Mediagazer: Keeping Them Honest — AS election season rhetoric heats up … (Arthur S. Brisbane/New York Times)

3:25 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, College Media Matters and @breakingnews

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: Erik Wemple, Associated Press, PC Magazine, College Media Matters, New York Times and ShortFormBlog

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, Gothamist and Onward State

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: Naked Politics, Pressthink, Poynter, Media Decoder, Erik Wemple and Online NewsHour

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:
Polarized news market has altered the political process in South Carolina primary

Discussion: Charles Apple, Future of Journalism and FishbowlDC

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

Discussion: Mediaite, Forbes, Associated Press, ZDNet, The New Yorker Blog, Hit & Run, TVNewser, B&C, The Politico, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel and msnbc.com

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

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: TorrentFreak, rbr.com, Hillicon Valley, Fox News, parislemon, @beschizza, @wllegal, @gaberivera, @jonhenke, @joshconstine, Forbes, The Greenroom, @cshirky, Public Knowledge, Telegraph and New York Times

Clay Shirky:
Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood

Discussion: Adweek, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, ReadWriteWeb, ZDNet, O'Reilly Radar, Hillicon Valley, A VC, Future of Journalism, The Rumpus.net, Marco.org and MediaShift, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: Mediaite, Future of Journalism, GigaOM, @senatorreid, @senatorreid, Policy Blog, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Senate Democrats, ZDNet, Hillicon Valley, Washington Post, Uncrunched, The Next Web, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Hillicon Valley, The Verge and CNET

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

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

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 »

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 »

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, Electronista, CNET, paidContent and Techland

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Time Warner Cable app streams live TV to iPhones, no longer iPad-only — After finally issuing a version of its TWC TV app for Android tablets and phones (sans-line TV streaming, for now) Time Warner Cable has finally made its iOS version, which launched last March on the iPad, compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Softpedia News

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of signature content — What's your signature content? — Quick: If somebody buttonholed you in an elevator, a school play, or a bar, and said, “Why should I pay you for that?” — what do you tell them? — Each passing week, it seems we're further into the age of signature content.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Forbes