Mediagazer: The Latest Sad Fate of an Aggregation Serf (Trevor Butterworth/The Awl)

5:30 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, Multichannel, FishbowlNY, Broadcasting & Cable, The Daily Beast, 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, Media & Entertainment, @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: Company Town and Telegraph

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 and ProPublica

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:

Report: NBC Miami reporter fired for edited Zimmerman tape that aired on “Today” show — 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, a reporter, still has a page …

Discussion: Mediaite, Riptide 2.0, The Daily Caller, SFLTV, Inside Cable News and Red Alert Politics

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

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

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.

Lauren Indvik / Mashable:

Daily Dot, Editor-in-Chief Part Ways — The Daily Dot, an online news startup launched in August that bills itself as “the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web,” is no longer being edited by Owen Thomas, the publication confirmed in a blog post Wednesday. “It is a bittersweet parting,” writes Dot CEO Nicholas White.

Discussion: Daily Dot, behind the curtain, @paulcarr and @laureni