Mediagazer: Politifact, Harry Reid's Pants, and the Limits of Fact-Checking (James Poniewozik/Time)

12:50 PM ET, August 8, 2012

Top News:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The New York Times Is About to Say Goodbye to About.com — The New York Times' time with About.com may be coming to an end. The paper has been looking to get rid of the struggling Web site, which produces high-volume, low-cost content, and has a deal in place to sell it to Answers.com.

Discussion: New York Times, Adweek, JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, FishbowlNY, mediabistro.com, AdExchanger, NYConvergence.com and Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

NY Times Co. Stock Trading Up On About.com Sale Report — When The New York Times Co. took a $192 million write-down on About.com at the end of last quarter and lowered its guidance for the unit, I said the company was caught between its past and its future. — See you later, past.

Steve Myers / Poynter:

New York Times news apps team ventures into product development with Olympics syndication — The New York Times has built an impressive online home for its Olympics coverage, with instantly-updated results, medal counts, athlete bios, and of course stories and photos.

Discussion: @zimbalist

Linda Holmes / NPR:
Good Business, Bad Quality: How NBC Is Both Right And Wrong On The Olympics

Discussion: business.time.com, Poynter and Associated Press

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
BBC's Olympics Broadcasts Focus on Live Coverage

Discussion: Search Engine Land

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Obama Is an Avid Reader, and Critic, of the News — WASHINGTON — A few months after President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package passed, he began to notice news reports, but not about the jobs the bill might create or how much of the country's infrastructure it would repair.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Poynter, Media Decoder, thenation.com/blogs/180, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, Washington Wire, The Raw Story, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and The Caucus

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

70 journalists killed in six months — At least 70 journalists and support staff were killed while on assignment in the first half of this year, making it one of the bloodiest periods of recent times. — Fifteen were confirmed dead in Syria alone between January and June …

James Poniewozik / Time:

Politifact, Harry Reid's Pants, and the Limits of Fact-Checking — Fact: I do not know whether Mitt Romney paid federal income taxes, when, or how much, in any year before 2010, for which he publicly released his tax returns. Fact: You probably do not either, unless you are among …

Discussion: CJR, Pressing Issues, Capital New York, The Huffington Post and Mediaite

Brendan Nyhan / CJR:
Another factchecking fiasco

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and The Daily Beast

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Mayer Will Extend Free Food to NYC Too, While “What Is Yahoo?” Question Is Hereby Banish'd — New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer descended on two of its New York offices today, declaring that she would summarily be granting free food to all there as she had recently done to much acclaim at its Silicon Valley HQ.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and Business Insider

Howard Finberg / Poynter:

6 foundations tell journalism schools to change faster or risk future funding — As thousands of educators head off to Chicago for the 100th anniversary convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, I can promise that one of the most talked-about topics …

Discussion: Knight Foundation

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Big Data is a big deal for newspapers — Just when you thought you had a handle on digital publishing, here comes a paradigm shift that will be more counterintuitive and more disconcerting for newspapers than all the technological innovations that have come before.

Discussion: Digiday and eMedia Vitals

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Two years after the tipping point, papers' web readership is booming — As newspapers' print circulation continues to decline, publishers now get the majority of their readers online. But what does that look like in practise? — I crunched ABC and ABCe (UK) data for the last 12 years to discover the long view.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Romney's VP Selection Process Prompts Memories Of Veepstakes Past — NEW YORK — In July 1988, CNN's John King was camped outside the home of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis when he got a sign the Democratic presidential nominee had just picked a running mate.

Discussion: ABCNEWS