Mediagazer: What is Vice Media's Shane Smith really selling? It's hard to say, but everyone's buying (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

10:25 PM ET, May 19, 2012

Top News:

So Warren Buffett likes newspapers again? — Just because Warren Buffett blew $142 million in cash on 63 daily and weekly Media General newspaper titles yesterday doesn't mean that newspapers are back. All it means is that an old cow that's still a milker has been moved to a neighboring farm's pasture …

Omaha World-Herald:
Deal shows Buffett's faith in community newspapers

Discussion: CJR, Tampa Bay Times, Poynter, Free Press and Xark!

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

What is Vice Media's Shane Smith really selling? It's hard to say, but everyone's buying — A little after 3:00 on Thursday afternoon, Shane Smith, the voluble, bear-like co-founder of Vice Media, walked into the Soho loft space that had been selected as this year's headquarters for Internet Week New York …

Discussion: @hamiltonnolan

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Social journalism research helps explain how information is verified on Twitter — Alfred Hermida's research on social journalism can help journalists better understand verification and accuracy on Twitter. Two papers in particular caught my eye: “Tweets and Truth: Journalism as a Discipline …

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch denies claims that News Corp may sell UK newspapers — Mogul says News Corporation is ‘firmly committed’ to its papers including the Sun, Times and Sunday Times — Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that News Corp is considering spinning off its British newspapers to protect …

Discussion: Financial Times, Financial Times, Telegraph, Future of Journalism, CJR and Jon Slattery

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

NBC's ‘Community’ to Lose Its Temperamental Maestro — The rabid (if relatively few) fans of the NBC comedy “Community” got the word they were fearing late Friday night when the studio that owns the series, Sony Television, decided to replace Dan Harmon as the creative hand in charge of the series.

Discussion: Vulture, Dan Harmon Poops, The Huffington Post, The Verge, Daring Fireball, TMZ.com, Gawker, The Wrap, ArtsBeat, /Film and TVLine

Erik Wemple:

CSIS to investigate Arnaud de Borchgrave's writings — The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said this afternoon that it will investigate the work of Arnaud de Borchgrave, one of the think tank's program directors and a columnist for the Washington Times and United Press International.

Mariah Blake / Salon:
Coverup at Washington Times

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @ebertchicago, @romenesko and Erik Wemple

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Sued Over Hacking by Victim of 2005 London Bombings — News Corp. (NWSA) (NWSA)'s U.K. unit and the private investigator it hired to hack voice mail was sued by a professor who was seated next to a suicide bomber in the 2005 terror attacks on London's trains and buses.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Facebook IPO may force journalists to consider their role in the social network's growth — Facebook's IPO just created a lot of billionaires. Probably not that many of them work in journalism. But journalists, Kristie Lu Stout argues, create part of Facebook's value.

Discussion: Forbes, Guardian, Softpedia News, J-Source, Bloomberg, Lost Remote, CNET, Business Insider and The Atlantic Online

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Facebook's biggest problem is that it's a media company

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, DealBook, The Firewall, ReadWriteWeb, Adweek, Bits, @brianstelter, AllThingsD, Business Week, TechCrunch, The Kernel, Forbes, Hillicon Valley and Media Decoder

Erik Maza / WWD:

Ad Pages Slip Further at New York Times' Magazines — NO UPTURN: Sally Singer opened the most recent issue of T The New York Times Magazine with a tribute to leisurely evolutions. “You realize that even when taste is a given, patience is a virtue,” she wrote.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Michael Hastings / BuzzFeed:

Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban — Propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at us. “Disconcerting and dangerous,” says Shank. — An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.

Discussion: Mediaite and @adrianchen

Alex Pareene / Salon:

The National Review's fake plagiarism scoop — Updated: After falsely accusing Elizabeth Warren of plagiarism, the conservative magazine apologizes — The National Review says Elizabeth Warren is guilty of the gravest crime a writer can commit: Plagiarism.

Discussion: National Review, Politicker and Media Decoder

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Exclusive: Did White House “spin” tip a covert op? — (Reuters) - White House efforts to soft-pedal the danger from a new “underwear bomb” plot emanating from Yemen may have inadvertently broken the news they needed most to contain. — At about 5:45 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 7 …

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

A kinder, gentler DRM? — With Harry Potter fan site and e-bookstore Pottermore.com now using watermarking instead of heavyweight DRM on all the Harry Potter e-books, anti-DRM arguments are growing louder. Now the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the organization that oversees …

Discussion: International Digital …, The Verge and TeleRead