Mediagazer: Drug panics, bath salts, and face-eating zombies (Jack Shafer)

12:45 PM ET, June 1, 2012

Top News:

News Corp. Could Face 500 Phone-Hacking Claims — LONDON—Lawyers for both News Corp. and phone-hacking victims on Friday estimated in court that the media company will ultimately face about 500 civil claims related to illegal voice-mail interception by the now-closed News of the World tabloid.

Discussion: Guardian

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Roger Ailes, Upstate Press Baron, Is in a Newspaper War — Roger Ailes, in his day job, rules the Fox News media empire that has been the dominant force in cable news ever since he took on CNN's entrenched monopoly in the mid-nineties. But now Roger Ailes, community newspaper baron …

Discussion: The Awl, FishbowlNY and The Huffington Post

Jim Romenesko:
Roger Ailes cancels biographer's newspaper subscription

Discussion: Politico and Gawker

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Turner's Kent ‘Very Unhappy’ With Ratings Dive at CNN — Backs Cooper, Morgan, Burnett, but other shows may be replaced — Turner Broadcasting CEO Phil Kent admitted to being “very unhappy” with CNN's primetime ratings, but said it won't resort to tricks to increase viewership.

Discussion: B&C, Mediaite, Inside Cable News and The Huffington Post

Daniel Bentley / Journalism.co.uk:

CoveritLive switches to paid-only service — Popular liveblogging platform CoverItLive has announced the end of its free usage tier, becoming an entirely paid for subscription service. — In an email to current subscribers the company wrote: … CoveritLive's ‘Starter’ subscription costs $9.99 per month …

Discussion: Examiner and 10,000 Words

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Kickstarting a Soccer Magazine: An Old Medium Finds A New Way Of Funding — To launch a print magazine in 2012, you almost by definition have to be something of a nostalgist. But when it came time for George Quraishi and Mark Kirby to raise money for Howler, their new magazine for American soccer fans …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

Microsoft's Do Not Track Browser Angers Online Ad Industry — Microsoft's new Do Not Track default browser may win the company points with Washington, but it pissed off the online ad industry. — Buried in yesterday's release of Windows 8 was a revelation that took the industry by surprise …

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechNet Blogs, Broadcasting & Cable, Wired, Hillicon Valley, CNNMoney.com, Digits, AdPulp, Engadget and ZDNet

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

New York Times, Washington Post Defend Against Politico's Media Bias Claims — NEW YORK — Politico's executive editor, Jim VandeHei, and chief White House correspondent, Mike Allen, suggested Thursday that The New York Times and Washington Post are biased in favor of President Barack Obama …

Discussion: @mlcalderone, Erik Wemple and NewsBusters.org blogs

Oliver Burkeman / Guardian:
Perhaps I'm biased, but can we please stop talking about ‘media bias’?

Discussion: Mediaite, @antderosa, Mother Jones, Capital New York, Poynter and @jayrosen_nyu

Devin Gordon / GQ:
Five Points About Politico's Hatchet Job On NYT and WaPo

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Slate, The Huffington Post, Erik Wemple, The Atlantic Online, Gawker, Weekly Standard, Poynter, Politico, The New York Observer and Politico

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

What the Forbes model of contributed content means for journalism — Two years ago, Forbes.com was a news website like most others. — Today, it is less website, more operating system — an underlying layer of technology that hundreds of contributors use to publish independently.

Discussion: Forbes

Jack Shafer:

Drug panics, bath salts, and face-eating zombies — Last Saturday afternoon, a naked man gnawed off most of the face of a half-naked man on a Miami causeway. He continued chewing even after police shot him and did not stop until they shot him dead. — Things like that don't happen everyday …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Boing Boing, The Week and Guardian

Tim J. McGuire / McGuire on Media:

This I believe about journalism, newspapers and the future of media — I believe it's important to pause every now and then to write down my values and thoughts. That's especially true in the ever-fluid media world where nothing is standing still. This missive will attempt to take stock …

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, @stevebuttry, @stevebuttry and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why we need to blow the article up in order to save it — Many media outlets — and not just traditional players like newspapers or magazines, but even some newer and more digital-savvy ones — still think of the article or the story as the bedrock foundation of news and journalism.

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Producer of Obama Video on Fox News Loses CNN Job Offer — The Fox News producer behind a provocative four-minute anti-Obama video that aired Wednesday and caused the network considerable embarrassment has found his career on ice. — The producer, Chris White, had been offered a job by CNN before the video was broadcast.

Discussion: Gawker, Deadline.com, TVWeek.com, Mediaite, New York Magazine, TVNewser, Inside Cable News, AintItCool, entertainment.time.com and AdAge

Reuters:

French reporter back home after FARC captivity — (Reuters) - The French reporter held hostage by Colombia's FARC rebels said he could not complain of his treatment during the month-long jungle captivity, as he returned to France on Friday where he was to be welcomed by President Francois Hollande.

Discussion: Associated Press, Telegraph and Business Week

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How important are all those ugly Tweet Buttons to news sites? — News sites today are pockmarked with sharing buttons, those little “tweet this” or “like that” rectangles attached to seemingly every story these days. — In some ways, it's not as bad as it used to be …

Discussion: Luigi Montanez, Journalism.co.uk, Poynter and Information Architects