Mediagazer: A Shooting, And Instant Polarization (David Carr/New York Times)

12:10 PM ET, April 2, 2012

Top News:

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: Mixed Media, Capital New York, Company Town, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, New York Magazine and Gothamist

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

News Analysis: Olbermann Set the Tone at Current and MSNBC — Current TV was co-founded by a former Democratic vice president, but it took Keith Olbermann to give the cable channel its liberal identity. — As he did at MSNBC before it, Mr. Olbermann established himself as Current TV's star anchor …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Poynter, ShortFormBlog and NewsTrust

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter: Current TV Retains Crisis PR Experts for Anticipated Battle With Keith Olbermann (Exclusive)

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Bloomberg and Reuters: The Future of News — There's no mistaking where Andy Lack feels Bloomberg LP is positioned versus its competitors. “We may be the last man standing,” says Lack, who oversees the news organization's multimedia operations. — A veteran of network television …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

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: New York Magazine and Mediaite

James Crugnale / Mediaite:
Geraldo Rivera Apologizes To Trayvon Martin's Parents For Hoodie Comments

Discussion: The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Journalism.org: How Blogs, Twitter and Mainstream Media Have Handled the Trayvon Martin Case

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Judge Clarifies That Bloggers Can Be Journalists (Just Not One in Particular) — Back in December, United States District Court Judge Marco A. Hernandez created a stir by seeming to suggest that bloggers are not journalists as defined by Oregon's shield law.

Discussion: Free Press and The Legal Satyricon

Marc Randazza / The Legal Satyricon: Judge rules, again, that blogger Crystal Cox is not a journalist. You know why? Because she ISN'T a journalist.

Adam Martin / The Atlantic Wire:

Goldman Sach's Backpage Panic Is Real, Costly — It's not quite enough to make one feel bad for Goldman Sachs, but the panic kicked off by Nicholas Kristof's reporting on the investment bank's stake in Backpage.com was so obvious we're inclined to believe the firm might not have known …

Discussion: New York Times

Ilaina Jonas / Reuters: Goldman fund to exit company owning sex traffic site

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

The best and worst April fools: Chicago Mayor FOIAs himself, Forbes burns Romney and Google, Onward State mocks itself — The problem with April Fools' journalism pranks isn't that they compromise the integrity of a news organization with a once-yearly joke.

Discussion: Mediaite, TechCrunch, 10,000 Words and Adweek

Louis Peitzman / Gawker:
Legitimate News Source Ditches Credibility for April Fool's Fun

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

NY Daily News:

Roger Ailes helps conservative writer out-Fox rival — What, Roger Ailes worried? We hear the Fox News CEO is helping conservative writer Zev Chafets fast-track a book about Ailes' and the “Fair and Balanced” cable-news network because he's worried about the exhaustively reported book …

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Wallis: I gave PR advice to Met chiefs — The former deputy editor of the News of the World, Neil Wallis, acted as an unofficial adviser to a succession of Met police commissioners and helped Lord Stevens secure the top role in 2000, the Leveson inquiry has heard.

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: eMedia Vitals

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, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, Gothamist, TVNewser, Forbes, Gawker, BREITBART.COM, Chickaboomer, Politico and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Mike Armstrong / Philly.com:

Local group to buy Phila. Media Network for $55 million — A group of local investors agreed on Monday to buy Philadelphia Media Network Inc., the parent company of The Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, for $55 million with an additional $10 million in working capital for operations.

Discussion: Politico, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter and @wendywarren

John Koblin / WWD:

Editors and the ‘Cult of the Brand’ — Just after 1 a.m. on Jan. 31, the editor in chief of Condé Nast's Bon Appétit, Adam Rapoport, looked like he was on an infomercial. Rapoport, in a taped segment on HSN, was working hard at selling Bon Appétit's newly debuted kitchenware.

Discussion: New York Times

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