Mediagazer: Is An ESPN Columnist Scamming People On The Internet? [UPDATE] (John Koblin/Deadspin)

9:30 AM ET, May 2, 2012

Top News:

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, Guardian, Company Town, The Huffington Post, Company Town and Mixed Media

Guardian:

MPs clash over Murdoch criticisms — Two MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee have clashed in the deepening row over whether the committee had discussed the fitness of Rupert Murdoch to run an international company before the devastating criticism was tabled on Monday by the Labour MP Tom Watson.

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Leveson: second inquiry may not happen — Further investigation into crimes at News International and other media groups would be delayed ‘for months, if not longer’ — The second part of the Leveson inquiry, which was due to investigate the extent of crimes committed at News International …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and London Evening Standard

Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch's Fox broadcast licences targeted by US ethics group

Discussion: CREW and Tech Daily Dose

Jim Romenesko:
Murdoch's letter to Dow Jones employees

Discussion: Reuters, Guardian, Capital New York, CJR, FishbowlNY, Politico and National Updates

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:
‘Les Hinton was complicit in cover-up at News Int’

Discussion: Guardian, @davidfolkenflik, Company Town, FishbowlNY and paidContent

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Sky News is available from today in the US & Canada for the first time, via Livestation — BSkyB's Sky News will be made available for the first time in North America from today, the company has announced, with viewers in the US and Canada able to access the TV channel by subscribing …

Discussion: Beet.TV

Kate Holton / Reuters:

BSkyB uses record results to defend role in Britain — (Reuters) - Satellite broadcaster BSkyB sought to distance itself from the controversy over phone hacking at its biggest shareholder on Wednesday after British lawmakers suggested the ties to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp might endanger its licence.

Discussion: Sky News

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BSkyB posts profit of almost £1bn — Satellite broadcaster reports 25% surge in operating profit and grows total customer base to 10.5 million — BSkyB has delivered profits of almost £1bn in the nine months to the end of March, fuelled by £31m that Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

BSkyB acquires Acetrax to be its connected TV Trojan Horse — While pundits prefer to focus on phone hacking, News Corp's part-owned UK pay-TV operator BSkyB is buying further in to internet TV. — Last Wednesday, the operator quietly acquired Acetrax, a service that offers …

Discussion: Guardian

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: Xavier, The Sports Brewery, Awful Announcing, Awful Announcing, Deadspin, @weareyourfek, Daily Download, @nicknotned and @ryanchittum

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: Associated Press, New York Times, Online NewsHour, Mashable!, The Week, Broadcasting & Cable, Gothamist, Politico, Mediaite, Infowars, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Inc. Shrinking Again — Not a good sign for the magazine business: A rough quarter for Time Inc., the world's biggest magazine publisher. — Revenues dropped 3 percent for the first three months of the year, while operating income shrank by 38 percent.

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: eMedia Vitals, NetNewsCheck Latest, TUAW and MacRumors

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / MediaFile:

The irrational imitation of the online news industry — All across Europe, journalistic online startups are launching, aiming to produce and disseminate news in new ways. In our brave new world, the nimble startups of tomorrow were supposed to be overtaking the lumbering dinosaurs of yesterday online.

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 …