Mediagazer: Your Phone is a First Amendment Device: Police, Citizens and the Right to Record (Josh Stearns/Talking To Strangers)

12:30 PM ET, August 13, 2012

Top News:

Wondering How Far Magazines Must Fall — Making a weekly newsmagazine has always been a tough racket. It takes a big staff working on punishing deadlines to aggregate the flurry of news, put some learned topspin on it and package it for readers. But that job now belongs to the Web and takes place in real time, not a week later.

Discussion: LA Observed and eMedia Vitals

Michael Shain / New York Post:

Saving CNN — Suffering its worst ratings in 20 years, CNN is going Hollywood. In the past few weeks, the No. 3 cable news channel has started seeking out reality-show ideas and big-name stars not afraid to talk politics. They have even begun working on a late-night talk show, The Post has learned.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine and @brianstelter

John Clarke / Forbes:

Despite Criticism, NBC Scores Big Ratings With London Olympics Closing Ceremonies — Despite criticism for cutting acts and interrupting the London Olympics Closing Ceremonies with a comedy series preview, NBC scored high ratings Sunday night. — NBC's prime-time games coverage drew …

Discussion: Rolling Stone, Home Media Magazine, The Wrap and Hollywood Reporter

Chelsea J. Carter / CNN:
Viewers outraged after NBC cuts away from closing ceremonies

Discussion: Poynter, Deadline.com, Seattle Times and @jayrosen_nyu

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM: Olympic winners: How NBC's authentication helped VPN providers

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

James M. Naughton, Reporter and Editor, Dies at 73 — James M. Naughton, a prank-loving White House and national correspondent for The New York Times during the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations and later a senior editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer for almost two decades …

Discussion: Poynter, Plain Dealer and Poynter

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

AOL Bets Big on Web Video News With HuffPost Live (and on Tape) — After a very long drum roll, the Huffington Post launches HuffPost Live, its streaming Web video news operation, this morning. — If you've watched the streaming video that other newspapers and Web sites have put out …

Discussion: Media Decoder, MediaFile, Lost Remote, paidContent, NetNewsCheck Latest, The Huffington Post, VentureBeat, FishbowlNY, Forbes, @producermatthew, @marksluckie and WebProNews

Jim Romenesko:

Times-Picayune reporter jumps off the ‘sinking ship’ — The Times-Picayune reporter who shared with Romenesko readers the letter she wrote to her bosses in early July ("I can't just keep my mouth shut and pretend everything is okay or that it doesn't matter") has left the paper.

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Not All Yahoos Headed Out Door: Mayer Makes Filo a Direct Report and Bell Permanent GC — While new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has ushered some longtime employees out the door of late — most recently, HR head David Windley last week, with more to come — that does not mean she is not keeping some longtime Yahoos around.

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Why New York Magazine Sees Responsive Design as the Future — New York Magazine launched a fashion site this week called The Cut. What's interesting is that the publication is using the site as a pilot of sorts to join the now-trendy responsive design movement.

Eliza Kern / GigaOM:

App.net financial backers show they're open to a paid Twitter alternative — Is the world ready for a paid version of Twitter? Maybe so, backers have shown. Entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell's Kickstarter-esque campaign to develop a paid alternative to the social network hit its $500,000 funding goal …

Discussion: Dalton Caldwell, Techdirt, PC Magazine, Wired.co.uk, Softpedia News, The Verge, CNET, Engadget, eMedia Vitals, NetNewsCheck Latest, Forbes, AllThingsD, ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web and TechCrunch

Josh Stearns / Talking To Strangers:

Your Phone is a First Amendment Device: Police, Citizens and the Right to Record — The New York Times reports that in the wake of the Times Square shooting the NYPD confiscated one bystander's phone and video footage, and told him not to talk to the media.

Tanzina Vega / New York Times:

MundoFox to Enter the Latino TV Market — LOS ANGELES — The correspondents were on camera and on location in Mexico City, Washington and Los Angeles. Rolando Nichols, the lead anchor, listened intently to the microphone in his ear as he stood in front of the bright red walls of the news studio.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, mediabistro.com and Los Angeles Times

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Fox sues to shut down Aereo copycat over TV streaming — Broadcasters have been battling for months to shut down Aereo, a service that uses dime-size antennas to stream TV to Apple devices. Now, the fight has taken a strange new twist. [Note: this post has been updated with BarryDriller comments]

Discussion: Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Candy Crowley will be the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years — CNN's Candy Crowley will moderate one of this fall's presidential debates. The three New Jersey teens who've been campaigning for the Commission on Presidential Debates to name a woman moderator …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Inside TV