Mediagazer: The Story of Etan Patz: Reporters Remember the Quest to Cover (and Find) Soho's Missing Boy (Brian Thomas Gallagher/The New York …)

3:15 PM ET, April 25, 2012

Top News:

Jeremy Hunt: ‘The idea I was backing BSkyB bid is laughable’ — Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has said accusations that he backed News Corporation's bid for BSkyB are “laughable” and “categorically” denied allegations of a “back channel” giving News Corporation the ability to influence decisions.

Discussion: Forbes

Guardian:

Jeremy Hunt visited News Corp in US as Murdochs considered BSkyB bid — James Murdoch told David Cameron News Corp would support Tories soon after Hunt's US trip in 2009, documents reveal — Jeremy Hunt spent five days in the US holding meetings with News Corp at the same point Rupert …

Discussion: BBC, Guardian, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Deadline.com and Guardian

Iain Martin / The Telegraph: The night I saw Jeremy Hunt hide behind a tree before dinner with James Murdoch

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Fox News mole Joe Muto served with search warrant, Gawker doesn't expect to be served — In a series of tweets, the Gawker blogger who worked at Fox News until he was outed as a mole announces this morning that News Corp.'s legal threats were not just talk.

Discussion: Gawker, The Not-So Private Parts, Guardian, Erik Wemple, FishbowlNY, The Awl, @jeffjarvis, Inside Cable News, @juliemmoos, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Rupert Murdoch: Former PM Gordon Brown ‘Declared War’ on News Corp. — Rupert Murdoch, testifying at the Leveson Inquiry — News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch's ostensible reason for appearing before a British government hearing Wednesday morning was to answer questions about whether …

Discussion: Guardian, @lisaocarroll, Media & Entertainment, @skynewsbreak, Media Week, Journalism.co.uk and NetNewsCheck Latest

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Rupert Murdoch: Thatcher meeting over Times was ‘quite appropriate’ — News Corporation chairman tells the Leveson inquiry: 'I didn't expect help from her, nor did I ask for any' — A secret meeting between Rupert Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher about his bid for the Times was “quite appropriate” …

Discussion: Multichannel, Guardian, Broadcasting & Cable and Journalism.co.uk

Trevor Butterworth / The Awl:

The Latest Sad Fate of an Aggregation Serf — What's new, you might ask, in another tale of careless youth broken on the galley of journalism? Well, someone in power finally stood up—sort of—for the little guy. In a column on the resignation of 20-something Elizabeth Flock after charges of …

Discussion: Poynter and MediaShift

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Report: Producer fired over Zimmerman tape editing is Jeff Burnside of WTVJ in Miami — SFLTV — Jeff Burnside was fired Friday after making an edit to tape of George Zimmerman's 911 call before he shot Trayvon Martin, SFLTV is reporting. Burnside still has a page on the website of Miami's WTVJ …

Discussion: Mediaite, SFLTV, The Daily Caller, Red Alert Politics and Inside Cable News

Guardian:

Bradley Manning defence motion to drop charges denied at pretrial hearing — Defence had asked that 22 criminal charges against Manning be dropped over prosecution's slow speed in sharing documents — A military judge has refused to throw out the charges against US army private Bradley Manning …

Discussion: Reuters

Raf Sanchez / Telegraph:
Bradley Manning trial: US government ordered to release WikiLeaks damage assessments

Discussion: Reuters

Sam Thielman / Adweek:

ABC News, Yahoo Partner on New Online News Show With Katie Couric — Katie Couric has an official ABC News show, but it's not on television. Instead, the former Today and CBS Evening News anchor will host a digital program, Katie's Take, on Yahoo, which partnered with ABC News last year.

Discussion: The Tech Trade, mediabistro.com, Mediaite, MediaPost, TVNewser and Inside TV

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The Daily News has lost its executive editor for digital, Scott Cohen, who's headed to a news startup called Vocativ in another few weeks, Capital has learned. — Cohen is a well-liked though somewhat divisive figure at the paper, which he joined in 2008 following a stint at ABC News.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Brian Thomas Gallagher / The New York Observer:

The Story of Etan Patz: Reporters Remember the Quest to Cover (and Find) Soho's Missing Boy — Julie Patz, on the Today show, two years after her son Etan's disappearance. — On May 25, 1979—the first day his mother allowed him to walk to the bus stop alone—6-year-old Etan Patz went missing just blocks from his parents' Soho loft.

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Automattic Grows Up: The Company Behind WordPress.com Shares Revenue Numbers and Hires Execs — Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, is a quiet Web powerhouse. — WordPress now powers 70 million sites, up from 35 million sites a year ago. Almost half of the biggest blogs …

Discussion: TechCrunch