Mediagazer: Warren Buffett increases stake in Lee Enterprises (Jim Gallagher/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

1:40 PM ET, August 16, 2012

Top News:

Ecuador Grants Asylum to Assange, Defying Britain — CARACAS, Venezuela — The government of Ecuador is prepared to allow Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to remain in its embassy in London indefinitely under a type of humanitarian protection, a government official said in the capital, Quito, on Wednesday night.

Discussion: @reuters, @skynewsbreak, Guardian, The Wrap, Guardian, Media Decoder, New York Magazine, Associated Press, Techdirt, @fieldproducer, BBC, PopWatch, The Huffington Post, CNET, The New Yorker Blog, Vanity Fair and Pressing Issues

Lizzy Davies / Guardian:

Julian Assange Ecuador embassy row - live coverage — 17:53 BST The foreign secretary denied claims by Assange and his supporters that there was a deal to extradite to the United States. We have no arrangement with the United States. This is the United Kingdom fulfilling its obligations under …

Discussion: BBC, @antderosa, Mediaite, The New Yorker Blog, Agence France Presse, Gawker, AllThingsD, The Wrap, @wyliecatherine, @ggreenwald, @ggreenwald, @skynewsbreak, The Age and @tomjharper

@wikileaks:

ANNOUNCEMENT: Julian Assange will give a live statement infront of the Ecuadorian embassy, Sunday 2pm.

Mohammed Abbas / Reuters:

Hague says will not give Assange safe passage — (Reuters) - Britain will not give WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange safe passage out of the country and is determined to extradite him to Sweden, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday. — Ecuador's decision to grant Assange political asylum …

Discussion: @davidallengreen, @producermatthew and @foreignoffice

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

As Ecuador Grants Assange Asylum, Former UK Ambassador Says Embassy Raid Is Coming — As Ecuador puts its weight behind protecting Julian Assange, tension is building in the tug-of-war between the small South American country and the United Kingdom over the WikiLeaks founder's fate.

Discussion: ZDNet and Media Law Prof Blog

@skynewsbreak: Foreign Office says will “carry out binding obligation to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden”

Reuters:
Ecuador says Britain threatened to raid embassy over Assange

Discussion: Guardian, Firedoglake, National Review, @foreignoffice, Wired, @wikileaks and CNET

Joel Mathis / The Philly Post:

The Inky Should Go Online Only and Other Radical Ideas to Save Philly Newspapers — The Inquirer and Daily News have survived ownership changes and staff reductions. Now it's time for them to try something startlingly new. — It's time to do something different—radically different—to save Philadelphia's major daily newspapers.

Josh Lowensohn / CNET:

Apple TV could double as cable box, report says — Apple wants to make its streaming set top box double as a cable box, and is in talks with operators, according to a new report. — Apple's set top box could be destined to stream live TV channels, according to a new report.

Discussion: VideoNuze Analysis, Forbes, Media Money …, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge and Multichannel News

Jim Gallagher / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Warren Buffett increases stake in Lee Enterprises — Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has nearly doubled its stake in newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises, the parent company of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lee's shares jumped nearly 20 percent on the news Wednesday, closing at $1.59, up 26 cents.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

13 ways of looking at Medium, the new blogging/sharing/discovery platform from @ev and Obvious — [With apologies to Wallace Stevens, the finest poet to ever serve as vice president of the Hartford Livestock Insurance Company.] — I. — Medium is a new online publishing platform from Obvious Corp. It launched yesterday.

Discussion: Medium, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, One Man & His Blog, Digits, Betabeat, eMedia Vitals, Joho the Blog, PC Magazine, msnbc.com, AdAge, App Advice, Dave Winer, Business Insider, GalleyCat, The Wall Blog and Snarkmarket

Choire Sicha / The Awl:
The Pretty New Web and the Future of “Native” Advertising

Discussion: GigaOM, The Kernel, Digiday, Anil Dash, The Rumpus.net and ReadWriteWeb

Lewis DVorkin / Forbes:

Inside Forbes: A New Language of Journalism Speaks to the Rebirth of a Profession — As chief product officer, I spend a lot of time talking with people outside FORBES about our unique model for journalism. Here's one question I get asked all the time: “What exactly are you guys up to?”

Discussion: Talking To Strangers

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Students walk out on University of Georgia newspaper — Student journalists at University of Georgia newspaper The Red & Black walked out after the university put its faculty advisor, Ed Morales, in charge of the paper's editorial content. The students have set up a blog and a Twitter account, which has been suspended.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Red & Dead and splc.org

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:

What to Do with Political Lies — Fact-checkers are no longer enough: If lies are going to be repeated, the truth needs to be, too. — My former Washington Post colleague Alec MacGillis has a thought-provoking piece in The New Republic today about “The Welfare Card and the Post-Truth Campaign …

Discussion: The Caucus, Guardian, The New Republic and New York Magazine

Barry Walsh / Realscreen:

Mitt Romney repeats pledge to cut PBS federal funding if elected — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has elaborated on his plans to slash U.S. government spending to Fortune magazine - plans that include cutting federal funding to PBS. In a comprehensive interview …