Mediagazer: NBC to do ‘internal investigation’ on Zimmerman segment (Erik Wemple)

3:30 AM ET, April 2, 2012

Top News:

A Shooting, And Instant Polarization — What seemed like a single shooting incident in a midsize Florida city — the killing in February of Trayvon Martin — now threatens to divide a country. How did that happen? — How did a discrete local event take on the scale of a presidential election …

Discussion: AlterNet.org, The Atlantic Online, The Atlantic Wire and BET.com

Erik Wemple:

NBC to do ‘internal investigation’ on Zimmerman segment — NBC told this blog today that it would investigate its handling of a piece on the “Today” show that ham-handedly abridged the conversation between George Zimmerman and a dispatcher in the moments before the death of Trayvon Martin.

Discussion: New York Magazine, NewsBusters.org, Mediaite, TVNewser, americanthinker.com, @romenesko, Mother Jones and The Volokh Conspiracy

Journalism.org:

How Blogs, Twitter and Mainstream Media Have Handled the Trayvon Martin Case — Almost immediately after the February 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, the conversation about the case began simmering on Twitter. But it was nearly three weeks later, on March 17-after the release of 911 tapes …

Discussion: The Wrap, Pew Research Center and Tampa Bay Times

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Keith Olbermann's Angry Email Trail Traces Breakup With Current TV — His bitter divorce from Al Gore's network followed months of escalating complaints to Current TV executives. Howard Kurtz unearths the acrimonious correspondence. — It was a terrible marriage from the beginning.

Discussion: New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Gothamist, Business Insider, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, TMZ.com, The Wrap, The Raw Story and The New York Observer

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Keith Olbermann: Machine Gun for Hire — Given his abrupt removal at Current and his typically temperate response — “Current's statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently” — it seems as if his next stop will be a puppet show shot from a basement somewhere.

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Mediaite, NPR, Apoplectic Skeptic, Gothamist, Inside TV, TwitLonger and The Huffington Post

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

DirecTV and Tribune Fail to Reach Deal — Some DirecTV customers woke up on Sunday without Fox or the CW networks on their television sets, the result of a failed negotiation with Tribune Broadcasting, which owns or operates 23 television stations across the United States.

Discussion: Multichannel, Adweek, The Wrap, Chicago Tribune, Hillicon Valley, Bloomberg and Company Town

Louis Peitzman / Gawker:

Legitimate News Source Ditches Credibility for April Fool's Fun — For a brief moment, Google News' top story was “Romney Drops Out of Race, Endorses Santorum.” This is decidedly untrue — but hey, it was published by Forbes, so it must be worth something, right?

Discussion: ShortFormBlog, The Impertinent Economist, Runnin' Scared, The Impertinent Economist, americanthinker.com, @lenburman, Mashable!, @antderosa, Soup and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

NUJ: statutory reform of press regulation has become ‘inevitable’ — Journalists' union also calls for communications bill to tackle issue of who regulates websites belonging to a broadcaster or newspaper publisher — NUJ Newsquest members at a recent strike. The union has submitted new proposals to the Leveson inquiry

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Booking Battle at the Morning Shows — Set your alarm clocks for 6:59 a.m., America. — On Monday morning, “Good Morning America” on ABC will have Katie Couric; “CBS This Morning” will have Oprah Winfrey; and the “Today” show on NBC will have a surprise guest who isn't being revealed in advance.

Discussion: @jennifer_k_long, Forbes, Gawker and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

E-books settlement talks advancing: sources — (Reuters) - The Justice Department could reach a settlement in the next few weeks with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and some of the major publishers suspected of colluding to push up electronic book prices, according to two people close to the negotiations.

Discussion: Melville House Books, TeleRead, CNET, eBookNewser, Digitopoly, The Verge and MacRumors

Rob Grimshaw / Wired:

Sink or Swim: Digital Publishers Need to Be Bold — When the Financial Times decided to focus its digital model on subscriptions, the reception from commentators was skeptical to say the least. Fast-forward a few years and the criticism has melted away. With 270,000 digital subscribers …

Discussion: @steverubel and @timoreilly

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Why the next News Corp. scandal may be harder to understand and much more important — What if that last Murdoch scandal turns out to have been the little one, in business terms? — You've read, or heard, about the phone-hacking scandal in Great Britain involving newspapers owned …

Discussion: Crikey, TorrentFreak and Sydney Morning Herald