Mediagazer: Barry Diller Backs Rupert Murdoch as ‘Honorable,’ ‘Morally Fit’ (Jeff Bercovici/Forbes)

1:00 AM ET, May 2, 2012

Top News:

Murdoch's letter to Dow Jones employees — In a memo to employees, Rupert Murdoch says of the UK Parliament panel's phone hacking report: “I recognize that for all of us - myself in particular - it is difficult to read many of the report's findings. But we have done the most difficult part …

Discussion: Guardian, FishbowlNY, Politico and National Updates

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Barry Diller Backs Rupert Murdoch as ‘Honorable,’ ‘Morally Fit’ — Barry Diller at Allen & Co.'s annual media get-together in Sun Valley, Idaho. Rupert Murdoch was there, too. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) — To the six members of British Parliament's culture committee …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Company Town, Company Town and The Huffington Post

Paul Hoskins / Reuters:

BSkyB hopes results can outshine hacking headlines — LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Probes into phone hacking and the legacy of a failed bid by Rupert Murdoch to seize full control look likely to overshadow a resilient set of results from satellite broadcaster BSKyB on Wednesday.

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch ‘not fit’ to lead major international company, MPs conclude — Select committee also says James Murdoch showed ‘wilful ignorance’ of extent of phone hacking at News of the World — Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to exercise stewardship of a major international company …

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch's Fox broadcast licences targeted by US ethics group — FCC called on to revoke licences in wake of British parliamentary report as phone hacking scandal widens abroad — A Washington-based ethics watchdog is calling on federal regulators to revoke News Corporation's 27 Fox …

Discussion: CREW and Tech Daily Dose

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

‘Les Hinton was complicit in cover-up at News Int’ — Ex-News International chief executive Les Hinton sanctioned a series of “extraordinary” payments to former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman after his phone-hacking conviction in a bid to buy his silence …

Discussion: Guardian, @davidfolkenflik, Company Town, paidContent, Media Week and Journalism.co.uk

News Corp:
News Corporation Statement of UK's Parliamentary Select Committee of Culture, Media and Sport's News of the World Report

Discussion: Crikey

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
NY Daily News editor Colin Myler misled MPs over hacking, report finds

Discussion: Mixed Media, New York Times and Capital New York

Zeke Miller / Buzzfeed:

How The White House Smothered The News Of Obama's Trip To Afghanistan — Shortly before 9:19 a.m. this morning the Afghanistan-based 24-hour broadcast news station TOLONews tweeted that President Barack Obama had landed in Afghanistan. The surprise trip was a closely guarded secret …

Discussion: New York Times, Mashable!, Online NewsHour, Associated Press, Broadcasting & Cable, Washington Post, Politico, Mediaite, Hit & Run, msnbc.com, The Week, Gothamist, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

ABC: Newspaper circulation rose in last six months, 5% on Sundays — Newspapers across the country gained readers in the last six months, compared to the same period a year ago. Nationally, daily circulation was up .68 percent for digital and print at the 618 papers reporting …

Discussion: AdAge, Tampa Bay Times, WWD Media Headlines, WebProNews, Media Decoder, BtoB Magazine, Capital New York, Forbes, Gannett Blog, DCist, FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post, NewsBulletin Connection, paidContent and The Newspaper Guild

Dylan Byers / Politico:
New York Times rising, WaPo struggling

Discussion: Crain's New York Business, NetNewsCheck Latest and Adweek

John Koblin / Deadspin:

Is An ESPN Columnist Scamming People On The Internet? [UPDATE] — A few weeks ago, ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips concluded her weekly “Junk Mail” column with a question from an unnamed reader: … Phillips responded: … Is Sarah Phillips for real? Thirteen months ago …

Discussion: Deadspin, @ryanchittum, @weareyourfek and @nicknotned

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Soon you'll be able to use your Nook to buy books in Barnes & Noble stores — On the heels of yesterday's news that Microsoft is investing $300 million in Barnes & Noble's Nook and college businesses, B&N CEO William Lynch says that the company plans to embed NFC (near field communication) chips into Nooks.

Discussion: Fortune, Betabeat, PC Magazine and CNET

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
A brief history of Microsoft's e-reader efforts

Discussion: CNET, Digital Book World and Wired

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

A Radio Merger in New York Reflects a Shifting Industry — On its surface, the merger last week of WRKS and WBLS, longtime rivals in the R&B radio format in New York, was business as usual for the broadcast industry. Two struggling competitors combined operations, and a deep-pocketed third party …

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Web journey complete, FT switching off iOS app — The Financial Times is preparing to kill off its iPad and iPhone app for good, signalling its final conversion from executable-app to web-app publishing. — The news publisher launched a HTML5 web app and pulled its iOS app off iTunes Store …

Discussion: MacRumors