Mediagazer: Syrian regime TV reporter defects (Martin Chulov/Guardian)

3:05 PM ET, July 2, 2012

Top News:

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I'm Gay.” — Last week, Entertainment Weekly ran a story on an emerging trend: gay people in public life who come out in a much more restrained and matter-of-fact way than in the past. In many ways, it's a great development: we're evolved enough not to be gob-smacked when we find out someone's gay.

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Fake NYT obmudsman Twitter account tricks some journalists — When CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper came out as gay on Monday morning, it set Twitter loose with another round of jokes about CNN's Supreme Court reporting mistake last week. — Related: The ethics of fake Twitter accounts (Atlantic Wire)

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Anderson Cooper Comes Out As TV's First Openly Gay Prime Time Anchor — It's not often you can make news by telling the world something it already knows, but Anderson Cooper has done just that, and achieved a milestone in the process. After years of silence on the subject …

Discussion: Mediaite, AdAge, @shirleybrady, @jbflint, @hblodget and The Wrap

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Murdoch Dissatisfied With “Weak” Romney, Allies Say — Rupert Murdoch's vote of no confidence in Mitt Romney's campaign for president is the latest sign, three people who speak to Murdoch told BuzzFeed, that the most powerful man in conservative media thinks the Republican nominee is too weak to win.

Discussion: New York Magazine

David Carr / New York Times:

Why Murdoch Changed His Mind on News Corp. Split — Last week, News Corporation's board voted to quarantine the newspapers that Rupert Murdoch has so lovingly nurtured, separating them into a new company. Cleaving the giant media conglomerate in two will free the lucrative entertainment division …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, NetNewsCheck Latest and Yahoo! News

Christine Haughney / New York Times:
News Corp. Split Puts New Pressure on Papers

Discussion: Media Decoder

Associated Press:

Armando Montano, AP summer intern, dies in Mexico City at age 22 — MEXICO CITY — Armando Montano, an aspiring journalist who was working this summer as a news intern for The Associated Press in the Mexican capital, was found dead early Saturday. He was 22 years old.

Discussion: Marissa A. Evans, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Business Insider, Last Word, Poynter and New York Magazine

Aaron Edwards / Facebook:

Cheeseburgers, Journalism and George Michael — About one year ago, when Armando Montano and I went to the Chips Quinn Scholars Program, a journalism training program geared to young journalists of minority backgrounds, he started beaming when he found out that because we were Chips Quinn Scholars …

Jim Romenesko:

Chicago Tribune and fake bylines — “While I share the Trib's outrage at Journatic's use of false bylines, I take their umbrage with a grain of salt,” writes a former newspaper editor who asks to remain anonymous.

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
Tribune investigating ethics policy violation by content provider Journatic

Discussion: @mjenkins, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Poynter

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Simon & Schuster is adding QR codes to all its print books. Will readers bite? — Simon & Schuster is adding QR codes to the back jackets of all its hardcover and trade paperback titles starting this fall. The publisher hopes to use the the codes to build direct-to-consumer relationships, but will readers actually scan them?

Discussion: GigaOM

Frédéric Filloux / Guardian:

How ProPublica changed investigative reporting — Paul Steiger is one of the men I admire the most in my profession. Five years ago, at the age of 65, and after a 16-year tenure as the Wall Street Journal's managing editor, he seized the opportunity to create a new form of investigative journalism.

Discussion: The Corsair

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Open journalism and ‘pop-up’ newsrooms at Digital First Media — Last month Digital First Media announced new community projects to be launched later in the year. We find out more about how some newsrooms will be ‘on the road’ next month — Copyright: — Road winds among the redwoods …

Felix Salmon:

When the Supreme Court leaks — On Thursday, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, you could hear the machinery creaking as pundits around the web felt the need to respond. I took the media angle, deducing from seven minutes of CNN (which I didn't even watch) …

Discussion: Forbes, Poynter, The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller and Hit & Run

Jim Romenesko:

David Lindsey named Reuters deputy Washington bureau chief — David Lindsey, who has been Reuters Washington editor-at-large since leaving USA Today last year, “will expand his portfolio and work with EICs to shape coverage and improve content in all subject areas” as deputy Washington bureau chief …

Martin Chulov / Guardian:

Syrian regime TV reporter defects — A presenter from the Syrian regime's main television channel has defected to the opposition and revealed he had secretly provided intelligence to rebels for the past seven months. Ghatan Sleiba, a long-time anchor and reporter for the al-Dunya channel …