Mediagazer: Comcast Is Said to Be Mulling Bid for BSkyB (Amy Chozick/Media Decoder)

1:35 AM ET, June 9, 2012

Top News:

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Comcast Is Said to Be Mulling Bid for BSkyB — Updated Comcast is exploring whether the British Sky Broadcasting Group, Britain's largest satellite broadcaster and a lucrative pay TV asset 39 percent owned by News Corporation, could become available for purchase, according to several people briefed on the company's strategic thinking.

Discussion: New York Magazine, @jcstearns, @yinkawrites, @ckrewson, Variety and @felixsalmon

Deadline Hollywood:

Comcast CFO: Report That Comcast Pondering BSkyB Buy Is “Rubbish” — Comcast's CFO is slamming a New York Times report that the company is weighing a possible purchase of BSkyB. “This is complete rubbish”, Michael Angelakis, Comcast's vice chairman and chief financial officer, told the Times today.

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

The ‘leak’ wars — President Barack Obama's administration has unleashed an unprecedented wave of prosecutions over leaks of national security secrets. — Now, he's the political beneficiary of several major breaches in the wall of secrecy. — For more than a year …

Discussion: Gawker, Business Insider and Hit & Run

Associated Press:

Attorney General Holder appoints 2 US attorneys to lead leak probes — WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday appointed two U.S. attorneys to lead a pair of criminal investigations into possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

Discussion: The Hill, The Huffington Post and New York Times

Sabrina Siddiqui / The Huffington Post:
President Obama: ‘Offensive’ To Suggest Administration Purposefully Leaked Intelligence Info

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Reuters, Washington Wire, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Politico, The Huffington Post and The Huffington Post

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Mashable Execs Are Preparing For A Sale To CNN, Auditing Financials And Discussing Integration — Over the past few days, Mashable executives have been busily preparing for an acquisition by CNN, two sources say. — One source tells us that Mashable has audited its finances and sent them to Turner.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, @awallenstein, msnbc.com, VentureBeat, @felixsalmon and WebProNews

Julie Moos / Poynter:

NPR's ‘Car Talk’ to end original run this fall — The popular NPR show will stop producing original episodes this fall. “Click and Clack” brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, 74 and 62 years old, have hosted “Car Talk” for 25 years, but say they will now “stop and smell the cappuccino.”

Discussion: NPR, Associated Press, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Car Talk, Tampa Bay Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Daily What, Mediaite, entertainment.time.com, Media Decoder, Radio & Television …, LA Observed and Guardian

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:
A brief history of Car Talk: “They've changed the way people see public radio in America”

Discussion: Poynter and New York Magazine

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

Dish Chief: TV Needs to Change — Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen said a new ad-skipping feature that has infuriated major broadcast TV networks is a “competitively necessary” response to the explosion of cheap Internet video. That Web video threatens the pay-TV ecosystem …

Discussion: The Verge, paidContent, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, CNET, The Huffington Post and Softpedia News

Steve Outing:

It's not a ‘paywall’ when it's ‘freemium’ — The word “paywall” as applied to news websites sucks. It's a negative word. If a consumer hears that a favorite news site is putting up a “paywall,” the response is highly likely to be: avoid! — Some news-site user monetization systems truly are “paywalls.”

Discussion: @yurivictor, Techdirt and Cision

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Should the mainstream media see Twitter as competition? — Twitter unveiled an interesting partnership with the NASCAR auto-racing circuit on Thursday, in which the real-time information network has created a kind of portal for the Pocono 400 race this weekend.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Twitter Blog and The Next Web, Thanks:@mathewi

Elspeth Reeve / The Atlantic Wire:

Bang the Trend Slowly — Several institutions exist to check the veracity of political statements: FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, The Washington Post's Fact Checker, and the classic Snopes. Now, The Atlantic Wire would like to inaugurate a fact-checking apparatus to cover the only assertions …

Discussion: @jackshafer and @jeffjarvis

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

NewsBeast Loses Digital Honcho — The NewsBeast's Daniel Blackman, a Google vet who became chief digital officer a little over a year ago, has left the company. Insiders said he was pushed out; Blackman couldn't be reached. — His departure comes at a time when the Daily Beast is experiencing …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

Europe Preparing to File Charges in Universal-E.M.I. Deal — PARIS — The European Commission intends to file an antitrust complaint against Universal Music Group's proposed $1.9 billion acquisition of the E.M.I. music recording business, a top commissioner said Friday, citing concerns that the deal would reduce competition.

Discussion: Reuters, Reuters, New York Post and Bloomberg