Mediagazer: As WikiLeaks Struggles, Copycats Die But Online Whistle-Blowing Thrives (Micah L. Sifry/techPresident)

10:25 AM ET, May 30, 2012

Top News:

Micah L. Sifry / techPresident:

As WikiLeaks Struggles, Copycats Die But Online Whistle-Blowing Thrives — It's been months since WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website, has posted anything other than appeals for support for its embattled founder Julian Assange. Weakened by internal dissension with Assange's imperious management …

New York Times:
British Court Clears Way for Extradition of WikiLeaks Founder

Discussion: Media Decoder, Guardian, Forbes and ZDNet

Guardian:

Vince Cable: Lib Dems faced ‘veiled threats’ over Murdoch's BSkyB bid — Vince Cable has told the Leveson inquiry that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation made “veiled threats” that if he did not approve the company's BSkyB takeover his Liberal Democrat party would be “done over” by its newspapers.

Severin Carrell / Guardian:

Andy Coulson detained by police for suspected perjury — Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former director of communications, has been detained by police investigating alleged perjury at the trial of the Scottish socialist politician Tommy Sheridan. Strathclyde police said Coulson was detained …

Discussion: Guardian, Telegraph, @jamesro47 and @dansabbagh

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon-Owned LOVEFiLM, The Netflix Of Europe, Signs Streaming Deal With NBCUniversal — In the midst of Amazon's recent moves to rapidly grow its content collection on Amazon Prime Instant Video, the company has also been brokering deals for another one of its video properties: European Netflix competitor LOVEFiLM.

Discussion: Online Video News and PC World

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

John Berman Leaving ABC News for CNN — ABC's John Berman is jumping to CNN, TVNewser has learned. Berman, who is an ABC lifer, will join the morning show “Starting Point” as news anchor. Berman, a Massachusetts native and Harvard grad, joined ABC News in 1995 as a desk assistant.

Erika Fry / CJR:

It's 2012 already: why is opinion writing still mostly male? — Byline counts are better, but not much. How come? — “Man. Man. Man. Man. Man. Man.” I had Sue Horton, the Op-ed and Sunday opinion editor at the Los Angeles Times on the phone one morning in early March.

Discussion: Poynter, The Byline Blog, Radio & Television … and The Huffington Post

Clay Shirky:

Warren Buffett's Newspaper Purchase — Last week, Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, purchased two dozen small newspapers and their related online properties from Media General, a conglomerate with holdings mainly concentrated in the southeast Unites States.

Discussion: GigaOM and eMedia Vitals

Steve Myers / Poynter:
Media General execs realized in 2011 newspaper decline wasn't cyclical

Discussion: Richmond BizSense and NetNewsCheck Latest

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

In Defense of Chris Hayes — The MSNBC host is getting beat up for remarks he made about the heroism of American soldiers. Really, his critics are the ones who should be apologizing. — Very few Americans wake up early on weekend mornings to watch public intellectuals chat.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Politico, Mother Jones, NewsBusters.org blogs, Hit & Run, Baltimore Sun and Daily Mail

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Pundits, Platitudes, and Patriotism: War Heroes and Their Enemies

Discussion: msnbc.com, Mother Jones, Close Read, NewsBusters.org blogs and NewsBusters.org blogs

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Alan Rusbridger on The Guardian's open journalism, paywalls, and why they're pre-planning more of the newspaper — Alan Rusbridger is a busy man on two sides of the Atlantic. The editor of the Guardian seems to be everywhere, writing, tweeting, and leading the paper's ongoing coverage …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Patrick Gavin / Politico:

Arnaud de Borchgrave: ‘I feel vindicated’ — Despite ongoing investigations into his work in the face of plagiarism charges, longtime journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave has his mind made up: “I feel vindicated,” he says in an email to POLITICO.

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Jake Tapper Presses Jay Carney On Obama's Expansive Definition Of ‘Militants’ — ABC's Jake Tapper pressed White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday about President Obama's expansive definition of who counts as a “militant” in the drone strikes he orders.

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

Inkling for Web brings interactive ebooks to your browser, no iPad necessary — Sorry, college students. Losing your iPad is no longer an excuse for not doing your reading in Inkling's electronic textbooks. The company today unveiled Inkling for Web, an HTML5 client that will give …

Discussion: TechCrunch

Nancy Messieh / The Next Web:

Bambuser offers activists and citizen journalists free premium accounts — Bambuser, the live-streaming mobile service has just announced that it will be offering citizen journalists and activists an upgrade to premium accounts for free. — To take advantage of this offer …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Big News Network.com

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Business Insider goes investigative on anti-Semitism — Right now the headline on this Business Insider post reads, “What Are the Sources of Anti-Semitism.” Don't get too attached to that formulation, however. The post has been changing at a Business Insiderish pace, as the notes and updates at the foot of the item explain:

Discussion: Poynter, Erik Wemple, ZDNet, The Atlantic Wire, Business Insider and Mediaite