Mediagazer: WUSA reporter Andrea McCarren balks after backlash over teen drinking stories (Paul Farhi/Washington Post)

10:55 PM ET, February 15, 2012

Top News:

Interference Seen in Philadelphia Papers — Last week, Gregory J. Osberg, chief executive and publisher of the Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes The Inquirer, The Daily News and Philly.com, summoned the news organization's three most senior editors to his office.

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Philly papers to lose 37 positions through buyouts, layoffs — Philadelphia Media Network executives announced at a meeting with Guild leaders today that they will reduce the newsrooms of the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com by 37 positions. The company will offer buyouts first, and then begin layoffs if necessary.

Discussion: The Philly Post, @chanders and Poynter

Buzz Bissinger / New York Times: Who Will Tell Philadelphia's Story?

Erik Wemple:
Inquirer's top editor speaks

Discussion: Capital New York, Poynter and Philly.com

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Met probes claims that Sun paid some public officials more than £10k a year — Source familiar with News Corp internal inquiry says it has found ‘serious suspected criminality over a sustained period’ — The Scotland Yard investigation into alleged illegal payments by Sun journalists …

Discussion: ProPublica

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

U.S. litigation against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. may not be imminent; but it's still all bad news for him — News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch is all lawyered up and bound for London tomorrow on a crisis management mission. — And with the trip, a fresh wave of speculation has gripped …

Discussion: Reuters, Globe and Mail, Save the News, The Lede, CJR, Mixed Media and The Huffington Post

Robert Hutton / Bloomberg:
News Corp. Hacking Report Delayed by Debate

Discussion: Capital New York and Guardian

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Sun staff line up human rights challenge to News Corp inquiry team

Discussion: The Journalism Foundation, Press Gazette, CJR, CJR, The Huffington Post, Guardian, themediablog.typepad.com, Free Press, Broadcasting & Cable, Telegraph, BBC and Financial Times

Joe Flint / Company Town:

CNN officially severs ties with Larry King — CNN and Larry King are going their separate ways. — Though King gave up his daily prime-time talk show on CNN in December 2010, he still had a deal for several specials. The last of those — “A Larry King Special: Dinner With the Kings” — aired in December.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Huffington Post and Media Decoder

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Fact from fiction: PolitiFact draws ire for checking ‘Glee’ — Has the Great Fact Checking Explosion reached a new level of strangeness so soon into the election year? — Or to put it the way some did Tuesday: Has PolitFact jumped the shark? — These questions are cropping up thanks …

Discussion: American Journalism Review, Saint Petersblog, PolitiFact, Riptide 2.0 and Mediaite

Dylan Byers / Politico:
PolitiFact responds to Rachel Maddow

Discussion: PolitiFact, @jayrosen_nyu, The Huffington Post, @politifact, Mediaite and Saint Petersblog

David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:

Twitter stores full iPhone contact list for 18 months, after scan — Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the “Find friends” feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including names, email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months.

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

WUSA reporter Andrea McCarren balks after backlash over teen drinking stories — At first, the comments from viewers were just nasty. No problem. Andrea McCarren, a veteran TV reporter, could handle that. — But then the response to McCarren's reports about underage drinking on WUSA …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Forbes, TVSpy, Gawker and The Huffington Post

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

CBS 4Q Profits Soar Despite Revenue Dip — Profits at CBS surged 17 percent to $384 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, capping off a year in which its net income nearly doubled, according to its earnings report on Wednesday. — The strong earnings report, which included a new corporate record …

Discussion: @edgecliffe, Associated Press, PR Newswire, Fox Business, Stocks To Watch Today and Broadcasting & Cable

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Comcast's Net Income Increases, Lifted by Internet Subscriptions — A slowing decline in the number of customers cancelling their cable service coupled with a boost in high-speed Internet subscriptions contributed to a 26.4 percent increase in net income at Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider.

Discussion: MediaPost, Financial Times, AdAge, Businessweek, Wall Street Journal, paidContent, AllThingsD, ZDNet and Multichannel

Meg James / Company Town:
Comcast fourth-quarter profit jumps 26%; NBC and film lag

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Home Media Magazine and rbr.com

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

AOL may never be able to patch up Patch — The internet company has placed high hopes — and lots of cash — in its hyperlocal news venture. But, with just a few sites actually turning a profit, the numbers may never add up. — FORTUNE — It was supposed to be a savior.

Discussion: Street Fight, Wall St. Cheat Sheet and The FJP

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Is Politico Looking to Revive Politico TV? — Way back in 2008, the political newspaper and website Politico announced that it was getting into the TV news business with Politico TV. — As our sister blog FishbowlDC noted at the time, the idea was to re-brand an existing program on WJLA …

Discussion: Erik Wemple and FishbowlDC

Will Rahn / The Daily Caller:

Media Matters tax-exempt status may face new scrutiny from Congress — Congressional Republicans are now interested in examining the Media Matters For America's tax-exempt status, The Daily Caller has learned. Doing so would cause the GOP to wade into the complex world of tax laws that govern …

Discussion: TVNewser, topics.dailycaller.com, Mediaite, Capital New York and Jack Shafer

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:
James Rainey, Brian Stelter Get the Bill O'Reilly Treatment

Discussion: Poynter and The Daily Caller

McKay Coppins / Buzz Feed:

Atlantic Media Execs Headed To To St. Bart's — The owner of The Atlantic Media is paying to send 20 senior executives and editors to St. Bart's, a posh French Caribbean destination. Atlantic owner David Bradley, who is building a home on the resort island, rented villas for editors …

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Bleacher Report Launches Hyper-Specialized YouTube Channels — Bleacher Report appears determined to prove that love of minutia-based sports fare has no bounds. Today, the upstart sports site announced the launch of new YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) channels. — One of Bleacher Report's …

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Wrap and Online Video News