Mediagazer: Reporter's Death Puts Focus on Difficulties of Covering a Secretive Syria (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

1:30 AM ET, February 19, 2012

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Reporter's Death Puts Focus on Difficulties of Covering a Secretive Syria — The conflict in Syria has become, for journalists, one of the most difficult and dangerous assignments in many years, with at least five having died while covering the uprising that began there last March.

Discussion: Poynter, msnbc.com, The Nation, The Huffington Post and GalleyCat

Steve Coll / The New Yorker Blog:

Postscript: Anthony Shadid, 1968-2012 — Anthony Shadid's third book, “House of Stone,” is due to be published in several weeks. It is described by the publisher as a “a memoir of home, family and a lost Middle East.” The project, when Shadid talked about it occasionally …

Discussion: host.madison.com, Washington Post and NPR

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Times staffers gather for bullpen memorial for Anthony Shadid; his final piece published today

Discussion: New York Times and PRNewser

Erik Wemple:
Should the White House stay mum on Shadid?

Discussion: WWD, VOA and Poynter

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Rendell Inquirer? The specter of the instrumentalization of American news media — The possible sale of the Philadelphia Media Network — publisher of the Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com — has sparked a debate over editorial independence. That's because the potential buyers …

Discussion: Philadelphia City Paper

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Inquirer, Daily News to share content, raising questions about future of separate Philly papers

Discussion: American Journalism Review, JIMROMENESKO.COM, NetNewsCheck Latest and Philly.com

Jxpaton / Digital First:

Old Dogs New Tricks and Crappy Newspaper Executives — (Speaking notes for an address to the Canadian Journalism Foundation — Good evening. — I'm old media. — This is my 36th year as a newspaper man - apologies - my 36th year as a multi-platform news executive.

Discussion: @cressman

Joseph Erbentraut / The Huffington Post:

Report: Chicago News Cooperative To Shut Down — The Chicago News Cooperative, a non-profit public-interest journalism organization launched in the fall of 2009, will reportedly cease operation Feb. 26. — The Chicago Reader reported Friday that CNC founder James O'Shea …

Discussion: Chicago Business, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Reader, @jeffjarvis and Chicago Reader

Chris Greenberg / The Huffington Post:

ESPN Racist Jeremy Lin Headline: Network Apologizes For Insensitive Headline For Knicks Loss — The unexpected emergence of Jeremy Lin from the depths of the New York Knicks' bench has been a dream for headline writers and just about everyone who loves puns.

Discussion: Charles Apple, ESPN, ESPN MediaZone, SBNation.com, Deadspin, Bleacher Report, Forbes, Outsports and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Cops in the Newsroom — The News Corp. fiasco imperils press protections in the UK — I noted this yesterday about News Corporation's Management Standards Committee, set up over the summer to handle the company's internal investigation into the hacking scandal, but wanted to explore it a little more today.

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Microsoft mulls plan for new music service (exclusive) — The software maker has discussed with some of the major record companies about creating a music service to serve Xbox as well as an upcoming Windows-based phone. — Microsoft is in talks with some of the major record companies …

Discussion: Redmond Pie, Softpedia News, Gizmodo, Electronista, The Verge, The Next Web and The TechBlock, more at Techmeme »

Jim Romenesko:

NYT reconsiders Sunday Review cartoon solicitation — Earlier this month I posted an item about the New York Times “insulting” editorial cartoonists by asking them to submit spec drawings, for which they'd get only $250 if accepted. — This email was sent to the Times cartoon list this afternoon:

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Qwikster Rebaptized: Netflix's Name Game With Disc-Only Subscriptions — Here's a new post title from Netflix's company blog that wouldn't have made sense five years ago, or even last July: “Now you can sign up directly for a DVD only plan.” — First, it's all true.

Discussion: Fortune, VentureBeat, WebProNews and CNET

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Iran Nuclear Coverage Echoes Iraq War Media Frenzy — NEW YORK — Military strikes expected! Weapons inspectors called in! A murky al Qaeda connection! And Cheney says time's up for Ira... Wait. Haven't we seen this movie before? — It's already been a decade since …

Discussion: Mediaite, Salon and FAIR Blog

Dave Maass / San Diego CityBeat:

U-T outsources comment censorship — Move is expected to ‘refine the tone and content of the comments without hindering their flow’ — The new owners of U-T San Diego have been making a lot of changes at the city's main daily newspaper. The latest involves new policies for censoring monitoring comments on its website.

Discussion: FishbowlLA