Mediagazer: Alexander Cockburn, Left-Wing Journalist, Dies At 71 (Jack Mirkinson/The Huffington Post)

12:35 PM ET, July 21, 2012

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The Colorado shooting and the crowdsourced future of news — Only a few days ago, we were writing about how users of Twitter and Reddit used those networks to tell a compelling story about a mass shooting in Toronto, and now the same phenomenon is playing out in real-time during another horrific incident …

Discussion: Beet.TV, Poynter, CNN, BuzzFeed and Poynter, Thanks:@megangarber

Jack Shafer:

What the Colorado shooting says about us — The Colorado movie massacre imposes on us once again the temptation to extrapolate lessons from a demented act of violence. Depending on the lens through which the massacre is viewed, it has encouraged some to restate their case for gun control …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Crooks and Liars, The New Republic and Slate

Jakob Schiller / Wired:

When Tragedy Hits, Photojournalists Balance Reporting and Emotion — “He was screaming at the top his lungs, ‘Have you seen my son?’” says Barry Gutierrez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who has been covering today's shooting in Colorado for the Associated Press.

Discussion: The Raw Story

Erik Wemple:

Are news bureaus good for breaking news? — In November 2009, the Washington Post announced that it was closing its remaining domestic bureaus in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Howard Kurtz, The Post's media reporter at the time, noted in a news story that the move represented a …

Discussion: Poynter and Politico

Media Decoder:
Hollywood Struggles for Proper Response to Shooting

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Informer, The Wrap, AdAge, Daily Mail, Adweek, The Wrap, The New Yorker Blog, Deadline.com and Hollywood Reporter

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:
How 18-Year-Old Morgan Jones Told The World About Aurora

Discussion: FishbowlLA, Poynter, Jordan Ghawi, Mediaite, Gawker, FishbowlNY and HyperVocal

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Alexander Cockburn, Left-Wing Journalist, Dies At 71 — Alexander Cockburn, a prominent radical columnist and journalist, has died at 71 after a lengthy battle with cancer. — Cockburn's death was announced by his friend and journalism partner Jeffrey St. Clair on Counterpunch, the website they ran together.

Discussion: CounterPunch, Los Angeles Times, thenation.com/blogs/117, BuzzFeed, NewsBusters.org blogs and think locally act globally

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Wielki sukces! Piano Media expands its national paywall model to Poland — Piano Media, the Slovakian company with plans to erect a pan-European paywall, expanded today into its third and largest market, Poland. Seven major media companies have agreed to put some of their content behind a single national paywall.

Abigail Pesta / The Daily Beast:

The War on ‘Teen Vogue’: Young Readers Escalate Campaign for More ‘Real Girls’ — Teenage girls are stepping up a fight for the magazine to show a wider range of body types, claiming the current images can spark eating disorders and other problems. Abigail Pesta reports. — Does Teen Vogue digitally zap zits?

Ellen McCarthy / Washington Post:

Michael Caruso, Smithsonian's new editor, sees a livelier future for magazine — Michael Caruso announced his arrival at Smithsonian Magazine with a cover image of a 50-foot snake poised to bite off the heads of unsuspecting readers. — Subtlety is not Caruso's strong suit, nor his ambition.

Sarah Carr / CJR:

How to worry about a clicks-driven Times-Picayune — A departing reporter's worst-case fears — If clicks drove coverage at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans —a more realistic prospect than it's ever been—what kind of publication would we get? We can look at past traffic and get a rough answer …

Discussion: Cision and American Journalism Review

Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:

NPR hires lobbyists as GOP targets public broadcasting funds — National Public Radio has hired lobbying firm Navigators Global, according to disclosure forms filed Thursday. — NPR has come under fire from some Republican lawmakers who want to cut off all federal funding to the nonprofit media organization.

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Jessica Roy / Betabeat:

Betaworks Team Announces Ambitious Goal: Rebuild Digg From the Ground Up. In Six Weeks. — On an aptly named new website called Rethink Digg, the Betaworks and News.me teams proposed a rather ambitious plan today: completely rebuild the ghost town-like social news aggregator …

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch and CNET

Rethink Digg:
v1 — As betaworks and Digg both announced on their blogs …

Discussion: Business Insider and WebProNews

James Asher / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

McClatchy's Washington Bureau establishes no-alter quote policy — To our staff and to our readers: — As you are aware, The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and others are agreeing to give government sources the right to clear and alter quotes as a prerequisite to granting an interview.

Discussion: Politico

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Digital First Media assembles curation team ahead of time to help cover Colorado shooting — The US media group's new curation team will officially start a week on Monday, but a ‘makeshift’ team was put together today to help report on the shooting in Colorado

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, ABCNEWS and Poynter