Mediagazer: Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter? (Steven Levy/Wired)

6:20 PM ET, April 25, 2012

Top News:

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: Guardian, Erik Wemple, Multichannel, FishbowlNY, The Daily Beast, Broadcasting & Cable, Guardian and Journalism.co.uk

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, Forbes, @skynewsbreak, Media Week and Journalism.co.uk

Jack Shafer / Reuters:

Who cares if Murdoch lobbied? — Pummel Rupert Murdoch and his minions all you want for News Corp.'s phone-hacking of celebrities and crime victims, its computer-hacking, its blagging, its bribing of police, its payments of hush money, its obstruction of justice, and its operation …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Company Town

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:
Gordon Brown: Rupert Murdoch wrong to claim I declared war on News Corp

Discussion: Guardian

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

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

Discussion: The New York Observer, Guardian and Daily Mail

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

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: Nieman Journalism Lab, MediaShift and Poynter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

NBC Miami reporter fired for edited Zimmerman tape — WTVJ reporter Jeff Burnside was fired Friday after being involved in editing a tape of George Zimmerman's 911 call before he shot Trayvon Martin. Burnside, who has been with the NBC owned and operated Miami station for 13 years, still has a bio page on its website.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Riptide 2.0, SFLTV and Red Alert Politics

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: Forbes, Company Town, mediabistro.com, Mediaite, MediaPost, Inside TV and TVNewser

Steven Levy / Wired:

Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter? — Had Narrative Science — a company that trains computers to write news stories—created this piece, it probably would not mention that the company's Chicago headquarters lie only a long baseball toss from the Tribune newspaper building.

Discussion: GigaOM, Betabeat, The Atlantic Wire, @jayrosen_nyu and Reporters' Lab

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.

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Worldcrunch wants to be the Internet's Rosetta Stone for news — As the translation-based news service Worldcrunch approaches the one-year anniversary of its launch, it's also tweaking its business approach in three key ways that co-founders Jeff Israely and Irène Toporkoff hope will help it thrive.