Mediagazer: Syria, citizen journalism and the capital “T,” truth (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

3:35 PM ET, March 28, 2012

Top News:

Murdoch's News Ltd. Rejects TV Piracy Claim in Australia — SYDNEY — Rupert Murdoch's embattled media empire found itself facing fresh controversy on Wednesday, after an Australian newspaper published an investigative report alleging that News Corporation had engaged a special unit …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Reuters, Deadline.com, The Independent and Australian Finance Review

Frontline:

Murdoch's Scandal — FRONTLINE goes inside the struggle over the future of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's reputation and his family's fortune.

Discussion: Guardian, PBS, Vanity Fair and MetaFilter

Lucy Manning / ITV News:
Newspaper payments for potentially illegal information revealed

Discussion: Guardian, @iburrell, National Updates and themediablog.typepad.com

Josh Halliday / Guardian: Australian minister wants News Corp inquiry

Press Gazette: Thurlbeck: Phone-hacking was rife across Fleet Street

Anthony Rieber / Newsday:

Jeremy Lin meets with ex-ESPN headline writer — Knicks star Jeremy Lin had lunch on Tuesday with the former ESPN employee who was fired last month for writing a headline about Lin that included a racially insensitive word. — Lin met with Anthony Federico, a 28-year-old Connecticut man, during a Knicks off-day.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Business Insider and Gothamist

Kelly McBride / Poynter:

ESPN should find ways to cover the Trayvon Martin story rather than become part of it — ESPN.com's Jemele Hill did a very nice, tight column this week explaining how the lives of professional athletes are connected to the life and death of Trayvon Martin. — Contrast that to ESPN's bouncing …

Discussion: Techdirt, ESPN, The Newspaper Guild and Jack Shafer

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

Mobile and the news media's imploding business model — Smartphones will soon be the primary news source for most Americans. That's if anyone can still make money by reporting — Pew research has a new survey showing that tablets and smart phones are now 27% of Americans' primary news source.

Discussion: Forbes and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Bloomberg:

News Corp. Said to Plan U.S. Sports Network to Rival ESPN — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWSA) is taking steps to start a national U.S. sports network on cable television aimed at challenging Walt Disney Co. (DIS)'s ESPN, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider and @pkafka

Mike Armstrong / Philly.com:

Investor group's offer for PMN: $60 million — A group of local investors reportedly has offered to pay $60 million to acquire the parent company of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com. — Those investors, led by businessman Lewis Katz and insurance executive …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

University of Texas Student Paper Wins ‘Most Racist Trayvon Martin Cartoon’ Contest — Here's cartoonist Stephanie Eisner's latest political cartoon published in the Daily Texan, the student paper at the University of Texas- Austin. You can see “The Media” there, telling its lies again …

Discussion: Daily Texan, Business Insider, Austinist, Inside Higher Ed, Human Events, The Daily Texan blogs, Hair Balls and The Huffington Post

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Two independent journalists killed in Syria — Syrian security forces shot and killed two freelance British journalists of Algerian descent and wounded a third during an attack on Monday in the town of Darkoush near the Turkish border, according to news reports and a witness interviewed by CPJ.

Discussion: Guardian and The Journalism Foundation

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:
Two British freelance journalists killed in Syria, CPJ reports

Discussion: ArabSaga and Guardian

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Syria, citizen journalism and the capital “T,” truth — As we have described a number of times at GigaOM, journalism has become something virtually anyone can practice now, thanks to social tools and digital media. This democratization of distribution has had a profound effect on the coverage …

Thanks:@acarvin

Elizabeth Flock / Washington Post:
Are Syrian citizen journalists embellishing the truth?

Discussion: MediaShift Idea Lab

Dashiell Bennett / The Atlantic Wire:

The New Republic Tears Down Its Pay Wall — Readers and pundits have been wondering how a new owner might change the venerable Washington political magazine, The New Republic, and they just got a early answer. A post on the magazine's blog announced early this morning that the website will drop its pay wall for recent articles.

Discussion: The New Republic, paidContent and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

The WaPo Ombudsman's Faulty Paywall Analysis — The NYT's meter is saving or adding more than $70 million in revenue a year already — Washington Post ombudsman Patrick B. Pexton has a flawed analysis on the logic of a possible paywall there and on the performance of the one that already exists at The New York Times.

Discussion: Poynter

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Bidding war for Smith book could hit $1M — Former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith, who resigned this month via a scathing op-ed in the New York Times, has triggered a media bidding war for his memoir of life inside the belly of the Wall Street beast. One top editor said he believed …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Business Insider and Gothamist

Daniel Frankel / paidContent:

Is Cable's Long, Glorious Ratings Run Finally Over? — For more than three decades, cable TV programmers enjoyed steady ratings gains—mostly at the expense of broadcasters. Inspired efforts like AMC's Mad Men and FX's Sons of Anarchy notwithstanding, those steady ratings increases sometimes belied …

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Tim Carmody / Wired:

Bigger Than Agency, Bigger Than E-Books: The Case Against Apple and Publishers — Apple and five of the “Big Six” trade publishers are reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice for antitrust violations. The point of concern is the five publishers' staggered but identical move …