Mediagazer: Meet Liz McDougall, the unlikely-seeming lawyer defending Village Voice Media in Backpage controversy (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

10:55 AM ET, April 26, 2012

Top News:

Murdoch: I should have closed News of the World earlier — Newspaper boss says he ‘panicked’ when the Milly Dowler revelations came out - but says: 'I'm glad I did' — News International: ‘We are now a new company’ — Copyright: Roger Jones on Geograph. Some rights reserved

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian, Poynter, Journalism.co.uk, New York Times, Press Gazette, Media Week, @lisaocarroll, @benfenton, @dansabbagh, @hayley_barlow and Telegraph

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Murdoch: There was a ‘cover-up’ at News of the World — ‘There is no question in my mind that someone took charge of a cover-up’, News Corporation chairman tells the Leveson inquiry — Management at News International and News Corporation were “misinformed” about the true extent …

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Murdoch belittles the Huffington Post — Chalk it up to his undying love of print newspapers, but Rupert Murdoch has a very dismissive view of the Huffington Post. — During today's Leveson inquiry in Britain, where Murdoch is being questioned about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal …

Discussion: The New York Observer and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jack Shafer / Reuters:
Who cares if Murdoch lobbied?

Discussion: Company Town, The Huffington Post and Guardian

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

Discussion: Crikey, The Independent, Guardian and Forbes

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:
Rupert Murdoch: Thatcher meeting over Times was ‘quite appropriate’

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian, Media Week, Guardian, Erik Wemple, The Daily Beast, FishbowlNY, Jon Slattery, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable and Journalism.co.uk

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Vogue's flattering article on Syria's first lady is scrubbed from Web — It may have been the worst-timed, and most tin-eared, magazine article in decades. — “Asma al-Assad is glamorous, young, and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies,” writer Joan Juliet Buck began …

Discussion: New York Magazine and magCulture.com/blog

Shiv Malik / Guardian:

FSA considers News Corp emails — Financial Services Authority looking into whether emails from culture department to News Corp broke insider trading rules — The stock market watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, is looking at whether a series of emails from the office of the culture …

Discussion: New Statesman, New York Magazine and Deadline.com

Guardian:
Jeremy Hunt visited News Corp in US as Murdochs considered BSkyB bid

Discussion: CJR, BBC, Business Insider, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Guardian

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Meet Liz McDougall, the unlikely-seeming lawyer defending Village Voice Media in Backpage controversy — Somehow, Liz McDougall doesn't seem the type who defends big corporations from attacks by law enforcement agencies, clergy groups, and celebrity do-gooders who say they want to end the trafficking of minors and immigrants for sex.

Discussion: Politicker

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

FCC wants to put political ad data online; broadcasters balk — Even though such information is already technically public, broadcasters fear that putting that level of detail on the Internet will undermine their own businesses. — This month, just before the Pennsylvania primary …

Discussion: Company Town

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Angry New York Times Staffers Protest Outside Shareholders Meeting — Angry New York Times staffers took to the company's annual shareholders meeting in a flagrant display of discontent with the paper's handling of contract negotiations on Wednesday. Nearly seventy New York Times staffers formed …

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Gawker: We want to elevate the discourse about frogs who sit like humans — Most news organizations would kill for Gawker's commenters, but Nick Denton is messing with them again. — Denton describes the failure of comments like an economist. It's a tragedy of the commons …

Discussion: Gawker, @fishbowlny and Lifehacker

Alexis Gutter / American Journalism Review:

Telling the Story Through Her Own Words — When Eli Sanders sat in court listening to the testimony of a rape victim, he didn't know if the material would result in anything beyond a blog post. He certainly did not expect it would lead to a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

Associated Press:

Bradley Manning awaits military judge's ruling on possible dismissal of some WikiLeaks charges — WikiLeaks — (AP) FORT MEADE, Md. - A military judge in Maryland is poised to rule on whether some of the 22 charges against a soldier accused of giving government secrets to WikiLeaks should be dismissed.

Tara Murtha / Philadelphia Weekly:

How Two Photojournalists Are Taking on the City's Gun Crisis — A new-media project, GunCrisis.org, uses old-school journalism tactics to study Philly's homicides. — Midnight comes and goes. For the first time in 11 nights, the city of Philadelphia has gone a full day and night without a homicide.

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Shield law could protect Fox News mole, Gawker blogger Joe Muto — Roger Ailes may view “Fox Mole” Joe Muto as a disloyal, dishonest ex-employee, but Muto may be entitled to the same legal protections that prevent the government from raiding the newsroom at Fox News.