Mediagazer: Coming Soon From Amazon: Kindle Towering Inferno (John Paczkowski/AllThingsD)

12:00 PM ET, February 21, 2012

Top News:

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics — Frank VanderSloot, Romney finance co-chair, suppresses scrutiny by threatening reporters and bloggers — Frank VanderSloot is an Idaho billionaire and the CEO of Melaleuca, Inc., a controversial billion-dollar-a-year company …

Gordon MacMillan / Brand Republic:

Sun insider claims Sun On Sunday is “desperately seeking advertisers” for first issue — A Twitter account belonging to someone who purporting to be an ex-News of the World journalist claims there is little enthusiasm for The Sun on Sunday internally and that dummies of the paper have not been well received.

Discussion: @sundayinsider and Guardian

David Gambacorta / Philly.com:

Rendell's silence lasts all of 2 days — ED RENDELL'S vow of silence was officially laid to rest yesterday. — It lasted about as long as most people expected. — The former governor, who told the Daily News on Saturday that he would no longer talk publicly about his pursuit …

Discussion: The700Level.com

Sarah Fitzmaurice / Daily Mail:

The Colbert Report returns as Stephen honours sick mother, 91, on screen — With a nod of tribute to his ailing mother, Stephen Colbert returned to present The Colbert Report last night. — The political satirist was back at the helm of his show after he cancelled taping last week …

Discussion: Huffington Post

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Barnes & Noble Delivers New 8GB Tablet, Disappointing Earnings — Barnes & Noble released a new model of its Nook Tablet On Tuesday at the same cost and with nearly identical specs as Amazon's Kindle Fire: 8 GB of storage for $199. — The current 16 GB Tablet stays at $249 …

Discussion: TechCrunch and Barnes & Noble, Inc., more at Techmeme »

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Barnes & Noble launches 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, goes toe-to-toe with Amazon — It was rumoured to be on its way but today popular US bookstore chain Barnes & Noble announced that it has released an 8GB version of its Nook Tablet, aligning itself to go toe-to-toe with Amazon and its Kindle Fire device.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Coming Soon From Amazon: Kindle Towering Inferno — Here's another report to add to the chorus of predictions that Amazon is gearing up to launch a larger version of its Kindle Fire tablet. The occasionally reliable Digitimes claims that Foxconn has won the contract for a new 10-inch Fire …

Discussion: ITProPortal, eBookNewser, BGR and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Rachel Maddow attacks PolitiFact, again — For the third time in four weeks, Rachel Maddow has lashed out at the fact-checking organization PolitiFact for issuing rulings that seem to defy its own research. — In January, Maddow called PolitiFact “a mess” and “an embarrassment”; last week, she called it “a disaster.”

Discussion: The Raw Story and Mediaite

Paul McNally / journalism.co.uk:

A Guardian hotel? Publisher says it is ‘exploring options’ — Guardian News and Media says it is “currently researching and exploring a range of options”, amid claims that it is thinking of developing a new hotel concept. — A post on the Washington-based Harry's Place blog quoted …

Alex Fitzpatrick / Mashable!:

Tweeting a War: How One Journalist Is Using Twitter in Afghanistan — Journalists are using Twitter more and more these days, even in an unlikely place: Afghanistan. — With about a million active Internet users out of a total population of just less than 35 million …

Jim Romenesko:

The story behind ‘the most bad-ass obit ever’ — “I have something really fun for you,” New York Times deputy obituaries editor Jack Kadden told Margalit Fox last Monday. He handed the obit writer a copy of Adam Bernstein's Washington Post piece on “professional adventurer” John Fairfax, who died Feb. 8.

Discussion: Gawker

Suw Charman-Anderson / Forbes:

Million Dollar Book Proves Kickstarter Model, Now Authors Just Need The Reach — The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive became the first book project on Kickstarter to cross the million dollar mark last night. Currently sitting at $1,072,528 raised from 12,797 backers and with 23 hours to go …

Discussion: VentureBeat and readingarefun.wordpress.com, more at Techmeme »