Mediagazer: Acta protests: Thousands take to streets across Europe (Dave Lee/BBC)

1:15 PM ET, February 12, 2012

Top News:

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: Future of Journalism, Politico, @romenesko, Gannett Blog and ShortFormBlog

Guardian:

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

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules — The BBC will today apologise to an estimated 74 million people around the world for a news fixing scandal, exposed by The Independent, in which it broadcast documentaries made by a London TV company that was earning millions …

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

Dave Lee / BBC:

Acta protests: Thousands take to streets across Europe — Marchers in London gathered outside British Music House, home to several major rights holders — Thousands of people have taken part in co-ordinated protests across Europe in opposition to a controversial anti-piracy agreement.

Discussion: Reuters, WebProNews, Future of Journalism, BBC, TorrentFreak, Mashable!, The Stream and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

David Streitfeld / Bits:

Amazon, Up in Flames — “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever,” George Orwell wrote in “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” In “Animal Farm,” he concluded that revolutions are inevitably betrayed by their leaders. His novel “Burmese Days” …

New York Times:

The Piracy Problem: How Broad? — When Fred Wilson, a prominent New York venture capitalist who has backed Twitter and Zynga, wanted to watch the Knicks game last month, he got an unpleasant surprise. Time Warner Cable was not showing the game because of a contract dispute.

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, WebProNews and Electronista, 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, Firedoglake, New York Times, Forbes, The Lede, Online NewsHour and NPR

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