Mediagazer: Why the next News Corp. scandal may be harder to understand and much more important (Tom McGeveran/Capital New York)

12:05 AM ET, April 2, 2012

Top News:

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

David Carr / New York Times:

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, BET.com and Poynter

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, Business Insider, Gothamist, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, The New York Observer and The Raw Story

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: Mediaite, NPR, Gothamist, Inside TV, NewsTrust and Gawker

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Keith Olbermann Out At Current TV, Replaced By Eliot Spitzer

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Politico, TMZ.com and TwitLonger

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

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: The Impertinent Economist, Runnin' Scared, The Impertinent Economist, ShortFormBlog, @lenburman, Mashable!, @antderosa, americanthinker.com 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: TeleRead, CNET, eBookNewser, Digitopoly, The Verge and MacRumors

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, The Wrap 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

Discussion: Big News Network.com

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

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Twitter UK boss says social TV happens whether broadcasters like it or not — ‘But they have a choice about how to harness that social TV energy’ explains Tony Wang — Twitter's UK general manager Tony Wang expects broadcasters to start using the microblogging service in more “artful” …

Discussion: WatchingTV Online