Mediagazer: Jonah Lehrer, self-borrowing and the problem with “big ideas” (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

8:40 PM ET, June 19, 2012

Top News:

New Yorker Writer Jonah Lehrer Plagiarizes Himself Repeatedly [Update] — Did you ever pull that old college trick where you wrote the same paper for two classes? It's frowned upon, but hard to get caught. Not so on the Internet: New Yorker staffer Jonah Lehrer, who just moved over from Wired …

Discussion: Poynter and MetaFilter

Jim Romenesko:

Jonah Lehrer's NewYorker.com ‘Smart People’ post borrows from earlier WSJ piece — Last Tuesday, The New Yorker posted Jonah Lehrer's “Why Smart People Are Stupid.” It begins this way: Jonah Lehrer Here's a simple arithmetic question: A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents.

Discussion: Politico, Slate, Gawker and Poynter

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Jonah Lehrer, self-borrowing and the problem with “big ideas” — Newly appointed New Yorker staff writer Jonah Lehrer — author of the bestselling books “Imagine,” “How We Decide” and “Proust Was a Neuroscientist” and a former editor at Wired — has been recycling a bunch of his own content in pieces for various publishers.

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Publishers gain ground on music-video payday — Music videos are making a comeback with help from Vevo and YouTube. Indie music publishers want their fair share. — Follow @sandoCNET — Songwriters and music publishers don't want to get left out of the online music-video boom.

Discussion: paidContent and MediaPost

Glenn Peoples / Billboard.Biz:

What's Going on With Vevo's Numbers? — Music video network Vevo has helped revolutionize online video, has been the subject of IPO rumors and is reported to be wooing investments from Google and Facebook. — But exactly what investors would get is a bit fuzzy to outsiders.

Discussion: Digital Music News, fierceonlinevideo.com, SocialTimes, Mashable! and paidContent

Reuters:

Ecuador says WikiLeaks' Assange seeks asylum — (Reuters) - WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange has asked for political asylum in Ecuador and officials in the South American nation are considering his request, its foreign minister said on Tuesday. — “Ecuador is studying and analyzing the request …

Discussion: @noelapdc, The Firewall, Salon, Yahoo! News, Bloomberg, Betabeat, New York Magazine, Telegraph, This Just In, Guardian, Guardian, @davidclinchnews, AJE, @producermatthew, @ggreenwald, Mediaite and Gawker

Embassy of Ecuador in London:
Statement on Julian Assange

Discussion: Daily Dot

Larry McShane / NY Daily News:

Alec Baldwin punches Daily News photographer after obtaining marriage license in New York — For his second upcoming wedding, perennial hothead Alec Baldwin tried to make a Daily News photographer black and blue. The volatile “30 Rock” star punched lensman Marcus Santos outside …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, The Wrap, PAPERMAG, FishbowlNY, TMZ.com, BuzzFeed, ABCNEWS, FishbowlDC, NPPA Advocacy Committee, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and Gothamist

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

New Hits Needed; Apply to NPR — On an unseasonably warm spring night at the Bell House, a hip club in Brooklyn, a new NPR quiz show was taking shape. Like its hit older sibling “Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!,” the new show, “Ask Me Another,” is taped before a live audience.

Discussion: @romenesko, Los Angeles Times, Free Press and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

New York Post Pivots On iPad Strategy, Dropping Paywall — This person might have chosen to read the New York Post with his coffee, if it were free on the iPad, and in Swedish. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) — The “most egregious paywall yet” is how one tech writer described the system introduced …

Discussion: NY Convergence

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Knight Foundation diversifies its journalism investments again with its new Prototype Fund — The Knight Foundation is broadening its funding mechanisms again with the addition of the Knight Prototype Fund. Announced yesterday at the MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference, the prototype fund will be a smaller …

Discussion: Knight Foundation, Ryan Sholin, MediaShift Idea Lab and Drone Journalism Lab

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
The future of news: Mobile, video, data — and crowdsourced

Discussion: Knight Foundation, Nieman Journalism Lab, Journalism.co.uk, MIT Center for Civic Media and Nieman Journalism Lab

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Nick Denton tells a crowd there isn't enough Internet gossip — “Everyone knows that Anderson Cooper is gay.” So pronounced Gawker Media proprietor Nick Denton, perched last night atop a tall stool on a small stage on the third floor of The Standard Hotel, before questioning his own pronouncement.

Discussion: CJR

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Inspiring leader’ or ‘empty suit’? Mixed assessment as Dow Jones president Todd Larsen steps down — The president of Dow Jones, Todd Larsen, has resigned after 13 years with the company. The move comes several months after former Bloomberg executive Lex Fenwick was named C.E.O. of Dow Jones …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, FishbowlNY, paidContent, Media Decoder and Wall Street Journal

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

NPR Intern Gets an Earful After Blogging About 11,000 Songs, Almost None Paid For — When it comes to digital music, can the audience be shamed into doing the right thing? That is, even if we all agreed that it was the “right thing” for musicians to be paid each time someone listened to their music, would it make any difference?

Discussion: The Huffington Post, hypebot, Pop & Hiss and The Trichordist

BBC:

Leveson asks for comments over ‘quit’ claims — Lord Justice Leveson has asked “core participants” to his inquiry for their comments on a newspaper story which claimed he had threatened to quit. The Mail on Sunday said he had made his threat following comments by Education Secretary Michael Gove.