Mediagazer: Software developer revives debate about whether journalists should learn to code (Steve Myers/Poynter)

6:45 AM ET, May 17, 2012

Top News:

Candidate-press relations are, well, about as ‘sour’ as usual — Having secured the nominations of their parties, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have set their campaign throttles to late-spring idle with a speech here, a speech there, a commencement address over there, and fundraisers and soft TV appearances everywhere.

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

Discussion: TVNewser, Mediaite, Politico and The Huffington Post

Politico:
President Obama and Mitt Romney's common enemy

Discussion: CNN, Politico, The Caucus, Capital New York and Yahoo! News

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Netflix launches sexy new web-based video player — Netflix just rolled out a completely revamped video player for browser-based viewing, and I gotta say, it's pretty slick: Not only does it come with lightbox-like text overlays while a video is paused, users can also preview entire seasons …

Discussion: CNET, Digital Trends, BuzzFeed, The Verge, PC Magazine and VentureBeat

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Jann Wenner: Why We're Putting Us Weekly on the IPad — Magazine Enters Game Despite Wenner's Previously Pronounced Lack of Expectations for the Device — Almost exactly a year after Jann Wenner said magazines were rushing to the iPad out of “insanity and insecurity and fear,” …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Software developer revives debate about whether journalists should learn to code — This week's debate in the software development community about whether everyone should learn to code shows that journalists aren't the only ones who have religious wars. Developer Jeff Atwood started …

Discussion: The Journalism Foundation, Rands In Repose, O'Reilly Radar and Dave Winer's …

Guardian:

The Twitter news map of Britain — What are the most influential news sites across Britain? Inspired by Forbes's news map of America, we wanted to see how it works over here. Url-shortener Bitly - used by thousands on Twitter and Facebook - has shared data which shows above-average clicks …

Discussion: Betabeat, The Verge, VentureBeat and Guardian

Gustavo Palencia / Reuters:

Murder of Honduran reporter blamed on drug gangs — (Reuters) - A prominent Honduran radio journalist was killed by drug gangs in retaliation for a government crackdown on cartels, the country's security minister said on Wednesday. Alfredo Villatoro, a well-known media personality …

Erik Wemple:

Washington Times columnist: Originality deficit? — Arnaud de Borchgrave has a career of distinction to go with journalism's coolest name. He is a former top editor of the Washington Times (1985-1991), and his work overseas dates to 1947, when he became United Press International's Brussels bureau chief at the age of 21.

Discussion: Washington Times, csis.org and DC Porcupine

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘The New Republic’ plans to establish a New York office — The New Republic will open up a New York office sometime in the coming months, Capital has learned. — Of course, the Beltway media-scene staple had its original offices here at its founding in 1914.

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, Home Media Magazine, Bloomberg and MacRumors

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, SocialTimes, MediaPost, Multichannel, AdAge and The Wrap

John O'Brien / Syracuse Post-Standard:

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

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

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.

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, Slate, Boing Boing and Gothamist

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 …