Mediagazer: The Huguely case: What makes for a media mob? (Paul Farhi/Washington Post)

8:00 AM ET, February 17, 2012

Top News:

Rick Gladstone / New York Times:

Anthony Shadid, A New York Times Reporter Dies in Syria — Anthony Shadid, a prize-winning newspaper correspondent whose graceful dispatches for both The New York Times and The Washington Post covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack …

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

Anthony Shadid, Reporter in the Middle East, Dies at 43 — Anthony Shadid, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who died on Thursday at 43, had long been passionately interested in the Middle East, first because of his Lebanese-American heritage and later because of what he saw there firsthand.

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Politico, Guardian, LA Observed, @adamweinstein, @andrewphelps, @sultanalqassemi, @pjtobia, @trdeghett, @nirrosen, The Huffington Post and Poynter

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

HarperCollins Is Said to Pay Nearly $4 Million for Amanda Knox Memoir — Updated — Four months after being freed from an Italian prison and cleared of charges that she murdered her roommate, Amanda Knox has sold her memoir to HarperCollins, the publishing house announced Thursday.

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, The New York Observer, ABCNEWS, Mediaite, Jezebel, Hollywood Life, Gawker, GalleyCat and Vanity Fair

Michael Grotticelli / blog.broadcastengineering.com:

Five states propose ending support of public television — Right-wing politics and tough economic conditions have combined to threaten public television systems in at least seven states—including North and South Carolina, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Idaho, Kansas and Maine.

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Apple Is Going To Anger A Lot Of Big Media Companies With AirPlay On The Mac — One of the coolest features in Apple's new desktop operating system, Mountain Lion, is AirPlay. — AirPlay already exists for the iPad and iPhone, but this version appears to be extend what AirPlay can do.

Discussion: Macworld, FT Tech Hub, MacStories and GeekWire, more at Techmeme »

James Crugnale / Mediaite:

Pat Buchanan Is ‘Departing’ MSNBC: I Was ‘Blacklisted, But Not Beaten’ — Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan is out at MSNBC, writing in The American Conservative that “My days as a political analyst at MSNBC have come to an end.” MSNBC confirmed the news.

Discussion: Media Decoder, The American Conservative, Speakeasy, Inside Cable News, Deadline.com, TVNewser, The Wrap and Media Matters for America

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Apple and the New York Times not meshing — The Wall Street Journal's Jessica Vascellaro scores the access coup of the week, maybe month. An exclusive interview with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook yields insight on how the company is migrating iPhone functionality to boxes.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, New York Times, Poynter, TUAW, Fortune, 9to5Mac, Wall Street Journal, Apple, Daring Fireball and CJR, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Murdoch arrives in London to quell staff backlash — (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch flew in to London on Thursday to address growing anger at his newspaper business and seek to reassure journalists of his commitment to their work. — Murdoch arrived at Luton airport on Thursday evening …

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Stephen Colbert Suspends Production of His Show … Stephen Colbert has suspended production of his satirical comedy show temporarily because of an emergency in Mr. Colbert's family, according to people familiar with the show. — The show is expected to resume production soon, perhaps as early as next week, the people added.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NY Daily News, @producermatthew, CNBC, Forbes, Politico, UPROXX, Rolling Stone, Media & Entertainment, Yahoo! News, The New York Observer, Media Decoder, The Raw Story and Mediaite

Tim Mak / @timkmak:
POLITICO confirms Colbert will not air Wed/Thurs “due to unforeseen circumstances,” per response from Comedy Central. No further deets

Discussion: @producermatthew, @timkmak and @timkmak

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Twitter + Robots = Instant Stories, No Humans Required — Hey, how's Newt Gingrich doing on Twitter? — You could try answering this question yourself by combing through Twitter and looking at what Newt says there, and what people are saying about Newt there. But that would take time and effort.

Discussion: WebProNews

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Demand Media Beats Expectations Slightly in Q4 Report; Buying Back More Stock; CEO: “Turbulent Year” — Demand Media, which has suffered from stock weakness and worries about its traffic and costs, beat Wall Street expectations in its fourth quarter earnings report, which was released after the market closed today.

Discussion: Company Town, paidContent, Reuters, Business Wire and StreetInsider.com, more at Techmeme »

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

The Huguely case: What makes for a media mob? — In a famous essay about crime and the British press, George Orwell identified the kinds of murder cases that excited the news media and titillated the public. The victims, he wrote, tended to be middle-class; the alleged perpetrators …

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Open Road Responds To HarperCollins E-Book Lawsuit — Open Road Media responded today to the lawsuit that HarperCollins filed against it in December over the digital rights to Jean Craighead George's Julie of the Wolves, saying HarperCollins' claim “is nothing but an attempt to seize rights …

Federica Cherubini / Editors Weblog:

Journalistic standards and media regulation after Wikileaks and the News of the World — What do phone-hacking at the News of the World and Wikileaks have in common from an ethical point of view? — UNESCO's conference “The media world after Wikileaks and News of the World” …

Discussion: Techdirt

Robert Rosenthal / Center for Investigative Reporting:

CIR receives $1 million MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced today that the Center for Investigative Reporting is one of 15 organizations in six countries that has received the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

Discussion: Poynter and macfound.org