Mediagazer: ESPN fires employee for ESPN Mobile that made Lin slur & ESPN anchor Max Bretos has been suspended a month http://frontrow.espn.go.com/ ... (Darren Rovell/@darrenrovell)

2:10 PM ET, February 19, 2012

Top News:

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: Media, disrupted, Recovering Journalist and @cressman

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Profitable news — One of the most controversial things I have said (you're welcome for that straight line) is that I insist my entrepreneurial journalism students at CUNY build only for-profit businesses. When I said that at a recent symposium for teachers of entrepreneurial journalism …

Discussion: daniel sinker

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader:

Why CNC is closing — James O'Shea, founder and editor of the Chicago News Cooperative, told his staff Friday afternoon that on February 26 the CNC would shut down. Or to be more specific, it would stop publishing in the New York Times and stop maintaining its website, the two forums in which it publicly exists.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune

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, PRNewser, The Nation and Capital New York

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

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

Discussion: WWD, VOA and Poynter

Darren Rovell / @darrenrovell:

ESPN fires employee for ESPN Mobile that made Lin slur & ESPN anchor Max Bretos has been suspended a month http://frontrow.espn.go.com/ ...

Discussion: CNN, Outsports, SBNation.com, ShortFormBlog, ESPN, Deadspin and Saint Petersblog

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: Poynter, ESPN, The Daily What, SBNation.com, ESPN MediaZone, The Week, Bleacher Report, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Bleacher Report, Charles Apple, Outsports and Deadspin

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

HuffPost Streaming Network Taps Al Jazeera English Host — Arianna Huffington Looks To Young Talent For Its Nascent TV Network — In The Huffington Post's early days, its hiring strategy focused on attracting scrappy, up-and-coming journalists whose hustle and familiarity with the way news spread …

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Is the AP suing an aggregator or a search engine in the Meltwater case? — The Associated Press is heading into court to defend its copyright, but its leaders swear they're not on a crusade against aggregators. How the case evolves could pivot on how a court considers the site AP is suing …

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: Naked Philadelphian, Philly.com, mediabistro.com, Philadelphia City Paper and Poynter

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

Discussion: American Journalism Review and JIMROMENESKO.COM

The Week:

Is Fox News shifting to the Left? — Conservatives are grumbling that Fox isn't speaking their language anymore. Did Fox chief Roger Ailes take his “course correction” too far? … Fox News chief Roger Ailes ordered a “course correction” at the network last year, parting ways with Glenn Beck …

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: Wall Street Journal, Chicago Business, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Chicago Reader and @jeffjarvis