Mediagazer: Rather Than Flirt With Audience, Oscar Producers Play Hard to Get (Michael Cieply/New York Times)

2:45 AM ET, February 16, 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.

Discussion: Gannett Blog

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: Poynter, @chanders and The Philly Post

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

Erik Wemple:
Inquirer's top editor speaks

Discussion: Philly.com, Capital New York and Poynter

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 …

Lena Groeger / ProPublica:

Murdoch's Circle: The Growing News International Scandal — From phone hacking to bribery, the corruption at News International has involved many players—increasingly, ones close to Rupert Murdoch. We've mapped out the players involved in this growing debacle, organized by their proximity …

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

Rem Rieder / American Journalism Review:

Ignoring the Facts at PolitiFact — Its off-the-mark conclusions are undermining its credibility. Weds., February 15, 2012. — Rem Rieder (rrieder@ajr.umd.edu) is AJR's editor and senior vice president. — Nobody is a bigger fan than I am of the rise of the fact-checking movement in contemporary journalism.

Discussion: PolitiFact, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post and The Raw Story

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
Fact from fiction: PolitiFact draws ire for checking ‘Glee’

Discussion: Saint Petersblog, PolitiFact, Riptide 2.0 and Mediaite

Dylan Byers / Politico:
PolitiFact responds to Rachel Maddow

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

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

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, Gawker, TVSpy 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

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 …

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

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.

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, Businessweek, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, AdAge, 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

Michael Cieply / New York Times:

Rather Than Flirt With Audience, Oscar Producers Play Hard to Get — LOS ANGELES — At the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, where the Oscars will be staged a week from Sunday, every entrance is decked with a sign that warns unauthorized people to keep out. — This year the closed doors are not just a security measure.

Discussion: FishbowlLA, Company Town and mediabistro.com

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

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:

James Rainey, Brian Stelter Get the Bill O'Reilly Treatment — The Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson went on The O'Reilly Factor to talk about his latest “investigative” scoop. That would be his story on how various left-leaning columnists across America receive and report, without attribution …

Discussion: Poynter and The Daily Caller