Mediagazer: Reporters Blocked At Romney Event (Michael Calderone/The Huffington Post)

5:30 PM ET, May 16, 2012

Top News:

Laurie Fine to sue ESPN for libel, says the network “spitefully destroyed” her reputation — Geneva, N.Y. — Laurie Fine will announce this morning that she's filing a federal libel lawsuit against ESPN over its reporting of child-molesting accusations against her husband …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Erik Wemple, Deadspin, @producermatthew, Associated Press, CNN, The Big Lead and Bleacher Report

Barry Petchesky / Deadspin: Laurie Fine To Sue ESPN For Libel

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Reporters Blocked At Romney Event — Several reporters covering Mitt Romney described being blocked from a rope line on Wednesday and prevented from asking the candidate questions at a St. Petersburg, Fla., event. — “Romney campaign and Secret Service attempted to keep press off ropeline …

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, Politico and The Huffington Post

Politico:

President Obama and Mitt Romney's common enemy — Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spend a lot of time trumpeting their differences, but they do share at least one common conviction: disdain for a political news media they see as eager to vaporize them for the sheer sport of it.

Discussion: Politico and Capital New York

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:

Exclusive: LA Times Magazine is Shutting Down — Nearly three years after the LA Times Magazine was removed from control of the business end of the paper and put back under the LA Times' editorial umbrella, the monthly pub is being shut down. FishbowlLA spoke with the mag's editor …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Readers' Representative …, Folio, FishbowlNY, Media Buyer Planner, LA Observed and Poynter

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA: LA Times Developing Quarterly Fashion Pub

Ned Simons / Huffington Post UK:

Jack Straw Tells Leveson Rupert Murdoch Likes To ‘Play’ With Political Leaders — Rupert Murdoch liked to “play with political leaders” by tempting them with the possibility that his newspapers would support them, Jack Straw has said. Giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry into press ethics …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, @hackinginquiry and @lisaocarroll

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Leveson inquiry: Adam Boulton says Brown's pyjama party was ‘bonkers’

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Flipboard Expands: Adds Audio From NPR, Public Radio & SoundCloud; Introduces Japanese Version — “Social magazine” Flipboard may have to think up a new tagline for itself, as tonight the company is rolling out an update which greatly expands its focus beyond text-based content to also include audio.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Techland, BBC, Journalism.co.uk, MacStories, The Next Web, TUAW, VentureBeat and The Verge

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

Turner Broadcasting invests in social video site Funny or Die — When Funny Or Die launched in April 2007 — a startup co-founded by Will Ferrell — it enjoyed an early-mover advantage in jumping on the wave of socially-shared video. Today, it sports 1.7 million Facebook fans …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Multichannel, SocialTimes and MediaPost

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Larry Kramer's vision for USA Today — Larry Kramer, media consultant and MarketWatch founder, was named president and publisher of USA Today yesterday, putting him at the helm of the most widely circulated print newspaper in the country. In an interview this morning …

Discussion: @romenesko and Poynter

Nick Pinto / Village Voice:

In The First Occupy Wall Street Protest Trial, Acquittal — The NYPD has arrested protesters and journalists thousands of times since Occupy Wall Street first began in September, but the case of Alexander Arbuckle was the first of them to actually go to trial.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Big News Network.com, Gothamist and Boing Boing

Jonathan Stray:

The hard part of solution journalism is agreeing on the problems — The only editorial mantra that ever made any sense to me comes from the Voice of San Diego new reporter guidelines: “Our bent: Reform. Things can always be better.” It's been said that the role of journalism is to inform …

Discussion: Groundswell

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Viacom Gives Up Fight Against Time Warner Cable, Adds Channels to TWC iPad App — Customers of Time Warner Cable have some reason to rejoice today, as the cable company has gotten the go-ahead to add channels like MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central to its live streaming iPad app.

Discussion: Media Decoder and Bloomberg

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

For its 2012 elections coverage, MTV swaps out citizen journalism for gamification — Nearly 17 million Americans have reached voting age in the four years since the last presidential election cycle. This year's pool of youth voters includes 46 million people in the United States …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeffrey Van Camp / Digital Trends:

Internet radio on the rise thanks to social media and tablets, says study — A new study shows that Internet radio usage is up by huge margins all across the board, especially among those with a lot of money. Suspiciously, this study is funded by an Internet radio advertising agency.

Discussion: WebProNews, VatorNews and Mashable!