Mediagazer: BSkyB acquires Acetrax to be its connected TV Trojan Horse (Robert Andrews/paidContent)

1:05 PM ET, May 2, 2012

Top News:

Tom Watson Fires Back at Criticism of Murdoch Report — MP Tom Watson has taken flak for a ‘partisan’ report calling Murdoch unfit to run News Corp. Now, Murdoch's ‘tormentor-in-chief’ tells Mike Giglio that it's not about politics. — Tom Watson, the hard-charging Labour MP …

Discussion: Guardian and Guardian

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: Guardian, The Huffington Post, Media Decoder, CREW and Tech Daily Dose

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

The coverup culture of News Corp. — A damning report from Parliament and Rupert Murdoch's revealing response to it — When a committee of Parliament condemned Rupert Murdoch today as “not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company,” it was a statement as obvious as it was astonishing.

Discussion: Company Town, New York Times and Journalism.co.uk

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: London Evening Standard and Journalism.co.uk

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

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Media Decoder, Media Week, Media & Entertainment, Hillicon Valley, Guardian, Company Town, Company Town, The Huffington Post, Guardian, Press Gazette and Guardian

Jim Romenesko:
Murdoch's letter to Dow Jones employees

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

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: Pocket-lint and Guardian

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
BSkyB posts profit of almost £1bn

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Kate Holton / Reuters:
BSkyB uses record results to defend role in Britain

Discussion: Sky News, New York Times and Media Decoder

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
Sky News is available from today in the US & Canada for the first time, via Livestation

Discussion: Beet.TV

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.

Discussion: Media Money …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Amazon Gets Into the Sitcom Business — Amazon has been stocking up its Web-video offering with lots of old TV shows. Now it's going to start making some of its own. — The company is pulling back the covers (a bit) on its plans to produce kids' shows and sitcoms via its “Amazon Studios” …

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Wrap, Home Media Magazine, mediabistro.com, GalleyCat and Fortune

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: LA Observed, Journalism.org, Deadspin, Xavier, The New Yorker Blog, WebProNews, The Sports Brewery, Awful Announcing, @ryanchittum, @weareyourfek, @nicknotned and Daily Download

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

‘Fox Mole’ Joe Muto Shops Memoir — Can't say no one saw this coming: Gawker's Fox News informant, Joe Muto, is taking meetings with publishers this week for a proposed book about his eight years inside the cable news network, tentatively titled An Atheist in the Foxhole.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

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.

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Judge stays e-book class action case against two publishers — Publishers Hachette and HarperCollins slipped further away from the class action lawyer who wants them to pay over an alleged e-book price-fixing conspiracy. — In an order signed yesterday in New York federal court …

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Next-Generation Publishing Platform Hyperink Wants To Transform Blogs Into Books — YC company Hyperink, a next-generation digital book publishing platform, is debuting a new service which helps bloggers create short books from their existing content. — As we've reported in the past …

Discussion: Forbes, VatorNews and PandoDaily

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Washington Post's Sunday circulation drop not as steep as it appears — At first glance, The Washington Post's numbers reported Tuesday morning in the Audit Bureau of Circulations' March report look grisly: Of all the Top 25 papers in the report, The Post has the steepest drop in average Sunday circulation, down 15.66 percent.

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, DCist and Poynter