Mediagazer: UK Seize Popular Music Blog, Arrest Operators and Threaten Readers (Ernesto/TorrentFreak)

5:35 AM ET, February 15, 2012

Top News:

Media Madders — The “investigative series” that the conservative Daily Caller commenced this week about the liberal media watchdog outfit Media Matters for America and its founder David Brock accomplishes the impossible: It makes me sympathize with Media Matters and Brock.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Big Journalism, FishbowlDC and Washington Post

Erik Wemple:

Fox News and the art of media-timing — Given their profession, the people at Fox News Channel have developed an appreciation for the ferocity of the modern news cycle. The trick, they've learned, is to get out in front of it. — Case In Point No. 1: In the summer of 2004, a filmmaker releases …

Discussion: Gawker, The Daily Caller and Big Journalism

Tucker Carlson / The Daily Caller:
Media Matters memo called for hiring private investigators ‘to look into the personal lives’ of Fox employees

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser and FishbowlDC

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

NI staff call for transparency — Following Sun arrests, NI staff body writes to chief executive regarding remit and scope of committee, and status of sources — The body representing News International staff is seeking an urgent meeting with chief executive Tom Mockridge …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
News Corp inquiry team defends policy over police disclosures

Discussion: Media Week, The Huffington Post and The Independent

Financial Times:
Murdoch puts top lawyer on Sun case

Discussion: Politico

Sean O'Neill / @timescrime: Have confirmed that senior Met officers have “reviewed” their arrest strategy in Weeting and Elveden. Dawn raids will now be the norm...

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
News Corp executives at risk of US prosecution for ‘willful blindness’

Discussion: CJR, Save the News, Forbes, Erik Wemple, Forbes, Law Blog and Capital New York

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
News Corp. Without Newspapers Would Be Addition by Subtraction

Discussion: CJR, Forbes, AdAge and Press Gazette

Michael Wolff / @michaelwolffnyc: I'm hearing: Trevor Kavanagh spoke to Murdoch on Sunday. So...Murdoch signing off on rebellion at Sun, while helping police?

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Fair Use Or Free Riding? The AP's New Attack On News Scraping — The Associated Press is becoming more aggressive in trying to rein in the information the news service scatters around the world. After helping to launch a copyright monitoring service, the AP is now suing a company …

Discussion: MediaPost and TechCrunch Europe

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Did the AP just declare war on news aggregators?

Discussion: CNN, 10,000 Words and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Interviews: Meltwater Appeals UK Web News Fees As Both Sides Claim Victory

Discussion: Guardian, FishbowlNY and Poynter

Keach Hagey / Politico:

Fox News ‘course correction’ rankles some — As a white, male, middle-aged conservative talk radio host from Virginia, John Fredericks is something close to the Platonic ideal of a Fox News fan. — And until last year, he was one. But then Fox's treatment of the Republican primary race …

Discussion: TVNewser

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

UK Seize Popular Music Blog, Arrest Operators and Threaten Readers — Founded in 2008, RnBXclusive.com quickly became one of the most popular R&B / hip hop blogs. With over a quarter million fans on Facebook it was the go-to destination for many music fans.

Discussion: The Verge, Techdirt, ZDNet and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Dan Loeb Recruits Former NBC Boss Jeff Zucker for His Raid on Yahoo — Here's Dan Loeb's formal declaration of war against the old guard at Yahoo, along with his list of allies. — The activist shareholder wants four of Yahoo's board seats, one of which he wants to occupy himself.

Discussion: CNET, DealBook and Business Insider

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

New Service Will Stream Local TV Stations in New York — A online television company has come up with a way to stream local television stations to paying subscribers on the Internet, potentially forming a new cord-cutting threat for cable and satellite distributors.

Discussion: Market Wire, pocketnow.com, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Engadget, The New York Observer, Forbes, Business Insider, The Verge, Adweek and TechCrunch

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Barry Diller Gets Into the “Cord-Cutting” Business

Discussion: ZDNet, Home Media Magazine, paidContent, Company Town, Adweek, TechCrunch, CNET, Epicenter, Multichannel and GigaOM

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Some best-guesses about what BuzzFeed is up to, and why it is in fact about Arianna, a little — In all the conversation about BuzzFeed, two questions and answers get repeated over and over again. But I don't think the answers have been quite right—for a mixture of reasons, probably.

Discussion: Gawker and BuzzFeed

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Ethan Bronner out as NYT Jerusalem chief — One year after the New York Times public editor recommended his reassignment, Ethan Bronner is being replaced as Jerusalem bureau chief. — Today, the Times announced that Education editor Jodi Rudoren has been named Jerusalem bureau chief.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and The Huffington Post

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:

Happy Valentine's Day, Tech Bloggers — There's been so much hate and self-righteous indignation in tech blog circles lately. Name calling. Ugly accusations. Petty bickering. It's even divided good friends, brother against brother. Can't we all just get along?

Discussion: @mathewi, @ryanfs, SiliconFilter, broadstuff and The Awl, more at Techmeme »

Brad Wolverton / Chronicle of Higher Education:

The NCAA Wades Into a War of Words — Stung by an outspoken critic, the association dishes back—and it's gotten personal — “Last week, I described the NCAA as a cartel. Turns out, it's a Star Chamber, too,” the columnist Joe Nocera has written in “The New York Times.”

Glenn Garvin / Miami Herald:

The profound lies of Deep Throat — Kids say the darndest things. Speaking to a college journalism class last week, I learned the students had recently seen the All The President's Men, the film noir tale of the Washington Post's pursuit of the Watergate scandal.

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik and @kellymcb