Mediagazer: Comcast says government needs to stay out of programming business (Joe Flint/Los Angeles Times)

7:00 AM ET, July 17, 2012

Top News:

Google's Marissa Mayer Becomes Yahoo's Chief — Marissa Mayer, one of the top executives at Google, will be the next C.E.O. of Yahoo, making her one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and corporate America. — The appointment of Ms. Mayer, who was employee No. 20 at Google …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Yahoo! Pressroom Home, AllThingsD, Fortune, @marissamayer, Business Insider, Deal Journal, Bits, TechCrunch, Washington Post, Business Insider, ZDNet, Mashable!, Betabeat, BuzzFeed, Garcia Media, Forbes Real Time, Forrester Blogs, MediaNama, CNET, The Daily Caller, New York Times, Local Media Watch, The Next Web, PandoDaily, Jezebel, Search Engine Land, Softpedia News, Adweek, ReadWriteWeb, LiveSide.net, The Tell, The Wrap, PC Magazine, Daily Download, Marketing Pilgrim, Reuters, paidContent, Broadcasting & Cable, VentureBeat, The Verge, @jasonhirschhorn, @rafat, The Next Web, @parislemon, @adamweinstein, @antderosa, @megan, GeekWire, FishbowlNY, Gawker, Betabeat, Engadget, USA Today, Hillicon Valley, eMedia Vitals, SocialTimes, Tech Trader Daily, Online NewsHour, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Daring Fireball, AllThingsD, ThinkProgress, New York Times and The Loop

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

The Marissa Mayer Yahoo Show, Brought to You by Daniel Loeb — The appointment of Marissa Mayer as CEO of Yahoo earlier today was a definitively splashy move by the board of the troubled Internet giant. — And a key impresario of the showy hiring of the high-profile Google exec?

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Forbes Real Time, Pocket-lint and TelecomTV

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Why Murdoch's The Daily Doesn't Fly — Is there a future for The Daily? According to last week's reports by The New York Observer and The New York Times, News Corp's “tablet newspaper” is on probation: Rupert Murdoch might pull the plug on The Daily which looses $30 million a year.

Discussion: CJR, FishbowlNY and eMedia Vitals

Daniel Frankel / GigaOM:

DirecTV CEO: “Viacom is forcing this bundle on you, not us” — Does DirecTV CEO Mike White really support a TV distribution model in which consumers get to make a la carte choices on the channels they receive? — With DirecTV's 20 million U.S. subscribers blacked out from Viacom's 26 …

Discussion: paidContent

Ryan Nakashima / Associated Press: TV Channel Blackouts Stall Profits

Tanzina Vega / New York Times:

Times Names Buffalo News Editor as Its New Public Editor — The New York Times announced on Monday that Margaret M. Sullivan, the editor and vice president of the Buffalo News, will become the Times's new public editor. — Ms. Sullivan will be the paper's fifth public editor and the first woman to hold the position.

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

The Evolution of Reporters Into Stenographers Is Nearly Complete — It's long been standard for politicians to unilaterally insist that briefings be either “on background” or “off the record” (there are subtle distinctions between the two), and it's long been standard for reporters to agree to this.

Discussion: @jeffjarvis

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Latest Word on the Trail? I Take It Back

Discussion: Poynter, ANIMAL, Guardian, Washington Wire, Hot Air, Capital New York, @mlcalderone, New York Magazine, TVNewser, @timwindsor, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @brianstelter, @peterlauria3, The Huffington Post, @jayrosen_nyu, @jeffjarvis and @chanders

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Paywall pioneer Augusta Chronicle simplifies its digital subscriptions — One of the nation's first newspapers to implement and master the intricacies of a digital paywall plan is radically simplifying it. — Effective immediately, The Augusta Chronicle will stop offering print-only subscriptions …

Discussion: Change of Subject

Paul Friedman / CJR:

Weighing anchors — The nightly newscasts are retooling to suit their stars, and it's working—for now — Five days before Christmas, on the night Congress deadlocked on payroll tax rates and unemployment benefits affecting more than 160 million Americans, the first story on World News …

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Major news organizations find they have to lighten up to thrive on YouTube — In 2006, the year after YouTube was founded, comedian Dane Cook had a bit about how every whim of your imagination, anything you could blindly type into a search bar, was already posted to the site.

Discussion: ZDNet, Associated Press, Journalism.org, The Verge, Online NewsHour, SocialTimes and About.com Journalism

Jake Coyle / Associated Press:
Study: Viewers Turning to YouTube as News Source

Discussion: Journalism.org

Anne-Laure Mondesert / AFP:

21,000 journalists swarm into London for Olympics — With less than two weeks to go before the Olympic Games, hordes of competitors are pouring into London from across the globe and limbering up — but they're not athletes. — Promising coverage on an unprecedented scale and record-breaking use …

Discussion: Guardian

J.K. Trotter / IvyGate:

Fired WSJ Intern Had Troubling Start at the Yale Daily News, Required Longest Correction in Years — Significant reporting errors at the Yale Daily News foreshadowed the fate of Liane Membis, the Wall Street Journal intern who was dismissed in late June for fabricating quotes.

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Brian McAndrews on The New York Times, The Times-Picayune and the Future of News — The New York Times Co. last month moved to increase the digital IQ in its boardroom, naming MIT Media Lab Director Joichi Ito and Madrona Venture Group Partner Brian McAndrews its newest directors.

David A. Bell / The New Republic:

The Bookless Library — Don't deny the change. Direct it wisely. — I. — THEY ARE, in their very different ways, monuments of American civilization. The first is a building: a grand, beautiful Beaux-Arts structure of marble and stone occupying two blocks' worth of Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Comcast says government needs to stay out of programming business — Comcast doesn't want the government playing backseat driver. — Comcast Corp. has a message for the government: Don't tell us which channels to carry. — “The government does not — and cannot …