Mediagazer: Tony Blair's Wife Cherie Sues Murdoch's News Corp., Convicted Phone Hacker (Erik Larson/Bloomberg)

12:00 PM ET, February 22, 2012

Top News:

Marie Colvin killed: Syrian forces had pledged to kill ‘any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil’ — Syrian forces murdered journalist Marie Colvin after pledging to kill “any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil”, it has emerged. — The 55-year-old Sunday Times reporter …

New York Times:

Two Western Journalists Killed in Syria Shelling — CAIRO — Two Western journalists, one American and one French, were killed early Wednesday as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad pursued a deadly bombardment of the central city of Homs, according to activists and officials.

Discussion: Capital New York, Gawker, Newsday, Media Decoder, CNN, Telegraph, Anderson Cooper 360, The Lede, FishbowlNY, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, The New Yorker Blog, The Week and msnbc.com

Michael Rundle / The Huffington Post - UK:

Syrian Minister ‘Unaware Foreign Journalists Were In Country’ After Deadly Shelling — Syria has said they were unaware foreign journalists were in the country after an American and French journalist were killed on Wednesday. Marie Colvin, a veteran correspondent for the Sunday Times …

Reuters:

U.S., French journalists killed in Syria — (Reuters) - Two Western journalists were killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday when shells hit the house they were staying in, opposition activists and witnesses said. — They were named as Marie Colvin, an American working …

Discussion: @fieldproducer, @nytjim, @pdanahar, Journalism.co.uk, Digital Spy, @laurapitel, @katz, @billneelyitv, @nytjim, @jessradio, Press Gazette, Jon Slattery and The Staggers

Erika Solomon / Reuters:

Syria asks foreign journalists to report to government — (Reuters) - Syria's information ministry said foreign journalists illegally inside the country should report to the government on Tuesday, hours after bombardment of a rebel neighbourhood in Homs killed two foreign journalists smuggled into Syria.

Discussion: @producermatthew

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Marie Colvin killed in Syria — Marie Colvin, the award-winning Sunday Times journalist, has been killed in Syria. It is reported that she died alongside a French photographer in Homs when a house they were staying was shelled. — News agencies say she and the photographer, Remi Ochlik …

Discussion: The Awl, Telegraph, Press Gazette, BBC, TVNewser, Charlie Beckett and The Journalism Foundation

Maev Kennedy / Guardian:

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Rupert Murdoch pay tribute to Marie Colvin — Prime minister, leader of the opposition and owner of the Sunday Times praise war reporter killed by shelling in Homs — As soon as her death was confirmed, stunned tributes poured in for Marie Colvin …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

The / @thetimes:
The last report by the great Marie Colvin is outside the paywall. A fine reporter who will be sadly missed http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/ ...

Discussion: Poynter, Digital Spy, World News Blog and The Wall Blog

Ahmed Al Omran / NPR:
Rami Al-Sayed, Syrian Citizen Journalist, Is Killed During Attack On Homs

Discussion: Guardian and The Lede

Bill Neely / ITV: Marie Colvin — And so another witness, one more of the band …

Laura Pitel / @laurapitel: According to @Avaaz, seven activists trying to get medical aid to injured journalists were stopped outside #BabaAmr and executed #Syria

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

Tony Blair's Wife Cherie Sues Murdoch's News Corp., Convicted Phone Hacker — Tony Blair's wife Cherie sued News Corp. (NWSA) and the former private investigator who pleaded guilty to intercepting celebrities' voice mails for the company's now- defunct News of the World tabloid.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Church hacking case ‘not resolved’

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Whitney Houston Funeral Drew Millions on TV and Online — Millions of television and Web viewers spent time Saturday afternoon watching the funeral service for Whitney Houston, the pop music icon who died a week earlier. — CNN was the biggest beneficiary of the viewer vigil, according to Nielsen ratings.

Discussion: The Wrap, Capital New York, TVNewser, Mediaite and Chickaboomer

John Glenday / The Drum: BBC Whitney Houston coverage criticised

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

FT facing discrimination claims and strike action — The Financial Times is facing an employment tribunal over discrimination allegations involving journalists working on the Chinese version of the FT website, according to the NUJ. — It is also facing the possibility of strike action on Friday in a separate dispute over pay.

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

FRICTION AT AOL: Arianna Is A Huge ‘Headache’... But Also The Most Valuable Person At AOL — A year after AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $350 million, sources say AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is getting frustrated with working with Arianna Huffington, who became President at AOL after the deal.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and mediabistro.com

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
A change at the top of The Huffington Post's business desk: More of Peter Goodman on the ‘middle class’

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Capital New York and FishbowlNY

Elana Zak / 10,000 Words:

Storify Launches iPad App To Bring Storytelling To Your Fingertips — Storify, the popular drag-and-drop storytelling tool, is coming to an iPad near you in the form of a brand new, free app, the company announced today. The iPad application makes Storify available on mobile devices for the first time.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Featured stories, newsplexer, eMedia Vitals, eBookNewser and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

Jim Romenesko:

Zach Seward leaves WSJ for Atlantic Media — Zach Seward, who left Nieman Journalism Lab to join the Wall Street Journal's web team in December of 2009, has been named a senior editor for Atlantic Media's new global business brand, which launches later this year.

Discussion: @sdkstl

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Comcast's ‘Mini-Hulu Plus’ Offers Full TV Seasons to Go for $5/Month — On Tuesday, Comcast announced Xfinity Streampix, a new subscription video service for computers and mobile devices offering additional movies and full seasons of television shows. Streampix will launch this week …

Discussion: Comcast Voices, Comcast and VentureBeat

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:
Comcast gives subscribers one more reason to quit Netflix

Discussion: rbr.com, Company Town, Media Decoder, Home Media Magazine, Adweek, Multichannel, PC Magazine, Forbes, Variety and CNET

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

TBS Extends ‘Conan’ Through 2014 — The cable channel TBS announced on Wednesday that it had extended its contract with Conan O'Brien to star in the late-night series he began on the network in November 2010. — The new agreement, which amounted to picking up an existing option …

Jim Romenesko:

NYT reporter defends Forbes writer accused of ‘stealing’ his work — O'Neill said that Forbes writer Kashmir Hill took the New York Times Magazine excerpt of Charles Duhigg's new book, “cut out the crap and got to the real shocker of the story,” which resulted in “a mind boggling 680,000 page views …

Discussion: @markarms and Neuromarketing, Thanks:@forrestkoba