Mediagazer: Piracy Twits — If I didn't value the First Amendment so dearly … (Bill Keller)

6:35 PM ET, February 11, 2012

Top News:

Senior Sun journalists arrested in police payments probe — Rupert Murdoch is flying to London after five of tabloid's most senior staff are arrested inongoing inquiry into alleged bribery — The Sun has been plunged into crisis following the arrest of five of its most senior journalists …

Discussion: Guardian, New York Magazine, The Wrap, Jon Slattery, Reuters, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Hollywood Reporter, The Independent, @dangillmor, Future of Journalism and Press Gazette

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

8 Arrested in Inquiry Into Murdoch's Tabloids — LONDON — British authorities arrested eight people on Saturday, including five employees of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid The Sun, as part of an investigation into bribery of public officials by journalists, according to Scotland Yard and the newspaper's parent company.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

The Washington Post, Recast for a Digital Future — ON a Sunday in early December, Marcus Brauchli, the executive editor of The Washington Post, summoned some of the newspaper's most celebrated journalists to a lunch at his home, a red brick arts-and-crafts style in the suburb of Bethesda, Md.

Discussion: Politico, @romenesko and ShortFormBlog

Wall Street Journal:

Journal Columnist Jeffrey Zaslow Is Killed in Crash — Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow, who wrote some of the paper's most memorable front-page features and became a best-selling author, died in a car crash Friday morning at age 53. — Mr. Zaslow was killed in an automobile accident in northern Michigan.

Discussion: LA Observed, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Chicago Tribune, MyFox Detroit and GalleyCat

Patricia Montemurri / Tucson Citizen: ‘Last Lecture’ author Jeffrey Zaslow Dies

Bill Keller:

Piracy Twits — If I didn't value the First Amendment so dearly, I'd be tempted to propose a law keeping irony out of the hands of the clueless. — The other day I wrote a column suggesting a reasoned approach to protecting writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, etc. against online piracy.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @mathewi, TeleRead, Phlog, Boing Boing, The Atlantic Wire and Gawker

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Amazon hiring creative execs for original programming — Add Amazon to the list of online video providers that could soon release some new original programming. The company is looking to hire creative executives to develop and produce original comedies and kids shows for online and traditional distribution.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Electronista and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What Charlie Sheen taught Salon about being original — There's a reason why The Onion's recent HuffPo-tweaking satire — ‘Huffington Post’ Employee Sucked Into Aggregation Turbine / Horrified Workers Watch As Colleague Torn Apart By Powerful Content-Gathering Engine — resonated with so many reporters.

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

Birth control and the Church: The missing context — Even a card-carrying secular humanist like me couldn't help but be troubled that the Obama administration was ordering the Catholic Church to provide birth-control coverage to its employees despite Catholic doctrine prohibiting the practice.

Discussion: Gawker, New York Times, Firedoglake, Forbes, The New Yorker Blog, The Lede and NPR

Alex Fitzpatrick / Mashable!:

Europeans Plan Widespread Protests Against Internet Censorship — Protests against Internet censorship will blanket Europe this weekend, while Germany and Latvia announced Friday they would put the brakes on signing a copyright treaty that has sparked controversy across the continent.

Discussion: BBC, TorrentFreak and Electronista

Associated Press:

Netflix trims 4th quarter earnings to account for $9 million settlement of video privacy case — SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix pressed the rewind button on its fourth-quarter earnings after settling allegations that the video subscription service violated a consumer-privacy law.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, more at Techmeme »

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Gov. Rendell wanted NY Mayor Bloomberg to buy Philly papers — When Ed Rendell was governor of Pennsylvania in 2008, he spent some time traveling around the country with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. At the time, Rendell pitched Bloomberg on buying Philadelphia's daily newspapers …

Discussion: Poynter and Poynter

Lens:

A Painterly World Press Photo Winner — A thin man rests his head on the shoulder of a burqua-clad woman, the pair collapsed together against a wall. The expression on her face can't be seen. But her body language - right arm wrapped tightly around his neck, left hand clinging to his arm - conveys everything her expression cannot.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, msnbc.com, Boston Globe, Gawker, The Huffington Post, The FJP, The Verge and FishbowlNY

Adam Martin / The Atlantic Wire:

Patch Would Like its Journalists to Let it Speak For Them — Patch's request to its hundreds of local editors not to comment on Jim Romenesko's reporting on Patch is just the latest example of a big media company trying, and failing, to control its people's participation in Internet conversation.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Online Journalism Review