Mediagazer: Persecuting the press diminishes us alll | Nick Cohen (Nick Cohen/The Observer)

7:25 AM ET, July 23, 2012

Top News:

Yahoo's Big Question - What Is It? — What is Yahoo? — That straightforward question has so far baffled the people who run the company. — I got a taste of the fuzziness when I visited Carol Bartz, then the chief executive, back in 2010. She was funny, profane and articulate, except on the question of what the company is.

Discussion: AdAge and ReveNews

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

NI staff ‘appeared to have data from stolen phones’ — The Scotland Yard investigation into alleged illegal payments by journalists to police and other public officials has been extended to Trinity Mirror and Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers, the Leveson inquiry has heard.

Nick Cohen / The Observer:

Persecuting the press diminishes us alll | Nick Cohen — The police timed their “knock” with care. They hit the reporter's home at 6.30am. They humiliated their target by ordering him from his bed and arresting him in front of his partner and frightened children.

Dominic Ponsford / Editor's Blog:

And then they came for me...the unprecedented wave of journalist arrests has become a threat to all of us — To paraphrase Martin Neimoller, first they came for the News International journalists and I said nothing - because I hated Rupert Murdoch. — Then they came for the Mirror journalists …

Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:

For the Olympics, Twitter and NBC Form Partnership — As athletes parade into London's Olympic Stadium this Friday, Twitter Inc.'s Olympic hopes will play out in a spartan office in Boulder, Colo. — There, a handful of people will spend 20 hours a day to help corral millions of Twitter messages …

Discussion: The Wall Blog, Deadline.com, CNET and eMedia Vitals

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

Rupert Murdoch steps down from NI boards — Rupert Murdoch's grip on UK newspapers is loosening “finger by finger”, as he resigns string of directorships. — Rupert Murdoch has repeatedly insisted that he remains committed to his UK newspapers, vowing that he will remain a “very active chairman” of the publishing busines.

Matt Williams / Guardian:
Murdoch quits as News International director

Discussion: Media Week, paidContent, Crikey, The Daily Beast, Forbes Real Time, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap and New York Magazine

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

The NYT's & WSJ's Push To Online Video — Twice a week this month, Digiday will examine ways of “Improving Web Video.” We'll cover both challenges and opportunities in online video and highlight brands and publishers getting it right. The series is made possible through the sponsorship of Vizu.

Helen Lewis / New Statesman:

How the media shouldn't cover a mass murder — A look at the “Batman killer” front pages. — Every time there's a mass shooting, I remember this piece of footage from Charlie Brooker's BBC series Newswipe. In it, a forensic psychiatrist outlines the guidelines for news reporting of such a tragedy …

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

That plan to archive every tweet in the Library of Congress? Definitely still happening — A little more than two years ago, the Library of Congress announced it would preserve every public tweet, ever, for future generations. … Fifty million tweets a day. How cute.

Discussion: TeleRead

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Aereo's founder has broadcast TV in a headlock—now what? (Q&A) — Chet Kanojia created a new way for consumers to access broadcast TV. A federal court says the networks can't do a thing about it — for now. Learn how the CEO plans to wield his new power. — Follow @sandoCNET

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

National Journal Bars Quotations Tweaked by Sources — National Journal said it would ban the use of quotations that had been massaged or manipulated by its sources, joining a growing chorus of news organizations that are objecting to a practice that has become increasingly common in political journalism.

Discussion: Guardian, The Next Web and New York Magazine

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Open journalism: Hosting global conversations on BBC World Have Your Say — How the six-year-old news programme takes the temperature of conversations across the web and produces a news show to reflect global discussion — Ros Atkins and Wold Have Your Say on the road