Mediagazer: Johann Hari leaves the Independent (Conal Urquhart/Guardian)

7:20 AM ET, January 23, 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 …

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

False Paterno death reports highlight journalists' hunger for glory — As many people are now aware, on Saturday evening, a student news organization at Penn State reported that former football coach Joe Paterno had died. The information was picked up by CBS Sports and other major news outlets, and it spread quickly on Twitter.

Discussion: Onward State, eye-on-college-football …, Eye On College Football, Forbes, Bleacher Report, LA Observed and College Media Matters

Davis Shaver / Onward State:

What Happened Last Night — Last night was one of the worst moments of my entire life. But before I can explain what happened, you need to know a bit about Onward State. Onward State is a community news site, and that means that most decisions are made in a collaborative environment.

Discussion: Poynter, New York Times, Erik Wemple, Associated Press, PC Magazine, College Media Matters, NBCSports.com, ShortFormBlog and Deadspin

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: Gothamist, Poynter and Onward State

Felix Salmon / Reuters:

How sharing disrupts media — I'm at DLD in Munich, where David Karp of Tumblr and Samir Arora of Glam Media helped me understand the way that media and publishing are evolving these days, and the way in which creating, editing, and publishing are increasingly separate things which interact …

Discussion: TechCrunch and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Tumblr Blows Past 15 Billion Pageviews Per Month, Thumbing Nose At Old Media Thinking As It Goes — The latest social-media phenomenon, Tumblr, continues to post astounding traffic metrics. — Founder and CEO David Karp spoke at the DLD conference in Munich this morning, where he reiterated some of the company's recent milestones:

Discussion: Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Guardian:

Mark Thompson gives Leveson evidence — Full coverage as top executives from the BBC, ITN and Channel 4 appear at the inquiry into media standards and phone hacking — 11.18am: The BBC is trying to achieve an “error rate which is vanishingly small,” Thompson says.

Arthur S. Brisbane / New York Times:

Keeping Them Honest — AS election season rhetoric heats up, so does the demand for aggressive examination of candidates' claims. — This is not new. The “fact-checking” movement, shorthand for news organizations' rebuttal of factual claims, has been building for years.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, Naked Politics and Erik Wemple

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

Tablet and E-Reader Sales Soar — There was no must-have toy of Christmas 2011 — for youngsters, anyway. — For adults, tablet computers and e-readers were the gifts of choice, judging by a new report that indicates the number of adults in the United States who own tablets …

Discussion: Pew Internet and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Ginger Gibson / The Politico:

Newt Gingrich and the press: Secret pals — It's a regular feature of the 2012 GOP presidential debates — that moment when Newt Gingrich takes a deep breath, then proceeds to rip the insipid moderator and the conflict-and scandal-mongering press. — His latest exercise …

Discussion: CJR, The Huffington Post, The State, Associated Press, American Prospect, Washington Post, Naked Politics, Pressthink, Poynter, Erik Wemple and Media Decoder

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: TeleRead, The Next Web, Electronista, The Verge and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

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: rbr.com, TorrentFreak, parislemon, Hillicon Valley, @beschizza, @wllegal, @gaberivera, @jonhenke, @joshconstine, Forbes, The Greenroom, @cshirky, Public Knowledge, paidContent, Clay Shirky and Telegraph

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

Discussion: O'Reilly Radar, TeleRead, Mashable!, paidContent and Gothamist, more at Techmeme »

David Murphy / PC Magazine:

Anonymous Takes Out CBS.com, Universal Music — Anonymous strikes again. — Fresh off the last few days' worth of Web attacks, designed as a kind of cyber-retribution for the demise of file-sharing site Megaupload at the hands of the FBI, members of the “hacktivist” group have taken …

Discussion: What's Hawt, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Threat Level and Imperva Data Security Blog

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Publisher Terry McGraw on Steve Jobs and Digital Textbooks: “This Was His Vision” — After Apple's big education presentation yesterday, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw chatted with a gaggle of reporters, and explained things like the logic behind $15 digital textbooks.

Discussion: O'Reilly Radar, The Loop, Beyond Search, 9to5Mac and Electronista