of Paterno report after it was proven untrue: http://www.poynter.org/...

Scott Carroll / @scottyknoxville:

The managing editor of Onward State, Penn State student paper that initially reported Paterno died, has stepped down. http://www.facebook.com/...

Discussion: Poynter, Onward State and @breakingnews

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought — Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, parislemon, The Greenroom, @joshconstine, Forbes, @gaberivera, @cshirky, @wllegal, Fox News, @jonhenke, @beschizza, Public Knowledge, Telegraph and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Clay Shirky:

Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood — Writing in his blog on the New York Times yesterday, David Pogue, one of the Times' tech columnists, advises toning down the alarmist rhetoric over SOPA, suggesting that opponents of the bill (and its Senate cousin PIPA) should Put Down the Pitchforks.

Discussion: O'Reilly Radar, Hillicon Valley, Future of Journalism, MediaShift, The Rumpus.net and Marco.org, more at Techmeme »

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Europe Says It Won't Adopt ‘Bad’ Digital Policy Like SOPA

Dan Gillmor / Guardian:
The struggle against Sopa and Pipa is not over

Discussion: Mashable!, TeleRead, Gothamist, Forbes and paidContent

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Viral Video (Exclusive) — Amid a criminal case that forced the shutdown of Megaupload, the company has dismissed UMG from a lawsuit over a video that showed many stars endorsing the site. But that doesn't mean the case is over.

Discussion: The Verge, Electronista, The Next Web and WebProNews

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:

Polarized news market has altered the political process in South Carolina primary — We follow three South Carolina voters and profile their media consumption, matching up their habits against national survey data. Watch a video of their activity and take a quiz to see which shows …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and FishbowlDC

Erika Fry / CJR:
What I Saw at the South Carolina Debate

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, B&C, The Politico, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable, BuzzFeed and The Daily Dish

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Paywalls: Maybe Not So Complicated After All — Thinking over Clay Shirky's piece on the success of the NYT model — Clay Shirky, a leading paywall skeptic, deserves credit for grappling with what is now generally conceded to be the clear success of The New York Times's digital pay model.

Tim Carman / Washington Post:

And that's why we test — The storyout of Chile was enough to make a publisher's blood turn colder than a liquid nitrogen milkshake. In late December, the country's Supreme Court ruled that the newspaper La Tercera had to shell out more than $160,000 to 13 victims who were burned while trying to fry churros in hot oil.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Conal Urquhart / Guardian:

Johann Hari leaves the Independent after plagiarism storm — Columnist will not return to newspaper after being accused of using material from other writers without giving them credit — Johann Hari, the journalist at the Independent who was suspended for plagiarism, has announced that he will not return to the newspaper.

Discussion: Johann Hari, Poynter, BBC, The Drum, The Huffington Post, FleetStreetBlues, @davidfolkenflik and Jon Slattery

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Has phone hacking changed attitudes at the top of News Corp? — Payouts to phone-hacking victims and new executive appointments show an attempt to move on — Rupert Murdoch was in London on Thursday in time to follow the coverage of the 37 News of the World phone-hacking settlements …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Guardian and Telegraph

Edward Schumacher-Matos / NPR Ombudsman:

Santorum, Race and the Limits of Journalistic Fairness — Rick Santorum speaks at the Daily Grind coffee shop on Jan. 1, 2012 in Sioux City, Iowa. — You're an NPR reporter covering a presidential candidate. Serious stuff, even if it's still early in the election season.