Mediagazer: Glenn Mulcaire granted evidence appeal (BBC)

12:15 PM ET, February 15, 2012

Top News:

Exclusive: Sun probe looking into “sustained criminality” — (Reuters) - The investigation into payments by Rupert Murdoch's Sun journalists to police and other officials is looking into “suspected criminality over a sustained period of time” involving tens of thousands of pounds …

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Sun staff line up human rights challenge to News Corp inquiry team — Journalists approach NUJ with view to hiring leading lawyer to question legality of internal investigation — Senior journalists at the Sun are preparing to launch a legal challenge to the News Corporation unit …

Discussion: Free Press and Financial Times

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Sun journalists must fight for their rights - Geoffrey Robertson

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph: James Murdoch name tied to News Corp scandal

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

BBC: Glenn Mulcaire granted evidence appeal

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 …

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: Poynter, Gawker, The Daily Caller, Big Journalism and The Atlantic Wire

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:

James Rainey, Brian Stetler 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: TVNewser and FishbowlDC

Jack Shafer:
Media Madders

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Big Journalism, Erik Wemple, FishbowlDC and The Daily Caller

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.

Discussion: The Verge, AllThingsD, The Awl, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Gizmodo, AllTwitter, WebProNews, Bits, Marketing Pilgrim, CNET, Electronista and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

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: AllThingsD, ZDNet and Multichannel

Meg James / Company Town:

Comcast fourth-quarter profit jumps 26%; NBC and film lag — Comcast Corp. beat analysts' estimates with a 26% increase in fourth-quarter profit, but two NBCUniversal units continued to struggle: the NBC broadcast network and Universal Pictures. — For the quarter ended Dec. 31 …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Home Media Magazine

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Puzzazz brings ebook handwriting recognition to the Kindle Touch — Redmond-based startup Puzzazz is bringing handwriting recognition to Amazon's Kindle Touch device. The company's TouchWrite technology recognizes handwriting and converts it into numbers and letters on the Kindle.

more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / Politico:

PolitiFact responds to Rachel Maddow — Rachel Maddow made yet another stinging attack on PolitiFact last night, calling the Tampa Bay Times' fact-checking project “a disaster” (see video). — Via email, PolitiFact editor and Tampa Bay Times Washington bureau chief Bill Adair responds to the criticism:

Discussion: Mediaite, @jayrosen_nyu and @politifact

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Times and Sunday Times digital sales power ahead — The Times now has 119,255 digital subscribers, with the Sunday Times claiming 113,818 - according to figures issued by News International last night. — The figures show that there has been continual digital subscriber growth at The Times …

Discussion: Guardian

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: CJR and The Lede

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: News International staff demand openness over internal investigation unit

Financial Times:
Murdoch puts top lawyer on Sun case

Discussion: Politico

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

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge, The Wrap, The Huffington Post and Guardian

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Did the AP just declare war on news aggregators? — Like virtually every other traditional news entity, the Associated Press newswire has been under pressure for some time from digital media — but this disruption has been even worse for AP and its ilk because they are primarily distributors …

Discussion: CNN, NetNewsCheck Latest, 10,000 Words and Associated Press

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Fair Use Or Free Riding? The AP's New Attack On News Scraping

Discussion: The FJP, Media News, MediaPost, paidContent and FishbowlNY

Cliff Edwards / Bloomberg:

Netflix Said to Produce Second Original Series in Growing Challenge to HBO — Netflix Inc. (NFLX), ratcheting up competition with HBO, will produce 13 episodes of a new comedy series, “Orange Is the New Black,” according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: InvestorPlace, CNET, TechCrunch and Online Video News

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 …